Sq1 Agency Top Ad Agency Blog of the Year

January 31, 2011

 

Congratulations to the Square One agency. Their blog, ‘Sq 1′, was selected as Fuel Line’s Blog of the Year for 2010, by 46% of the 3,222 votes cast. Square One is a 15-year-old Dallas Marketing and Advertising agency.

Second in the voting was the agency blog,‘We Make It All Better’, Copeland Communications, Victoria, BC with 1,147 votes and ‘Jane Nation’,  St. John & Partners, Jacksonville, FL, came in third with 497 votes. A special thanks to all of Fuel Lines’s Blog of the Month winners for their participation.

“We are so excited to be Fuel Line’s Blog of the Year. We appreciate all of our support from our fans and followers. You guys rock! Thanks for voting.” – Judge Graham, Sq1 Partner

“Being selected as Blog of the Year means so much to our agency. We are so thankful to everyone who voted. We’re excited to see where our War Room blog can go in 2011.” – Ernie Capobianco, Sq1 Partner

Recent Sq1 blog posts:

“Social Media is the most fluid and influential form of media in the history of journalism. It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users – Facebook did it in less than 6 months. Constantly evolving, the social media community has grown exponentially faster than newspaper, radio and television.”

Sq 1 is very involved in social media.  Follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.

Fuel Line’s Blog of the Year not only provides examples of agency blogs but it was an opportunity for agencies to showcase their participation in social media, generating interest and traffic to their site.

How is your agency using a blog for your new business? Submit it for January’s blog of the month. Send me an email and include:

  • In your email’s subject line – Blog of the Month
  • Blog title:
  • URL:
  • Agency Name:
  • City/State:

1 Comment | Agency Blogs | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Survey: Economy Improving, New Business is Up for Small to Midsize Ad Agencies

January 27, 2011

Having endured one of the harshest economic periods since the great depression, agencies are reporting that 2011 is off to a better start.

A total of 430 advertising agency executives participated in the 2010 Advertising Agency New Business Survey.

The survey was sent by e-mail to a database of over 10,093 U.S. full service advertising agencies ranging in staff size from 5 to 350 full-time employees. The survey closed end of day, December 31, 2010.  The survey was developed and results analyzed by Michael Gass Consulting, Special thanks to THE LIST for providing the data sampling.

The results are not a scientific study, it does however, provide an indication of their beliefs, feelings and perceptions regarding agency new business trends in the last quarter of  2010.

Here is a summary of the survey results:

  • How has the economy impacted your business? Business is up or up significantly for 47% of the 430 advertising agencies that responded. 34.3% reporting that business was down or down significantly. These percentages are reverse from a similar study conducted in 2008. It looks like the end of The Great Recession for the advertising industry and business is starting to improve.
  • Would you say that obtaining new business is easier or harder than it was in 2009. New business is slightly better. In a 2008 survey, 56% of the agencies indicated new business was hard/harder than the previous year. That number drops to 47% for this 2010 survey, indicating a slight improvement. For 34% of the agencies surveyed new business was the same. 18.5% said it was easier or a lot easier in 2010.
  • What is the number one reason why it is harder to obtain business versus last year? Lack of opportunities (48.6%) was the number 1 reason new business was harder, followed by more competition (23.8%).
  • What are the 3 top sources for new business? 50% of ad agencies generate new business through referrals (25.9%) and personal networks (24.5%), the third primary source of new business is the agency’s website (9.1%).
  • Does your agency have a full-time new business director? If yes, how long have they been employed? More than half of the agencies (57.3%) have a new business director and most of them (38.5%) have been in their position 5 or more years.
  • Does your agency have a blog? 35.8%, of the agencies surveyed still do not have an agency blog.
  • Does your agency have a written new business plan? Just over half of the agencies that responded (53.7%), have a written new business plan.
  • Does your agency have a unique point of differentiation from competitors? An impressive 76.8% of agencies surveyed said yes, they indeed have a unique point of differentiation from their competitors.
  • When asked to briefly describe how their agency was different from the rest, you can decide if they are really that much different from their competition. Here’s a link to over the 243 of the agency’s that chose to respond: http://bit.ly/i3oe8J

Click on the following link to download a copy of the 2010 Advertising Agency New Business Survey

6 Comments | New Business Survey, New Business Trends, Recession | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Study: 50% of Ad Agencies Generate New Business Through Networks and Referrals

January 25, 2011

Most ad agencies are still generating new business the old-fashioned way, networks and referrals, but there’s a way to boost those personal networks nationally.

A soon to be released survey of advertising agencies conducted by Fuel Lines, reveals that 50% of the 430 responding agencies generated new business from two primary sources last year: referrals and networking.

Agencies have long understood the importance of social networks and individual connections to generate new business. It has always been the lifeblood of small to midsize agencies.  Lots of activities went into building these personal networks to generate business within an agency’s market.

Thankfully, albeit slowly, agencies are starting to understand the potential of social media to enhance networks and referral opportunities. What will make the social media pill easier for them to swallow is to understand the multiplicity of benefits it provides:

  • You can realistically build awareness among your best target audience well beyond your geographical location. Small to midsize ad agencies can affordably build a national awareness.
  • Everyone has a desire to work with someone they know, trust and like. Social media greatly accelerates and expands networking opportunities.
  • Creating and managing social networks is more efficient online than generating networks offline.
  • It’s hard for people to socialize with an entity such as an ad agency. Social media is about people. It puts a face to the agency.
  • Even though social media is very time intensive in the beginning, as you get up to speed, it becomes an extremely efficient use of your time. You are not constantly having to chase new business.
  • Social media isn’t that complex. It’s not hard to get your head around it once you are a participant. Just remember to use your offline personal networking skills online.
  • Social media allows agencies to differentiate themselves, to be more narrowly focused and niched than they would have been comfortable with otherwise.
  • Through social media prospects have an opportunity to check under the agency’s hood, kick the tires, examine the upholstery within their own timeframe.

“You need to look at social media as a savior not a nemesis, an asset rather than a liability and time saver rather than time killer for ad agency new business.” – Yours Truly

Click on the following link to download a copy of the 2010 Advertising Agency New Business Survey

3 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The History and Evolution of Social Media for Ad Agency New Business

January 22, 2011

A look back at the history of social media can help us better move forward as it continues to rapidly evolve.

There are social media solutions for almost every need. These are exciting times for the advertising industry.  I enjoy every day of exploring the potential of social media to advance ad agency new business and share what I’m learning with you.

Social media, in an incredibly short period of time, has become mainstream. Millions of people connect through social media channels daily.  To better understand where it is going, it is important to review its brief past.

Webdesigner Depot, has created an excellent summary of the  history of social media. Changes occur almost on a daily basis but this look back can help you put rising popularity of social media into context.  The following are the major topics covered in this resourceful article, that highlight’s social media’s history along with summaries of the various platforms that continue to evolve:

  • Precursors to Social Media: Usernets, BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems), IRC, ICQ, and Instant Messaging
  • Early Social Networks: Dating Sites, Forums, Six Degrees (the first modern social network) and Live Journal
  • Major Advances in Social Networking: Friendster, Hi5, LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook
  • Other Major Social Networks: Multiply (family friendly social network), Orkut (Google’s social network), Kontain (allowing users to follow each other through photos, videos, and music, rather than just simple status updates)
  • Niche Social Networks: Ning, Media Sharing, Photobucket. Flickr, YouTube, Revver
  • Social News and Bookmarking: Delicious, Digg, Reddit
  • Real Time Updates: Twitter, Posterous, Tumblr,
  • Lifestreaming and Lifecasting: Ustream.tv, Justin.tv, FriendFeed, WP Lifestream

Click the following link to read the article, pass it along to your clients: The History and Evolution of Social Media

Some additional resources:

5 Comments | Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Something for the 34% of Ad Agencies That Have No Blog

January 21, 2011

 

As important as it was for your ad agency to have a website, it is now equally important that your agency have a blog. A blog is becoming the gateway for agency new business.

Ad agencies need to rethink their approach to new business and intensify their focus for creating magnetic content that will attract prospective clients, rather than relying primarily on the interruption model of cold calls an unsolicited direct mail, which consumers are responding to less and less.

In a recent Ad Agency New Business Survey that I recently conducted, 64% of the 430 responding ad agencies said they have a blog. For the remaining 36% of the agencies that don’t but should, I’ve compiled the following check-list to help get your agency’s blog quickly up and running for new business:

  • RSS Subscription button so your readers can opt to read content through a tool such as  Google Reader. Readers may also choose to get these feeds for new content from your blog through their in-box. You can easily set this up through Feedburner.
  • Email Subscription: provide a linked-button for readers to opt-in to receive your email newsletter.
  • Also provided linked-buttons in your blog’s sidebar for people to be able to connect with you through your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
  • Use a Facebook app to post new content directly to your Facebook account. There’s also a similar app for LinkedIn. Anytime you posts, those posts will automatically be published to your social media accounts.
  • Provide readers a way to ‘Like’ and ‘Tweet’ your posts. Also provide the button-links for your readers to easily share content through sites like Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit or that would allow them to share it through an email or print out a copy.
  • Host your blog on your own domain. You never know when you might want to change from a WordPress or Typepad blog to something else.
  • SEO Measure: the number of your inbound links and the power of those links.  You can use Page Rank Checker, a free tool, to check the current page rank of your blog. Rankings will range between 1 and 10 (with 10 being the highest)
  • Unique post titles, less than 75 characters. I recommend consistently including key words to dominate in Google (i.e. for me it’s  ”ad agency new business”, which I include in almost every post title.
  • Post 2 to 5 times per week, 1 ‘original’ post for every 4 to 5 ‘resource’ posts.
  • Average post length should be 350 to 450 words. Less than that your post probably doesn’t have enough valued content to make it worths someones effort to click-through. If it’s more than 450 words, the amount of content is daunting and they often wont even begin to read your content.
  • People generally don’t read word-for-word online, they tend to scan. Make your posts scannable. Use bold, italics, indention, quotation marks, bullet-pointed and numbered lists.
  • Add links to your posts when appropriate. Be sure to provide attribution for resources used in your post and links to your primary resources.
  • Add 1 image per post, it will make your copy visually more interesting and emphasize your primary point.
  • Check your blog’s analytics frequently (once or twice a day) to see top posts, number of page views,  referring sites, search engine terms, clicks, incoming links, etc. Keep your blog traffic trending upwards from month-to-month.
  • Your blog should be easy to navigate by your readers. Provide at least 10 to 12 blog post categories and search feature for your blogs content. Highlight your top posts in a sidebar widget.
  • Make it personal. Include your photo in the blog’s sidebar and a welcome which states the purpose of the blog and ways for your audience to connect. Keep in mind that people want to work with other people that they know, trust and like. Your blog provides them that opportunity.
  • I would recommend that you add and About page, Contact page and Services page for when a reader wants to check you out further, in their on time. Provide specific information about your first-steps with a new client so that they know exactly how to engage you. For example, my first-point of engagement with a client is a social media | new business workshop.
  • Be sure that you have a nice a clean blog template that allows for easy navigation and also highlights your content. Content is more important than design and is key to your blog’s traffic.

Here are some additional agency blogging resources that may be a help to get you started:

2 Comments | Agency Blogs, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Vote for Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Year

January 19, 2011

The following 12 ad agency blogs are all Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blogs of the Month for 2010. Please review and vote for your favorite as the Ad Agency Blog of the year.

Click Here to vote for your selection. The winner will be announced in 1 week.

8 Comments | Agency Blogs | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Find Prospects Using TweetAdder for Ad Agency New Business

January 19, 2011

A tool that will allow you to find and build Twitter followers that are new business prospects for your agency is TweetAdder.

TwitterAdder is a simple to use software program. This tool does a great job in allowing you to build a data base of highly targeted prospects for you to follow on Twitter.

Execute searches for people/companies to follow on Twitter:

  • By geographic location. Target companies, key executives within your particular market.
  • By profile data (i.e. CEO, CMO, “marketing director”, etc.). Basically any data that is a users profile that would identify them as a prospect.
  • Followers of a user. For example, if your clients were B to B companies, you could follow all 7,831 followers of B to B Magazine’s Twitter account, @btobmagazine.
  • Followed by a user. Using the same example of B to B Magazine, you could also follow everyone that @btobmagazine follows.
  • Twitter List Search imports another users twitter list. Mashable has a helpful Twitter List Directory. Search this directory for your listings of your primary prospects and easily load them into TweetAdder. You can also uploads lists from other Twitter accounts, like @michaelgass and my list ad-agencies.

TweetAdder compiles a data base from your saved searches. In less than an hour you could identify and build a sizeable data base of prospects.

Here are some additional helpful features of TweetAdder:

  • You can manage more than one twitter profile. Set up accounts for key executives in the agency and also use this tool for your clients. So little time is required TweetAdder could be assigned as a tasks for your agency’s receptionist or make it a responsibility of one of your agency’s interns.
  • Auto follow Twitter users who follow your Twitter account.
  • Automate your account to unfollow those that do not follow you back or have unfollowed you to keep your follow/unfollow ratio close.
  • You can set each Twitter account to follow-up to 200 people per day from the data base that you have compiled. 20% to 30% of those you follow will follow you back, increasing your prospective client pool.

The cost is minimal, especial if also used for client accounts. To use TweetAdder with 1 Twitter account, the one-time cost for the software is $55. You can upgrade to use with 5 or 10 Twitter accounts at any time. Pay $188 and use TweetAdder with an unlimited number of Twitter accounts.

What I personally like best about TweetAdder:

  • Find prospects quickly
  • Automate the process of building your Twitter following
  • Small one-time costs for the software that can be used for your agency’s client accounts
  • You can assign the use of this tool to junior level staff members
  • Build up a sizeable targeted Twitter following, 600 to 1000 followers per month

Click here for further info or to try out the trial version.

5 Comments | Twitter | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

2011 Trends: Content Marketing Is Critical to Ad Agency New Business

January 14, 2011

Content is the most important asset in using social media for ad agency new business.

In the 2011 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report, 77% of Agency Principals indicate that they plan on getting more aggressive on the agency new business front in 2011. ”Networking” and “Social Media” are the top two ways agency principals state they’re going to “get aggressive.”

It’s great to know that agencies are planning to be more aggressive with their social media efforts. But please note that even more than technology, original content is the key to success.

According to a social media study by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42, original content, both branded and expert, is by far the most employed tactic for social media.

“Next year [2011], marketers will need to rethink their approach to advertising and marketing and intensify their focus on creating magnetic content that will naturally attract consumers, rather than relying solely on the interruption model of advertising, which consumers are responding to less and less. Think pull vs. push.”  Geoff Ramsey, CEO, Co-Founder of eMarketer

Here are 10 Content Marketing resources that will provide you with some best content creation practices along with unique insights, practical advice and tips:

  1. Copyblogger: Content Marketing for Ad Agency New Business
  2. 10 Ways to Create An Ad Agency Blog That is Reader-Centric
  3. Using the Inverted Pyramid Style of Writing for Ad Agency New Business
  4. Use Brevity for Ad Agency New Business
  5. 6 Writing Tips to Make Your Ad Agency’s Blog Effective for New Business
  6. How to Write Your Ad Agency’s Blog
  7. 21 Blog Post Writing Tips for Ad Agency New Business
  8. 6 Simple Steps for Using Content Marketing to Attract Ad Agency New Business
  9. Let Hemingway improve your writing for ad agency new business
  10. The Four Great Laws of Copywriting for Ad Agency New Business

Some additional content resources that you might find helpful: Ad Agencies: 97 Articles on How To Write Effectively for the Social Web

Click on the following link for a downloadable copy of  the 2011 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report! or the study by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42, 2010 Social Media Usage, Attitudes and Measurability: What Do Marketers Think?

9 Comments | Best Practices, Content Marketing, Fuel for Thought, New Business Trends | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Talk Is Cheap: Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Month for December

January 12, 2011

26 agency blogs were submitted for Fuel Line’s Ad Agency Blog of the Mont for December. The blog, Talk is Cheap, Strategis, Stoughton, MA was selected by 66% of the votes. Second in the voting was L&S Unscripted, Lawrence & Schiller, Sioux Falls, SD.

strategis, as our name implies, is a strategically based marketing communications company, one prepared to creatively tackle any challenge a client puts forth. if your company, organization or brand is in need of smart, results-driven, media neutral, inventive, smart (did we say that already) ideas – you should probably contact us.

our agency has been at the forefront of the social media revolution. we assist our clients by starting one-on-one dialogs with their consumers, their customers via online tools such as social networking, search optimization, consumer generated content and online public relations. it’s smart to work with strategis – and our smarts make you look smart.

fyi: strategis also provides awesome strategic counsel • brand management •  market research •  account planning •  public relations •  event marketing •  advertising •  web development •  direct marketing •  media planning / buying •  creative development • results tracking /reporting• hr recruiting solutions and branding • diversity marketing

You can also follow Strategis on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

Strategis’s blog will automatically be included in Fuel Line’s Ad Agency Blog of the Year.

Fuel Line’s Blog of the Month not only provides examples of agency blogs but it is an opportunity for agencies to showcase their blog and participation in social media, generating traffic and interest in their site.

How is your agency using a blog for your new business? Submit it for December’s blog of the month.

Ad agencies all need an integrated social media strategy if they are ever going to see the payoff from their participation in social media. An agency blog should be the central component. The place you can drive targeted online traffic through SEO, Twitter, email newsletters, Facebook and LinkedIn.

A blog becomes the “gateway” to your agency and the“face” of your agency. As important as it was to have an agency website, it is now equally important to have an agency blog.

But … having a blog isn’t something you check off your list of social media “to do list.” Nor is it a place to lead with agency capabilities and credentials. It must be of benefit to your audience.

Here is a collection of agency blogging resources:

2 Comments | Agency Blogs | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Big Ad Agencies Now Requiring the Development of Digital Skills

January 10, 2011

Small to mid-size ad agency owners and executives need to be better equipped with digital technology. It will not only impact agency business but also new business development.

I having a discussion with the creative director of a small agency who is in his early 50′s. He was expressing his frustration with changing digital technology and its impact upon his agency and the advertising industry.

He said,  ”I have no problem creating a print ad but I don’t know where to even start to create an ad for something like the iPad.”

I asked him if he was ready to retire. His answer was no. Then, I raised the question, “what are you going to do to get up to speed?” He didn’t have an answer.

Big agencies know that digital training is now critical. Rising to meet the escalating demands for digital, most of them are now requiring that almost all of their employees develop digital skills. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article,  the bigger agencies are spending roughly $750,000 to $1.5 million on digital training programs this year.

“We can no longer just acquire [digital] firms; it’s just not good enough,” says Bob Jeffrey, JWT’s chief executive.

WPP’s Ogilvy & Mather has upped their digital training by 150% this year through the following programs to help to help workers acquire digital skills:

  • Hyper Island—A workshop for senior executives including client services, creative, planning and production on the implications of digital on the business.
  • Digital Acceleration—A content-driven training program that provides in-depth learning on key new digital trends/offerings such as Internet search, customer relationship management, mobile marketing, analytics, etc.
  • Digital Boot Camp—aka “Digital 101,” an agency-wide program offered monthly that covers the basics of digital channels including social media, digital production, etc.
  • Associates Program—A training program for entry-level employees that provides them with cross-training across agency disciplines with digital as a key component.
  • Ogilvy Digital Lab—Special events featuring emerging media and innovation. Includes bringing in industry experts in specific digital areas—such as, Mobile Social Day, Google Day, Out of Home Innovation, etc.

Read the full WSJ article, ‘Kids Lend a Digital Hand: Ad Agencies Seek Help From Students, Even Preteens, to Get Up to Internet Speed’

I love this quote by author Clay Shirky, particularly as I think about how the rapidly advancing digital technology is impacting our industry:

“It is the people who figure out how to work simply in the present, rather than the people who mastered the complexities of the past, who get to say what happens in the future.”

What are you doing to prepare your agency for this digital revolution?

Additional articles that may be of interest:

14 Comments | Agency Leadership, Digital | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Month for December 2010

January 4, 2011

The following 26 agency blogs have been submitted for Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Month for December. Review and vote for the agency blog that best understands social media.

Cast your VOTE by CLICKING HERE

These are the ad agency blogs submitted for the month of December. The winner will be included in the voting for Fuel Lines’ Ad Agency Blog of the Year:

  1. Daily Axioms, Axiom Marketing, Bloomington, MN
  2. Digitally Approved, Fanscape Inc., Los Angeles, CA
  3. Emotivator, Emotive Brand, San Francisco, CA
  4. Engauge Blog, Atlanta, GA
  5. Fluid’s Big Idea Blog, Fluid Studio, Salt Lake City, UT
  6. i love e-mail, i love e-mail agency,  Malmo, Sweden
  7. Kelsey Pulse, Kelsey Advertising & Design, LaGrange, GA
  8. L&S Unscripted, Lawrence & Schiller, Sioux Falls, SD
  9. Marketing OC Blog, MarketingOC, Orange, CA
  10. MediaCom Beyond Advertising, MediaCom, London, UK
  11. Nology, Nology Media, Seattle, WA
  12. Oh no, not another agency blog, Brokaw Inc., Cleveland, OH
  13. Outside Voice, Origin Design + Communications, Whistler, B.C., Canada
  14. Overdrive eMarketing Blog, Overdrive Interactive, Boston, MA
  15. Priority Integrated Marketing Blog, Priority Integrated Marketing, Minneapolis, MN
  16. PubliGestion’s Bloggers’ Block, PubliGestion, Petion-Ville, Haiti
  17. Sharp Ideas, Cactus, Denver, CO
  18. Smart Marketing with Larry Weintraub, Fanscape, Inc., Los Angeles, CA
  19. Sparksheet, Spafax, Toronto, ON, Canada
  20. Spring Blog, Spring Advertising, Vancouver, BC, Canada
  21. Talk is Cheap, Strategis, Stoughton, MA
  22. The Green Detectives, Enviromedia, Austin, TX
  23. The Net Impact Blog, The Net Impact, St. Louis, MO
  24. The Lead, Padilla Speer Beardsley, Minneapolis | New York
  25. The Reach Blog, Reach Marketing, Irving, TX
  26. Third Degree Creative, Third Degree Advertising & Communications, Oklahoma City, OK

Fuel Lines Agency Blog of the Month for November: Welt’s Weekly Smack Down!,Welt Branding, Cincinnati, OH

If you would like to submitted your agency’s blog for next month’s vote, send me an email and include:

  • In your email’s subject line – Blog of the Month
  • Blog title:
  • URL:
  • Agency Name:
  • City/State:

Some additional agency blogging resources:

1 Comment | Agency Blogs | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Study: The State of Social Media for Business and Ad Agency New Business

January 4, 2011

The State of Social Media for Business 2010, a survey report that provides your agency with helpful information for using social media to generate new business.

To effectively use social media for business development,  it is important to know who is using social media, how they are using it, what social media channels are being used, what goals are being pursued and tactics deployed that are providing measurable results.

More than 6,000 SmartBrief readers participated in a benchmarking study of social-media usage by business. The results provide insights of how social media is changing the way we do business and just how companies are using social media for business. The State of Social Media for Business 2010 report, released at the beginning of 2011, provides information on the biggest trends and challenges.

Here are eight select themes and data points from the survey (purchase the full brief for more in-depth details):

  1. Most companies surveyed have adopted social media in the past 18 months.About half of the companies in the sample have been using social media for only the past year, with nearly 20% starting in the past 13 to 18 months.
  2. Companies are focusing their energies on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and blogs.The concentration on “the big 5” hints at companies being able to find their customers on these sites. With lower awareness and/or usage of other sites, including platforms such as Flickr with large numbers of users, companies might be missing out on more niche groups.
  3. It takes time for companies to incorporate social media effectively. More than 25% of companies with two-plus years of social media activity state that those tools and platforms have been fully integrated into their companies’ business models. In addition, more than 50% have a well-developed or fully developed social- media strategy, which is further evidenced by the use of multiple platforms.
  4. Brand building is currently the primary purpose for business social-media usage. Despite the primary goals of increasing brand awareness and building communities for customers and fans, the majority of companies surveyed use social media to broadcast information instead of creating two-way conversations.
  5. Communications, advertising and marketing agencies are the leading adopters of social media.Communications and PR agencies recognized the potential behind social media earlier than most industries. Likewise, advertising and marketing firms have realized the potential of identifying and reaching target audiences relatively early as compared with other industries. Despite their early presence in social media, communications and PR firms are not the chosen source of advice or consultation on social media for companies.
  6. Lack of management support and confidentiality concerns are atop the list of obstacles to social-media adoption. One-third of the respondents note they are not decision makers. Combined with the 14.7% citing management resistance, this indicates an overall lack of management support. In addition, 33.1% cite confidentiality issues as a primary obstacle. Taken together with the prohibition of social-network use at work, the data show that many companies are concerned about how their staff would use these sites.
  7. Less than 15% of the businesses using social media are measuring return-on-investment. Connecting social media efforts to bottom-line results is a skill that escapes most businesses that are using social media. Over 33% of the businesses in the sample are not measuring return on investment at all. Among those innovators who are measuring social media, most focus on usage and incoming traffic but not traditional business metrics.
  8. While 60% of respondents say their companies are using social media, there is low confidence in their social-media strategies. Companies are critical of their social-media strategies, with only 14.2% describing their strategies as “very effective” and only 7.3% describing them as “very revenue generating” on average.

These are a few of the report highlights of where businesses are in their social-media usage, confidence and measurement. The full State of Social Media for Business 2010 is available for sale from SmartBrief: http://www.smartbrief.com/research/ and  includes:

  • 145 pages
  • 213 charts and graphs
  • 6 data cuts
  • Key indicators of social-media integration
  • Comparative data based on company size and industry focus
  • Benchmarks to assess where your company is on the social-media adoption curve
  • An introduction by social-media expert and SmartBrief on Social Media Advisory Board member, Olivier Blanchard

Leave a Comment » | New Business Trends | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

An Ad Agency’s ‘Buy Local Campaign’ Generates New Business

January 3, 2011

Park Howell, president of Park&Co, a full service agency that specializes in environmental marketing, provides a successful promotional campaign example for how he built awareness for his agency … by promoting its competition.

Arizona is trying to heal the P.R. black eye and business boycott created by its strict illegal immigration bill SB1070. Among other issues, the state is also battling a historic state deficit, lack of investment in education and nearly 10 percent unemployment. As one solution, Park and his agency launched a ‘Buy Local Advertising Campaign.’

“I was honored earlier this year by being named Ad Person of the Year, by the American Advertising Federation of Metro Phoenix. I thought with the recognition came some modicum of accountability for our industry.

So as we close 2010, our agency wanted to take one last stand for the local advertising industry and encourage all of you Arizona companies that are spending your dollars in other markets with other agencies and production companies, to at least consider including local creative companies on your bid list for 2011. And seriously consider the impact your spending can have on your neighbors right here at home, versus spreading your important dollars abroad.” Park Howell

With the philosophy that “a rising tide lifts all boats”, Park&Co is encouraging AZ companies in need of an advertising agency, to give a first look to Arizona ad agencies and also reminding them that for every $100 spend for goods and services at a locally owned business, $73 remained in the AZ economy.

From Park & Co’s Extra Cut Blog:

You buy your lettuce locally. Why not your marketing?

“You buy local produce, seek out locally owned stores, and drink local wines. So why go to other markets like L.A. for your advertising? Phoenix agencies offer a wealth of talent, from brand strategy and development to internationally award-winning creative, as well as innovative interactive campaigns and Hollywood-caliber film and video production. And you don’t have to look far …

… So, if you want to buy your maple syrup out of state, that’s fine by us. But if its business-building brand strategy and creative you’re looking for, we encourage you to shop locally by visiting parkandco.com/azagencies. And no worries if you pick another local firm over us. Just tell them Park&Co sent you.”

Park&Co have enlisted support and generated buzz for the campaign through its blog, social media network, email and with print. Check out their campaign through the following links:

Results thus far: Park shared with me that the response to their campaign was 95% positive and within the first couple of weeks of the campaign’s launch his agency had received an opportunity to pitch for new business, a direct result of the Buy Local campaign. By the 4th week of the campaign they had secured 5 new business calls, 3 of them in one day.

3 Comments | Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tactics, New Business Tips, Promotion | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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