Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Going up?

Advertising is like waiting for an elevator. Many people start their business and don’t advertise their brand. It’s like waiting for an elevator without pressing the button. Sure one might come along eventually but you never know when.
Such is true about the success of your business. If you don’t advertise it’s like not pressing the button. Sure you might eventually get some business but it is up to chance.
If you want to get more business, more sales and more market share you need to press the button. You need to advertise.
When you advertise you get people to come to you. Just like the button brings the elevator to you. Sounds simple right? Well it isn’t quite that simple.
Just like the elevator if you don’t know where you want to go the elevator won’t take you anywhere. If you go about advertising the wrong way or with companies that aren’t as experienced you could wind up going down instead of up.
Effective advertising starts with a strategy, one that is in line with your Marketing plan. If you don’t already have a marketing plan I can help you tailor one to your brand. If you already have one then I would suggest revisiting it. A marketing plan is organic, it lives and changes as does your company and the market place. It needs to be adjusted and revised to accommodate your growth.
Make sure your advertising is strategically aligned with your marketing objectives this will help you ensure your brand is going up instead of going down.
There is a common rule that most advertisers use when dealing with clients that may not be as educated on the industry and it goes something like this. There are three common requests that clients ask us for, I want it Cheap, I want it Fast and I want it to be Great.

As someone who has worked in some of the largest agencies across Canada and has run some of the smaller ones I can honestly say this holds true not matter what size of the agency or how big or small the client. The Triangle of needs is what I call it.

When a client requests something and asks for all three I tell them there are no such thing as unicorns or leprechauns and there's no such thing as getting everything that they ask for so pick two. If you want it Fast and Cheap then you're going to have to sacrifice Quality. If you want it Great and Fast chances are it won't be cheap.
You get the idea.

It's a great way of letting clients know that there are limitations to what can be pulled off within certain budgets and it allows us as advertisers to manage expectations properly.

It seems more and more that I hear of companies wanting to receive advertising services for cheaper rates. It’s important to know there is a fundamental difference between doing things cheap and doing things cost effective. The difference is strategy.

Sure you can have your neighbor's son as your designer and put out ads in your local publications for a cheap price. But if your strategy is to gain international reach and awareness then you are throwing your money away because you will never reach your goal.

Being strategic and creative will generate a winning combination for your dollars.

So press the button and start advertising but make sure you're strategic about it otherwise you could be heading to the basement.

Half Full or Half Empty??

What if you see both? What then? What if you see the positive side of only being half full and the positive side of only being half empty. Then what?? Is there possibly another category? Could it be possible that there are "pesimistoptimists" among us? I think I may be one. Being a libra I have a hard time making decisions anyway but often I find myself looking at things from all angles and trying to figure out the positive in each. Is it a lack of commitment or is it another category??

I can't decide.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

The Olympics are here

Well it's been a while since I last posted anything. I'm in the process of building a new venture. Stayed tuned for that.
The Olympics are here and as I sit here watching the live torch relay passing through the soggy Vancouver streets I can't help but get sucked into the hype. I woke up this morning to the sound of helicopters buzzing over my condo at 6:30am as they followed the runner carrying the torch. I guess there is room on the bandwagon to get into the spirit of the Olympics. The crazy closures and millions of dollars being thrown around this city makes you feel like the recession is years behind us. But I can't help but feel like we will be paying for this one for a long time.
I'm actually going to go check out some of the free venues, that is, if I can find a way to get downtown. If you want to see all the stuff going on check this out.

Talk to you all soon