So how do advertisers reach the 71 million “Millennials” in GenY that spend over 200 billion dollars annually and will soon replace the baby boomer generation as the largest percentage of the workforce?  The answer: Advertising can no longer be a group of old men deciding what is best for consumers.

According to the book, Trust Us, We’re Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future, Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber attack the 20^th Century model of marketing and public relations for misusing their power as “experts” in the eyes of the consumer.

Products and services used to be validated using this “third-party technique”, where an industry would purchase the services of so-called independent experts (a.k.a. advertising agencies) to promote a message that would monetarily benefit a specific industry.  The advertising spin-doctors would then shape a message to flatter the product or service, while simultaneously discrediting or attacking the competition.  Sometimes they would even go so far as to suppress or manipulate problematic data about the product or service to make it “sell-able”.

But advertising has taken a turn – consumers no longer rely on the experts.  Not only do they not want to be told what to buy, they don’t want to be pushed into what to think, who to vote for and how to raise their children.

Today’s advertising is about the consumer deciding what they want to see and buy.  For example, according to a national survey from Arbitron and Edison Research, 48 percent of Americans 12 years and older have a profile on one or more social networking sites.  On Facebook, the most visited website, consumers can “like” a note or post a page. Advertisers code the site to recognize those favorites and use this information to target the needs of consumers.  All of the sudden on your Facebook page there is an ad for your favorite band on tour in your area or a new restaurant to try on your street. No more pop-up ads flashing shiny letters and “experts” selling you catchy phrases and manipulated data.

Advertisers finally realize that it’s not about how much spin they can put on a product or service to increase sales – it’s now all about YOU.

However, just as Doug Pray conveyed in his documentary film, Art & Copy (which premiered in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was funded by the non-profit advertising organization, One Club) – “Hate advertising? Make better ads”.  Pray bases his documentary on the idea that advertising may actually be a unique and rebellious accomplishment, similar to what most of us know as “art”, rather than the manipulative “Devil’s workshop” with which the industry is typically associated.

“Sure, [advertising agencies] were just selling us stuff, but along the way, their ads actually inspired us, entertained us, or might have even been socially redeeming,” wrote Pray in his film synopsis.

Art & Copy details some of the greatest advertising since the 1960s and unearths the creative mavericks behind these ad campaigns and innovations that have literally defined mainstream culture.  The cast includes the real “Mad Men” of today’s industry, including: Dan Wieden and David Kennedy of Wieden+Kennedy, who helped turn a then little-known athletic shoe company into a trend for decades with the slogan, “Just Do It”; Lee Clow, the man behind Apple’s  “Think Different” ads; Mary Wells, with the help of Creative Director Charlie Moss, who fashioned the “I (Heart) New York” campaign; and George Lois, whose “I Want My MTV” campaign elevated the booming channel into the mainstream (and into a song by Dire Straits).

These are examples of the commercials and campaigns we can never seem to get out of our heads.  We may not appreciate advertising that treats us as needy, unintelligent or easily manipulated, but we do appreciate when advertising is clever, brilliant, funny, or emotionally charged, as these creative and innovative campaigns have been.  Advertising is the daily language of our entire system of commerce, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

As one of the top creative minds in advertising says in this inspiring film about creativity, art and innovation, “That’s advertising, baby!” –George Lois.  Art & Copy was released on DVD in May 2010, so I suggest you buy a copy in order to be introduced to the real “Mad Men” of advertising.

Determining who are the best prospects to sell your service to and reaching out to them in a way that makes them perceive you as the perfect match for them.

Today’s opportunity:

Bill Builder has a list of architects whom he wants to get work from.

Old School Solution:

Bill goes on each architect’s website, finds out what kinds of projects each architect does, sends out a customized email or direct mail to each one and follows up with a phone call.

Problems with this solution:

• Slow
• Labor intensive
• Information is only as current and complete as the prospect’s website. Bill needs to know what the architect is working on right now and what projects are in the pipeline because those are the jobs that Bill wants to get.

New School Solution:

Bill sends out an automated email campaign once a month with a link to his website (which shows all of the kinds of projects Bill has built.) Bill has a tracker on his computer desktop that notifies him when Art, one of the target architects, opens the email. The tracker shows that Art has now clicked to go to Bill’s site. A chat window opens on Art’s computer with a message,  “Hi Art, let me know if you have any questions…”  The tracker now shows Art exploring the restaurant renovation pages on Bill’s site and then he leaves the site. Soon thereafter, Bill picks up the phone, calls Art, and says, “Just wanted to follow up on the email I sent. I just finished renovating Chez Suzanne on Geary Street. How about meeting me there for lunch so you can see the quality of my work and we can discuss what you’re working on.”

Advantages:

• Automated monthly email campaign prevents “I’m too busy” syndrome.
• Know which of your prospects is interested in your service in real time via the tracker.
• Be able know what specific service your prospect is interested in right now.
• Use chat to initiate a relationship immediately. If you are not viewing your tracker when the prospect is looking at your site, there is a button that opens a form to ask a question which can be answered when you have time.
• Since you do not tell your prospect that you are watching their activity on your web site, they do not feel their privacy is invaded. Instead they think that you just happen to do exactly what they need done.
• Minimum time required with maximum results.

Summary:

Spend your time doing your business. Use your marketing firm to set up an automatic periodic marketing system and only spend your time on pursuing true prospects.

It was just over a decade ago, when armed with your office phone and Rolodex you thought you could conquer the world.  When your lines of communication were limited to just two: phone or in-person.  Now we can email a client twenty times a day, or interrupt a co-worker with an IM, all without ever getting up from our desk.  So what’s the problem?  The problem is we are missing the handshake.  We are missing the opportunity to say “I like your new hair cut” or “ have you lost weight?”.  We are missing the way we’ve interacted with our friends and associates for centuries.  We are missing the face-to-face communication.

As an account executive with Belding, it is imperative that I keep in touch with clients and associates.  However, sometimes email is simply not enough.  Being able to visit clients in person has enabled me to better communicate our services and more importantly, listen to my clients and better understand their goals and challenges.   Things you just can’t get in an email.

A funny thing happened last week that highlights what happens when we rely solely on electronic communications.  I had recently attended my twentieth high school reunion and a friend had posted some photos from the event on Facebook.  An old classmate who wasn’t able to attend the event was viewing the photos and happened across my friend list.  She noticed that one my friends on Facebook was a co-worker of hers.  She immediately posted a message on my wall, asking how I knew her co-worker.  After looking through some old emails, it turns out we (my classmate and I) had been emailing each other for over three years and never made the connection that we were once classmates and dear friends.   After a few “OMG’s” and some weak excuses about married names, we both agreed that had we not discovered this connection, we would have gone on for at least another three years emailing each other – never knowing who the other person was.

What’s the moral of the story?  Next time you are about to click “send”, think about how you would have communicated this information a decade ago.  When possible, get up, walk down the hall, or down the street, and knock on the door.  Don’t fear face-to-face interactions.  Dust off the Rolodex and call or visit an old contact.  You may be surprised to learn who they really are.

One main area of focus of the seminar was to improve overall communications within the agency and with clients.   In analyzing the daily activities and occurrences in the work place,  it is eye opening to see how much time can be lost to unnecessary meetings, constant interruptions, and miscommunications.  By simply streamlining communications both with clients and within our agency we not only save time but more importantly it will allow account executives to be more strategic in campaigns and creative teams to be more innovative with designs, thus producing deliverables that will increase the client’s ROI.

Although cliche, we often forget that communication is a two way street. As a client, you maximize your investment in an agency by providing clear and concise direction. Be sure to clearly think through what you want your marketing campaign to achieve prior to engaging the agency.  Doing this leg work and then communicating it clearly will allow the agency to creatively develop a successful campaign rather then trying to pull something together based on vague direction.  Vague direction usually results in more time and more money in the end. Also, be specific on your feedback to agency.  Saying you don’t like a certain aspect of a design is a start, but what specifically would you like changed? Is the copy? The image? The color scheme?

On the agency’s side, expect your agency to clearly and accurately identify project goals and establish creative direction based on your clear, concise project brief at the beginning stages of a project.  Your account executive should communicate the production expectations and project timeline so that both you and the agency are in accordance with what you want the marketing campaign to achieve.  Additionally, the account executive should be updating you throughout the project as to where the project stands in terms of budget and should submit any change orders for your approval if the project is going beyond the original scope of work.

Actively practicing good communication skills on a daily basis will prove to save agencies and clients time, money, and unnecessary headaches.