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4 Insane Advertising Agency Home Pages

Peter · April 30, 2013 · Leave a Comment

I’ve been studying advertising, branding and digital agency websites using my Pinterest Advertising Agency Directory. I’ll be writing about my findings over the next few weeks.

Let’s Start With Insanity?

Here are 4 local and international agency home pages that are insane. Can you imagine an agency that is in the business of branding and digital marketing — and being creative — having a home page that announces: “Coming Soon?”

Allow me to state my somewhat obvious (but not apparently to some agencies) POV.

An existing agency should never, under any circumstances,  have a Coming Soon home page. Visitors will come, see that you have nothing to say, have no creative approach to transitioning from one site to another and will split fast. Will they ever come back? Are they going to keep coming back to see if and when you’ve finally launced the new home page? My bet is not often and maybe never.

One more obvious point, this is not a good thing for your new business program.

The solution: be patient and wait until you make any changes until you’ve designed the new home page ready to go. Here is my little secret. I guarantee that no one is wondering when you are going to update your website. So, sit tight and live with what you have intill you are ready to relaunch. tell your CEO or ECD to chill.

Here are the 4 agencies. I’ll end with my “favorite” serial Coming Soon home page agency and, interestingly, its a big one:

Carrot Creative Coming Soon

Carrot Creative. This is a savvy digital agency. What’s up?

TBWA:LONDON

 

 

TBWA/LONDON, a rather large agency, OK a very big agency with clients like Nissan, Absolute and GSK, had the Coming Soon page on your left up for at least a couple of months.

Baron & Company

Baron & Company. A Bellingham  Washington agency with the tagline, “Technically Creative.”

 

Goodby Silverstein   Partners   Full Service Integrated Ad Agency Goodby  Silverstein   Partners old 1983 1

 

Goodby Silverstein & Partners. Get this… the first Coming Soon page is from April 2013 and the second is from 2003. Yikes, these guys are repeat offenders.

How To Write An Ad Agency Business Plan

Peter · April 21, 2013 ·

78% of advertising agencies do not have an up to date business plan.

Ok, I made that number up. But, based on my travels through ad land, I am sure that I am close… and, maybe even a bit low.

Without a business plan it is virtually impossible to build the right agency for the future and a new business program that wins new clients and fuels revenues.

Here is a four part template for getting started on planning, steering and managing an agency that will get noticed, grow and prosper in today’s fast-paced advertising and digital marketplace. I call my “instant” 4-Part Business Plan blueprint. It’s essentially a fast-track Q&A to help start the planning process that results in an actionable business plan. [Read more…] about How To Write An Ad Agency Business Plan

Update: Goodby Silverstein & Partners And Coming Soon

Peter · April 19, 2013 · 2 Comments

See the RED copy below for the update from Goodby. Funny!

—

I am finishing “Good, Bad & Ugly”, a presentation on advertising agency websites for the 4A’s. I’ve got a couple of bads and will write about them soon. But, I need to share this BAD with you right now.

It’s hard for me to believe that a few advertising and digital agencies have Coming Soon home pages. Coming Soon…?! How can they fuckin do this? It is really insane and lame. What poor brand imaging. Does it mean that they couldn’t come up with a real creative solution or even some patience as they build their new website?

So, are there any famous agencies doing this? How about Goodby Silverstein & Partners?

Get this… their current site is Coming Soon and so was their 2003 version. I call them the king of Coming Sooners. Here are the home pages. First the 2003 version and then today’s (as of 4.19.13)

Goodby  Silverstein   Partners old 1983 1
Goodby Silverstein   Partners   Full Service Integrated Ad Agency

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 2013 Update… The new Goodby Silverstein website lives. I know this because they sent me an email with this message: “we came.”

 

 

Goodby Silverstein   Partners   Full Service Integrated Ad Agency

 

 

 

 

Now all you have to do is check out this blog post… 13 Free Big Data Tools For Advertising Agency New Business.

Wasserman + Partners: Ad Agency of The Week (Gets Blogging)

Peter · April 4, 2013 · Leave a Comment

I am building a presentation for the 4A’s on good, bad and ugly advertising agency websites and social media programs from the perspective of business development. In my travels across the globe and my Pinterest advertising agency directory, I happend upon Vancouver’s Wasserman + Partners Advertising.

Wasserman + Partners is the largest full-service agency in British Columbia (that’s in the upper left hand corner of Canada.) Their message:

LET’S LAY IT ALL OUT ON THE TABLE HERE, SHALL WE. WE ARE WESTERN CANADA’S LOCALLY OWNED, LOCALLY OPERATED, SILO-FREE, EGO-FREE, CREATIVELY STRATEGIC, STRATEGICALLY CREATIVE, CAFFEINE GUZZLING, COFFEE-CUP RECYCLING, MILK DRINKING, HIGH ENERGY, LOW DRAMA, KARAOKE SINGING, MICROPHONE SWINGING, FULLY INTEGRATED, FULL-SERVICE, AND FULL-ON INDEPENDENT ADVERTISING AGENCY. ANYTHING WE MISSED THAT YOU’D LIKE TO KNOW?

What I like:

Wasserman’s website is simple, easy to navigate and gets out their brand message without complexity. Look at dozens of agency websites and ask yourself why so much clutter? These guys are into simplicity and isn’t that what much advertising is built on?

Blogs   Wasserman   Partners AdvertisingI think my favorite section is the blog. While it is built into the home page, an element that is often overdone, Wasserman has done an excellent job of incorporating the blog into the page that essentially has two sections: the work and what people are saying. Click on Saying and you go to one of the very rare blogs that delivers personality and a who’s who of the agency staff. In most blogland cases, and this goes for the entire world of blogging, the person or people creating the content are somewhat invisible. Not here. In Wasserman’s case, the blog has become a central part of the web experience and not an appendage. If I had a nock, I’d ask for more post frequency. But, at leaset I am not inundated.

Want more Agencies Of The Week? They are here.

Fantastic Design Reading List Fr: Olli Siebelt

Peter · April 2, 2013 · Leave a Comment

From Olli Siebelt… integrated digital production… Don’t miss *

  • THE ALPINE REVIEW
  • BERG
  • THE BRANDER
  • CONTENTS MAGAZINE
  • EMBLEMETRIC *
  • MEDIUM
  • PANDO
  • PSFK
  • SPRINGWISE
  • THINGS MAGAZINE
  • UNIVERSAL EVERYTHING
  • AIAIAI
  • BLDGBLOG
  • COLLATE *
  • DARKROOM
  • LA COFFEE CLUB
  • MONOCLE
  • THE PARIS REVIEW
  • QUARTZ
  • SVBTLE
  • TWITCH
  • UX MAG
  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 25
  • Page 26
  • Page 27
  • Page 28
  • Go to Next Page »

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