Altyrian View

Although this post might seem to be self-serving, many people that I run into when meeting new people are not experienced at buying media. Yet, more often than not, they set up their own ad buys and handle the media buying themselves. While this might be a wonderful educational experience, this, most often is a mistake in many ways. Often you end up wasting time and money.

I’ve come up with 9 reasons that you might want to use a media buying services company instead of forging ahead on your own. Look for parts 2 and 3 on Wednesday and Friday, respectively.

It Doesn’t Cost Anything – When you use a media buying services agency to buy radio and television, they are paid through an agency discount offered by the station. For example, let’s pretend that you want to buy an ad spot that costs $100. If you work directly with the station sales rep, that spot costs $100. If you were to call a media buyer, that ad would still cost you $100, but you wouldn’t have any of the headaches. The station gives the media buyer a price discount (typically 15%) that is only available to media buying agencies. So, although you pay the media services agency $100 on your ad, the buyer only pays the station $85. In our example, it might seem like overkill to introduce a buyer into the mix. If you were buying just one ad, you could probably do it yourself. On the other had, real buys often are complex with multiple stations.

Economies of Scale – Media buying services agencies often have quite a bit of influence – especially in local markets. Because media buyers typically have a few clients for which they are placing advertising, they can easily be one of the largest clients of the station. As you might guess, this has some real advantages when negotiating contracts.

More Experience – Most buyers will tell you that negotiating media buys is more art than science. A really good buyer understands the stations that she is buying. She knows how to create a compromise that helps both her client and the station. She also knows all of the tricks and traps that could cause problems with a buy. For example, did you know that if you negotiate a price that is too low that your spot will probably get bumped in favor of an advertiser that’s willing to pay more? Unfortunately, television stations have to bump spots all the time. Of course, there are ways to avoid this problem, but it takes some experience.

On Wednesday, look for the next 3 reasons to use a media buying service!

Ever want to know the secrets of media buying services? John has a sit-down with a former media sales rep. VIDEO VERSION

Watch part one here, and then visit YouTube for part 2.

Seth Stevenson at Slate gives us the 12 television advertising types as created by Donald Gunn in 1978 for Leo Burnett. It’s a very interesting list.

1. The demo
2. The problem
3. Symbolize the problem
4. Symbolize the benefit
5. Comparison
6. Exemplary story
7. Benefit causes story
8. Testimonial
9. Ongoing character or celebrity
10. Associated user imagery
11. Unique personality property
12. Parody or borrowed format

What’s cool about the list is that not only was it created nearly 30 years ago, but it also still holds true today. The slideshow also has examples of each kind of ad.

Recently, a client said something that I just haven’t been able to get out of my head. We were in the middle of a budget discussion (lots of those going on these days) when she said “You know, we can’t outspend the competition, so we just have to outsmart them.” Our conversation went back to the budget and that was that.

Well, no, I guess that wasn’t entirely that, because the more I think about what she said, the more fundamental truth I see in it. Especially for us marketing strategists who understand that the number of dollars we spend on marketing and advertising isn’t nearly as important as how we actually spend those dollars.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that a company should spend nothing on marketing – that would be stupid as well as ineffective. Instead, it means that it’s better to spend smarter, to get more for every dollar of the marketing budget and to do those things that will generate the highest results. It means to focus our targeting, to sharpen our message, to explore and utilize new approaches for delivering our message. At times, it might also mean rethinking and changing our brand image to bring it more in line with our market. And it certainly always means to keep our focus on constantly improving the customer’s experience with the company and the product.

It also points to a big reason for strategy in the first place - the competition. They’re out there spending money to take away your customers and sometimes they have more money to spend. Regardless of budget constraints, you can – and you should – do whatever it takes to outsmart them at every turn.

I’m not prone to generalizing, but this one is a lock: the company with the best strategy always wins. Forget luck and everything else, the better strategy gives a company what it needs to crush its competition. Every time.

Try to name one company that beat its competition without having the better strategy. Can’t do it, eh? Think you have one where luck made it happen? What about spending – maybe you found one where the strategy was weak but the company succeeded because their spending was strong? Not a chance. Dig deeper into the reason any company beats its competition and you’ll find a superior strategy working for them.

One of my favorite examples is the video format war between Sony and JVC (The Observer Online has a good article on this). Sony’s Betamax had better quality, was first out and virtually owned the home video market. JVC, however, had a clearly superior marketing strategy – whereas Beta tapes were just one hour, JVC’s VHS tapes were two full hours (feature-length film anyone?). Beyond that, VHS tapes and equipment were less expensive and JVC happily licensed VHS to movie studios (not so for Beta). Result? VHS crushed Betamax in the marketplace.

Okay, this is just one example, but it represents the universal truth. If you think you have a case where superior strategy lost to something else, I’d love to hear it. I’m betting one doesn’t exist.

Every morning on my way to the agency I drive by a storage business – you know, one of those painted cement block places with a long line of metal garage doors down both sides of each building. I never paid much attention to the place until they posted a simply brilliant – and brilliantly simple – message on their sign:

“Boxes! Tape! Truck!”

It doesn’t get more simple and clear than those three words. The owner of that place has obviously figured out that the storage business isn’t so much about the space, it’s about the stuff. And helping people get their stuff into storage is the best way to build his company’s profits. What do people need to move their stuff? What else – boxes to pack it into, tape to seal the boxes and a truck to do the moving. If you’re a storage business, get people those things and you’ll get their business.

It’s clear and it’s effective – and that makes it good strategy.

In the middle of the past year’s economic mess, General Mills was able to increase their second quarter earnings by a whopping 49% through – you guessed it – strategic marketing. You can read the details in  AdAge and  The Wall Street Journal (you’ll need to log in to read them, it’s worth the effort if you have access).

Did you notice more Pilsbury ads last year? How about Cheerios or Yoplait? Odds are, you did.

With the lousy economy, more and more of us have been eating meals at home. Sucks for  restaurants, but a great opportunity for General Mills (SWOT anyone?). To capitalize on this and other opportunities, the company boosted last year’s second quarter ad spend by $40 million – a 37% increase – focusing the spend on “high ROI ideas”. The result of this and other strategic moves was a very surprised Wall Street when the Big G announced their 49% increase in second quarter earnings.

General Mills’ strategy involved:

- Identifying the existing marketing opportunities
- Pinpointing and dumping their non-performing products
- Increasing their marketing spend on performing products
- Targeting ads to reach high-return market segments
- Balancing their media spend for highest return
- Investing in international growth
- Prepping new products to launch in 2010 (Chocolate Cheerios anyone?)

Marketing strategy – yes! Kudos to General Mills for taking the right steps and reaping the rewards. Think I’ll go have a bowl of Wheaties now.

Apple, fresh off the introduction of the iPad, might have something new in store for music shoppers. According to Patently Apple, the maker of the iPhone has won a patent for a 3D virtual Apple store. While some might think that this is merely a gimmick to get more traffic into the iTunes music store, I think that it has huge potential.

If you have an iPhone and surfed the apps, you know what an unwieldy jungle that can be. I remember the “early days” when I would literally look at every app that had been released to decide if I wanted to try it out. Of course, with hundreds of thousands of apps, that is impossible today.

Enter the 3D world. Now, you are able to interact with people who potentially share your interests. You are able to discuss apps and help each other explore. Of course, it also opens the door for virtual salespeople that could be a real pain.

For those of you who tried Second Life, you know that interacting in a 3D environment has many advantages over shopping in a 2D browser. Of course, however, Second Life is like yesterday’s bread – stale. Can Apple make it work? If anyone can…

That’s my Altyrian View.

Note: This is a reprint of a blog post made about two years ago. Because the information is still relevant, I’ve reposted it here with updates…

Today, we are going to do an experiment that those of you with a DVR can do at home. This experiment will prove my point. More on that in a minute…

The ad agency world is all abuzz about the death of television advertising. With the DVR, people can *gasp* fast forward through commercials. Yesterday I had a meeting with a newspaper advertising sales rep who gleefully proclaimed that TV advertising was going downhill because of DVRs (yes, I did note the irony).

Well, folks, you heard it here first: The DVR is the best thing to happen to television advertising. Now for our little experiment. You’ll need a DVR and a friend.

Step 1: Watch “live” TV with your friend. Watch her during commercials. What is she looking at? Where is she going? In my tests, commercial break was for a quick trip to the bathroom, a little channel surfing, a quick look at the digital TV guide to choose the next program and maybe even a little conversation with me. Don’t get me wrong, the commercials were not ignored, they just weren’t the center of attention.

Step 2: Observe the same person watching a recorded program. Watch what happens when they fast forward through the commercials. THEY ARE LOOKING DIRECTLY AT THE TELEVISION! THE COMMERCIAL IS THE CENTER OF ATTENTION! Yes, the ad is the star! Sure, they don’t necessarily hear the ad, but for good television advertising, something can be gained through the visuals alone. Need proof? Ask your friend who is on the Late Show. Ask about the specials that Sprint is running. Yes, advertisers, DVR viewers are getting the message.

Bonus research: When observing your friend watching recorded TV, see what she does when she needs to leave the room for a snack or to go to the bathroom. She does not leave the TV running. She pauses her recorded show. Yup, and when she returns, she fast-forwards through the commercial break. Those lost eyeballs have been found through the beauty of the DVR!

Ok, I admit, not every ad is effective when being viewed at 4x speed. What do we need to do? First, remember the first lesson of advertising school: TV ads have to be effective even with no sound. Try it out. Do your ads get any message to the audience when there is no sound? If not, you don’t have an effective “DVR” ad, and many would argue that you don’t have an effective ad during “normal” viewing – TV is a visual medium, right?

The other important component is repetition. For an ad to be effective, it has to run more than once. That’s true with any television advertising (or just about any media), but it’s even more important in the DVR age. Make sure people see your brand multiple times. That makes any advertising more effective.

Lastly, make your television advertising good. It has become too easy to produce a :30 spot. Too many people are putting out bad advertising. Fortunately, the DVR will put the squeeze on them. By a show of hands, how many of you have actually stopped the fast forward to watch a television commercial that appeals to you? Yup, the “average” person does that too.

Update: Turns out that there has been some research done that confirms what I believe. Just remember, keep your brand a large part of your commercial.

Seems that our database got corrupted bringing the “old” AltyrianView crashing to the ground. Larry and I explored some options, and we are combining Strategy Tavern and AltyrianView into one blog at the Altyris.com domain. For you, dear friends and readers, you don’t really need to do anything.

We’re redirecting the feeds so changing your feed address might be nice, but it is not necessary.

Welcome back!