Get Better Results From Your Ad Agency: One Tip Per Day Month of August 2009

Each working day in August, I am going to write and publish a tip that should help you get better results from your advertising/marketing agency.

My hope is that these tips will make you a better client. As a result, you should get more from your ad agency: better creative results and a better mar/com investment.

If your agency isn't following these tips, then maybe you should think about looking for a new agency.

Check back August 3rd: The first Monday in August.

10 Quick Tips for Any Trade Show Novice by Mel White

For more from Mel White (Mr. Tradeshow) click here

Trade shows can intimidate anyone new to exhibit marketing. Often the best course is to dive into the pool. The following tips — from the shallow end of the pool — will get you started. When it’s time to swim laps, go to All About Trade Show Exhibits for 31 articles targeted to turn you into Michael Phelps (or Mark Spitz for those of us with grey hair).

10 Tips for any Trade Show Novice:

A trade show is neither a vacation nor a death sentence. Although it may feel like a death sentence during teardown.

Be nice to the labor. They can solve most problems or create headaches. The Golden Rule applies until they piss you off. When they do, contact your I&D labor provider or show management. Also, the laborer(s) in your booth didn’t write the hall rules. If you disagree with the rules, contact your I&D labor provider or show management.

Breath mints are more valuable than gold or platinum at a trade show.

Comfortable shoes are more valuable than breath mints, unless you are wearing comfortable shoes and chatting with someone who clearly needs a 3 lb. breath mint.

Rule of Three — This is a sad but true fact regarding labor at most trade shows. If three people are assigned to your booth, one person will be a star, one person will be average, one person will be a dufus. Hire nine people and you’re guaranteed to have three stars and three dufasses. Sometimes you get lucky, and the ratio works in your favor. Sometimes not (I could name show halls where this is guaranteed to happen, but I’d have to check under my hood every time I start my car).

No two shows are the same. Think of each show as a first date. Look your best and do your homework about the show, the attendees, and your competitors.

Every exhibitor has a “Joe.” He drinks too much, gambles too much, and wanders too much. He’s like the explorer Ferdinand Magellan, constantly circumnavigating the show hall. About a half a dozen times a day, you’ll wonder what happened to Joe. Five minutes ago he was sucking down his third espresso, leaning on the counter, and ogling anything with two X chromosomes. Suddenly he’s gone . . . again.

Be ruthless about evaluating your show graphics. Everything else is secondary. Replace them BEFORE they need to be replaced.

I Bet You 50 Bucks You’ll Forget One of the Following: wire management for the exhibit, cleaning supplies, business cards, belt (happens to me at least twice year . . . two belts in Las Vegas = one mortgage payment), lip balm (again, crazy, ridiculously expensive in Vegas), phone charger, your moral compass.

FINALLY, work with professionals, whether it’s a graphic designer, an exhibit consultant, or a certified trade show manager. Trade show exhibit marketing is a craft learned the hard way through trial and error. It’s easy to burn through a lot of money before you finally figure out what works and what doesn’t work. Don’t stumble through a year or two of mistakes when you can rely on experts who can save you time, money, and embarrassment.

Bonus Tips: For goodness sake, get some fresh air and a little sunshine once in awhile! Your mood will improve by a 1000 percent. And just once, put on the workout gear you bring to every show, put in the dresser drawer, and repack (unused) in your suitcase. Exercise is good.

Pondering the Meaning of SoMe

Is SoME (aka Social Media) the ultimate culmination of the Me Generation?

Or is SO-me just another great communications tool that allows one person to reach out to many?

I resisted So Me for a long time, mostly because I was too busy to figure it all out.

Now it seems that No One is Busy and EVERYONE is into So Me to some extent.

SOME people are just communicators by nature I guess. Others are not.

Either way, SO-ME is here to stay.

Customer Service Mistakes That Companies Make

As a consumer, customer, or whatever you want to call the person paying someone for someTHING (service, product, groceries, and the like), there are a few things that really bug me.

Maybe getting these things out in the open will help companies that employ these practices do a better job.

biggest pet peeves:

1. At the bank: waiting in the line to talk to the bank teller. It makes you feel weird. Plus, you can hear what they are saying to the person they are supposedly helping in front of you and you know the person behind you will hear what they are saying to you when it's finally your turn.

2. to add insult to injury, when I finally get to the front of the line and the teller LEAVES. Doesn't say anything like, "I'll be right with you in a moment," but just LEAVES, leaving me standing there wondering when/if they will ever come back. They do, but I'm usually left wondering - and anxious - because it's a BANK for heaven's sake.

3. Standing in line to pay for something. Not only is the store going to take my money (more than the thing I am paying for is worth, I know), but also I have to WAIT in the line for them to do it. It makes you feel this (thumb to forefinger) big.

4. Filling up my car at my local gas station and being forced to listen to some inane video blaring from the gas pump. Plus it's ALWAYS the same video: They NEVER change it!

5. Staying with the gas station theme, WHY do gas stations whine about the fact that they ONLY make money on their c-store operation, but then make it so easy for customers to NOT go inside? Why don't they offer a convenient way to buy something RIGHT AT THE PUMP? Gum, water, coffee, soft drinks or snacks? Make it EASY for me to buy something : I don't WANT to go inside and wait in line to pay. Plus I'd like to tack on whatever c-store product I would like to buy with my gas purchase right at the pump, thereby having one charge, not two.

6. When a company advertises internet access at their location, but then makes you PAY for it. Marriott Hotels, Starbucks come to mind. Better alternative: Panera: Internet is free, easy, and convenient. Thank you Panera!

7. When a company emails you that your bill is coming due: in six weeks. Email me when it's due the NEXT DAY please. Send me a paper bill when it's due in two or more weeks. (AT&T).

These are things that come immediately to mind... I may be adding to this post later!

From my client Mark T.

My client Mark T. wants to fix the economy this way:

how to fix the financial crisis - like, fast !

Dear Mr. President:

Please find below my suggestion for fixing the economy.

Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander
the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following
plan.

You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:

There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force.

Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the
following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.

2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered - Auto
Industry fixed.

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing
Crisis fixed.

It can't get any easier than that!

If more money is needed, have all members of Congress and their
constituents pay their taxes...

What do you think? Comments??

Brand Tags and the B2B Biz

B2B businesses can now use a version of Brandtags.net to get a sense of what their customers (and anyone else) think about their brand in a less public way than what currently exists on brandtags.net.

Currently, the world can visit Brandtags' site and spew forth all sorts of words to describe what each logo that pops up means to them. Then, the site generates a page for the brand that shows the world what people think of that brand.

That can be good and bad: When people think of Nike, for instance, the words include "athletes" and "Tiger Woods" (good!); but also people associate "sweat shops" (bad!) with Nike: a hangover from bad PR that occured a decade or more ago. Sounds like Nike has some PR work to do!

For smaller, B2B companies, Brandtags in the public way would not be worthwhile, since most people in the world wouldn't know the company.

But - what if you could drive YOUR 10,000- or 100,000- customer email list to a special site just for you where they could pop in words that give you a sense of what your brand means to them?

Now you can. Brandtags will set up a special site for a fraction of what traditional focus group or market research would cost that will give B2B companies a sense of what words THEIR customers associate with their brand.

This information would be invaluable for a company. Responses from customers are anonymous so customers could input any words they like without any fear whatsoever of any fall out.

Do customers think you're smart, innovative, responsive (like you SAY you are?). Or do customers REALLY think you're disloyal, cheap, and manipulative? The truth could hurt, but at least you would know what it is and do something about it!

And, if the response is positive, then THAT's something to talk about with customers. I can help you set this up if you're interested! Just shoot me an email: info@gwizmarketing.com

Hey follow me on Twitter too! go to Twitter and follow @GWizBuzz.