“The facts speak for themselves,”
agreed Phil Bressler in regard to the
web’s ability to measure. “Hopefully,
this leads to more strategic thinking.”
Self-Promotion
As the old French proverb goes, “Les cordonniers sont les plus mal chaussés.” Or, as we might say, the cobbler’s children wear no shoes.
Several of participants made passing reference to the “cobbler’s son” in discussing the historic problems ad agencies have had in advertising themselves. “We’re our worst client,” confirmed Charlie Tetrick.
“We all suffer from a little bit of
cobbler shoes syndrome,” added John
January. “I know that we do."
The cobbler’s kids assembled, however, seem to be improving their footwear. Phil Bressler traces the change in attitude to the emergence of the Internet.
According to Julie Robinson, consultants now work with agencies on how to position themselves. “They will tell you that 100 percent of your prospects look at your website. It’s an ongoing issue.”
January spoke specifically of the need to “give Google the food that it needs to make sure that you’re up there.” He stressed the need to do some Google ads, particularly in the specialties with which you want to be identified and found.
Although not discounting the value of Google and the Internet, Tom Tholen insisted that word of mouth is still essential. “The reward of good work,” he quoted himself as saying, “is more work.”
Traditional media still have their
place, but here too there can be some
innovative twists. “Being our own worst
client,” said Ethan Whitehill wryly, “we
decided to trap ourselves into doing
marketing.”
That trap involved doing an hourlong radio show each Wednesday. This compelled his agency to create regular, solid content on marketing trends that it could then turn into a podcast, thus “using traditional media to actually produce that new media.”
“I learn more getting ready for that show than pretty much anything else I do,” added Two West’s creative director, John Harrington. He described the whole process as “an accidental benefit.”
Sullivan, Higdon & Sink is exploring with a few of its clients ways of reaching the same business-to-business customers its clients are trying to reach. “We are actually looking at co-marketing,” said John January, “doing some co-events with some of our own clients just to see if there is some mutual benefit that we can bring to each other.”
For Bernstein-Rein, as Arlo Oviatt explained, “There is a PR angle to the pro bono work we do.” On an annual basis, Bernstein-Rein channels its employees’ instinct to do good by actually predetermining a certain percentage of everyone’s time to be spent on pro-bono work.
Trozzolo Communications Group is among those that have formalized its self-promotion strategy. “We treat ourselves as a client,” remarked agency president Angelo Trozzolo. “At the end of the month the agency sends itself a service report and a bill. “We don’t actually have to pay it.” Trozzolo joked, “but it’s a good exercise that makes us think.”