Don't Waste my Precious Time with Hogwash and Gibberish

Fallon Agency Slideshare Link

The above link was shared on Twitter from a to be left un-named source.

Its hogwash. I would fire the person who created this presentation. I will admit I do not know the person. It could be Fallon and this is what they teach their employees. 98 Fucking slides with maybe 7 or 10 of value. WTF? Don't waste my time. I want no gibberish. I want none of the Advertising-Marketing lingo. I want real info that gets right to the point. Is that so hard?

This is what the 98 slides say:

1] Identify the Goal/Problem
2] Here are the various digital technologies available to use.
3] Fallon can help you choose which of these technologies and strategies fit your needs.
4] Lets go do it.

The slides infer that we all want to interact with brands all the time. That is the biggest piece of bullshit ever stated. In fact we don't...except when we have a need. We will interact if we buy something and it sucks. Or we want something they don't have or maybe we substitute and wish we didn't have too. Yes if we are already passionate Brand Ambassadors on our own we will do this online. But remember people become that not from Advertising but from great Product-Brand experiences.

Other than that I want a bribe. I want free stuff. I want your margins zero. Or why are you wasting my precious time? Seriously I will interact with McDonald's when I am hungry and I chose McDonald's. Or maybe I am undecided. Then I will place several choices in play and want bidding. Who will drop their pants the fastest wins. Is Fallon going to help a Brand drop their pants for me to win my business?

But seriously. Most of Digital Advertising so far has been wasted. With some exceptions. SEO is a success. Google Paid Search pretty good since its pay for performance. Shopping comparisons on Google, Bing where I can compare prices for things I already want are great for the consumer and margin destroyers for the sellers. Yes have a Social strategy even if your not in Social since viral attacks can occur and you should respond. And if your not 'listening' to learn your not a market leader in your segment.

But 98 Slides? Just read this blog post! Done.

Why am I called a Contrarian?

I really can not understand why people who focus on R.O.I. or Sales when it comes to advertising are considered Contrarian? Advertising is supposed to be about sales. Yes its great when creatives can do fun things and make selling fun or make your product or brand fun. But the reality is the CFO makes the rules. If the CMO can't show ROI the CFO is going to reallocate resources where the ROI is superior. This could be anything from R&D to Direct Sales. Or there can be a reallocation within Marketing.

I see often more buzz about advertising within Advertising Circles than outside of Advertising. My Finance background breaks down things to numbers very quick. I have written about this before. Creatives and Marketers hate that. But Finance is about maximizing returns (for good and bad). Owners and Shareholders demand this. I myself do not have tunnel vision. I feel businesses should take care of employees, their clients, and their communities before the stakeholders. But it is rare to find a Company that does that.

Now to be fair when I do bring up Sales, I am not slamming Creatives. I am an artist myself. I have many art and music friends, more than that are in the corporate world. So I know how hard it is to create and make great stuff. And your hamstrung in Advertising by the Product, your Client, the Media Buy etc. You can create a great TV spot that get's shown 3 times. Not the Creative's fault if no sales are generated from that. Or the spots could be shown to the wrong demographic. Or as I have written say the product sucks?! Advertising get's people to try something and if the client doesn't help with a great product its not the Agency's fault.

But if the Advertising Industry thinks being about R.O.I. and Sales is Contrarian then they are smugly and vainly telling clients they are happy to waste their money. And shame on the clients for allowing this. And yes when I pitch clients I do tell them bluntly 'If I can save you $10 million by cutting your media buy without reducing sales, will you give me $1 million of that'.

The Vanity of Advertising

I think the Industry often does clients a disservice by not focusing on Sales. Yet at the same time patting each other on the back for great work that can not be proven has benefited the clients who paid for the work.

Glaring proof is the ridiculous number of Awards events. I know Advertising and Media is highly segmented due to mediums, formats, and technologies. But I have never once seen an award connected to sales. Shouldn't all awards for the most part be connected to either sales or customer retention.

And shouldn't the winners of all awards events be based not on the creative or the quality of work but the sales increase? If I helped a client increase sales 100% and someone else who wins an award can't prove they helped make a dime, doesn't that confuse our clients? Doesn't that do a disservice to our industry as a whole and have people view us as scammers?

In direct sales no awards are won unless you sell. And the ones who sell the most get the awards. And yes...THEY GET PAID MORE! And this whole issue of not wanting to be paid for performance because of the 'risk' and 'investment' is a crock of shit. I say that because businesses hire and train and support direct sales efforts risking much more money than advertising does with the same risks! Agencies should not be guaranteed a profit, but should have all their costs covered that includes the employee rate and everyone's pay. And if you are afraid you won't perform then that is the Agencies fault, not the demanding client. You don't have to take the work. Or if the Brand (see tomorrows post) sets you up to fail that is the Agencies fault too for being a sell out for some money.

Remember 9 out of 10 products fail in the marketplace. Do Brands stop product development because they know 9 will be failures? So for an Agency to demand always a profit is pretty damn vain.

My next post will discuss the Agency Bidding and Review process because its only fair I hold the Brands to account for their shortcomings.

The Convoluted Advertising Ecosystem

Yesterday I wrote about the Media/Entertainment world. Today I wish to discuss the world we operate in...Advertising. I am new to Advertising. Only 2 years in and I have an outsiders view. My background in B2B Sales, Business Development to Major Industrial Businesses like Lockheed Martin, Chevron-Texaco, Exxon-Mobile, Raytheon, Ford Motor Company etc really is completely foreign to Advertising to consumers. I have a Finance Degree but my social life is mostly around creative types in music, art, performers etc. Since I have always championed my customer, always sought to add value, and refused to take money just because I could unless I helped my client, I am actually the type of person the staid and entrenched entities in the Advertising-Media World love and loathe. I can help a Brand focus better to maximize their Ad Spending. I can help an Agency prove their worth to Brands to help them increase their value which always seems to be fuzzy.

The biggest issue with marketing is two fold. First is how do you connect marketing with sales. How do you value the different areas to prove you spent the Brands money well. Secondly is how complicated media plans are, especially today and now they are getting even more complex. To top this all off Agency's tend to specialize in certain niches like Mobile, Digital, TV etc, as well as for the actual Media Buying. And when you operate on a national scale combined with the fickle and chaotic decisions people make when they buy, I truly feel this is just as complex a task as when I worked on Missile Defense Programs for the Department of Defense.

Plus there is competing interests all over the place. I might tell Pepsi they can cut their advertising budget by 15% and they won't lose a penny in sales. Pepsi's Agencies will hate me for this reduction in revenue...even if it is true. It is not in an Agency's best short term interest to be honest if it means reduced billings and profits to be honest. But not being honest leaves you open to being exposed and have your business put out for review, which for long term is not in your best interest. This is why the review process sucks and hurts incumbents. Is the reason for the review a problem with creative or a problem with costs in the view of the Brand's CFO. As much as all you Creative types hate us Finance types, we control the purse strings. And while you may feel we aren't willing to spend money to make money, you should go see the expense reports for the sales team. It is the inability to measure the return on investment that creates all this chaos. And Brands and Agencies feel helpless.

Think of a nationwide media blitz for an upcoming Blockbuster Movie. You can spend all you want and force feed the information to the consumers but if the movie sucks it will bomb. How many times do I need to see a trailer? If I see it 25 times isn't 20+ of those times wasted money? And billboards and poster work across the nation? How do I know the placement is good? No one can do that on a massive scale. No one not even a media buyer/planner. They trust the local folks and take their word for it. And what about digital? My trailer had 1 million hits on You Tube. That was free yet I was told 20 million saw the TV trailer but that can't be proven because we are not in people's living room.

So a CFO who see's that his star salesperson spent $25,000 in entertainment expense brought in $30 million in sales. But the Ad Agencies can't truly prove their value which creates friction, distrust, and animosity...even if the Agency is kicking ass on behalf of their client. and sadly a product that sells itself, like an IPod often the Agency takes credit. And when the Agency kicks ass, but the product fails because it sucks, they get blamed.

At least with Missile Defense I can see if the interceptor hit the target, and how often.