He believes it's a good thing that clients still go direct to publishers.
Jeff Silverstein is a founding partner of Catalano, Lellos & Silverstein. He leads CL&S' Media Group, overseeing the implementation of all clients' media strategy, planning and buying. His industry knowledge comes from bringing well-known consumer and B2B brands to the Web, including Chase Manhattan, Volvo, The Weather Channel, Intel and MCI WorldCom.
iMediaConnection: What's your biggest frustration these days?
Silverstein: I have to approach this from two standpoints -- from that as a business owner and as a member of the media community.
In general, we’re seeing a lot of project-based work out there, due to the competitive nature of the business and smaller, more eager companies willing to take on project work at little or no profit in order to get their foot in the door. With that said, I’d certainly like to see a few more fee-based accounts.
Looking over at the media side, we are still frustrated with the way publishers divide their time. Most of the time is dedicated towards the actual sale of goods, while little time -- and in some cases none at all -- is dedicated to the post-sale part of our business. Pro-active optimization has completely fallen by the wayside. Our media team almost always is responsible for establishing communication when it comes to post-sale and optimization. We understand this is certainly part of our responsibilities, but we would also hope the publishers would come to the table with suggestions as they should know their sites best. Some things never change.
iMediaConnection: What's easier this year than last?
Silverstein: Willingness of consumers to accept more rich media ad units as broadband becomes more commonplace. This also provides us with windows of opportunities with the clients, when it comes to selling ideas that are more out of the framework of traditional online and rich media advertising.
iMediaConnection: What’s one of the most successful branding campaigns your company has executed recently, and what made it successful?
Silverstein: Our work for Porsche North America ( PCNA) stands out as one of our most successful and gratifying branding campaigns to-date. Specifically we were able to convince the client to not only invest in online advertising for the first time in Porsche’s history, but also to commit a significant amount of media dollars based on the ability of online to deliver brand equity building metrics. In this case, it was in the support of Porsche’s new SUV entry; the Cayenne.
iMediaConnection: Then your company can point to evidence that suggests online advertising and marketing are contributing positively to branding metrics?
Silverstein: We recently included a research component for a project we did for Animal Planet’s 'Croc Hunter' live. We needed to show the client the value of online to not only deliver increases in the brand equity ( TV program) attributes, but also measure the ability of online to actually tune into the program, i.e. actual TV viewership. To prove this, we implemented a two-part, re-contact study designed not only to help measure increases in key branding measurements (brand/program awareness, likeability, image) but also to help identify a significant lift that online delivered in program viewership.
iMediaConnection: What’s one of the most successful direct response campaigns your company has executed recently, and what made it successful?
Silverstein: One of our new clients this year is Champion Mortgage. In a highly-competitive atmosphere we have been able to provide positive DM results to our client. Being directly compared to other media (DRTV, DM, etc.) requires us to tightly monitor the campaign, with little if no room for error.
In terms of success, we have been able to generate qualified leads to our clients’ application at competitive costs to other media.
iMediaConnection: Have any of your clients successfully utilized any emerging technologies, such as IM, wireless, iTV, etc.?
Silverstein: In 2003/04, along with one of our partner agencies, we participated in a TiVo test for Porsche. To date, the Porsche TiVo spot is the most watched ad. We are also on the cusp of expanding the TiVo, long-form delivery platform to other media providers. In terms of wireless, we feel mobile marketing is an area we are very much interested in and have in development several innovative mobile marketing concepts we will be bringing to our clients.
iMediaConnection: Are you working with search and local search for your clients? Why? And how's it going?
Silverstein: We're currently investigating usage.
iMediaConnection: What are you telling your clients about rich media?
Silverstein: We’re not. Rich media, per se, is old news. However, we continue to evaluate new technologies and ad mediums for our clients. One thing we do not do is promote rich media just for the sake of doing something on the cutting edge. It has to make sense for the brand and the objectives. As a result, any time we do recommend the use of rich media it is grounded on its ability to deliver key metrics agreed upon with the client.
iMediaConnection: What can't the Internet do, as much as we wish it could?
Silverstein: Capture a 35 share. Oh wait, no one medium can do that alone anymore!
iMediaConnection: How is the agency-seller relationship these days? How could it be better?
Silverstein: There has always been a give and take with the agency seller relationship. There has to be.
Some sellers -- and for that matter, agency people -- are masters at building relationships. You have to be. It will win you business, will get you first-look opportunities, and will land you introductions to potential clients and new hires when in need.
The days of publishers and their sellers going around an agency to talk directly to a client are not going to go away. We are kidding ourselves if this is what we believe. I do believe this to be good for our business, though. While it might create short-term work, it will create long-term recognition for agencies as clients begin to better understand the complexities of the buy, negotiation and back-end work we put into their business every day.
There is always room for improvement. Sellers can be better listeners and they can leave the canned goods on the shelf and brainstorm more often.
iMediaConnection: Are you having issues with Terms and Conditions?
Silverstein: The IAB version of T&Cs is solid. The problem is that not everyone is using the IAB version. Too many sites still rely on their own legal jargon that we have to weed through and edit.
iMediaConnection: Are you working with your clients' non-interactive agencies? How are you perceived -- as a partner or still as an oddity?
Silverstein: We do quite a bit of business with non-interactive agencies and it has been interesting to see things evolve in the past few years alone. Today, we are considered partners and at the table for every discussion when working with an outside group or affiliation. In the past, this was different. In many agencies today, I still believe this to be different. Agencies talk of integration and working together, but when push comes to shove it is a lot of talk and a lot of pillars.
In some sense, it’s like we are back in 1995. The same forces still exist today as they did back in 1995. Vested interests within “traditional agencies” to deliver the largest amount of revenue quickly for the least amount of manpower and effort.
Unfortunately, as we all know, our medium runs counter to these in-bred agency motivational drivers.
iMediaConnection: What's the one thing you wish clients would understand?
Silverstein: Let’s forget about the whole agency commission structure and look at people hours required to complete tasks successfully.
iMediaConnection: What's the one thing you wish publishers would understand?
Silverstein: Added value comes with a cost.
iMediaConnection: What remains the industry’s biggest stumbling block?
Silverstein: The completely unmethodical and arbitrary means by which budgets are allocated compared to what the expectations are of any given medium.
iMediaConnection: What are you reading these days?
Silverstein: Too much email.