Today’s Ad Industry Innovator comes from New Marketing Labs, which you may know better if I tell you the name of its founder, Chris Brogan. Chris is the author of the NYT best seller Trust Agents and he’s in the top 3 on AdAge’s Power150. Being some of the most recognizable social media marketers, these guys have a nice niche. Awesome alliteration, ay?
It’s fun to profile a group like New Marketing Labs because they represent those specialists who have stepped in to challenge the traditional agency model and offer unique and much needed services to brands. Anyway, Hanes, Sony, Citrix, Comcast, Molson Coors, PepsiCo, AMD and Microsoft seem to think so.
This is not Brogan!
I spoke to New Marketing Labs’ General Manager, Justin Levy about what makes their firm stand out in the marketplace. Besides his many duties keeping everyone rowing in the same direction, he is the co-organizer of their Inbound Marketing Summit and Inbound Marketing Bootcamp. Prior to joining Brogan’s group Justin was Managing Director at an SEO public relations firm and President of Talent Network. His answer to question # 7 practically had me weeping. In all, it was a pleasure to get the perspective of such a well-rounded gent.
1. What was the aha moment when you realized “our company needs to be doing things differently than we have been”?
New Marketing Labs didn’t go through that period because we were founded to help medium and large businesses either figure out that aha moment or navigate their way through it . We assist our clients with using these online tools to move the needles that are important to them. We help them to enhance their communications, marketing, customer service and PR plans by using these new media tools to reach their prospects, customers and fans.
2. What books are on your nightstand or great blogs on your Google reader?
I am an avid reader and information junkie. At any given time I am subscribed to a few hundred RSS feeds, read a few books per month and read the Washington Post, Boston Globe, NY Times and Wall St. Journal on a daily basis. I love the consumption of information!
Right now I have about 15 books waiting to be read but I am currently reading the following books:
The Audacity to Win by David Plouffe Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
You’ll usually find me reading about marketing, business, lifestyle design, politics, productivity or food related books.
3. Give me an example of marketing you think is brilliant and why.
Dell has been doing an excellent job at using online tools to help them market to, learn from and listen to their prospects and customers. From generating $2 million dollars with just one of their Twitter accounts, to IdeaStorm, a website where Dell allows their customers to generate new ideas for the company and then vote those ideas up and down, to how Dell uses the listening and monitoring company, Radian6, to help them be involved in conversations taking place around the web. Dell has also done a great job at showing that they’re human. Dell uses both corporate accounts (e.g. DellLatitude) and personal Twitter accounts with their staff (e.g. RichardatDell). Using the employee name in the Twitter account helps to show the human side of the company and in turn, that makes stronger bonds with their customer base.
4. We’ve all read that the pitch / RFP process is broken. Many agencies aren’t even interested in competing in pitches. Do you see an alternative to this process?
The pitch/RFP process still serves a purpose in that it provides structure and the ability for the prospective client to walk down a check list to compare potential agencies who they’re interested in working with. Where the pitch and RFP process suffer is that they don’t usually showcase the human side of both the agency and prospective client. We have a natural tendency to want to do business with friends. Therefore, I think agencies need to take opportunities to develop relationships with the people who make up the corporations. Try being helpful to them in some way or connecting with them by sending a hand written note.
5. What does the agency of the future look like?
The agency of the future is more of a partner with the company that they’re working with instead of a typical agency/client relationship. The agency of the future will need to ensure that they’re delivering value to their clients and will need to provide hard data to quantify and prove that data. That’s not to suggest that agencies currently aren’t providing value to their clients. But, with budgets continuing to tighten, companies are looking at what hard value they’re receiving from their vendors and agencies. There is a difference in using new media tools that can provide hard data versus data that suggests that an approximate audience size probably saw your message.
6. What do marketers need that agencies are not giving them?
Marketers need data that will help show them the value of what they’re investing their time and budget in. Marketers need an agency that understands the complexities of their responsibilities, their department, their company and their industry and have the tools available to help navigate through it all. Marketers want agencies that provide education, both internally and externally to help them and their staff to grow.
7. Who do you admire and why?
I admire a variety of people from many different industries and for different reasons. If I had to choose one person though, I would choose my mom. Unfortunately my mother lost a long battle with Lupus during my senior year in high school. For the better part of my life my mother struggled to deal with a disabling disease. Lupus, as well as some other factors, closed many doors for my mom at an early age. Even while struggling with a disease that was constantly kicking her while she was down, she did everything in her power to see that her son, me, had everything I could ever need to help position me to be successful now. Whether it was hand-written math books to work on over the Summer, pressuring me to apply myself in school, teaching me how to deal with hardship at a young age, or any of the may other life lessons she taught me.
“You have a big budget that buys you the right to yell the loudest [but] where are you if you don’t have a large marketing budget? Marketers need options that don’t break the bottom line.”
Today’s Ad Industry Innovator, Claudia Batten hails from Victors & Spoils. Victors & Spoils is a new agency Claudia founded with partners Evan Fry and John Winsor from Crispin Porter & Bogusky. The big news, besides their bench being A-team advertising super heroes, is that V&S is based on the principles of crowdsourcing. ”We plan to prove that crowdsourcing can be expanded from what we know now into a scalable, manageable and strategic approach to advertising” Batten says.
The merits and flaws of crowdsourcing have been debated all over the web but I was more interested in hearing directly from the source:
What was the aha moment when you realized “our company needs to be doing things differently than we have been?”
Everyday, don’t you think? I think it’s dangerous to ever think you have it 100% right. Victors & Spoils launched about three months ago with the mantra that we would deliver a new ad agency model, so we really are setting out to do things differently. Ultimately we are trying to solve some of the issues we believe to exist in the application of crowdsourcing to Big-Brand Marketing or Advertising Strategy. I guess the aha moment here is the belief that the rise in digitally savvy consumers, combined with a need for reduction in operating costs from Big-Brands (with marketing budgets being immediate targets), would create room for a new model in the advertising agency world.
What books are on your nightstand or great blogs on your Google reader?
I am reading Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, and The Diamond Cutter by Geshe Michael Roach … but I also have a pile of fashion mags too if that helps me redeem myself. The Diamond Cutter is a great take on how to be generous in your life and business, which is something I am passionate about. The former – I just love Hemmingway. Blogs, well there are a lot but I have to say I am more into Twitter at the moment; faster pace and more relevant. I am trying to get better at posting myself, but I find that I’m too busy reading.
Give me an example of marketing you think is brilliant and why.
I am really into gilt.com right now – super clever. There are many smart aspects to it, from the fact you don’t sign up to the site but ask for your application to be considered (so snobby, but it does makes it feel that little bit more exclusive, or maybe I am just an easy target) to the fact that they have timed sales, so you are motivated to log in at a certain time each day. But most clever, to me, is the limited amount of items they have at one time. You have this pressure to purchase. It’s just smart – they have figured out their demographic beautifully.
We’ve all read that the pitch / RFP process is broken. Many agencies aren’t even interested in competing in pitches. Do you see an alternative to this process?
Well from what we see I think there are a few forces at work. First up, we are moving in a much faster pace and rapidly changing world, so RFPs can start to feel irrelevant as soon as they go out the agency door. In addition, I think we are all so busy these days working on actual work, there’s definitely a resistance to switching gears to go through the somewhat agonizing process of responding to an RFP. However, with procurement and financial departments getting more involved in marketing decisions, there is definitely still going to be a desire for compliance overall and some form of benchmarking for what a brand is spending with agencies. So I would offer that the process is just now really changing shape as both agencies and marketers realize that the current version isn’t working, and there might well be experimentation with several alternatives before either side is happy with the outcome.
What does the agency of the future look like?
Victors & Spoils. I have to say that. We do believe it though, if we do our job right. I think what is key is to help brands connect with their consumers in a more cost-effective way. I think the future is in having conversations with your customer – like two-way conversations, where you listen and stuff. Novel, huh?
What do marketers need that agencies are not giving them?
What I hear a lot is that you either have a big budget that buys you the right to yell the loudest, or you need a large budget so your agency can come up with some super-smart “no one’s come up with it before” solution so you can break through all the yellers. So where are you if you don’t have a large marketing budget? Marketers need options that don’t break the bottom line.
Who do I admire and why?
I recently moved to Boulder, Colorado and when I look up at the immense mountains I live below and realize what the pioneers must have gone through to get here, its pretty humbling. I really admire any version of that kind of pioneer and there are still people taking huge risks and embarking into the unknown. I find it hard not to respect that. Maybe it’s coming from New Zealand, our founders sailed around the world to the promise of a new beginning. I wish I was actually that gutsy or, lets face it, that hard-working!
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Claudia is only the second woman to appear on this series and that needs to change. I wanted to track down Anne Bologna but we all know that sad story. If anyone knows Mary Wells, Nancy Hill or Natasha Jakubowski, let me know. Click here to nominate your favorite female Ad Executive–the testosterone is thick in here and the diversity is down, so help me out readers.
Today we’re taking to Wexley’s Brian Marr. He works there. I have no idea what he actually does.
Wexley’s clients include Microsoft, the Seattle Sounders FC, WACOM, Copper Mountain and Bacon Salt. Founded in 2003 by Ian Cohen and Cal McAllister, Wexley’s goal: use non-traditional thinking to solve communication challenges in the ever-evolving new media landscape. And a look at their work proves they’ve stuck to that vision. Like the time they hung Sounders scarves all over Seattle to create buzz about the new team.
Or when they created National Snow Day and even made it snow in Austin to promote Copper Mountain.
Since the first day of school, Wexley has grown to 26 employees over 6+ years. They admit the first few years were tough. The guys were getting offers to do traditional work and took a few jobs that weren’t true to the agency vision just to stay afloat. As the non-traditional and media agnostic approach started catching on with clients and agencies, Wexley has been been fortunate to be at the forefront, while others talk the game and try to work out the rules.
What was the aha moment when you realized “our company needs to be doing things differently than we have been?”
We’ve never really had the aha moment as Wexley, but each of us had something in previous roles that made us think we wanted to try approaching things differently. Cal and Ian refer to the ideas they presented at their past agencies as Second Year ideas. They’d pitch them and everyone would agree it was a great solution to the customer’s business problem, but there was always a media buy that needed to be filled first so “maybe we can do those next year since this year’s media budget is already allocated.” There was good creative, just no creativity in the execution. They believed they were onto something so they decided to start Wexley and worked to define a new model for advertising.
What books are on your nightstand or great blogs on your Google reader?
The books I read at home are mostly just entertaining and borderline embarrassing. At work, we like people to focus on individual thought first and foremost. I once tried to stay on top of everything the industry reads but I’m a few thousand posts behind. I’m just reading about something called a “Tipping Point,” which I think is going to be HUGE!
Give me an example of marketing you think is brilliant and why.
I think the owners and marketing staff at the Seahawks/Sounders are brilliant. I’m biased because we work with them, but credit should be given where it’s due. The Sounders FC set out from the beginning to build something entertaining. From the choices they made with their product (including the players they hired, the choice of a scarf as the season ticket) to how they’ve rolled it out by turning the team over to the fans, everything has been methodical and highly effective. It’s a perfect example of the product becoming the marketing.
We’ve all read that the pitch / RFP process is broken. Many agencies aren’t even interested in competing in pitches. Do you see an alternative to this process?
RFPs are a necessity in subjective business. Someone is paying you to do a service for them that will be unique in each situation if we’re all doing our jobs right. They want to be assured that an agency understands their business and can handle the challenge.
As an agency, it’s easy to feel like you should be able to show some similar work to win the business. I was client-side for 10 years and can tell you from experience that your client really doesn’t care too much about what you did for <insert flashy brand name here>. You might get a few points that allow you to sit down with them and have a conversation, but that’s it. In our industry, you’re only as good as your last campaign. In your client’s eyes, you’re only as good as what you can do for them. They just want to know if you can hack it.
Regarding the broken process, I think agencies have brought a lot of it on themselves since the discussion inevitably boils down to cost/expense. We had a recent $10M opportunity and our first question internally was “can we afford to do this?” because we knew the competition would probably invest a ridiculous amount of money for a 1 in 12 shot of winning the business. As a client, I always saw things like staged out rooms and highly produced videos as overcompensation for the work not being there.
All of that said there are some bad situations out there. We have all seen poorly thought out RFPs, people who don’t actually have a budget asking you to pitch, the issue of idea ownership, clients requesting fully produced creative and more. Those aren’t problems with the RFP; they’re a problem with reasonable expectations at the client. We have our parameters for success set up and only pitch when it’s in our best interest.
What does the agency of the future look like?
I think things will continue to be interesting for the next few years. The networks will eventually hit stride again, but not before the overhead associated with the shift to digital forces them to rethink their media departments. They’ll need to re-organize themselves and package their services differently. In a digital, on-demand age, clients are going to be looking for things like rapid iteration and innovation across all areas. Smaller agencies can deliver on these more quickly than larger places, but will lack the breadth that the networks can provide. To overcome that, I think we’ll see independent agency co-ops on the rise.
We’ll also see far more digital focus, obviously. When you look at the numbers it’s surprising how little is sold today. These aren’t precise stats, but ~30% of eyeballs are online and it’s still only about 5% of the media mix for big brands. Why is that? My guess: it’s insanely more time consuming/expensive to do a multi-touch digital campaign than it is to do traditional. It’s only time before savvy clients are going to start demanding more digital in their mix than media departments are selling them.
What do marketers need that agencies are not giving them?
Marketers desperately need integration across their campaigns, which now involve more customer touch-points than ever. Internally, most marketers are still trying to determine the best way to align themselves organizationally to be most effective – they likely have a new social media team, an experiential team, grassroots team, digital media team and more. Between those groups and the preexisting ATL and BTL teams there is a going to be overlap. At the same time as clients staking out territory in the disciplines they care about, agencies are involved in a crazy land grab. It will settle with time, but for a while agencies will need to focus on playing nice to help make campaigns as integrated and effective as they have the potential to be.
Who do you admire and why?
I’m a huge fan or Pixar’s approach. They’re master story-tellers and have a unique process that enables consistent creativity and innovation. The result is a set of investors, employees and fans who can count on something great coming from them. I’d love to be a fly on the wall there for a day or two. I think we would learn a lot.
What was the aha moment when you realized “our company needs to be doing things differently than we have been”?
A: After working for over 25+ years in one of the most sophisticated and creative marketing environments in the CPG world, it was obvious that start-up and mid-size companies with potentially powerful brands just couldn’t afford or access the marketing expertise. Combined with market dynamics (i.e., over-abundance of talent) and the economic conditions, the TeamCMO concept will work for many potential partners.
What books are on your nightstand or great blogs on your Google reader
A: Simple, Sports Business Journal and Hollywood Reporter, outside of family, what else is there in life?
Give me an example of marketing you think is brilliant and why.
A: It’s difficult to pinpoint one marketing example, because “marketing” is a sequence of excellent strategy; solid planning; resource allocation; brilliant creative and flawless execution. Two of the best examples are the iPod and iPhone because Apple maximizes the power of marketing on all levels.
We’ve all read that the pitch / RFP process is broken. Many agencies aren’t even interested in competing in pitches. Do you see an alternative to this process?
A: Yes, the RFP process is not solution based. It typically introduces the “engagement” of brands, but doesn’t extend to activation, execution and ROI. Companies and brands want and need cost-effective solutions that encompass all marketing aspects, the group that can deliver wins!
What does the agency of the future look like?
A: Virtual, flexible, experienced, efficient and able to attract the right talent at the right time…this is exactly what TeamCMO is building.
What do marketers need that agencies are not giving them?
A: Marketing organizations have been gutted; they need the expertise and management strength to fill the gaps that have been created by this economic downturn.
Who do you admire and why?
A: I admire any organization that has the vision and discipline to drive a good idea to a success stoTodayT
TeamCMO is today’s Ad Industry Innovator. I first read about Tim’s group in the St Louis Post Dispatch story of his company’s launch. Tim previously worked for a little beer company called Anheuser-Busch InBev.
What makes Team CMO an innovator is the space they occupy. They’re not an agency and not a consulting firm, rather they embed themselves in mid-level organizations who could not otherwise afford to hire a CMO (or in many cases an agency). Tim is joined by a diverse group of industry veterans, among them, David English and Mark Greenspahn.
Team CMO’s vision is to bridge the gap between that of outsourced strategic expert and in house cuturalist. Their level of involvement allows Tim’s group a point-of-view that an outside partner may never have; because, as any one who’s been on the agency side will tell you, even the best clients have trouble committing to full transparency with their partners. There always seems to be some secrets they just won’t tell.
So TeamCMO functions not as an employee who, at times, may be either too close to the problem or too tied to established company goals be able to take risks and they’re not guns for hire, in that they often get a higher level of access to the C Suite.
Their’s is a unique space and another wrinkle to a model where smart marketers are moving higher up the food chain in organizations, as companies continue to shift what they value (and will pay for)to strategic rather than executional expertise. People like Tim have realized that the real value of marketing partners is evolving and they aim to be at the center of that shift.
What was the aha moment when you realized “our company needs to be doing things differently than we have been”?
A: After working for over 25+ years in one of the most sophisticated and creative marketing environments in the CPG world, it was obvious that start-up and mid-size companies with potentially powerful brands just couldn’t afford or access the marketing expertise. Combined with market dynamics (i.e., over-abundance of talent) and the economic conditions, the TeamCMO concept will work for many potential partners.
What books are on your nightstand or great blogs on your Google reader
A: Simple, Sports Business Journal and Hollywood Reporter, outside of family, what else is there in life?
Give me an example of marketing you think is brilliant and why.
A: It’s difficult to pinpoint one marketing example, because “marketing” is a sequence of excellent strategy; solid planning; resource allocation; brilliant creative and flawless execution. Two of the best examples are the iPod and iPhone because Apple maximizes the power of marketing on all levels.
We’ve all read that the pitch / RFP process is broken. Many agencies aren’t even interested in competing in pitches. Do you see an alternative to this process?
A: Yes, the RFP process is not solution based. It typically introduces the “engagement” of brands, but doesn’t extend to activation, execution and ROI. Companies and brands want and need cost-effective solutions that encompass all marketing aspects, the group that can deliver wins!
What does the agency of the future look like?
A: Virtual, flexible, experienced, efficient and able to attract the right talent at the right time…this is exactly what TeamCMO is building.
What do marketers need that agencies are not giving them?
A: Marketing organizations have been gutted; they need the expertise and management strength to fill the gaps that have been created by this economic downturn.
Who do you admire and why?
A: I admire any organization that has the vision and discipline to drive a good idea to a success story.
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About the Ad Industry Innovators series: Every few weeks we examine the shift taking place in marketing today by talking directly with the people bringing the change. Specifically, we watch the agency world. As the definition of ad agency continues to evolve, we could just as easily call this marketing innovators, or idea shops, or a myriad of other buzzwords but since collectively, the industry still refers to itself that way, we will too, for now.
We appreciate your input. If you like what you read, subscribe or share it. If you’re considering an agency search in 2010, let us know, we’d welcome the chance to chat more about that. If you’re an agency and you’d like to be on our radar, get in touch as well.
Copacino & Fujikado is a mainstay in the Seattle agency world. If you’re a marketer in or around the Pacific northwest, you’ve heard of them, or at least their work. They were REI’s agency of record for years and years. For the Seattle Aquarium, the agency created the saga of Leonard, a disgruntled pet store goldfish who isn’t cool or exotic enough to be on display in the Aquarium. The campaign was designed to spark a grassroots, viral movement to “Let Leonard In.” There’s a lot more where that came from, once you start looking into this long time Seattle shop.
Their approach is solidly aimed at using marketing as solutions to business problems. “We think of ourselves as creative business people and businesslike creative people,” says Copacino. “We’re all about using imagination as a strategic tool to solve real-life business problems.”
The approach is working. The agency has had 47 consecutive profitable quarters since its inception—and has never had a nickel of debt.” Says Copacino, “If we can’t run a smart, profitable business, why should our clients come to us for business advice?”
Hard to argue with that. And 47 consecutive profitable quarters with zero debt? What business wouldn’t kill (ok maim) for results like that? Don’t. Just hire Copacino & Fujikado.
I asked Jim to give me his answers to my 7 questions:
What was the aha-moment when you realized “our company needs to be doing things differently than we have been.”?
The Burger King “Subservient Chicken” phenomenon opened my eyes to the possibility and power of interactive digital communications. For me, it snapped everything into focus—technology, community, experience, engagement. The fact that it was a brilliant digital interpretation of the 30-year-old “Have It Your Way” positioning vividly illustrated the difference between 20th and 21st century communications.
What books are on your nightstand or great blogs on your Google reader?
My nightstand is piled high with magazines: The Economist, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone. I’m not an avid reader of business books, though I just finished A.E. Hotchner’s In Pursuit Of The Common Good—the story of how he and Paul Newman ignored every rule of business to build a multi-million dollar food business, with all profits going to charity. The most powerful thing I’ve read recently is Rodeo in Joliet by Glenn Rockowitz, a Seattle copywriter. It’s a harrowing account of his battle with cancer. I like Seth Godin’s blog because his entries are short, smart and useful. Plus he doesn’t allow posts and feedback—which spares his readers a lot of idiotic commentary. AdFreak.com is on my reader as well; Tim Nudd is a terrifically droll commentator.
Give me an example of marketing you think is brilliant and why?
The Obama campaign. He started with a compelling message of Hope and Change. He branded it elegantly. Then he segmented the marketplace and skillfully integrated the message using every relevant medium to win hearts and minds. Whether it was a Facebook post or a direct mail piece, everything was on brand. The whole vibe was one of controlled urgency—staying one step ahead of the 24-hour news cycle, but never appearing to be frantic or ruffled. He surrounded his prospects with the message and always respected their intelligence. By contrast, John McCain looked like a confused old man standing on the corner wearing a sandwich board reading “Vote for me.”
We’ve all read that the pitch/RFP process is broken. Many agencies aren’t even interested in competing in pitches. Do you see an alternative to this process?
There’s a very bright guy in British Columbia named Blair Enns who runs a company and website, Win Without Pitching. He has some helpful advice as to how agencies can avoid the RFP gauntlet. At Copacino+Fujikado, about half of our new business comes from existing clients and non-pitch referrals—which is an efficient, cost-effective way to grow. That said, few agencies have the luxury of spurning competitive pitches requiring spec work. And let’s face it, the agency victory parties are waaaay better when you’ve won a hotly contested pitch.
What does the agency of the future look like?
I think it’s going to be less about size and footprint. Instead it’s going to be more about leveraging imagination to solve thorny business problems and getting paid handsomely for it. Increasingly, you see big marketers turning to smaller companies in search of specific, discreet, creative solutions. It’s a return to what the essence of the ad business: big ideas versus big organizations. The best idea wins.
One other observation: The agency of the future will be more in control of the intellectual property it creates. There will be more emphasis on developing proprietary ideas that can be licensed. We have a big push on at our agency to develop IP that we own and control.
What do marketers need that agencies aren’t giving them?
Leadership. Somewhere along the line, agencies stopped working with people in the c-suite and started working with people in cubicles. It’s the whole consultant-to-vendor syndrome we’ve all read so much about. Much of the fault lies with agencies that ceded the role of advisor because there was a lot of money to be made in the Eighties and Nineties as vendors. At the same time, too many marketers stopped believing in the power of ideas and vision, and started bargain shopping for marketing vendors through their procurement departments. Our challenge as an industry is to get off our knees and lead.
Who do you admire and why?
Two New Jersey guys: Philip Roth and Bruce Springsteen. They’re both sons of ethnic, working class families who became important American voices. What I admire most is how they’ve never stopped growing artistically. Roth is 76 but he continues to create deeply nuanced and imaginative novels. Springsteen is 60 and his craftsmanship has never been more impressive. Age has honed their skills, not blunted them. As an old guy myself, this is important!
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