advertising

Advertising and Project Management Cross Over

Posted on by w13colleen

Advertising agencies need more than creative talent or media experts. In order to run your client’s business there must be efficient and effective project management. It starts with the right partnership between agency and clients. Often times a project does not come to life because of poor management, inaccurate budgets, or unreachable timelines. Agencies and clients are cutting ties due to poor planning and management along with creative issues. In recent ad agency news one of the biggest beer companies pulled their work from BBDO in Canada. Ad Age reported the news this week in the article titled, “Molson Coors Yanks Coors Light from BBDO in Canada.”  There has a been a wave of agency reviews and new accounts where creative was not the reason for the break up. Another article in Inc points to several key factors in reviewing the right agency that points out the importance of proper management, “How to Choose an Advertising Agency.”

BBDO is a super power of creative talent in the U.S., Canada and across the globe. It recently picked up Bud Light account in the U.S. which the stated primary reason why Coors Light pulled the account. On the surface it appears to a conflict of interest however, Bud Light in Canada is managed by Anomaly. Coors Light is behind Bud Light in volume sales however the margin is small which means they are looking for their agency to differentiate the product in advertising and media. Creative differentiation must start with proper management of the account and projects.

Bridgestone has used a private firm out of Dallas for over seven years and most recently ended part of their agreement. Bridgestone creative work is now with Publicis Dallas which is also well-known agency in the industry. However, The Richards Group will retain the sports marketing business. This will require extensive management and coordination between agency partners and clients. The scope and clear definition of roles between the two agencies will be critical to the growth of Bridgestone.

It all starts with the client selection process. Agency selection process is extensive and requires a high degree of management and collaboration. Project management was a key factor in the two examples of why the agency lost the business. The client through the RFP process which includes budget, media targets, creative goals and general agency-client operations defines the scope of the agency’s role.  This is critical for both parties so they produce the right campaigns and drive results for their clients.

Does your company work with an ad agency? If so how is the relationship managed? How does internal project management practices transfer to managing outside partners?

Resources:

http://adage.com/article/agency-news/molson-coors-yanks-coors-light-bbdo-canada/242987/

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/bridgestone-tires-moves-publicis-dallas-150988

http://www.inc.com/guides/201108/how-to-choose-an-advertising-agency.html

Advertising: The Connection for Twitter and Television

Posted on by spr1333jroe

twitter

Anyone who has a Twitter knows that it is not out of the ordinary for users to tweet about a certain television show or sports program as they are watching it. While Twitter users may think this is just them stating their opinions to the Twittersphere, these tweets are actually giving the social networking site an opportunity to capitalize on advertising.

Last year, Twitter partnered with ESPN and Ford to expand their advertisement section. The partnership with ESPN and Ford allowed for replays from football games to be promoted to people who showed interest in sports. The executives at Twitter saw this worked in their favor, and wanted to continue  improving their advertising process. They knew their advertising results would not change unless they implemented another change into their process. They needed to stretch their goals beyond where they were currently standing.

Twitter executives are taking the steps towards improvement by capitalizing on all activity users are sending out during programs. A new product will send ads to people who are commenting about multiple programs. In other words, brands will now be able to match advertisements with tweets sent out by viewers.

Twitter said they will be working with media companies, including Time Inc., Bloomberg, Discovery, Vevo, Vice Media, and Warner Music Group to allow a format of digital video or television clips from the shows.  Those clips will then be able to be shared on Twitter by users, and advertisements can be run before or after the videos are viewed. Matt Derella, a director of brand and agency strategy, said, “When people turn on TV they turn on Twitter.”

Do you think this move will be beneficial to Twitter? Do you foresee people sharing these clips and getting advertisements out there? 

References: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/business/media/twitter-lets-brands-find-viewers-of-their-tv-ads.html?ref=technology

Black Friday and the Capsim Connection

Posted on by w13trista

Okay, so if you’re like me, you’re already tired of all the annoying holiday shopping ads on TV that are all telling you that right now is the best time to buy (fill in the blank product here) right now!  And of course with Black Friday just past us, the ads were in full force with “door buster” deals and other extra perks for shopping early.  Added to the drama this year was the fact that value stores such as Wal-Mart and Target opened on Thanksgiving evening as opposed to 4 AM or whatever obnoxiously early time it was last year.  But now that the drama of the biggest shopping day of the year has died down a bit, I started to wonder if any of the ads and marketing strategies actually paid off for these brick-and-mortar stores.

In a Forbes.com article posted on November 28th, the author suggests that rather than Black Friday sales results giving us a glimpse of the holiday season’s hottest items or predictions on whether this holiday season will be better or worse than last year, consumers’ shopping and purchasing trends and habits are changing and that retailers should be cognizant of these changes if they are to have a successful holiday sales season.

For example, the traditional big shopping days such as Black Friday are less and less appealing to consumers with Black Friday sales down 1.8% from 2011.  Whether stores open on Thanksgiving night or at 4 AM on Friday, consumers find neither time convenient.  They are choosing to shop at more schedule-friendly times or even online.  With e-commerce and personalized electronic ads becoming more and more prevalent, is it any surprise that Black Friday online says were over $1 billion, which made it the largest (dollar wise) online shopping day of 2012 so far?  This is a 26% increase from online sales on Black Friday 2011!

Another message retailers need to interpret is that consumers may be becoming calloused to the inundation of sales ads.  As we learned in our marketing class last quarter, mass media is not nearly successful as it used to be.  Retailers need to create more personalized, relevant ads for their target market and cut through the incessant advertising noise that bombards consumers every day.

This article got me thinking about our Capsim simulation and how some of these concepts might apply.  Although we just started and we’re all still forming our strategy, there are some key concepts that we’re putting into practice this quarter.  It will be key for us all to identify our target market, know and understand the needs/wants of that market and then create products and a marketing campaign that our target market will be receptive to.   Although there is no Black Friday in the Capsim simulation (which I think we’re all thankful for!) for us to use as a basis for purchasing trends such as the Forbes.com article suggests, we will hopefully put into practice some of these key business concepts as we move through the 7 Capsim rounds.

The Google Ceiling

Posted on by w13michael

Google has a problem.  Google’s problem is that for all their variety of products, their only revenue stream of consequence is advertising.  And for all of the fancy ideas and products they throw at the market, it appears that unless they can take back the mobile handset market with their Motorola purchase (which they do not appear to be positioning themselves to do), advertising is going to be the primary revenue stream for Google for a long time to come.

Google has a business model problem, and the cornerstone of this problem is the fact that while Google is in the advertising market, it has outgrown the market.  In the early years, their growth was fueled by the rapid growth in electronic commerce, and the fact that traditional advertising was not able to drive electronic commerce.  Since then the market has stabilized and Google is the established leader in electronic advertising, with the traditional channels still maintaining print, outdoor, television and other media channels.  If it can be reasonably assumed that the largest growth in electronic commerce is behind us and that the current landscape will be increasingly more mobile where Google has lower market share, Google has limited potential for continued growth in advertising.

Google’s revenue is almost entirely in advertising, and they don’t appear to be branching out any time soon.

For all its searching (and finding) adjacent markets, it appears they only make halfhearted attempts at monetizing these markets.  Take for example the ability to perform mathematics and graphing functions through their search engine.  Before Google entered, WolframAlpha provided this capability through free trials followed by premium memberships which have additional flexibility and capabilities.  However, Google appears to have entered only for the purpose of  limiting the revenue potential of a minor competitor, if WolframAlpha can even be called this.

Meanwhile, Apple and Amazon have established themselves with business models that, while very different from Google, flank and de-position the Google business model.  Apple has built a successful model of obtaining revenue from software, hardware, services, as well as content which Google has not been able to replicate quickly enough.  Not only this, but Apple has clearly been moving away from Google in all elements of their operations, recently even taking Google Maps from their mobile devices – clearly in an effort to eliminate the potential for advertising revenue through popular Apple devices.  Likewise, Amazon has built a successful model entirely based on selling products and online content; if Amazon is the premier internet source for products and content, they also control the advertising of the content and Google is again left out of the picture.

Google needs a 2.0 strategy in order to continue their growth.  This strategy must appreciate, but not limit itself to their advertising market strengths.  This strategy must not simply copy the strategy of Apple, but must provide differentiated value in order to become a significant source of revenue.