A Traditional Agency
by Glen Peak
In a recent blog article, What Kind of Agency Are You, an ad agency owner observed his struggle with how to “categorize” his agency, e.g. digital, creative, branding, etc. Lots of varied services and talent no doubt led him to describe such a struggle.
I was struck by the author’s observation that they never use the word “traditional” to describe the agency and wondered aloud if even “traditional” agencies use the word. Well…we don’t currently put the word “traditional” in the descriptors of our 4A’s advertising agency but this discussion prompts me to think that we should proudly include this word in our messaging. Perhaps someone would actually ask: what does the “traditional” descriptor mean?
I don’t believe that many of today’s clients understand that ad agencies were once considered to be true marketing partners (a term that has since been beat to death and misused). Better agencies were involved in high level marketing strategy, new product development, market research, package design, media planning and buying, collateral material (yes… even that stuff), promotional programs and, oh yes, advertising that worked. In short, the agency was viewed as a business-building partner and expected to bring ideas to the table that could make a difference regardless of the medium. To achieve that, agencies had to have the marketing capability and passion to understand the client’s business as well as examine trends.
If “traditional” is about being generally recognized, customary and even long-standing, I really want to incorporate this label into the characterization of our agency.
Online Brand Identity in SEO Strategy
by Amy Phillips
Good brand management is supported by a strong and strategic brand identity. For a brand to stand out in its field, a brand’s online identity is becoming increasingly important. One of the most essential support systems for strong online brand identity is good search engine optimization (SEO).
To examine a brand online, the obvious first place to start is the brand’s Web site. An optimized site, with page titles, clean URLs, good content, headers, descriptions, alt tags and navigation will help with SEO. A very comprehensive checklist can be found here. But is that enough?
For high search engine ranking, the answer is no.
Paid advertising with media such as Pay-Per-Click through services such as Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter, is helpful but can be expensive. Organic SEO costs nothing but the time to build and maintain it. Some knowledge of the ever-changing search engine criteria for ranking algorithms helps.
But are an optimized site and paid advertising enough?
Many organic (as opposed to paid) SEO strategies today call for only 25% of effort given to “on-page” (the website) as opposed to 75% for “off-page” efforts (in-bound links and social media).
Social Media, according to Wikipedia, is composed of three things:
• Concept (art, information, or meme).
• Media (physical, electronic, or verbal).
• Social interface (intimate direct, community engagement, social viral, electronic broadcast or syndication, or other physical media such as print).
If social media is to be used to help SEO, all “concepts” must be strategic and brand-reinforcing. Anything else could actually be damaging. So, a brand’s social media presence with outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube among others, needs to be carefully crafted, controlled and monitored. Never underestimate the power of perception.®
The social interface component of social media presents the most challenges. What does it entail? Meeting people and talking. Asking questions and answering them. Engaging to add value. So how does a “brand” do this successfully?
The first place to start is to create a voice. A company needs to decide whether to set up separate Twitter accounts or one company account. How do you determine the right voice? For the pros and cons of all to consider, check out “The Right Voice for Your Brand is…”
Once your company’s voice is established, make sure that it is consistent from brand image to brand experience. Make sure that expectations are aligned. Create a strategy. Have a plan. Make goals and create timelines. Involve your advertising agency. Outside consultants can give valuable advice from a “fresh” perspective. Consider an integrated advertising campaign. You can’t pay for the publicity of something that goes viral. The more publicity your brand receives, the higher its search engine ranking is, organically.
The Power of Frequency
When advertising legend Leo Burnett died in 1971, a book simply titled, Leo, was privately printed and distributed by his associates. Those lucky enough to have worked with the man received a coveted copy. Glen Peak was among the fortunate few.
In Leo, a compilation of famous speeches, we find timeless words of wisdom, amazingly relevant today. In about 1950, Burnett wrote about “the brand” in a speech called, “The power of frequency.” He almost sounds like a modern branding guru when he explains, “Whether it is an impulse purchase like a candy bar or a package of cigarettes or an infrequent and highly deliberated purchase like a washing machine, a refrigerator, a vacuum cleaner or a mattress, the biggest single thing that advertising can contribute is a friendly predisposition toward the brand—a whole complex of thoughts and emotions which give the purchaser peace of mind in the choice he [or she] makes. We shun the unknown. We are naturally drawn to the familiar. You might call this simply ‘friendship for the product.’ Your best friends are people whose qualities you like and admire and whom you enjoy being with—but they are usually people you see frequently. The principle of frequency in advertising has long been recognized. Several great brands have been built around rigid adherence to this principle rather than through the content or power of any single advertisement.”
The idea of a “whole complex of thoughts and emotions” about a brand sounds like modern branding building, doesn’t it? And, Burnett’s emphasis on the power of “friends” seems almost prophetic in this era of social networking.
Although the concept of brand friendship and loyalty hasn’t changed much over the past 60 years, media choices dramatically have. As marketing experts today, we ask ourselves. how much advertising is too much? How much is too little? The battle between reach and frequency is going through seismic shifts in perspective and is altering everything we do.
In light of the changes occurring almost daily, it is beneficial to review some basic concepts in media strategy and examine how those concepts are evolving. To read more about our perspectives on media planning, click here to request our White Paper 3.
Complex Language Weakening Brands
from the Brand Strategy Insider
“Call the law enforcement officers. We’re being robbed.”
Not a likely scenario. What the average person is much more apt to say is: “Call the cops. We’re being robbed.”
Unfortunately, marketing people are not average persons. Marketing people are much more likely to elevate their languages until, in some cases, they lose their meanings.
A few years back a senior marketing person at United Parcel Service asked me what I thought of the company’s trademark.
I like it, I said, but what UPS really needs is a motivating idea or rallying cry, something like: UPS delivers more parcels to more people in more places than any other company in the world.
UPS, he said, is not in the parcel delivery business.
Huh. That came as a big surprise to me. We’re a customer and I always thought that UPS was in the parcel delivery business.
No. UPS is in the logistics business.
He wasn’t joking. At the time UPS was in the process of repainting some 88,000 vehicles with its new theme: Synchronizing the World of Commerce.
A serious impediment to communications is this constant upgrading of the language. No aspect of life is left untouched by the upgrade police. Not only does a term have to be politically correct, it has to be as long and as complicated as possible.
Maintenance men are now physical plant managers.
Janitors are now custodial engineers.
Garbage collectors are now sanitary engineers.
A business strategy is now a business model.
Accounting firms are now professional service firms.
The purchasing department is now the procurement department.
The personnel department is now the human relations department. (At Electronic Data Systems, the HR department has become the Leadership and Change Management department.)
Fireworks are now pyrotechnics.
A jail is now a correctional facility. Anyone setting off the pyrotechnics illegally will be sent to a correctional facility.
It would be amusing if the problem hasn’t become a serious impediment to marketing. Many firms, for example, call themselves financial services companies. What’s a financial services company?
If you want to buy banking services, you go to a bank like Bank of America.
If you want to buy insurance, you go to an insurance company like State Farm.
If you want to buy stocks, bonds or mutual funds, you go to a brokerage firm like Merrill Lynch.
Let’s go to a financial services company to get our finances serviced, is not the way people talk. People talk in terms of specifics, not generalities.
As a matter of fact, it’s easier to go from the specific to the general than vice versa. People know that a drug store sells a lot more things than just drugs. Toiletries, candy, soft drinks, stationery, photo supplies, etc. Should a drug store (pardon me, pharmacy) describe itself as a personal services store? I think not.
Boston Chicken was a huge hit when they first opened its doors. It was the first fast food restaurant chain to focus on rotisserie chicken for the take-home dinner market. But then it added turkey, meatloaf, ham and other items to the menu and changed its name to Boston Market.
Everybody knows what a chicken dinner is, but what’s a market dinner No wonder, the company went bankrupt.
The same principle holds true among marketing companies. You probably know of many famous advertising agencies and many famous PR agencies, but how many famous marketing communications agencies do you know of? Name one.
When in doubt, use the narrowest possible term to describe your category. Let the mind do the upgrading, not your marketing.
PeakBiety and Mindclay put Hospital’s “Bigger Picture” on TV screen
TAMPA, FL – PeakBiety branding + advertising®, the agency for Florida Hospital Waterman in Tavares, teamed up with mindclay creative to bring the hospital’s message to television through the production of a :30 commercial entitled “Bigger Picture.” The spot uses a unique image-morphing visual approach to communicate the concept that Florida Hospital Waterman sees patients as more than their diagnoses; it sees the bigger picture of health as part of people’s lives.
The commercial is part of a multi-media advertising campaign developed by PeakBiety that includes a series of print ads and multiple outdoor boards built around the hospital’s brand promise, “A Community of Health and Healing.” The campaign focuses on communicating that Florida Hospital Waterman is the hospital to trust because it delivers clinical excellence in a safe and compassionate environment of patient-centered care. Florida Hospital is part of the Adventist Health System, known for its holistic approach to healing the mind, body and spirit. To view the commercial and see samples of the print and outdoor ads, go to http://peakbiety.com/fhw.php.
Production of the commercial was done in conjunction with mindclay creative, the creative services division of Spectrum Productions, a nationally recognized, Emmy Award winning television programming and post-production firm. The mindclay team of top producers and artists provides a full range of services including animation, design, live action, brand identity, interactive media, and high definition post production. For information on mindclay and its services, go to www.mindclay.tv.
PeakBiety branding + advertising serves local, regional and national clients in a variety of business sectors. The agency focuses on adding value for its clients by improving customer perceptions. This commitment is summed up in the agency’s promise, “the power of perception®.”
PeakBiety is also one of the few agencies in Tampa Bay to meet the strict requirements for membership in the prestigious American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As). For more information, call Glen Peak at PeakBiety branding + advertising, 813-227-8006, extension 114, e-mail gpeak@peakbiety.com or visit peakbiety.com.
Psychology of Color
by Kathryn Clark, Art Director
Color—a difference of a few shades can stimulate, depress, provoke, soothe, and even make us shiver or sweat.
In fact, according to a study at Washington State University, people who are surrounded by the color green can endure more pain, and recover more quickly from surgery using fewer drugs.1 Pink, on the other hand, has been shown to have a subduing and calming effect on violent prision inmates.2
If color is this powerful, what is it saying about your brand?
Here are a few of the ways color can influence brand perception:
• People will make riskier bets and gamble more under red lights as opposed to blue lights. This is why you see so much red neon in Las Vegas.3
• Being in a blue room can lower your heart rate and suppress your appetite. Red and yellow have the opposite effect—which is why so many fast food restaurants use these colors.4
• Yellow and red are also the best selling candy colors. Dylan Lauren, the owner of Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC says that “Yellow is nostalgic, and red is passion. It makes people hungry.”
• Recent studies suggest that nearly all sports are enhanced in blue surroundings—including weight lifting. This may be because people tend to be more calm and focused in a blue environment.5
• Purple stimulates the area of the brain used in problem solving.6
• White pills are the most effective at soothing ulcers, even if they are merely placebos. Green tablets reduce anxiety, antidepressants are best in yellow and blue ones make the most successful tranquilizers.7
While the response to color is altered by personal and cultural experiences, many are universal and can be used for more effective brand positioning. From the office to the candy store, from your house to the grocery store, color affects our lives in amazing ways. Why not harness this power for your brand?
Psychology of Branding
The connections between marketing and psychology are particularly interesting for an agency such as ours with the brand promise, “The Power of Perception®”
The Branding Strategy Insider recently ran an article called Creating The Brand Halo Effect. The halo effect refers to how a product—through effective advertising, promotion and acceptance in the marketplace—takes off in sales, not only for that particular product, but for products associated with the brand.
The article uses Apple’s iPod as an example of the halo effect. In 2005, the company concentrated advertising dollars heavily on the iPod; however, their overall sales went up 68 percent from the year before. The big news here is that this jump wasn’t only from iPod sales, which accounted for 39 percent; but the other 61 percent of their sales, which came from computers, software and other services. By placing the spotlight on the best product or service from a given company, audiences form certain understanding or perception of an entire brand.
Putting most of your marketing “eggs” and advertising dollars in one basket may not be an easy idea to sell in the boardroom. But focusing on the best horse may increase sales in other areas.
The article also mentions how imprinting is an important concept in both marketing and psychology. In psychology, imprinting describes rapid learning that occurs on a subconscious level. In marketing, the first brand in a new category is often imprinted in audiences’ minds and percieved as more authentic than others. Examples of first brands are Kleenex, Hertz, Heinz and Starbucks.
Carefully managing perceptions to increase the value of brands has been PeakBiety’s focus for years.
The Infinite Power of One—A Non-traditional Fundraising Campaign for the Cancer Research Alliance
Challenge:
What happens when there is no product to sell, and all you can promise a customer is a warm, fuzzy feeling? This is just one of the hurdles we had to overcome for the Cancer Research Alliance. Home to nine Nobel Prize winners, CRA member centers have a long history of groundbreaking achievements in cancer research. There was, however, virtually no awareness of CRA or what it stands for among a target audience that includes pretty much everyone.
Strategy:
Convince potential donors that they can have the satisfaction of pushing cancer research ahead by donating $1 and passing the message along to others who will do the same.
Promise:
PeakBiety developed a cause marketing campaign around the theme, “The infinite power of one.” Email marketing, Web banner ads, radio spots and a Web-aired video explain that, if everyone gave just one dollar and passed the message on to their friends, the face of cancer would be forever changed.
One of the animated online banners from the campaign
Results:
The campaign is still running, so no final numbers are yet available.
To see more of the work from the campaign, including radio spots and e-blasts, click here.
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