The Marketing Agency Talk

Here is an interesting thought.

With the Internet and broadband capabilities becoming so easily available, creative teams no longer have to be working in the same building and sharing the same network. Large files are easily transported over the Internet. Do we still need an in-house creative team today?

Already, many marketing agencies today are no longer following the “good old” agency model of operations. And in reality, a huge part of creative work is being farmed out. The reason is simple enough, different people have different skills in different areas. When you want an excellent animation, it is likely that your Art Director who is an expert in traditional print media, might not be the right person to lead that.

Who today can afford to have all the various talents that you “might” need on staff?

The good news is, with the de-coupling of the ball-and-chain relationships, the creative people can now focus on what they love best and do best; while agencies can now hire virtual teams as the needs dictate. How good is that?

So, tell us, do you still have a Creative Team in-house?

It used to be quite easy, you know, running a marketing agency. You had to have a creative idea, run a creative campaign and the leads just keep pouring in. But today, lead generation services is a whole different ball game.

In fact, it is made tougher simply by the fact that the Internet has made it “easier” to generate leads. What has happened over the past few years, have been a roller-coaster ride for many marketing agency. Many companies have knowingly and unknowingly contributed to the detriment of this most effective tool. Surely you know what we are talking about here.

Yes, it is the word called SPAM. Once, it was easy to find prospects who wanted a specific piece of information. They subscribed to you, get on your mailing list, and become a genuine lead. Sadly, the over harvesting of such leads have created spam lists and made many people wary.

It cuts both ways. Users are wary of giving out their name and contact, and clients find it hard to get a high quality list. In fact, if you want organic leads (fresh, un-polluted) it is a nothing short of a monumental task.

I found this site called Revenue Farm and they seem to have a fresh approach. For example, if you are looking to create a list of debt settlement leads, they have a method by which they claim to be able to generate fresh leads for you. With the high level of spam and lists that have been created through dubious means, getting a good quality list that is fresh and un-abused is really tough.

Most of the time, if you want to get a debt consolidation lead, good luck to you. That is one of the most hotly harvested area in the online world. Most marketing agencies would be hard put to find a good clean list for that segment. We have not personally tried the services, but if the company keep their promises, then this could be a good source of leads for you and your clients. No harm to give it a shot, and let us know how it goes!

Walked into a mall earlier with no intention to buy anything other than eat my lunch.  Yet, I was drawn to a CD shop due to the crowds gathered outside. Many were queuing up to make a purchase, some holding up a few CDs in their hands. A few were obviously crying.

Ahhh…

The enterprising proprietor placed an extra table outside the shop, piled high with Michael Jackson CDs alongside with some gigantic posters of the King of Pop’s in his heydays.  The speakers were belting out his hits one after another. With a visually long queue and music so loud, it’s no wonder more and more people were attracted to this little shop.

Those slick dance moves. From Taipei to Lima, Shanghai to Mexico City, fans of the late Michael Jackson pay tribute to the music icons by impersonating him and by snapping up anything about him. Michael Jackson could very well be worth more when dead.  Smart merchants globally, like this one , are cashing in from all sorts of merchandises from CD to posters to mugs to black hat to white glove to dark glasses etc etc.

Is this exploiting the dead? Yes but this is still clever marketing. The merchants basically swim with the flow of the tides and stand in the direction of the wind. I see nothing wrong with that. This opportunity is so big and so obvious that I would be totally surprise if merchants retailing in souvenirs and CDs don’t make a move.  Yet again, I’m not surprise if some don’t.

Marketing opportunities are everywhere however, how many people actually sees the wood in the trees? Even if they do, how many take action?

This was the text message that came in earlier:

“OK with design. Except to change 2C to 4C. Hope you can absorb cost in view that we are likely to award you the design job of the XXX event”

This is a trying time for both the clients and agencies, where everyone must manage their cost carefully and wisely. I can understand the client needs to tighten their budget but from which angle should our agency look at this scenario?

1) Why should we be absorbing the cost? They have their headache, so do we.

2) OK, we will absorb the cost in view of the past support of this client. When time gets better, they will surely support us.

3) OK, we will absorb the cost in view that the client is likely to award us the future projects. At least we know that the client will not abandon us.

4) OK, let’s talk to our printer to see if they can help. If the printer can drop his price even further, we’ll do our best to break even and not make a loss.

5) OK, We know the printer is already giving his best price and we are actually putting more time than quoted on this job. The only way is to explain to the client nicely that we cannot.

Actually, we are a little shy to press down the printer’s price. He is already doing his best and squeezing him any further will be a little unreasonable.

Anyone wants to give an opinion?

Tags: marketing cost

My team is working right now as I took a breather to write a short post.

The annual report must go on press on Good Friday – yes, it is that urgent that our printer is prepared to work on a sacred day – and yet, amendment is still triggering in. We would just roll our eyes and said “not again” if it’s the accountants and auditors emailing us a new set of financial data and figures for the 15th time.  We had enough experience with auditing houses to know that frequent data changes are the norms. It’s the senseless change of photographs that’s making us boiling. That corporate HQ building was shown in our draft since day 1. Yet, after countless of revision over the past 5 weeks, the client decided that the said building was “not nice” yesterday.  Of course, the cafe’s lighting was too dim too; we must digitally touch it up to make the room brighter.  2 hours ago,  the group shot that graced the back page should be removed. My AD finally lost it after keeping cool and mum all these while, “What the heck am I supposed to use to fill up that empty space?”

My printer had the unglamourous job of working on Good Friday through Sunday so that we can deliver on Monday. Yet, I wonder how we are going to get everything ready by tomorrow with so many last minutes request.

In fact, my AD just gave me the title of this post. He was shrieking, “Why are they rocking the damned boat now?”. One of our freelance guys quipped, “That’s why they are called CLIENTS”.

Hmmm, this is just one of those memorable days in the agency.