As an industry we fail miserably in our own marketing and advertising. No where is that more epic then in our agency websites. I’ve been working on the agency website redo here, so I’ve been scouring the web for ideas on our own site. Most agencies sites are ridicolously complicated and lame and because who doesn’t love lists so here are some pointers I’v compiled from my research!!
1) Your site should not take more than 2 seconds to load. I don’t care how cool it is 4 mintues later, I don’t have the patience or time.
2) Do not include sound effects. Ever. I don’t care if you have a mute or stop button, if I wanted to listen to a power ballad or techno jam while I looked through your site I would turn on my i-pod.
It looks as though the budget cuts and the loss of big accounts, is hitting the some of the big agencies hard. According to Tribble Ad Agency and Brand Republic WPP has put a hiring freeeze on its subsidaries (inclduing JWT, Ogilvy & Mather and Young & Rubicam). The freeze will not be reevaluated until budget reviews in February. No job openings will be filled, freelance use will be reined in and temporary staff will be cut.
I’m guessing no company party or holiday bonus this year either.
On the short plane trip to the DMA I was catching up on some industry news via AdWeek. I read probably the most disheartening “the economy sucks” story since the crisis started to be big news.
The day before Wachovia was bought out by Wells Fargo, it awared it’s 150 million ad duties to Ogilvy & Mather. A new business pitch that cost the agency upwards of a quarter million dollars and was a significant win for the agency.
Unfortunately for Ogilvy, the buyout puts their win in limbo. Not only will the 2009 budget be siginificantly less than th 150 million ad spend, as Wells Fargo’s agency of record is Omnicom’s DDB, its unknown if Ogilvy will seen any of the account at all.
Similar advertising issues with the WaMu buyout by Chase could result in the loss of 135 million ad spend from TBWA\Chiat\Day if WaMu’s budget is moved elsewhere.
I cannot imagine the devestation of winning and then losing a 150 million dollar account within 24hours.
The caffine has worn off; I’ve just had lunch; my brain wants to take a nap or is distracted by every shiny little thing; I can’t finish a single task I start; and I still have 2 whole hours before I can even start to pack my bag and go home. Ugh…back to trying to work…
My current big project at the agency is redesigning and relaunching our agency website. It’s a beast of a project but by far my least favorite part is rewriting our case studies. They never turn out quite how I like them to read; I could edit them forever and never be satisfied.
But after seeing this video case study I’m rethinking our case study format….better to read about what we do or see it in action?
We all have bad days, personally, professionally and sometimes combined in a masterfully horrible “my life is going to shit” sort of way. I can sympathize with that, bad days suck. But I can’t udnerstand why so many people take that out on other people.
A couple weeks ago as I was pulling into the office parking lot a random woman pulled in next to me. As free parking is sparse in Bankers Hill, I told the woman she wasn’t allowed to park in our as its a private (and tiny) and everyone else would be coming into the office shortly. She huffed, puffed and very rudely said well I’m parking there anyways, I don’t care, tow me if you want. Ugh. All she had to say was I’m just running into the office next door, I’ll be out in 5 mintues (which she was) and I totally would have let her stay. That is if she had said that nicely.
The next worker who came in blocked her car in the lot (as we commonly do to each other) and the woman
I spent most of today at a client meeting and I actually enjoyed myself.
The client was gracious but stern, interested but respected our expertise. Maybe its the lack of sleep or remnants from my sick day this week…or maybe I just don’t go see clients often enough.
Client approved my first Behavioral Targeting campaign (woooo). I’m excited to get to use all the sneaky big brother stats the web stores about everyone (even you!). Lack of privacy slightly creeps me out, but its so beneficial as an advertiser! I’ll keep all ten of my readers updated on what I find
There is a special kind of in the red that we like to call Hell Week. It’s (at least) five sweet days of stress and panic that usually culminates in a breakdown and booze.
Rarely are there multiple Hell Weeks occurring within an office at anytime, but its not unheard of to see a department enduring it together.
They are usually caused by a co-worker out on vacation, multiple important deadlines, random mistakes, procrastination (usually to blame for my Hell Weeks) and of course not enough hours or energy to get everything done.
You can do nothing to resolve them except just get through them. Eat lunch at your desk, be the first to arrive and the last to leave, drink enough coffee and diet coke to make you feel like you couldn’t stop moving if you tried.
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