July 2014 Edition Vol. 1 Issue 1
How To Start A Successful Ad Agency The early weeks of entrepreneurship requires canyons of endless work, rivers of excitement and rapids with ugly boulders. Any one of these can take you out (financially). Days are filled dreaming with a small group of like-minded people. There is something poetic about a bunch of friendly creative people elevating each others’ work. And then at night you collapse into total exhaustion. Fried yet blissful. It’s a dirty world at the bottom of the ladder but by the end of the first year you’ll find yourself wishing it hadn’t ended so fast. I learned a lot. If I were doing it all over again, a survival guide would have come in handy. So for those game enough to start their own agency, here’s an abridged survival guide. Today is a good day to start you new advertising agency. Not tomorrow, today. And therein lies the first key step to starting a successful advertising agency from scratch: fighting your own nagging apathy. Getting past your own excruciating self doubt is the biggest hurdle to blowing it out of the water. It will make ignoring the ‘it will never work’ from your friends and family seem easy by comparison. So start today. There’s so much innovation, so many new companies starting up, new tech firms seeking breakthrough ideas and marketing help to clarify, define and build their brands. There is, according to the data, lots of investment in new tech firms, huge ratios of investment…reminds me of the late 1999s. The reason to start an agency now is everything is up in the air—and up for grabs. That’s true in the US market and in Europe, but also in places like Brazil, China and India.
8 Dos and Don’ts For More Effective Ad Campaigns ~ By Julie Burmeister, President and Creative Director of The Burmeister Group 1. Don’t be a follower. If you want to be a success, carve out your own distinctive brand. Most important, be unique. No one became a success by following everyone else. 2. Don’t overlook your website. Many financial institutions focus their efforts on their ad campaigns, and ignore the fact that they have an outdated website. If your site needs an overhaul, don’t bother investing more in advertising until you fix it. Make sure your website is consistent with the brand you promote in your campaigns. And don’t forget to regularly test your online application. 3. Don’t jump on every bandwagon that rolls by. The advertising world is changing constantly, and there’s always some new fad. But that doesn’t mean that every new thing that comes along makes sense for you. QR Codes are a great example. For a while, they were touted as the hottest thing to hit the advertising world. But how many QR codes have you actually clicked on? 4. Find the benefit. People don’t buy products, buy the benefits they derive from them. For instance, consumers don’t buy a Volvo because of side airbags and allwheel disc brakes. They buy Volvo because it provides them with a sense of safety. Think about what benefits you provide to your customers. Do you make their life easier? Your advertising will always work harder when it contains a consumer benefits.
5. Refine your understanding of the target audience. Most banks and credit unions want to generate more accounts from 1834 year olds. But rarely do they take the time to get to know this target, and how to relate to them. To begin with, an 18-year-old is very different from a 30-year-old. 6. Clearly define your goals and expectations. You will always have better success with advertising campaign if everyone agrees what each campaign’s goals are from the beginning. Let’s say you’re being asked to deliver a checking promotion. What is your ultimate goal? Are you simply trying to increase the number of relationships? Or do you have average balance expectations? Or do you need to grow deposits overall by a certain amount? The CEO and fellow execs in the C-suite always want to know: What are we trying to accomplish by when and how much will this cost? 7. Be consistent. Some advertisers feel they have to change their tagline, or their colors, or their look-and-feel every year. Some even think they need to “mix it up” with each new campaign they run — “That’s how we keep it fresh.” But when you do this, you are simply dulling your identity’s ability to build your brand. 8. Have the courage to stand out. It is your creativity that will make your budget go farther, not the other way around. Stand out from the competition, and you find that revenue comes in more easily than you think.
Ways To Advertise On Facebook Setting up of your ads. Register as a user on Facebook, if you don't already have an account. Choose a category and a page name to represent your company or service. Upload a logo or picture that you want to associate with your business. Upload a cover photo. Create a sentence about what your business does. Set a web address for your Page. Begin reaching out to your customers with posts. Optimize your post. Make sure you have all the information you need for creating your Facebook ad. Go to your Facebook home page and on the right-hand sidebar, look for the section marked “Sponsored,� where ads appear. Design your ad. Choose your goal. Get more page likes. Select the audience you wish to reach. When you choose your targeting, Facebook will tell you how many people you will reach with that ad. Select whether you will pay per clicks or per impressions and set your price. Review your ad. Place your order. Make the most of your ads. First, make sure you have a budget cap. Target narrowly. Facebook shows ads based on how often they get clicked on. Pictures are the biggest leverage you have other than targeting. Edit ads with mobile and tablet in mind. Create more leads with Offers. Save money by customizing your target audience. Make sure you don't get penalized on ads that feature images. Consider using videos to generate likes.
Does Marketing Always Have To Be Creative? ~ How Marketing Will Change in 2014 : The Creative Forecast By Rae Ann Fera According to the many advertising leaders we surveyed, connected devices and wearable technology--or, more broadly, the Internet of things--are top of mind for 2014. But where the last decade of digital experimentation has generally made technology front and center of an experience, the feeling is that the general relationship with technology has now matured to a point where it doesn’t need to be the star of the show. Instead, people are predicting a more seamless integration of technology into brand’s efforts. Or, as Scott Prindle, partner/chief digital officer, Made Movement puts it: “I think we'll see interesting opportunities to use technology to save us from technology.” In fact, this notion of detoxing from the non-stop connectivity our devious little devices provide is a prominent trend both in terms of what will impact the upcoming year and how people will strive to fuel their own creative engines. Another hallmark of the coming year is invention, be it in technology, product, or process. While invention has been bubbling along the shores for the last little while, it seems ready to crest over the banks into the mainstream. If there’s one sentiment to take into this New Year, it’s that the new rules of the game dictate that absolutely anything is possible.
\
Cut Down Ads Costs Dealerships all over the country are looking for ways to save money throughout their stores. Advertising is not exempt from these necessary cost cutting measures, but if there is one thing you cannot survive without, it is advertising. So, knowing that advertising is a necessary evil, the key is to cut your advertising expense, but cut wisely. Here are a few steps you can take to make sure you are spending every advertising dollar in the smartest possible manner. Avoid audience duplication. First, sit down with each of your advertising vendors. Analyze what each vendor offers. If they are a media outlet, look closely at what kind of delivery they provide. Look and see if this vendor delivers a duplicated audience. Oftentimes newspapers, radio stations, or TV stations deliver duplication. You can avoid duplication by purchasing your media from the market leader. Count your impressions and look closely at the cost per impression. If one outlet can bring the bulk of these impressions at the lowest possible cost, you may be able to cut the lower rated outlet. You may also be able to increase your frequency with the leader by freeing up dollars from the smaller media outlet. By spending more money with the leader in the market, you should be able to get a better deal as well. Let them know that you are going to cut one station or one paper and the one that comes in the strongest will get the buy.
Reduce agency fees. Take a good look at how much you pay to produce your advertising. If the advertising agency makes a 15 percent commission on placement and you are spending considerable dollars, you may get them to reduce the price of production. You may also want to negotiate the commission the agency earns. Again the more money you spend, the more you can get the agency to discount the commission. If you have multiple dealerships, you may be able to reduce that fee even more, or you may consider a flat fee arrangement that includes everything including production. Agencies, like all businesses, are hungry right now and will make deals. Just like the car business is changing, the vendors who produce advertising are changing. Shop around and find an agency that understands the car business. If you talk to an agency that specializes in dealership advertising, they may have “canned” spots available, where they can just change the tag at the end that identifies your store name. These so called “canned” spots can be very inexpensive and save you thousands of dollars over the course of the year in production expenditures.
Stick to proven media channels. Do not gamble with unproven media. During good times, you can try different things. Right now, you need to go with the tried and true media. Mistakes during tough times can mean more red ink. Spend smart and spend wisely, but make sure you spend on advertising. Remember, spend accordingly based on how many cars you project to sell. During these slower months, you will naturally be spending less money based on lower volume, but the minute you cut out your advertising budget, you might as well start shopping for a bankruptcy attorney. Tom Letizia is the president of Letizia Mass Media, a fullservice advertising agency specializing in automotive. Article adapted from web link : http://www.dealermarketing.com/internetmarketing/search/3301-google-s-latest-automotive-shoppingstudy-what-it-means-for-your-dealership
We like to express our thanks to all our readers who have spent their time to download and read this copy of July Edition of IKnowAll SG Digital Magazine. Do continue to support us.