Small Ad Agency Generates National Attention Through Social Media

I received a call today from a Fuel Lines reader who was excited to hear a Marketplace radio interview with ad agency president, Stephanie Holland, the program entitled, “No advertising love for single women”. The radio program Marketplace, is heard by an audience of more than 9.1 million unique listeners in the course of a week, on 486 public radio stations nationwide.

An increasing number of women are single — getting married later, not at all, or single later in life. So why aren’t more advertisements directed their way? Ashley Milne-Tyte reports

The interview further positions Stephanie as a “thought leader” for marketing to women. For the first time in their 25 year history,Holland + Holland has been invited to participate in two national pitches in 2009. Their president is now frequently called upon to speak across the country and author guest columns and posts. Her blog, She-conomy, has been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal and she was recently named to Forbes Thirty Women Entrepreneurs To Follow on Twitter.

This was your typical small, full service advertising agency that used the same agency speak to describe how they were unique …

Excellent creative that is strategically based with a staff that has great chemistry and is fun to work with.

Sound familiar? Then Stephanie and her agency created a more narrow and unique positioning created through as part of their social media strategy for new business. The results have been revolutionary.

Stephanie also serves the agency as creative director. Not knowing of any other creative directors in their market, she conducted some research and discovered that 97 percent of all creative directors in the country are male, only 3 percent are female.

The real jewel that was unearthed was to learn that 85 percent of all brand purchases are made by women. Women had bought more product from Home Depot and Lowes than did men, more consumer electronics, more NFL and NBA apparel than men, they even purchased more hamburgers than did men! Women have become the purchasing agent for the family.

Social media allows this agency to hang their hat on a unique and appealing position that has in turn created a national interest for this small ad agency.

Social media has also allowed Stephanie and her agency to compete in a much larger arena without geographical limitations. Their agency’s positioning gives companies a reason to seek them out.

Check out Stephanie’s blog: She-conomy: A Guy’s Guide to Marketing to Women

Additional articles that may be of interests:

This entry was posted on Monday, March 29th, 2010 at 7:29 pm and is filed under Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Promotion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.