Confusing Activity with Action--Seth Godin

Seth had a great point in his blog today regarding lots of activity, but are we we accomplishing anything in the process? This is true for marketing plans but a bigger concern for me is how this holds true with internal agency initiatives. Some days I feel like we have lots of plans but no orientation to real and meaningful action--getting things done.

Great, we have a new plan. But wait, where are the details? Who's leading, who's executing? What are we trying to accomplish beside win more business? Are we fulfilling a meaningful part of our stated mission? If not, why are we playing? What is the strategy, the deliverable, the timetable? Who's on the team, how will we choose them? What are the benchmarks for success?

I guess my point is, we can have plans ad nauseum, but they don't matter if they are not tied to clear action steps and accountability. Shocker here, people hide from vague and murky objectives. If you've ever run a volunteer organization the first thing you learn is that if you expect to get people to sign up and commit, then you better have a clearly defined task or goal, otherwise you're doing it yourself.

That never works.

Momentum

This is an illustration I use to demonstrate our social media marketing momentum at WG. The red circle represents those true believers, the KoolAid drinkers, who have spent the 10,000 hours Malcolm Gladwell describes in his book, Outliers, as necessary to become experts in social media. This group of 10 or so, knows social media so well, they can see beyond the purely sociological aspects of it and think very strategically--this group is supplying our forward positive energy.

The blue circle are true believers but are still trying to earn their stripes or 10,000 hours it takes to become experts. This group has positive energy and is incredibly important to the cause of changing our agency's business model. We nurture and support them as they grow.

The white circle represent folks who for one reason or another are not embracing social media as a creative or strategic tool. These people are very talented, hard-working individuals but they are being left behind. As a result, they have limited value to us and probably won't continue to work for us in the future when staffing needs change, which they invariably do. Sadly, it's their choice. They control their destiny but choose to cling to the past. They are becoming friction to the folks supplying the momentum.

Don't be friction, be momentum.

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed.

One of Sir Issac Newton's beauties. Amazing when you think about it, energy simply exists-not to be added to or subtracted from. Either you're channeling it positively or it is friction. Are you creating momentum for your agency or are you slowing it down? I've been thinking about this a lot lately as we try to move several new initiatives through our agency pipeline. Those who've drunk the Kool-Aid are creating positive energy are moving things forward and must be protected from the folks that either don't understand the mission, or worse, sadly don't care.

The truth here is you only have so much energy that exists naturally in the agency. So as a leader you have a choice. Good or bad. So many places I've previously worked were consumed with useless energy that centered around backbiting, politics, anger, frustration, anxiety and distrust. I believe that when an agency has a clear vision to execute against people will engage in the good energy.

Newton was pretty cool.

Outliers

Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. I love this book. I am nearing the end and feeling very sad because I know this wonderful exercise of looking at the world differently is about to end. One of the more fascinating chapters explains what causes most airplane crashes. Apparently, "mitigated" language kills or at the very least causes some very bad accidents. Some cultures are so adept at communicating with nuanced speech (Koreans for example) that the listener must be fully concentrating to understand the true meaning...or gravity of the situation. In high-stress flight deck situations subtle suggestions like "maybe we should consider pulling up" can be missed resulting in fiery crashes.

Think about how many mistakes are made in ad agencies because employees are not crystal-clear about the deadlines, objectives or changes that need to be made. I was raised in the New York ad world where subtlety doesn't exist. You always know where you stand-sometimes uncomfortably. In Cincinnati, folks are very deferential and loath to challenge authority. I had to learn to listen very carefully but also push people to push back.

Communication is an art. Learn how to listen but also know when to say "pull up or we're toast!"

Look Before and After!

I attended an very interesting conference yesterday where I heard a piece of advice given from one executive to another about how to deal with this economy. Look before and after. This is what this advice means to me as a leader of an ad agency.

Look Before.

If you have a potential new client, take a look at the agency they are leaving. If that agency is very similar to yours it should cause you to ask some serious questions as to why they are leaving them. Bad clients run through agencies quickly because they are not looking for long-term partnerships. They might be motivated by potential costs savings, their need to blame an agency for their own dysfunction or they simply are unethical and have learned how to wave the magic carrot of $$$ to get free thinking, which is almost impossible for hungry agencies to resist. If their old agency looks, talks and smells like yours, chances are the potential client's motivations are not going to be a healthy addition to your new client roster. If fact it could cost you dearly because of the unknown costs of opportunity lost because you were busy being the next babysitter.

Look After.

Clients leave all the time for a myriad of reasons. Some you love and it hurts something awful to lose them. Others, can't wait to see them go. The key is to try to take the emotion out of it and take a hard look at they agency where they land. Without kicking yourself, try to understand if the new agency has a capability you don't, better or different creative style, or a new way to drive consumer insights into their work. If you're honest with yourself you could learn some things that might help moving forward.

Denial is a terrible thing and it can destroy profitable focused businesses. Remember to look before and after.

I'm a recovering blamer.

One thing I've learned lately is what my grandmother used to say to me all the time when I was a little kid, "It's nobody's fault but your own!" Of course back then I didn't listen to her because it was way too easy to blame someone or something else when things didn't go as planned.

It's that first self-deception we make when we are standing at the fork in the road. One way leads to truth, the other to blame. When we chose self-deception, however innocent, all that follows is the need justify the self-deception and that is where we get off track and lose personal accountability and perspective.

I just read the book, Leadership and Self-Deception, by the Arbinger Institute. It's a quick read, but more importantly, it's easy to apply the key insight into everyday life. The book shows how "most personal and organizational problems result from a pervasive yet little-known problem called 'self-deception.' It undermines personal achievement and organizational performance."

So I will be more introspective, more honest with myself about the choices I make and why I make them, and less likely to blame others when things don't go my way.

Leadership is setting goals and objectives and understanding the results. You can't learn if you blame. Which leads me to realization that my grandmother was right after all and I can't believe I'm admitting that.

Getting started in Social Media

On Saturday, I gave a speech to a group of accomplished young advertising and marketing professionals. The emphasis of my talk was my career of 26 years and how advertising/marketing has changed and forced me to reinvent my career to be successful. And the driving force behind all this, social media, and my agency's perspective on it and what we are doing to be competitive in this crazy new environment.

Afterward, I left a pile of business cards and welcomed anyone with questions to contact me. Here is one question I received and my answer follows. (I share this because the purpose of this blog is to record the trials and tribulations of an old dog learning new tricks, others might have helpful additions or suggestions and are welcome to add their thoughts)

"Thank you so much for coming to speak to Ad 2 today. I really learned a lot from your presentation.

I'm the one who works for a very traditional advertising agency and I'd like to help them move forward into doing social media work. They are all scared of new media/social media right now so I need to start educating them so they warm them up to this idea. The catch is I'm not educated enough on my own and don't have any personal experience to draw from. Any ideas on how to learn enough about this myself with out actually doing this kid of work to be able to start convincing them this is something we should pursue?

Any ideas would be helpful. Thank you again!"

Thanks for the kind words. First, I applaud you for recognizing the status quo will not help your career or company you work for. My advice is pretty simple and falls into two buckets.

Start small—it’s easy to get overwhelmed with what you don’t know. Start with Seth Godin’s Meatball Sunday and Tribes books. They both quick reads but chock full of references that will take you further. Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody is an important read as well from the psychographic vs. Sociographic marketing perspective. Wall Street Journal and New York Times and Business Week all have interesting articles written from a business perspective that are great sources of knowledge—always look at the world from the client perspective.

Find kindred spirits—people you work with, friends, etc. Start sharing and asking questions. You’ll find there are a lot of people out there like you and the power of this group will change your life because either you will feel empowered to change your company or find a new one to work for that fits your career vision.

Study your industry, your client’s industries, and the consumer. Your industry—try to understand who is doing what and why. How are marketing firms adjusting? What happens to those who do nothing--can be powerful arguments for you with your management. Client’s—look for examples where their competition is doing something differently—again gives you the excuse to at least bring it up. The consumer—they are the one driving this bus...watch and try to predict where they are going.

Last but not least, try little things first and then build. Momentum will follow.

Allen and Pete: A Snapshot.

I was reading some emails today between Pete and Allen regarding social media and marketing and it occurred to me that this makes a really good example of how we work, all the time, everyday. I thought I would share...

Allen sent this out about a piece of research he had found.

“Social media is an important shift, as it summarizes the importance of interaction, the consumer and the community. The term emphasizes the idea that as a collective it can have as much impact as any traditional media platform.

In truth, to claim social media as “new” is slightly misleading. From the beginning, the Internet was founded on message boards, chat rooms and peer to peer communication. What has changed is the mass involvement that modern social platforms inspire.

Contributing to the Internet has never been as accessible and less technical. Innovations in web development, computing technology and the proliferation of broadband have come together (to) drive monumental consumer take up. This is why the phenomenon of social media is important now – it has the potential to impact on all our media consumption therefore shifting the emphasis from professional content producers to the consumer.”

-Universal McCann study

Pete's response.

Absolutely no question: what’s changed is the ease of distribution, not the behavioral drivers behind it. This is why WOM has existed as long as human beings have been able to communicate. The trap we fall into now, with all the shiny objects of the last 5-10 years, is in looking at it too narrowly—ie, only in terms of the online experience (and sometimes even forgetting newer mobile technologies)—thereby adding one more stupid silo to the brand marketing mix. (That’s also why marketers who obsess about “digital digital digital” conjure up images in my mind of marketers in the 1950s who might have similarly obsessed about vacuum tubes or the size of a TV antenna: that ain’t the point!)

The very important corollary to all of this is that we can’t talk about “social media and marketing” while staying stuck in the idea that we each develop attachments to brands merely as atomistic individuals (“Brand X satisfies my needs and desires”) with little or no thought to the social dimensions of brand meaning. In my opinion, this is probably the most powerful and profound part of the work we’ve been doing over the last 4-5 months, and that I look forward to developing further for our clients and WG. –Pete

It is exciting to be around people like this because they do this all day long. What will tomorrow bring?

Our new baby is born!

WonderGroup Grows Social Media & Marketing Services

WonderGroup, the Cincinnati-based advertising agency widely known for its work in marketing strategies to youth and families, has announced new and specialized services in social media strategy development, execution and measurement.

With the aim of helping its regional, national and international clients strengthen brand engagement and advocacy with millions of consumers, WonderGroup will infuse new social media and marketing strategies into traditional advertising, promotions and interactive media. The new capabilities will help clients accelerate brand awareness, increase trial and strengthen brand volume initiatives.

Spearheading the new offering at the agency are two new senior managers:

Pete Healy, V.P. Social Media and Marketing. Healy was formerly a WonderGroup client as the VP of Marketing at Perfetti Van Melle USA, where he directed marketing for the Mentos and Airheads brands. While there, he was integrally involved in the “Mentos Geyser craze” of 2006 and the subsequent “Trevor the Mentos Intern” online campaign, both of which attracted worldwide attention as social marketing successes. Prior to joining Perfetti Van Melle, Healy was VP of Marketing at Jelly Belly Candy Company in California, where he developed and directed high-engagement strategies for the Jelly Belly brand in the U.S. and internationally.

Allen McCormick, V.P. Marketing. McCormick, also a former WonderGroup client as the Marketing Director at US Playing Card Company, has been heavily engaged in the development, execution and measurability of social media campaigns. McCormick also worked for Procter and Gamble as a Client Director, with the social marketing word-of-mouth venture known as Tremor. While there, he spearheaded many efforts with packaged goods, entertainment and the auto industry. McCormick previously worked in marketing roles at Revlon and led the marketing strategy development, evolution of direct marketing, and CRM efforts for both Sony PlayStation and SeaWorld.

McCormick and Healy are supported by a WonderGroup team of experienced social, interactive and account professionals. The agency’s clients include ConAgra Foods, Kellogg’s, Cincinnati Bell Communications, Topps, Perfetti Van Melle, SunnyD Beverages, Evenflo and other well-known consumer brands.

For additional information on WonderGroup services, including social media and marketing strategies, please contact:

Greg Livingston
President
WonderGroup
513.357.2950
glivingston@wondergroup.com

What a waste.

It's a shame. Think about all the money spent this election year on campaign ads designed to impugn and destroy the character and reputation of their opponents. There's no creativity here, just savage bare knuckle blows delivered again and again without mercy. Without truth. Without grace. Make it stop.

What could that money have done to change our world for the positive?

We'll never know.

Vision or Experience?

One of the things I've noticed, and one of our biggest challenges as an agency, is the difference between vision and experience. A lot of client cultures look to validate strategic and creative decisions with experience. Have you done that before or do you have any case studies that demonstrates what you propose? It's easy to understand the desire to minimize risk. But it also punishes forward thinking agencies.

Yes, we have plenty of great case studies for great clients but our frustration is that because we push to think new and differently, we're often ahead of the execution and the resulting case studies. Patience is a virtue...but not while waiting for validation. The consumer world is changing and moving rapidly and so are we. We're adapting by creating or changing our creative processes for greater efficiencies and to take advantage of what is new in the world of consumer marketing. And there's something new every second.

The challenge is to identify clients who will choose to work with us for our vision and leadership and not worry about the potential clients out there who require validation through experience. Not that either is bad, we've just chosen the vision path and have become comfortable that it will work differently than traditional agency models. We want the early adopters and the future casters who relish being first.

I prefer the model where vision gives you new and different experience.

Agency Cultures: How do we define them?

Cultures like agencies evolve. It's taken me awhile to put my finger on WonderGroup's, but like all good things it's borne from truth. Some people mistake a slogan for culture, "home of kick ass creative" (actually suggested to me), "smash mouth creativity" (also suggested...I promised to protect the identity of the suggestor). Or they go to guardrails like "respect each other" and "Listen" as cultural badges. But when I tell people what I think defines our agency I point to three things.

1. Entrepreneurial: It's a get it done spirit that inspires everyone to take ownership. If we don't know something, we figure it out. Entrepreneurs are not afraid to work hard, take risk or even fail in stretching to do something different. For our clients, it means we are always working to help them find an advantage. I respect people who get their hands dirty.
   
2. Curious: We really push awareness and learning throughout the entire staff everyday. What did you learn today? How does it change your thinking or approach? A rapidly changing world dictates that we foster and reward curiosity and sharing. It's exciting for me to see folks who were not digitally savvy 4 months ago become Twitter machines overnight. I respect people who ask how and why.
3. Underdog: Nothing like having a little chip on your shoulder to make you more competitive. WonderGroup often finds itself competing against bigger more established New York, Chicago and LA agencies for new business. We relish being the little guys from Cincinnati because the competition almost always undersestimates us. When you start anything as an underdog you, by definition, have to work harder to be smarter and more creative in order to win. When we win, and we do much more than not, it's very gratifying to me, since I'm a recovering New Yorker (did I mention I like competition?). Underdogs never take anything for granted and they don't leave anything on the playing field.

So that's it. Pretty simple and straightforward. And that's the point.

Why creatives are leading agencies today?

In the old agency model, account people (the business people) were always in charge. Back then the ad business acted like a predictable and stable business. The creatives were considered a necessary evil. Flaky, temperamental, easily distracted and dismissed...as in not taken seriously.

Today is different. At some agencies the inmates are now running the asylum. And why not? The "creatives" are most attuned to the changes in consumer behavior effecting today's marketing landscape because they ARE those consumers themselves. It's in their DNA to listen, learn and communicate what's important. The good ones identify emerging trends early and weave them into their work.

Creatives who lead agencies don't fear failure. They are not married to the past. They are eager learners willing to change, reinvent and experiment. They recognize that you cannot take today's social media creative platforms and force them into traditional agency structures and expect to grow or make a profit. There is nothing wrong with really good strategic account people who are creative as well-we need more of them. It's just nice to know creative people can do something other than just be the entertainment.

I like today. Finally, my mom will think I have a real job!

Introducing Matt's Agency 3.0.

My name is Matt Fischer and I am the chief creative officer and chief operating officer of a 75-person ad agency, named WonderGroup, located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Our website is www.wondergroup.com for those of you who are interested. My aim for this blog is to share my thoughts and experiences as I work to steer my agency, with the help of some very talented people, from a traditional agency model (TV, print radio with a little interactive mixed in) to one I think the future will demand (definition of that will be saved for a later blog). It's a brave new world and we are thinking and executing differently. So are our clients. Hopefully, this can be a forum for expressing and sharing ideas.

Matt 1.0

The first 21 years of my career was spent in various ad agencies in New York (you can see my career on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/mrfischer) doing what every creative did for their clients, thinking in 30 second increments, throw in a print ad or two, maybe a radio spot, and then move on to the next client, campaign or whatever. Nothing ever changed. Then came the dot.com meltdown. At the time I lost my job I was an EVP, Group Creative Director, at FCB New York. The creative account I was leading at the time was Tropicana. Tropicana is owned by Pepsi. FCB's holding company, True North, was bought by Interpublic, a Coke agency holding company. Someone thought these two companies would get along working with separate agencies under one holding company. Pepsi felt otherwise and fired us. I was fired on a Friday. 911 happened the following Tuesday. To say that that changed everything would be an understatement. Instead of playing golf all Fall and finding a similar job just after Christmas, I realized the world had changed profoundly and I wasn't prepared to compete in this suddenly foreign agency landscape. To make a long story short, I freelanced as much as possible while I looked in vane for a similar job in NYC. Then in the Spring of 2003, I was presented with the opportunity to joined a small 5-year old agency in Cincinnati (with about 25 employees at the time) to lead the creative department, help grow the agency and develop an agency culture. VISUAL: OPEN ON A MOVING TRUCK BACKING UP TO A HOUSE IN NEW JERSEY

to be continued...