Brand Central Station

A well-deserved rant on fake controversies with fake websites – all produced in the name of advertising creativity.

Take that, Lincoln-fry. We’re not lovin’ it.

This is history – Internet style – going back into the 1990′s. But it is interesting stuff and it brings up one important point when setting a web strategy – remember that a significant number of URL’s are mistyped every day (as much as 10% or more).

Good stuff from Slate.

A little advice for Valentine’s Day. From Rex Hammock and RexBlog.

I read this article and could help but imagine this:

Is truth now, officially, stranger than fiction? Where’s Patrick McGoohan when you need him?

Does this make sense to you?

The way I read this article, Exxon is investing over $10 million to pump up the “Bengal Traders” coffee brand in their retail locations. The basic idea is right: find synergistic products to make the stop at the Exxon station more valuable for the customer – but how does pumping “Bengal Traders” build the Exxon brand?

And do you really want premium coffee and gasoline to share mindspace?

Comments anyone? Beuhler?

Things heat up for Tabasco’s Restaurant and Patio in Marion, Iowa. AdRant’s Steve Hall reports that McIlhenny Company is not amused.

The English language is a wondrous thing. I love it because I love history and our language is absolutely filled with old words from a variety of cultures. This isn’t an elegant, pure language like French. Rather, English is a dirty, bastard-child of a language with an impossibly tangled lineage that makes it rich and interesting.

Add to that the fact that we often hide symbolism in our speech and stories – often times, without even realizing it. If you’ve studies deconstructionalism at all, you know what I mean. The French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, helped lead the way in challenging language on its surface and looking into what went unsaid and what that, in turn, said about the speaker. (I’m paraphrasing decades of philosophy here, but I hope you get the point.)

So, why quote modern French philosophers and an ancient language when talking about marketing the brand that is America? For the simple reason that we, as Americans, often don’t realize there is a greater meaning to our words than what we may intend. Americans are quick to offer opinions and frequently use extremes to make points or defend a position. But what we usually ignore is the nuance inferred by our choice of words, use of symbols, tone and manner of speech.

These things are not overlooked so easily by the rest of the world – although, the rest of the world may not realize that what they’re hearing isn’t what we mean to say but rather a faint, historical echo resonating from what we’ve actually said. Let me give you a very simple example:

In the American election this November, newscasters, politicians and pollsters were busy yacking up the airwaves with talk of “red states” and “blue states.” As far as I can recall, every broadcast booth had a map of the United States with some states marked in red and others in blue. Interviews with disgruntled Democrats and haughty Republicans portrayed a country divided.

To those of us in the cultural “know” we realized that while there was disagreement, in some cases disagreement stridently presented, we were (and will continue to be) one country, indivisible. But to much of the rest of the world, this election looked like some kind of civil war. Red versus Blue. Conservative versus Liberal. Rural versus Urban. Don’t forget, we’ve seen civil wars over the past three hundred years that were dominated by people associating themselves with a particular color: White, Orange, Green, Blue, Grey, etc.

Add to all of this mess a number of campaign strategists who often used the terms of warfare to discuss what was happening at the polls (mobilizing, rapid response teams, etc.). It’s not hard to see the signals we were sending unintentionally.

Deconstructionists were probably having a “field day” – a term that, no doubt, has its own military lineage.

My concern about all of this Red State/Blue State nonsense is the signal it sends to our friends and enemies abroad. The sour grapes of 2000 gave people the impression that the US was in dire straits and on the verge of some kind of collapse. The shrill nature of the primaries in 2004 reinforced this idea – which culminated in a presence of “foreign observers” stationed at various US polling places to make sure there were no voting irregularities for the first time that I know of.

The rest of the world sees America as poised on some kind of cliff – the result of budget deficits, rampant military spending, overwhelming dependence on fossil fuels and a variety of social ills from childhood obesity to indecent halftime shows during the Super Bowl. Yeah, America is just one good shove away from a total meltdown.

The problem, of course, is that even if we know the meltdown isn’t going to occur any time soon, we continue to use language and send signals that say otherwise. The last great empire to suffer this fate was the United Kingdom who, thanks to the good works of patriots like the American Founding Fathers, eventually found that the sun had, indeed, set upon their empire long before they came to realize it.

Despite their words to the contrary, the blue-bloods of the privileged classes, the red coats of the military and the royal purple all gave way to a new world order and a lesser place in the world. And if it can happen then, the thinking goes, it could happen here.

(c) 2005 – Brand Central Station, all rights reserved. For more information on Brand Central Station, please visit our website.

Andrew Taylor, The Artful Manager provides incisive commentary on the latest report of what Broadway is trying to do to woo the younger generation. If anyone is involved with a non-profit who is scared to death by the fact that they’re subscriber/member base is aging and getting planted “toes-up” – you need to read this article and then realize you’re probably not doing enough.

That’s reassuring, isn’t it?

Here’s more practical advice from John Jantsch and his Duct Tape Marketing blog. My favorite quote:

“…you’ve got to continue to build new customers, but the

gold in your business is finding ways to retain your existing ones and

find ways to do more and more business with them. For some

businesses, this simple strategy could become the most important

marketing strategy of all.”

Well said, and true.

Imagine this … information that’s applicable to both co-workers and your kids.

Thanks Slacker Manager!

This is sweet…

From Steve Hall and AdRants – Fairchild Publications pulls 680,000 copies of YM Your Prom because an ad mistakenly carried the url for a child-porm website.

No, seriously, it’s prom queen … not porn queen.

I can’t tell you how many times as an agency president, I used to bang on in staff meetings about the importance of documenting your time and keeping accurate timesheets. We weren’t a law firm, I’d explain, but if we don’t get accurate timesheets from people, there’s no way we could really know what it takes to do a job and that hurt our ability to estimate jobs accurately, fairly and (most of all) profitably.

Four weeks would go by and we’d have reams of unbilled (and unbillable) WIP (work-in-process) sitting on account managers’ desks. My CFO would begin to sweat uncontrollably and I’d start pacing the halls. Eventually, we’d have another staff meeting and I’d cue up another “timesheet” lecture.

Believe it or not, we actually got to be pretty good about timesheets. All I had to do was tie year-end bonuses to them and the problem was (almost) instantly solved.

Imagine my surprise then when I read about the latest lawsuit involving WPP Group’s Ogilvy & Mather, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and – what else – timesheets. This is the mother of all timesheet disputes. ONDCP has filed an 11-count indictment against O&M and two of their senior managers accusing them of making false billing claims.

Today’s online version of Ad Age reported that experts testified on Wednesday, saying O&M’s timesheets and vouchers were “sloppy” and were either incorrectly filled out or missing altogether. “There were an excessive amount of timesheets that were scribbled on … (and) there were also uses of correction fluid and correction tape,” said Wesley Mandler, an accountant hired to audit the $700 million media advertising contract and supporting documents.

The prosecution is expected to continue making their case that O&M intentionally inflated the number of hours spent on the ONDCP account in order to “close an anticipated revenue shortfall on the account.”

What’s that mean?

In all likelihood, it means that in order for O&M to justify the commission they were taking on media and other related expenses, they had to “pad” timesheets to generate enough hours to warrant the fee. Those of us on the inside of the business know this happens – more often than we like to admit. And, typically, it’s the result of gross income generated by mark-ups and commissions that can’t be directly traced back to “billable” activities and services provided by the agency.

The root cause of this fraud is the same reason timesheets are so important and why agency personnel need to understand the essential value an agency brings to the client in the first place.

Commissions and mark-ups are a historical legacy for ad agencies and other marketing companies. They existed to compensate agencies for representing the services or products of a third party to a client. In fact, in the early days of the ad agency business, agencies used to purchase ad space from magazines in advance and then re-sell the space to clients at a “gross” rate that included their profit margin. The margin was essential because the agency didn’t always sell all the space and would pay for unused space with retained revenues left over from other sales efforts.

As clients have become more sophisticated, they’ve taken more and more of the responsibilities formerly held by agencies and moved them in-house. As a result, the traditional mark-ups and commissions on third party services (like media or printing, etc.) have become harder and harder to justify. But ad agencies and PR firms are slow to change – a hard reality in a business that drives change in their clients – and rather than re-thinking the rationale for these service fees, some firms have taken to “justifying” them by providing timesheets that match hours spent on a client’s behalf with the income generated through these alternative methods.

It’s a big shell game and clients know it.

When the president of a small agency tells me that all she does to price a television spot is double the quote of the production company, I know that agency doesn’t have a clue what it really takes to produce the spot (or service their account, I’ll bet). When the manager of a PR firm tells me they charge 24% compounded interest on overdue accounts and build it into their revenue forecasts for the year, I know they have problems that go way beyond accounts receivable aging.

If agencies kept accurate records of all the time spent by all their people during the course of the year, they could see why some clients should pay a larger commission on media purchases or higher mark-ups on outside purchases than others. Some clients need more attention, are slower to pay their bills, are inconsistent in their relationships, etc. But other clients are great pay, fair minded and easy to serve. These are usually the more profitable clients, no matter what the total revenue generated by the account.

Timesheets and accurate record keeping are essential to knowing where you stand. Courage, honesty and transparency are the keys to getting clients on board with a fair compensation program for your company.

Later.

This information is (c) 2005, Brand Central Station, all rights reserved. If you are interested in receiving news and analysis directly from BCS, please log onto our website.