It all depends on what's in it. Check this out:
Google Ad Creation Marketplace
You can look at the various commercials, see the production values, and see how much they cost.
The cheaper commercials usually feature stills and some flat copy. The more expensive ones feature live actors, green screens, animations, and video - as opposed to stills.
Script writing is almost always included, as is the concept development.
These are all things that GWiz Marketing can and does produce.
Here's our latest video... if you want one of your own, similar to this, we can do it for about $500.
Of course, we can also build and produce your catalog for you, too!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
staying front of mind - how often should you advertise?
I thought this video by Chief Executive Boards blog was informative and might be helpful to business to business marketers. This blog site by Terry Weaver has a lot of great business advice on everything from managing finances to human resources to marketing.
Enjoy.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Tip #21 ∞ Table of Contents for 20 Tips To Get The Most from Your Ad Agency
Following is a series of articles titled "How to Get the Most from Your Ad Agency."
Learn about:
1. Defining your target audience both, per project and overall.
2. Giving your agency a firm budget and timeframe for any project and the overall account.
3. Respect your agency's expertise and taste in order for the partnership to work well.
4. Messaging -or- What's in it for your customer if you want your communications to be successful at bringing in new customers.
5. More on Messaging -or- Show Don't Tell in order to quickly communicate to your audience.
6. The Approval Process: Give Your Agency One Point-of-Contact, unless you want your agency fees to balloon.
7. The Approval Process and how to keep your budget down.
8. Advertising Agency Lingo: Good to know so everyone on the project, (client and creative talent included), speak the same language and avoid confusion.
9. Learning about the various Roles of the People Working at the Agency so you will understand that creative work doesn't happen in a vacuum or in an instant.
10. The Creative Process - understanding this so that you understand what you're paying for
11. Media Mix - What the heck it is, and why it's important
12. Define and Enforce Your Logo Standards
13. Write a Clear Creative Brief (Or have your AE do it for you).
14. Scope Creep: what it is and why it needs to be discussed.
15. Trust Your Agency, Or Get a New One That You do Trust.
16. Be Honest with Your Agency About Your Business
17. Be Calm When Talking With Your AE
18. Build Measurability Into Each Project, Or Don't Complain if You Can't Gage Results
19. Let your agency manage their own vendors for best results. If you want to hire your own vendors (ie Printers), you may be on your own with the results.
20. Deciding How much to spend on marketing/advertising.
21. All the tips....Table of contents (You're reading it now).
Please feel free to leave comments or shoot me an email at: ginger@gwizmarketing.com
Learn about:
1. Defining your target audience both, per project and overall.
2. Giving your agency a firm budget and timeframe for any project and the overall account.
3. Respect your agency's expertise and taste in order for the partnership to work well.
4. Messaging -or- What's in it for your customer if you want your communications to be successful at bringing in new customers.
5. More on Messaging -or- Show Don't Tell in order to quickly communicate to your audience.
6. The Approval Process: Give Your Agency One Point-of-Contact, unless you want your agency fees to balloon.
7. The Approval Process and how to keep your budget down.
8. Advertising Agency Lingo: Good to know so everyone on the project, (client and creative talent included), speak the same language and avoid confusion.
9. Learning about the various Roles of the People Working at the Agency so you will understand that creative work doesn't happen in a vacuum or in an instant.
10. The Creative Process - understanding this so that you understand what you're paying for
11. Media Mix - What the heck it is, and why it's important
12. Define and Enforce Your Logo Standards
13. Write a Clear Creative Brief (Or have your AE do it for you).
14. Scope Creep: what it is and why it needs to be discussed.
15. Trust Your Agency, Or Get a New One That You do Trust.
16. Be Honest with Your Agency About Your Business
17. Be Calm When Talking With Your AE
18. Build Measurability Into Each Project, Or Don't Complain if You Can't Gage Results
19. Let your agency manage their own vendors for best results. If you want to hire your own vendors (ie Printers), you may be on your own with the results.
20. Deciding How much to spend on marketing/advertising.
21. All the tips....Table of contents (You're reading it now).
Please feel free to leave comments or shoot me an email at: ginger@gwizmarketing.com
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Tip #20 ∞ How Much Should You Spend on Marketing?
Clients always ask me this. The answer of course is that it all depends on who you ask…
I did some internet research on this topic. The answers were varied. I've documented some of my findings below along with the link to that original research ( Warning: links could be expired if the source takes it down!)
Deciding how much to spend on marketing, is kind of like deciding how much to spend on food. You can eat hot dogs and canned beans and not spend too much and still feel full. Or you can order caviar and lobster and feel full: costs a lot! Buy at Aldi's: bag it yourself (in fact bring your own bags) and it's pretty cheap. Buy your groceries at Dean and DeLuca: elegant and pricey (in my opinion!)> But that depends also on your own perspective. Kind of like how you might judge artwork: one person's masterpiece is another's yawn. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Here are some interesting tidbits that I found from "experts" on how much to spend on marketing.
Keep Reading: Comments from the professor who wrote the text book on this are at the end!
• the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spent 24.4% of the sales dollar on promotion during 2004.
• 20% of your resources
• I think 4 to 8% of desired gross revenue is a good range to consider.
• 3‐5% of projected revenues for start up, and 2‐3% for maintenance
• 3% of annual sales and look at it as an investment not a cost. So when something “works” and generates additional revenue then you should reinvest that new revenue in your marketing fund.
• Procter & Gamble is the number 1 Global Marketer. In 2006 with $8.5 Billion in expenditures on $68 Billion in sales: P&G spent 8% on marketing. P&Gs net sales in 2008 was $83 Billion and they increased their marketing budget. They averaged 10% on marketing over the past 10 years. “We invest more in innovation and marketing support than any other consumer products company”
I did some internet research on this topic. The answers were varied. I've documented some of my findings below along with the link to that original research ( Warning: links could be expired if the source takes it down!)
Deciding how much to spend on marketing, is kind of like deciding how much to spend on food. You can eat hot dogs and canned beans and not spend too much and still feel full. Or you can order caviar and lobster and feel full: costs a lot! Buy at Aldi's: bag it yourself (in fact bring your own bags) and it's pretty cheap. Buy your groceries at Dean and DeLuca: elegant and pricey (in my opinion!)> But that depends also on your own perspective. Kind of like how you might judge artwork: one person's masterpiece is another's yawn. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Here are some interesting tidbits that I found from "experts" on how much to spend on marketing.
Keep Reading: Comments from the professor who wrote the text book on this are at the end!
• the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spent 24.4% of the sales dollar on promotion during 2004.
-PhD candidate Marc‐André Gagnon, along with Joel Lexchin, a long‐time researcher of pharmaceutical promotion, Toronto physician, and Associate Chair of York University’s School of Health Policy & Management in the Faculty of Health.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080105140107.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080105140107.htm
• 20% of your resources
• I think 4 to 8% of desired gross revenue is a good range to consider.
-Kevin Stirz, consultant frequently quoted in Business Week, Smart Money, Boston Globe, etc, http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing‐advertising/strategic‐marketing/3875113‐1.html
• 3‐5% of projected revenues for start up, and 2‐3% for maintenance
-Michele Golden, a marketing executive with her own blog like me http://goldenmarketing.typepad.com/weblog/2007/09/plan‐your‐marke.html
• 3% of annual sales and look at it as an investment not a cost. So when something “works” and generates additional revenue then you should reinvest that new revenue in your marketing fund.
-Bob & Susan Negen,
Marketing Your Retail Store in the Internet Age,
©2007 John Wiley & Sons
• You can market effectively with any size budget‐in 1987, the average US business invested 3% of its total sales in marketing.Marketing Your Retail Store in the Internet Age,
©2007 John Wiley & Sons
-Jay Conrad Levinson,
Guerrilla Marketing Attack, New Strategies,
tactics & weapons for winning big profits from your small business,
©1989 Houghton Mifflin Company
•It all depends on what a company wants to accomplish ‐ what marketing goals and objectives it seeks to achieve. If a company is launching a program or ready to impact in a new market, marketing costs should be significantly higher. If the company is maintaining a marketplace presence, expenses should be lower. A marketing budget is a reflection of what is to be accomplished.Guerrilla Marketing Attack, New Strategies,
tactics & weapons for winning big profits from your small business,
©1989 Houghton Mifflin Company
-John Graham, Marketing Consulting since 1976 through Graham Communications
http://www.allbusiness.com/accounting/budget/508610‐1.html
• A good rule of thumb is at minimum of 4‐7% of your gross sales. Some marketers recommend as much as 10%http://www.allbusiness.com/accounting/budget/508610‐1.html
Drew McLellan, Small Business Branding,
http://www.smallbusinessbranding.com/935/how‐much‐should‐you‐budget‐formarketing/
• In 2006 Coca Cola spent $1.893 billion worldwide up almost 8% from 2005. Spending in the US alone for 2006 was at $487 million. It was in the no. 12 spot and spends about 13% of net operating revenues on marketing.http://www.smallbusinessbranding.com/935/how‐much‐should‐you‐budget‐formarketing/
-Advertising Age Magazine’s annual report on the top 100 Global Marketers,
• Procter & Gamble is the number 1 Global Marketer. In 2006 with $8.5 Billion in expenditures on $68 Billion in sales: P&G spent 8% on marketing. P&Gs net sales in 2008 was $83 Billion and they increased their marketing budget. They averaged 10% on marketing over the past 10 years. “We invest more in innovation and marketing support than any other consumer products company”
-2008 P&G Annual Report
The Last Word:
Dr. James R. (Doc) Ogden, Professor of Marketing, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown, PA, who actually wrote the book on the subject of integrated marketing communications said, "Typically a consumer goods firm spends around 3-5 percent (%) of total SALES on marketing. Oftentimes, however, there is additional investments in advertising and other aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications. My personal recommendation is to use an "objective-and-task" budgeting method. With this type of system you invest in your marketing based upon what the costs of the "TASKS" will be. By using a percentage of profit or percentage of sales, you're spending money you may not have to and often you're spending in the wrong areas."
Summary:
So, to decide how much to spend on marketing and/or advertising, you first need to look at what you want to accomplish, and then figure out how to get there and what it will cost. It may take some money just to accomplish that, unless you do it yourself. Even so, how much is your time worth? Maybe your time would be better spent on other tasks and assign the task of figuring out how to accomplish your goals to a marketing firm that has experience and expertise in certain aspects of marketing.
Even so, there are many paths to the top of the mountain: you can walk, bike, or drive. Some paths are scenic and some are clearcut 5-lane highways. If you want to get there in a hurry, charter a helicopter, but it's going to cost you!
Dr. James R. (Doc) Ogden, Professor of Marketing, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown, PA, who actually wrote the book on the subject of integrated marketing communications said, "Typically a consumer goods firm spends around 3-5 percent (%) of total SALES on marketing. Oftentimes, however, there is additional investments in advertising and other aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications. My personal recommendation is to use an "objective-and-task" budgeting method. With this type of system you invest in your marketing based upon what the costs of the "TASKS" will be. By using a percentage of profit or percentage of sales, you're spending money you may not have to and often you're spending in the wrong areas."
Summary:
So, to decide how much to spend on marketing and/or advertising, you first need to look at what you want to accomplish, and then figure out how to get there and what it will cost. It may take some money just to accomplish that, unless you do it yourself. Even so, how much is your time worth? Maybe your time would be better spent on other tasks and assign the task of figuring out how to accomplish your goals to a marketing firm that has experience and expertise in certain aspects of marketing.
Even so, there are many paths to the top of the mountain: you can walk, bike, or drive. Some paths are scenic and some are clearcut 5-lane highways. If you want to get there in a hurry, charter a helicopter, but it's going to cost you!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Tip ∞ #19: Why Picking/Choosing Agency Services is Not A Good Idea in the Long Run
You can pick and choose agency services (if your agency lets you), but in the long-run, this is not the best strategy to improve your overall marketing communications, or reach your marketing goals, unless your company is extremely sophisticated about communications.
As an example, let's discuss printing. Most ad agencies are not printers. Most printers are not advertising agencies. To prepare a print piece (or publish an ad in a print magazine) you need to have BOTH at your service.
Here's a blog post about why working with a printer is a challenge.
In the olden days, ad agencies supplemented their income by printing for their clients, and usually marked up the printing. These days, clients are more likely to want to "Print it themselves" and save the money.
GWiz doesn't practice "print mark up" but we do like to pick and choose our own printers and work with them. We usually pass the costs on to the client without a mark up, but we charge for our time to manage a print project.
Our practice is that if a client wants to pick and choose their own printer, and refuses to pay for our time to manage a print project, then they are on their own: Good luck with that. But usually we would politely refuse to work with a printer unless we have experience with them and can control the vendor by managing the hiring, relationship and billing.
Here's what I've witnessed in the last year alone regarding this practice of having the client "manage their own printing" with our art files or other companies' art files.
• artwork goes missing on the final: logo trademark disappears and no one at the client noticed on the proof of several large signs and they were printed that way.
• color is off: yellow turns green, green turns yellow, but client OKs proof from printer, and doesn't bother to attend press check anyway.
• transparency needed adjustment: a transparent image intended for background was printed at 100%: client didn't notice on proof and approved it for printing.
• on a complex piece of artwork, some part of the artwork was changed during the printer's production process: client didn't notice, and it printed incorrectly.
• Printer changed paper half way through a printing job, during the printing. The printer swapped out the paper with a different kind of paper: The result is that the catalog has half one kind of paper and half another kind. It is noticeable on the final, but the client wasn't at the press check and didn't demand a reprint, or maybe didn't review the fine print on his printing contract. Or maybe doesn't realize the difference between the various kinds of paper.
The common thread with all these printing mistakes is that the creator of the artwork (your agency), usually knows the artwork best and would notice if something happened such as a trademark gone missing, pieces of artwork missing or changed, or color problems.
How these production problems happen is for another post, but the example is used to illustrate that when you select an ad agency, it's a good idea to let the agency manage the entire project from start to finish so at the end of the day, you have "one throat to choke," as my good client and friend, Matt Dell, likes to say.
Generally, in my experience, it's a good idea to let your agency manage their own vendors in order for you to get the best possible results.
Remember when you tried to be the general on your house addition? The plumber blamed the electrician, the electrician blamed the framer, the framer blamed the architect, the architect blamed the engineer, and you were left scratching your head, not knowing who to believe? Wouldn't it have been better to blame the builder/general contractor who is in charge of all these disciplines?
Working with an ad agency is kind of the same thing. Being penny-wise and pound-foolish is not a good idea when the reputation and brand of your company is at stake.
As an example, let's discuss printing. Most ad agencies are not printers. Most printers are not advertising agencies. To prepare a print piece (or publish an ad in a print magazine) you need to have BOTH at your service.
Here's a blog post about why working with a printer is a challenge.
In the olden days, ad agencies supplemented their income by printing for their clients, and usually marked up the printing. These days, clients are more likely to want to "Print it themselves" and save the money.
GWiz doesn't practice "print mark up" but we do like to pick and choose our own printers and work with them. We usually pass the costs on to the client without a mark up, but we charge for our time to manage a print project.
Our practice is that if a client wants to pick and choose their own printer, and refuses to pay for our time to manage a print project, then they are on their own: Good luck with that. But usually we would politely refuse to work with a printer unless we have experience with them and can control the vendor by managing the hiring, relationship and billing.
Here's what I've witnessed in the last year alone regarding this practice of having the client "manage their own printing" with our art files or other companies' art files.
• artwork goes missing on the final: logo trademark disappears and no one at the client noticed on the proof of several large signs and they were printed that way.
• color is off: yellow turns green, green turns yellow, but client OKs proof from printer, and doesn't bother to attend press check anyway.
• transparency needed adjustment: a transparent image intended for background was printed at 100%: client didn't notice on proof and approved it for printing.
• on a complex piece of artwork, some part of the artwork was changed during the printer's production process: client didn't notice, and it printed incorrectly.
• Printer changed paper half way through a printing job, during the printing. The printer swapped out the paper with a different kind of paper: The result is that the catalog has half one kind of paper and half another kind. It is noticeable on the final, but the client wasn't at the press check and didn't demand a reprint, or maybe didn't review the fine print on his printing contract. Or maybe doesn't realize the difference between the various kinds of paper.
The common thread with all these printing mistakes is that the creator of the artwork (your agency), usually knows the artwork best and would notice if something happened such as a trademark gone missing, pieces of artwork missing or changed, or color problems.
How these production problems happen is for another post, but the example is used to illustrate that when you select an ad agency, it's a good idea to let the agency manage the entire project from start to finish so at the end of the day, you have "one throat to choke," as my good client and friend, Matt Dell, likes to say.
Generally, in my experience, it's a good idea to let your agency manage their own vendors in order for you to get the best possible results.
Remember when you tried to be the general on your house addition? The plumber blamed the electrician, the electrician blamed the framer, the framer blamed the architect, the architect blamed the engineer, and you were left scratching your head, not knowing who to believe? Wouldn't it have been better to blame the builder/general contractor who is in charge of all these disciplines?
Working with an ad agency is kind of the same thing. Being penny-wise and pound-foolish is not a good idea when the reputation and brand of your company is at stake.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Tip #18 ∞ Measureability ∞
Advertising, like artwork, is very subjective. Some people react to one thing, other people react to other things. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So, how do you know if your advertising is "Working."
Well, that depends on what you mean by "working" which is why you should define your goals and build in measurability into your ad campaigns BEFORE they run if you want to know if your goals have been met.
What constitutes measurability? If your goal is something esoteric such as "building brand awareness" then you need to take a survey BEFORE you run the campaign of your target audience to ask them what they know/think/feel about your brand. Then you run another survey AFTER the campaign to explore the difference.
This takes a considerable amount of energy and expertise to do it right. But that's how you measure whether or not your campaign has succeeded in building brand awareness.
Let's say you want to "Unload extra product" and you want to run an ad to accomplish this. How do you measure the success of the ad? Look in your warehouse: If the product is still sitting there, was your ad unsuccessful? Have you also consider the OTHER 3Ps of marketing: Product (no one wants it), Price (It's too expensive), Distribution (You're asking people to bring in a Mack Truck to pick it up). Negatives in each of these areas can lead to a company assuming the "ad" didn't work, when in fact the problem was that your audience didn't have access to a Mack Truck and THAT's why they didn't buy your overstocked product.
Building in measureability takes creativity and energy. It takes additional budgetary considerations. It takes planning. College MAJORS are awarded based on advertising research and such. It takes YEARS to master the concept of measurability which is why your advertising provider is asking you to fork over the big bucks to pay for it.
Well, that depends on what you mean by "working" which is why you should define your goals and build in measurability into your ad campaigns BEFORE they run if you want to know if your goals have been met.
What constitutes measurability? If your goal is something esoteric such as "building brand awareness" then you need to take a survey BEFORE you run the campaign of your target audience to ask them what they know/think/feel about your brand. Then you run another survey AFTER the campaign to explore the difference.
This takes a considerable amount of energy and expertise to do it right. But that's how you measure whether or not your campaign has succeeded in building brand awareness.
Let's say you want to "Unload extra product" and you want to run an ad to accomplish this. How do you measure the success of the ad? Look in your warehouse: If the product is still sitting there, was your ad unsuccessful? Have you also consider the OTHER 3Ps of marketing: Product (no one wants it), Price (It's too expensive), Distribution (You're asking people to bring in a Mack Truck to pick it up). Negatives in each of these areas can lead to a company assuming the "ad" didn't work, when in fact the problem was that your audience didn't have access to a Mack Truck and THAT's why they didn't buy your overstocked product.
Building in measureability takes creativity and energy. It takes additional budgetary considerations. It takes planning. College MAJORS are awarded based on advertising research and such. It takes YEARS to master the concept of measurability which is why your advertising provider is asking you to fork over the big bucks to pay for it.
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