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StoryWorldwide: Advertising Agency Of The Week

Peter · March 2, 2013 · 1 Comment

Native advertising, content marketing, curation, death. Ah, I love our 2013 advertising buzzwords. I also love seeing companies that are perfectly positioned to take advantage of these buzzwords. This week’s Agency of the Week is just that. They also going to be unhappy with me because I call them the dirty words “advertising agency.”

StoryWorldwide calls itself a “post-advertising” agency that engages consumers through storytelling. The agency sure makes it sound like it’s the right agency for the right time. By the way, the “death” from above is about the looming death of advertising as we know it. I think that Digiday writes about the death of traditional advertising agencies every day. I’m not saying they are wrong. But, it has become an ever evergreen theme for them.

Here is the essence of the StoryWorldwide story – it’s a nice clear message in a word of fuzzy agency messaging:

In this post-advertising age, we work to connect brands directly to customers by telling engaging stories that audiences actually want to hear.

The idea of building audience engagement is not wholly unique, but StoryWorldwide grabbed the idea long before other agencies started to glom on. Plus, they managed to grab the brand name “story.”

StoryWorldwide goes further with this competitive stake-in-the-ground…

Today, brands are competing with filmmakers, writers and entertainers, not other brands.

Story is the world’s first post-advertising agency, applying established storytelling techniques and talent to marketing and communications.

Our work includes integrated campaigns and through-media content for clients such as Lexus, Unilever, Estee Lauder Companies and J&J.

The agency delivers a complete package by “creating stories, telling stories and spreading stories.”

StoryWorldwide is interestingly worldwide, with offices in Asia, Europe and North America. They seem to be cooking with a blue-chip client list that includes Bank of America, Chile’s Epica Wines, Columbia University, Holland America (talk about an industry that needs some good news), Lexus and Starbucks to name a few. They also own a Cannes Lion Bronze.

Why Do I Dig?

StoryWorldwide hammers home a few key, compelling points.

They have positioned themselves to own the storytelling niche. What client wouldn’t want to tell a story? Hey, they love their stories.
Their niche has legs. They can do digital, video, publishing and installations. They can even do good old-fashioned TV if they wanted to.
Business development should be a slam-dunk.
The agency likes to sound smart. This is always good news for nervous CMO’s.

Here is one of their videos (they have 20 on their YouTube channel.) At 52,000 views it has a decent view count. For a comparative YouTube view count, Ogilvy’s “Storytelling: Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland on Defining the Narrative” has only 900 views.

Last week’s Agency of the Week was Jess3.

Advertising Agency Wake Up Call From eMarketer

Peter · March 1, 2013 · 1 Comment

I woke up, read my mail and saw these three quotes in an eMarketer email. They got me thinking fast.

You are an advertising agency. You worry about how to be digitally relevant in the next couple of years — or perish. Here are just three quotes from eMarketer that can act as thought starters. if these don’t start your mind, maybe its time to, um, bail?

By 2016 nearly a quarter of the world will be using location based services.

US online video ad spending will nearly triple in the next four years.

43 million Americans convert to using smart phones every minute.

If you need one more idea, another path to agency success lies in the following eMarketer chart. And, no it isn’t rushing onto the Facebook or Twitter scrum.

Me-Too Boring Ad Agencies and The Harlem Shake

Peter · February 21, 2013 · 1 Comment

AdAge writes,

A staggering 60 agencies –and counting– have already put their own spin on the Internet phenomenon, according to a Tumblr that’s been set up just to collect examples, called “Harlem Shake Agency.” So far there have been videos by shops including TBWA Paris, Grey Moscow, DDBBarcelona and M&C Saatchi Johannesburg — evidence, clearly, that the meme has gone international.

No, sorry… its about the paucity of advertising originality. OK, its fun. But, this is an industry where agencies should be talking up real creativity not me-too creativity. 60 agencies doing the same thing… and promoting it???

From the ever entertaining Ad Contrarian,

Slaves To Trendiness

Take a look through any agency website and you’re sure to read about how innovative they are. They do things differently. They have a unique perspective.Spend time at these agencies, on the other hand, and you’re sure to find out how absurdly derivative and slavishly trendy they are.According to AdAge no fewer than 60 agencies have so far posted videos of their staff doing the Harlem Shake.Not only are agency cretins posting Harlem Shake videos, but so are advertising “educational” institutions like the Miami Ad School and the VCU Brandcenter. If that’s not enough for you, so have Pepsi, A&W, Chili’s, Google, and Facebook.

I guess one of the positive things about the web is that the life cycle of these memes is so short that by the time these dimwits have posted these monstrosities they are already past their sell-by.

Smart Email Marketing For Ad Agency New Business

Peter · February 21, 2013 · 3 Comments

Two emails hit my desk this morning and they both “sell” the idea that good old-fashioned email marketing still works.

The first was an email from MarketingSherpa promoting their new “2013 Email Marketing Benchmark Report.” My key takeaway is that email marketing continues to have a high ROI for both business and consumer marketing when used to reach and convert a business’s house list. As we all get lost in the social media weeds, we need to remember that email not only works but also can be easily tracked and analyzed. I love reading the real-time stats from an effective email campaign. Who opened the email, who read it, who clicked on and so forth. Here is one of the core charts from the report showing the relative strength of email. Frankly, this isn’t surprising but it should reinforce our decision to use email.

The other email I received was from Portland’s HMH Advertising (with an east coast office in Charlotte, NC.) The email promotes a new campaign for its Montana Lottery client.

HMH deftly uses email marketing to promote one big agency idea. It is a great example of Keep It Simple Stupid. In fact, they call the email series One Idea. It is a simple, direct, informative monthly sales tool sent to the agency’s existing and prospective clients.

This email acts as an announcement of new work, strategic thinking and acts as an example of how the agency knows how to leverage the power of email.

The email clicks through to a dedicated campaign website that shows the TV commercial and the integration of other media including digital, radio, outdoor and a promotional video of the $1 million winner. A man of many words.

Steve Jobs “Secret” Advertising Agency New Business Presentation Tips

Peter · February 13, 2013 · 1 Comment

OK, it isn’t remotely a secret that Steve Jobs was one of the best presenters of all time. In fact, he was the Muhammad Ali of the art of presentaion. Here is how Jobs kicked off the iPhone introduction:

This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two-and-a-half years. Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything… Well, today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class.

The first one: is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second: is a revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device. So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls; a revolutionary mobile phone; and a breakthrough Internet communications device. An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator. An iPod, a phone… are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device. Ad we are calling it iPhone.

So, what can advertising agencies learn from Steve Jobs’s presentation techniques?

He is a story teller and clearly loves to puts on a show.
He is enthusiastic.
He sells the benefit.
He sets a theme: “There is something in the air today” set up his introduction of the MacBook Air.
His slides are simple and evocative.
He tracks you through the presentation.
He practices for days.

To help get into Job’s head, I’ve curated some of his best presentations and expert views of his style, delivery and skilled use of theater.

Two Highly Recommended Books For Advertising Agency Presenters:

“Resonate” by Nancy Duarte. This best of breed book on creating persuasive presentations is a must read for anyone trying to craft what Nancy calls, “visual stories that transform audiences.” The book includes multiple case histories including a case history and deep analysis of Job’s iPhone introduction. The case illustrates Job’s skills via a second by second sparkline timeline of his presentation.

“The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience” by Carmine Gallo. According to Carmine’s website, he is “The communications coach for the world’s most admired brands.” I can’t disagree. You might also want to read Carmine’s articles on presenting that run in Forbes.

Three Fabulous Steve Jobs Presentation Videos: IPhone and iPad introductions and his Stanford commencement address

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uW-E496FXg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU7BRvejni4