“It’s a known fact in advertising circles that only idiots click on ads — and yet advertisers still think that click-through rates mean something, and that a higher click-through rate means a better ad.”

- Wired’s Felix Salmon, “The Future of Online Advertising”

That picture above is how I’ve trained myself to see Google search results over the years, and I know I’m not alone. My selective visual filter carries over to most websites, too. The upper edges and right-side columns of content-heavy sites are almost always just piles of useless ads, moving or dancing or automatically playing audio meant to distract me from the real reason I’m on the site in the first place.

Classic paid online ads are at best unengaging and easily-ignored. They are at worst severely irritating and intrusive on my reading experience (you know those ones that start out normal sized then unexpectedly grow to engulf the entire page? Great strategy, guys). But as Felix Salmon’s excellent article above points out, they’re still the most-frequently used gadget in the online advertising toolbox. Why?

Okay, it’s true. They’re fast, easy, relatively cheap, and easily measured. Paid online ads are a great way for a brand to feel like its doing “something” online, without having to commit too much time or too many resources to the endeavor. But you reap what you sow. Like I mentioned before, consumers have trained their online eyes to ignore what they know to be of no use to them, and they’ve gotten really good at it. So what do brands do online now that paid ads are losing their luster? Simple.

Social media. Yes, the go-to. But there’s a reason for that. It’s not costly, it’s a direct pipeline to consumer feedback, and it’s still new enough that it can provide a real edge when done right. For more information on the uses of social media in marketing, see every blog online anywhere.

Third party content. In his article, Salmon mentions the ad he places for his site Counterparties. It’s not a moving picture, antiquated call to action, or dancing alien. It’s a simple widget that provides links to related content on other sites. He provides a useful service to the reader, manages to not annoy him or her, and still gets to make a good impression and track click-throughs for measurement. Example: You’re reading an article about some new feature in Photoshop. There’s a box with a Counterparties logo in the column, but it’s just displaying links to relevant creativity/software/photo-editing content elsewhere online.

Micropayments. Early in the internet’s existence, it was determined that most content would be free to access, but revenues would be derived from ads where possible. Hence the rise of the paid online ad. But we’ve since seen a different system of content support that could work: paying for good stuff in small, bite-size chunks. Look at the relatively new world off apps. It’s been proven that people are willing to pay a few dollars for something useful or fun, or download something for free and then pay to improve it (just ask Zynga). This method is beginning to leak onto the internet as a whole, with Hulu Plus and Netflix and periodical paywalls like that of the New York Times’. I think we’ll be seeing more of this in the future, as traditional online ads continue to lose effectiveness.

Online is still fairly new as an advertising medium, especially when compared to TV or print. But just as those channels have changed and evolved significantly over the years, the internet will evolve and grow and require new approaches. There’s no permanent, silver bullet, eternal solution to effective advertising. This is why branders and marketers need to constantly be driving, experimenting with, and exploring the latest innovations.

Wait, I remembered one silver bullet marketing solution: be damn good, all the time.

30-Day Challenge #17

The Creative Agency as a Supplier (and what it means for Supply Chain Management)

In many large firms, the supply chain management function spends an enormous amount of time managing suppliers. This includes things like negotiating contracts for raw materials, maintaining inventory and order timelines, and measuring efficiency and costs. Keeping such a close on the supply side of the business is proven to pay big dividends.

For companies with manufactured products, the cost savings created by an efficient supply chain can often contribute more to the health of bottom line than increases in revenue yielded by marketing efforts.

These meticulously-designed supplier management processes have proven to be incredibly valuable to the firms that implement them, increasing efficiency while lowering total costs in essential areas of the business. But which department is most often labeled “inefficient,” frequently has its effectiveness called into question, and is first on the chopping block when it comes to cutting costs? Marketing. Which is why we need to start treating marketing providers like suppliers.

Manufacturing-heavy companies should take the same supplier management concepts applied to the back end of their supply chains and apply them forward to creative suppliers like internal marketing departments, creative consultants, and advertising agencies. Here’s why:

Supply chain as a marketable advantage. The sourcing function within a given supply chain management team can work with creative suppliers to highlight back-end benefits and supply chain advantages that are unfamiliar to the marketing functions.

Advertising campaigns are often based on a unique component of the production process that separates the product from its competition. This difference is then highlighted as a benefit or a “reason to believe” in marketing communications. Budweiser’s beer is “beachwood aged,” and other beers aren’t. Who knows what it means, but it’s a unique aspect of Budweiser’s production. Wendy’s burgers use ”fresh, never frozen beef patties.” This tagline emphasizes a success of the restaurant’s supply chain, while also implying that other restaurants do freeze their meat. 

What gets measured, gets done. Supply chain management teams evaluate all suppliers using scorecards with standardized metrics for success, costs, efficiency, and more. Marketing suppliers can be evaluated on these same principles, which can help to alleviate the long-standing grievance that it’s almost impossible to ever tell if the marketing team is doing anything. The creative scorecard could include a number of relevant metrics:
 
•Number of staff members/hours/other resources devoted to account
 
•Awards won by agency / “creativity” metric
 
•Increases in revenue thanks to marketing efforts (difficult to measure, but becoming easier if promotions and sales are tracked online)
 
Applying supply chain management principles to creative suppliers can clearly help to better measure effectiveness and manage costs. There is one major problem, however: Marketing doesn’t like it. 
 
Members of the marketing team, advertising agencies, and other creative suppliers will almost always resist being treated like another node in the supply chain. “You can’t rush the creative process, it’s about the work, etc.” These are valid complaints, but they are only self-defeating in the end.
 
Creating a good ad campaign is really different than providing raw wheat gluten for processing. But if creative suppliers want to stand up for themselves, demonstrate their value, and stay off the table the next time budget cuts come around, they need to be willing to join the supply chain and prove their worth.
 
30-Day Challenge #15

You, your product, and your brand are not at the center of the solar system.

When working in marketing or advertising, the brand is all-consuming. You think about it constantly— how to improve it, how it compares to competition, how and why people do or don’t choose it. This quickly becomes an involuntary process, kind of like the Tetris effect. (Definition: “When people devote sufficient time and attention to an activity that it begins to overshadow their thoughts, mental images, and dreams.”)

This is great for you. You’re passionate, you’re deeply ingrained in the work, and you’re devoted to achieving results. The only problem is that no one but you is thinking about the brand this way.

The product is the center of your universe. But for your customers, it might be more like Europa, ice-laden second of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. As in, a very small celestial body in the grand solar system of their everyday lives. And that’s okay! People can’t live their lives in a constant state of admiration for their dish soap. But you need to know your brand’s place in the sky in order to effectively communicate with your target market.

Keep your brand in perspective. How is it used by consumers? Why do they like it? What are the everyday situations in which it is used? Figure out which corner of life your brand occupies and completely own that space. If your product is a simple solution to a common annoyance, accept it and own it with authority, evidence, and humor.

30-Day Challenge #14