Take a look at this chart frome PEW’s “The Demographics of Social Media Users — 2012.” Easy to see huge growth potential for Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. And, potential for micro-blogs like Tumblr. And… new social media to come.
Marketing
The World’s Fastest Agency: Advertising Agency Of The Week
Either bull shit or brilliant. We’ll see. But, what it is… is…. f*cking smart. In our world of ad and digital agency sameness, same agency services, pitch, cute names, social media “expertise”, we now have the World’s Fastest Agency. An “idea” agency with a differentiated brand proposition — and edge. How refreshing.
The drill: Deliver services in our world of instant marketing by building a network of creatives that delivers rapid turnaround marketing. Rapid? You remember the Oreo Super Bowl real-time marketing event. Rapid as in virtually instant. Here is what the World’s Fastest Agency says about themselves in a press release:
World’s Fastest Agency is a new kind of marketing and communications agency.
From briefing to a creative solution within 24 hours, WFA helps time-pressured clients keep pace with the lightning fast 24/7 global media and social culture.
Clients can say goodbye to 100-page PowerPoint decks, meetings, weeks of fee negotiation, countless emails, more meetings, lunch, meetings, scope of work to-ing and fro-ing, meetings, more emails, Q&A sessions, tissue meetings, inaudible conference call, pitch, feedback, feedback on the feedback, re-briefing, re-pitching, another meeting, more feedback, focus groups, another meeting, more emails….
And on their website they offer this compelling promise:
WFA helps time-pressured clients keep pace with the lightening fast 24/7 global media and social culture.
Here is the process and, yes folks, pricing.
Note that they are inexpensive at $999 and fast. Two of those three things that clients want. The other? Great work. My bet is that guys are smart enough to be able to deliver all three. The Holy Grail!
See other Advertising Agency of the Week thoughts here.
Advertising Agency “Coming Soon” Website: Really?
Hey, what can I say? Like all advertising folks, and even regular types, I’d often wanted to make some immediate changes to my website (an especially grating proposition pre-CMS tools.) But… even with a new site in the works, I would never consider having a “Coming Soon” home page for an existing agency (or any company for that matter.)
We should all be able to live with what we have for awhile (patience) or, if you really think that your website is underperforming to the degree that it might be pushing new clients away (and some agency sites I’ve seen do this) be innovative and come up with a simple creative solution that still assists agency branding. But, please, don’t run “Be Back Soon” as your lead message. There are lots of other agencies down the street that look very open for business.
Advertising Agency New Business: Follow The Gartner Money
This is like beating a dead horse. The ad budget money is going digital.
Gartner’s Digital Marketing Spend Report reports that:
Finding No. 1: 10.4% of 2012 Revenue Was Spent on Marketing, and Budgets Will Increase 6% in 2013
Finding No. 2: Digital Marketing Spending Averages 2.5% of Company Revenue
Finding No. 3: Digital Advertising Accounts for 12.5% of Digital Marketing Budgets
Finding No. 4: 41% of Marketers Say That Savings From Digital Marketing Are Reinvested
-> Finding No. 5: Up to 50% of Digital Marketing Activities Are Outsourced
Finding No. 6: 70% of Companies Surveyed Have a Chief Marketing Technologist — 80% of Them Report to Marketing
Finding No. 7: The Top 3 Digital Marketing Activities Key to Marketing’s Success — Corporate Website, Social Marketing and Digital Advertising
My favorite chart and what should be the guide for agencies (really not a big surprise but nice to see confirmation):
Pinterest Growth & Men – A Missed Opportunity
Its nice to be special. Seems I am. I’m a member of the 5% of men that use Pinterest (see my Advertising Agency Directory.)
I’ve got to imagine that the number of men using Pinterest will increase due to Pinterest’s ease of use and visual backbone (I recently stumbled upon a London escort agency that uses Pinterest!) Beyond escorting, Pinterest is now a major source of referral traffic — beating out even Twitter. Here is a chart from eMarketer on Pinterest demographics and one from Shareaholic on Pinterest’s growth.
With the rush to social media, why aren’t more advertising guys using Pinterest…. or, just checking it out? I bet your client knows more about it than you do.