Posts tagged: marketing

Dell Decides One Ad Agency Better Than… 800??

May 21, 2008, by 9 comments

You read the headline correctly; at one point in the recent past, Dell Computers employed as many as 800 separate marketing agencies.

And here I wondered why their marketing had gone so bland.

Imagine the turf battles. Imagine the complexity. Imagine the egos.

Now imagine the difficulty you’d have pushing even a brilliant idea through that mess.

the800

Valleywag offers a typically snarky look at the situation — where Dell cast off its multitudes, signed a $4.5 billion contract with ad giant WPP, and asked them to essentially create a single-client ad agency:

Why is Dell taking a beating from HP? One reason may be that it didn’t apply its vaunted supply-chain techniques to its marketing. Before asking WPP to create a single-client ad agency just for Dell, the PC maker worked with 800 advertising agencies around the world. [News.com]

Never underestimate the power of a small team of individuals working together. It’s typically how great work gets done.

And never, ever underestimate the power of a mob (or a series of self-interested mobs) to blunt even the best work, which is precisely what Dell was experiencing.

While Dell’s situation was largely its own making, their situation reflects the fragmentation of an industry where we used to deal with only a small handful of media channels (TV, radio, print).

Organizations now face the need for specialists in everything from SEO to viral to rich media to engagement to “traditional” copywriting.

In fact, Dell needs all that just to power their own Web site:

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Ad agencies are scrambling to integrate a lot of new technologies and disciplines, all while maintaining the aura of invincibility that agencies wear like armor. They’re taking a few lumps, and having worked at a few, would guess they’re in for a few more.

I’ve only been at this for two decades, but I can’t imagine a more interesting time to be in marketing.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

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Making the Case for Quality Content: P&G Micro-site is 4x More Effective Than Equal Priced TV Advertisement

April 25, 2008, by 6 comments

I’ve repeatedly highlighted the marketing benefits of quality content, and believe engagement marketing gigs (blogs, e-newsletters, etc) offer copywriters a shot at excellent long-term (and profitable) projects.

Next time you’re pitching a content project, don’t forget to roll out this excellent example from a Direct Magazine article by Joe Pulizzi:

Being Girl, sponsored by P&G brands Tampax and Always, is a microsite and social community dedicated to young women’s questions about PMS, dating, and other issues. Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff has reported that Being Girl is four times more effective than a similarly priced TV advertising program.

Phrases like "4 times more effective" make marketing directors sit up a little straighter — especially when you’re referring to a project run by a huge packaged goods company.

Need more ammunition?

Keynote tracked respondents’ behavior on three separate automotive microsites. Its research showed the more time visitors spent on a microsite the more likely they were to make a purchase. Even if the prospect initially was thought to be a poor candidate for buying anything, that probability soared after just a few minutes on the site.

There are a couple of important points to note here. First, relevant and valuable online information significantly affects a purchase. Second, a prospect who isn’t necessarily ready to buy can be positively influenced by Web content.

To many writers, "content marketing" means cheaply produced articles, written by the dozen, and yet it doesn’t have to be that way.

Proctor & Gamble — and many others (including niche companies like Pyramyd Air — have demonstrated the excellent returns delivered by high quality content.

Today's Exercise in Copy-Based Mind Control (or, A Dollar to the First Person Who Figures Out What This Means)

March 13, 2008, by 18 comments

There’s a lot of really, really bad copy floating around out there. More than ever before. And yet — every once in a while — you stumble across a piece that… well… transcends the genre.

It defies description. I found this on a company Web site — one with an impressive client list. It’s just that I can’t figure out what they do, or how they do it. It’s simultaneously hilarious and horrifying:

Dynamic, adaptive strategy that guides creative, thoughtful decision making in the changing world of the 21st Century is achievable. But it requires a new, non-traditional and creative planning process.

  • Providing creative experiences that bring in new insights, move strategic thinking into areas of Deep Innovation and shape industry/field-changing new models.
  • Utilizing “abductive”, design/envisioning approaches that evolve, enrich and transcend the inductive and deductive approaches to scenario development.
  • Strategically applying high-opportunity “Emergent” strategy development to accelerate and magnify the value of “Deliberate” long range strategic planning.
  • Applying the ***** proprietary Visual Strategic Thinking and Mapping System that enables planning teams to extend their repertoire of strategic thinking options, open up breakthrough ideas, and then channel their ideas into a coherent and effective communication of the strategic story.
  • Nurturing broad based support for the strategy through a co-creative process that gains understanding and commitment throughout the organization.

I’m dubbing it “stream of consciousness meets passive voice.” And yes, you (and your brand new headache) may now return to your everyday life.

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An Underground Review: Writing White Papers by Michael Stelzner

February 13, 2008, by 3 comments

imageThe bookshelves are littered with "How to make millions in your underwear" books aimed at new copywriters — most of them pretty light on original thought.

What’s missing are the books that actually tell you how to do things — books that offer you enough information that you can confidently take on a paying job and expect to deliver a professional product.

That’s why I read Michael Stelzner’s Writing White Papers with such interest.

No, I haven’t written white papers in a long time (my last similar project was an 80 page book on hard drive technology written better than 13 years ago), but I clearly remember the confusion when I was first asked to write one.

You Copied. Sometimes Poorly

The valley was one of the early "boom and bust" cycles that plagued the high tech industry, and for a copywriter whose clients were slashing ad budgets left and right — cutting the legs out from under the campaign work I’d being living on — "no" wasn’t in the vocabulary.

Without resources like Michael’s book to fall back on, I took the job, found a white paper that looked presentable, and copied it.

Of course, it was poorly conceived, badly organized and the victim of an ugly layout, and yes, I largely repeated those mistakes. And — unlike Writing White Papers — that sample white paper didn’t come with interview tips, research help, and outlining hints.

Marketing the White Paper

Michael’s book moves beyond creating the white paper into marketing it; a nice, value-added touch that could separate you from other copywriters.

For all the value it delivers, the book isn’t without its weaknesses. I would have liked more formatting examples, and the chapter on marketing could have included a few lead generation flow charts to help the novice writer explain the process to a client.

Still, those are nitpicks — especially when balanced against the "Quick Start" chapter (actually Appendix 1) and the "White Paper Resources" Appendix.

Stelzner, of course, writes a leading copywriting blog, and he’s always adding relevant white paper content to his blog — essentially building atop the foundation provided by his book.

Writing White Papers is the kind of book I wish existed when I needed it (Michael, you did me dirty by waiting too long).

Of course, it’s of little value if you’re planning to write Nike TV campaigns the rest of your life, but for anyone who wants to enter one of the strongest markets in the copywriting universe, then this book is probably a must.

(Full disclosure: I have no commercial interest whatsoever in this book.)