Before we wrap up the Agency Summit wrap-ups, I’d like to ask you for a little help. We’re planning some cool new features for January, and we’re working on ways to make the newsletter and site easier to use and more helpful for all of you. But I’d like to know what you want.
I know it’s the holidays, but if you get a chance in those moments when you’re trying to look busy because you don’t want to start anything new before the end of the year, please email me lee@imediaconnection.com and let me know what we could do to make you happier (I can’t get you a raise or a nicer office, sorry).
And while I’m asking for things (it isn’t always “me, me, me,” I promise), I’d love to get some feedback from the brands and publishers about what was said at the Agency Summit. Please feel free to email me lee@imediaconnection.com with your comments. I’ll run them with the transcripts and in my columns.
Back to Beaver Creek and Bob
When last we saw our Summit attendees, they were listening to Bob Garfield pontificate on his “10 Commandments to Save Advertising from Itself.” In a later session with iMedia’s own Joe Jaffe (here’s Joe’s column on that little tussle), Garfield had some warnings specifically for the Internet ad community.
“You are embracing many of the wrong creative values,” Garfield said as he and Joe critiqued several of the campaigns Joe has critiqued in his Creative Showcase this year. “There will be billions of dollars coming your way over the next few years. Don’t you kill the goose that laid the golden egg… and you are dangerously close to doing just that.”
In fact, he said, the overall creative output of Web advertisers would rate no higher than a D, were this high school. He was especially piqued about intrusive audio and video ads.
“The Internet is more intricate, more private and more quiet than anything else. More times than I care to think about, I have been knocked out of my chair and it does not make me happy,” he said.
I’d never thought of it that way, but he has a point. I surf alone, usually in the office or at night after my son is in bed. Do I really want to be blasted by loud rich media? Not unless I go looking for it.
On the plus side, Garfield says the Internet has a power that hasn’t been seen since the heydays of outdoor—the power for the message to interact with its environment. Hmmm… I wonder what Burma Shave could do online.
But overall, I believe his best bit of advice for the industry is this: “The compact between the advertiser and the user is a work in progress.” He’s right. You’re creating rules and protocols where there haven’t been any. Sounds like your creative side needs to be talking regularly with your user side as this Internet thing evolves. And more importantly, you need to be talking to the—all together now—“Flyovers.”.
It Themes to Me
There were several recurring themes during the week. As I mentioned, we’ll be running transcripts from each session in January so you can read exactly what was discussed. But here’s the short-form of issues that surfaced more than once:
Latino Surfers: Not the longboard type, but the long-bored type. This came up in the sponsored presentations, and was mentioned later in the general sessions. How do you best serve an audience that wants to balance their everyday surfing and Internet use with culturally relevant sites? And how do you best serve the language and cultural divisions within that community (you can’t serve Castilian Spanish to Central American audiences, etc.)?
Electronic Tearsheets: Want to make a billion dollars? Figure out a simple, turn-key way to prove when ads run on the Internet. Just don’t forget to file with the U.S. Patent Office.
Finding and Keeping Good People: As David Ogilvy said many decades ago: “My inventory goes down the elevator each night.” That’s a mild paraphrase, but the thought is there. Online agencies, it seems to me, need a balance of traditional advertising genius grounded in what works offline and new advertising energy unencumbered by the old ways. When asked what agencies’ biggest business challenge is, Starcom/IP’s Rishad Tobaccowala offered one. In his refreshingly succinct way, he said, “Keeping superior talent.” Their SMG University could be the wave of the future. At the same time, this is a problem that traditional agencies have faced since before Darrin Stevens and Larry Tate. Maybe you should look to them for advice (not to “Bewitched,” but to the traditional agencies).
Who Owns Search? Kevin Ryan’s informal search survey and the discussion that followed brought up several interesting questions. Too bad you can’t Google these for answers.
- Who should be responsible for search? The best answer I heard was “It’s less about who has responsibility than about who has the resources and data.”
- How efficient is search? That seems to depend entirely on what you want, and how much you paid to get it—is a free listing free if you had to pay $200,000 for optimization to get it? As Kevin said, “The biggest winners with inefficiency are the engines.”
- And what about the role of creative in search? Everyone talks about listings and placement, but as one person said, “No one ever talks about creative. The actual text is really what’s going to drive ROI.”
We’ll spend a lot of time in 2004 helping you sort out how to get started in effective search, what search can and can’t do, and how to work with search specialists and agencies.
The Job Ain’t Finished ‘Til The Paperwork’s Done: Agencies, clients and publishers need to find ways to streamline agreements and placements. Insertion orders have worked fine for newspapers, radio and TV since the dawn of time. And Ts and Cs were mentioned—but not resolved—more times than there were snowflakes at Beaver Creek. Continuing to fight over the little stuff like that will hobble the industry.
In Other News
Ups and Downs: Gartner/G2’s Denise Garcia buffed her crystal ball and looked into ad spending in 2004. She believes auto, pharmaceutical, financial services and travel categories all will be up; tech, manufacturing and retail will be down.
The Future of Interactive Agencies: Speaking of soothsaying, Doug Weaver led a panel with four heavyweight sooths: Tobaccowala, Carat’s Sarah Fay, OMD Digital’s Sean Finnegan and The Digital Edge’s Alan Schanzer. Some of the issues they raised were:
- Publishers going behind agencies’ backs and pitching clients directly. Schanzer said, “We don’t mind you meeting with our clients, but don’t sell to our clients. We have a contract.”
- Are penalties for under delivery good or bad? Finnegan said, “If we have to go after you, we have a big problem. Let us know what’s failing” and let agencies know how you want to resolve it.
- Are clients still as hard a sell as they have been? Fay said, “We’re seeing, day-to-day, clients getting more pressure from above to include interactive marketing.” And, she says, that should drive 20-25 percent growth next year.
- While accountability is one very important thing Internet advertising has going for it, it’s not the end all and be all. Tabaccawalara said, “We try to sell numbers, but clients buy with their hearts then implement the numbers to justify what they bought.”
Love Letters in the Snow: After meeting with the sellers on Sunday, Upstream Group’s Weaver called on Elvis for a little help in presenting a “Love Letter to the Ad Agency” from the sellers. At times it sounded like a “Dear John” letter, then like a mildy stern letter you’d get from your mother in college, then like a “We can make this work, baby” love note tucked under the pillow. We’ll put the whole preso—with music—online for you after the holidays, but here are the high points (and I do expect letters about this … please).
- The relationship can’t be the way it’s been in the past. Sellers won’t play “any way you want me to be” any longer.
- What makes sellers love agencies? “When you talk to us about ideas… and don’t expect us to always do the thinkin’.” “When you talk to us about your world… (your strategic vision… your value proposition… how does your business work).”
- What keeps sellers and agencies apart? “Communication inside the agency isn’t great.” And when “what the agency visionaries say doesn’t get translated in the actions of the planners and buyers.”
- This one’s important enough for two bullets. What else does the panel say keeps sellers and agencies apart? When agencies focus solely on price, terms and concessions. Is it a relationship or just a purchase? And this one, I feel, has something to say to the whole industry: “When you don’t bet big on us … it’s tough to run our business on itty-bitty buys.” Be bold, folks.
- And, of course, the sellers implored the agencies to stop being cruel—in the best Elvis sense of the word. “Don’t hurt us no more,” the sellers implore, with out-of-control Terms and Conditions, sequential liability, short cancellations and late creative (48 hours on average) and 20 percent under delivery penalties.
- And this: “We can’t build a better medium for y’all if we’re always running an emergency room… everything can’t be a rush.”
So discuss… then let me know how you feel.
And Finally…
As you read in the news on Monday, the Aspen Group gave out its first ASPY awards in Beaver Creek to recognize the best advertising media sales organizations each year. The big winners—NYTimes.com, Google, MSN and Yahoo!—weren’t a huge surprise. But as several of us at my table mentioned, the runners-up were an intriguing mix. I’d love to know from the voters how they were nominated and what they’re doing right.
Who are they? American Greetings, CBS MarketWatch, Electronic Arts, Google, MSN, New York Metro, CBS Sportsline, Tribal Fusion Network, Washingtonpost.com, Weather.com, WSJ, Burst Media, ESPN.com, Forbes.com, iVillage, UGO, Bolt, Discovery Networks, ESPN.com, Hollywood.com, Salon, TV Guide and Heavy.
ASPY winners and presenters at the iMedia Summit
Fascinating stuff. As was the whole Summit.
I’m not sure what 2004 will bring for the Interactive Marketing industry, but it certainly should be interesting. It’s like I imagine it would be watching the dawn of television all over again—but at Internet speed.
Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza or Festivus, have a fabulous holiday! Appreciate your friends and family and focus on the good things in your life and work. See you in the New Year.
