Percent Of Retail Sales Selling Online? Bet You Don't Know The Answer!

Before you read any further in this blog, take a guess at what the answer is to the question below…

What percentage of total U.S. retail sales takes place on the Internet?

While you are figuring out that number, I will share with you some observations.

I remember attending a marketing conference and listening to a young lady from one of the large New York ad agencies talk about the work she does with a large Consumer Package Goods (CPG) client.

Her specialty is online and social media marketing. She was the VP of a group of more than two-dozen folks at the ad agency.

She talked about the great targeting message strategy she developed based on both content and online behavior of the CPG online consumers.

Her team was proud of the “very cool” predictive models they built.

I asked how those models could then translate to more conventional marketing and promotional sales programs.

She smiled and said, “well, not much… they are based on detailed online behaviors and are constantly being updated and remodeled.” 

She went on and said… “And conventional media channeling is really useless for marketers because soon everything will be done online.”

Those attending the marketing conference very quickly shook their heads in confirming agreement.

I then asked her, “How many customers are in your online audience base?”

She put up a slide and said, “just over 22,000.”

“Wow” was my reply.

I remembered how a fast food franchise had just told me the day before that they rejected a retail site because it only was drawing a daytime working base of 40,000 folks vs. another one that was drawing in double the number.

I preach a bunch about rifle-targeting in the blog posts and often harp on how media folks are programmed around “the bigger the reach – no matter who is being reached – the better the media option.”

The answer to the question that I posted in the second line of this blog post?

Here is the quote from the article in this week’s WSJ article…

“Online purchases account for just 5.8% of total U.S. retail sales in the second quarter of 2013, up from 5.1% a year earlier.”

Wow.  That’s phenomenal growth!

The reason why I took time out to write this blog is that there is an overwhelming belief among some of the most educated and trend sportscasters that the web is dominating everything, everyone, every where.

Social media and website marketing dominate the seminar subject agendas.

The 20-something Millennials streaming into the ad agencies believe that newspapers are just rotting on the vine and that everyone gets their news onine.

Retail store marketing?  Well shoot, that’s easy, get cracking on your Facebook storefront.

Even the by-products of the incest ad agency mega-mergers, the Madison Avenue Ayatollah preach that it’s the web firms that are the money makers and that conventional media buying can be automated online.

All for that 5.8% of the retail revenue sales volume and those 22,000 CPG consumers!

I guess that other 94.2% of sales must be dwelling in the Stone Age!

Maybe its because I am a Baby Boomer that I did not rule out the day that the travel agencies would be back.

Or that the retail store fronts still had a place and a role that probably would become even more important as the Millennials enter the home ownership phase.

Or that those community newspapers were not likely to fade away.

Maybe the most fascinating part of the WSJ article covering these new statistics is the significant amount of the article dedicated to sharing just how difficult it is to secure online sales figures.

Just as it cites in the article, reporters would call the online sales divisions and they would either (a) change the topic and show the reporters some new website tools… (b) play stupid and say that they did not track that information in their department … or (c) talk about how difficult it is to measure online sales.

Reminds me of my niece with the chocolate covered hands and when I ask if she got into the candy jar and she replies… “I don’t know.”

My prediction?

Board members and shareholders are not smiling right now when they read the article and figure out the ROI of all those investments and staff hires they approved to fund the generation of 5.8% of sales. 

The Discovery Of Insight And Brands Embracing It

There’s an article on the front page of today’s WSJ Marketplace titled, “Subaru’s Got A Big Problem: Its Selling Too Many Cars.”

Not sure how many of the readers have seen any recent Subaru advertising, but the ads might be some of the very best that capture the emotional context of the brand experience.

There are no spokespeople, no cars driving in an unrealistic environment, no cars speeding at 100 mph, no gimmicks, no animation, no flashing rebate numbers.

The ads are snapshots of the common life of their brand equity target customers.

The picture of the Subaru in this morning’s WSJ displays the Subaru SUV up against a backdrop of a forest of trees.

The name of the model showcased is “Crosstrek.”

Some of my friends say that I watch way too much television.

And I am the first to say that television is really no longer the premiere medium of advertising. 

Broadcast today spans the spectrum across everything from the laptop to the smartphone to the iPad… anything that connects to the Cloud.

One of the reasons why I watch television is to watch the commercials.

Sometimes, I actually watch commercials, see how bad and off target they are and then pick up the phone and connect with the CEO of the brand being advertised and actually net new business.

I don’t make that up.

There are a lot of brands out there today in which the ad is nothing more than the CMO speaking from a podium about the physical make-up of the physical brand. 

Nothing about the brand experience and interaction with the brand.  Nothing about the person using it. Nothing emotional.

As I have shared in this blog before, in order for the human brain to store something encountered in long-term memory, the right side – the emotional side – of the brain has to be stimulated.

Now back to Subaru. 

If you Google Subaru, there is a set of links that appear on the first page about how Subaru has become the top brand purchased by Lesbians.

I can see how Subaru might be favored by Lesbians.  Go back up a few lines and read about the picture of the Subaru Crosstrek in this morning’s WSJ.

Whatever the case, the ads that are running right now on TV capture the experience and not taut how the vehicle physically is built nor place the car racing on an imaginary, high-speed track.

Subaru is cashing in on how insight can drive their car sales. Literally. 

There’s another set of ads that I applaud.

They feature the brand experience and interaction with one of the P&G brands… Swiffer. 

When I first saw one of the ads, I immediately thought there had to have been one fabulous account planner working with the P&G creative team.

The ads feature an older retired couple interacting with the product.

Part of me thinks that the couple might just be the grandparents of the account planner and he took the camera guy over to their house on a Saturday morning unannounced and gave them a Swiffer and said try it out.

I don’t really think that P&G is running the ads to target seniors.

I think that the ads actually target the Millennials.

The Millennials likely perceive the senior couple in some ways like their “helicopter parents,” and the commercial as a YouTube video.

All of that is much more trustworthy to a Millennial as they watch “TV” on their iPad.

I know that for some of the MBA marketing folks and agency A/Es, I might be speaking in a foreign language they don’t understand.

There is actually a series of these Swiffer ads and they are all smack on target as far as I am concerned.

Lastly, there was an article about 10 days ago in the WSJ about KIA and the success of their KIA Soul ads.

These are the ads with the hamsters driving the KIA Soul and dancing to funky street music.

KIA developed the Soul and launched the campaign to target Millennials.

The article cites KIA Soul 2013 sales exceeding projected goals.

Fascinating however, is that the folks buying KIA Souls are not the Millennials. 

But, instead, the Boomers.  The Aging Boomers.

Turns out that the jiving Hamsters reach deep into the Boomer headset and bring back the nostalgia of their youth.

Left-brain MBAs and A/Es will understand this… the KIA Soul is also a quasi-SUV that is very easy to get into vs. the conventional SUV.

There’s a bunch of hype this week about how media buying is being automated.

Some of the writers go so far as to speculate that advertising, as we know it, will be automated soon too.

Some folks… especially the ad agency A/Es like to tell clients that what I do is research… data analytics.

Actually computers can do data analytics far faster than I can.

That’s why I type these blogs on my MacBook Pro.

My title is Discovery Chief.

Computers… and left-brain MBA execudites… often fail at discovering insight.

Folks like me and the observant, grass-roots creatives working on brands like Subaru, Swifter and KIA Soul indeed glean insights and bring brands to life by embracing the insight!

The Geek, The Elite and The MBA Ignorant

This blog is about a die-hard topic with a twist.

I often write about the MBAs and Wall Street and some of the stupid stuff that they cannot stop themselves from doing.

Today, I specifically put some of the hot client work on the back burner to highlight and expand on that stupid stuff.

If you read onward through the writing, I will reward you with something completely different in the next blog post. 

Promise.  Cross my heart.

I am writing this on a Tuesday night. This past Sunday I spent part of the morning working on a project for a law firm at one of the Atlanta coffee houses.

As I sat down at a table and turned on my MacBook Pro, I chatted briefly with a guy at the table next to mine.

I try not to stereotype, but this guy had a “geek” twist to his looks and personality. 

He had a PC versus an Apple and a Nokia versus an iPhone.

Shortly after we chatted, a young lady showed up at his table and they started talking about business stuff.

The young lady introduced herself as a “marketing assistant” at Coca-Cola. 

I need to mention that they were both mid-twenty-something Millennials.

I wasn’t paying too much attention to their conversation, but the next thing I knew they were talking about taking his product to market and, as he said, “make my millions on the IPO.”

Okay.  I started to pay a bit more attention.

Their talk seemed to center on a course flow where he would ask for the young lady’s input and then she would give him an answer. 

It quickly occurred to me, that these Millennials were actually constructing his business plan.

I tried to stay quiet and not invade into their discussion, but I finally had to butt in when the young lady asked the geek entrepreneur who was his target market and he replied that he had not set any parameters around it nor did he believe it was all that important to even do it.

“Afterall” he said… “Its any kid between 3-to-8 years of age.”

I commented that I could not help but overhear what they were talking about and I was curious what was the product being developed.

“It’s a kid’s product” was the reply.

I then asked if either had any kids.  Both replied no.

Had they gone out and spoke to parents and kids in developing their product idea and both replied no.

Had they spent time watching Cartoon Network, Nick, Disney or Sesame Street, and they replied that they did not “waste time watching TV.”

When I suggested that entrepreneurs really needed to get out and meet, observe and bounce ideas off of their assumed targeted consumers, both quickly interrupted me.

She spoke first. 

“Do you realize that I work for Coke and obviously I know the marketplace.”

He spoke next.

“I have an MBA from Yale.  I am from the Northeast.  Do you have an MBA?”

I answered, “yes, I have an MBA that I got to learn what not to do and I have an MA to learn how to observe people to learn what to do.”

They both then agreed, “you obviously then have no understanding about how you start up a business venture.”

Okay.

(I promise, I am not making this up)

There’s an article in this morning’s Wall Street Journal about McDonald’s pulling rein on store growth based on a significant drop in sales.

The article goes on to highlight how McDonald’s attempted to be Politically Correct and avoid the wrath of the DC and Eastern Elite in their criticism of fast food in its role in causing American obesity.

McDonald’s aggressively has marketed its Kids Meals now complete with fresh apple slices. 

They have spent millions rolling out their new “egg white only” breakfast sandwiches.

No more push on the French fries, but more push on the healthy, good-for-you, salads. 

Shoot, forget those milk shakes and select a non-fat yogurt smoothie instead.

A Wall Street analyst is quoted in the article as highlighting McDonald’s sales are on a decline as partly due to Wendy’s launch of its Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger. 

The analysis cites the Wendy’s Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger as the best-selling new QSR product in the last decade.

Whether it is what we fuel our car with to what we use to warm the house to what we elect to do regarding our diet, word-use, hero-figures and child discipline, those DC and Eastern Elite believe that they can make market changes drive out the “evil” brands that are corrupting society.

My gut says that there is likely a close relationship between the DC and Eastern Elite and the professors lecturing to the MBA majors. 

Certainly, those academics found at the Ivy League schools like Yale. 

I might not be a PH.D., but my best advice is to frequently get out beyond the lecterns, the textbooks, the corporate facades and go sit down next to the common folks.

Watch them.  Talk to them.  Ask for their opinion and perspective.

Maybe… just maybe… go and order one of those Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburgers and listen to your gut as it dances in the fun of something juicy and tasty for a change.

Cheers. 

What Not To Do... And What To Do!

I went to write this blog a few days ago when I retrieved the Atlanta magazine from my mailbox. 

I wrote about a half page of thoughts… and emotions!  But then, I got a call from a friend to grab a martini and I stopped.

Sometimes taking a break is a good thing and actually turns out a better perspective… and I am the first to say that the martini helps too!

I am writing this blog as I drink a cup of coffee at a new Jewish deli that opened up in Atlanta called The General Muir. 

You will see how The General Muir enters into the rattling below.

First… I have to comment that as much as I dislike what Atlanta magazine has elected to evolve into, I cannot critique the magazine for doing what it did.  After all, the magazine is in the business to sell ad space.

The current issue of the Atlanta magazine is its healthcare issue. 

There are a lot of print media that are jumping quickly on board with their specialized healthcare publications. 

The historic print media struggles today to maintain its ad spending revenue levels as hard copy circulation continues to tank.

To be honest, with all the healthcare reform going on right now, consumers are not necessarily big readers of healthcare ads.

But… we have to remember that healthcare, despite all the hype in Washington, is still a fraternal order.

The current issue is loaded with healthcare ads.  Lots of hospital ads. Lots of specialty care ads.  Everything from orthopedic groups to cancer care centers. 

The ads … and the marketing “managers” along with the ad agencies creating them… appear to dwell among their clones.

The word “care” appears in almost every ad.

So do the pictures with guys and gals sporting the white lab coats.

The ads trumpet self-declared quality and compassion. 

I have already taken the magazine and plan to use it to drive my business.

Like I said, I cannot hold Atlanta magazine responsible.

But I have no remorse in holding the ad agencies accountable.

Ad agencies talk the talk about their innovative thinking sets, but its ads like these that quickly strip away the clothes and reveal the nakedness of the agency’s top priority to receive the client compensation versus deliver the unique brand platforms.

I will use this edition of Atlanta magazine to showcase to clients what not to do.

Enough said.

Let’s shift to The General Muir.

The General Muir is a talked about addition to the Atlanta restaurant mix.

Ben and Jennifer Johnson and Shelley Sweet, the owners of another landmark Atlanta restaurant, are the owners who crafted The General Muir.

It is located nearly across the street from the CDC and just up the hill from Emory University. 

A larger percentage of Emory’s student body and faculty support actually has Jewish root.

General Muir is the name of the refugee ship that brought Jennifer’s mother and grandparents Holocaust survivors to New York after WWII.

In crafting the restaurant concept, its design, its interior, its graphics, its collateral materials… to be honest… every touch-point of The General Muir brand experience, Ben, Jennifer and Shelley went and dwelled with both the owners and the diners of the much-sought, upper Manhattan, authentic New York Jewish restaurant-delicatessens.

No question that Shelly who gets to the restaurant at 4am in the morning, has made it her mission to deliver a brand experience that does not have to communicate self-proclaimed personality, awards and recognition nor the attributes of what comprises the experience.

I encourage readers to check out their website… www.thegeneralmuir.com.

When I leave this morning, not only do I feel a sense of roots, inclusion, tradition and comfort… I very quickly believe that the passion about crafting the essence of a brand that I preach is a calling and a mission.

Shelley’s creation and her day-to-day dedication of opening the doors of The General Muir is also a calling and a mission.

One of my healthcare clients… a team of cardiac surgeons… is very passionate about what the team achieves with patients each and every day.

Nearly all of them are under the age of 45.

They have no ads running in the current issue of Atlanta Magazine.  And even if they did, I doubt that it would be anything like the ads running.

They go beyond the context of the tried and blue.

I encourage the readers of this blog to pick up a copy of Atlanta Magazine and page through it and observe what not to do.

I also encourage the readers of this blog to visit The General Muir and observe what to do.

And then check and see if Jennifer is in the restaurant and have her bring you Horse’s Neck Cocktail, some chopped liver and an assorted pickle plate. 

And then raise your glasses and make a toast of congratulations that Ben, Jennifer and Shelley were brave enough to craft a brand experience that makes The General Muir distinctive... and what to do... from the herd of corporate management that can’t.

The Reality Of A Market In Transitional Change

Over the weekend, I watched a good amount of the Cooking Channel. 

For those of you who do not watch it, the Cooking Channel is Scripps Networks remake of Martha Stewart’s Living Network.

Its also where Scripps moved its prime time base of demonstrative cooking programming to as it elected to showcase more “contest programming” shows on Food Network.

I think I wrote a blog about a year ago about how a lot of the network leadership has sunk into the mindset of placing more value on ratings vs. more value on brand stewardship. 

Food Network and GSN (Game Show Network) are becoming more and more and more like one another. 

And the Pawn shows are now found on everything from TLC to History Channel to National Geo to TruTV.    

Enough about the lack of network brand leadership.

I watched a show that aired on Cooking Channel at noon on Saturday that is a great demonstration of what I will term a catalyst of change.

The name of the show is My Grandmother’s Ravioli hosed by a guy named Mo Rocca.  The show features grandparents cooking treasured family recipes in their home kitchens.

The Italian grandparents featured on the show struck me personally.  They reminded me a bunch of the heritage of my family roots.  The grandmother was a lot like my grandmother who actually was a professional Italian cook.

They didn’t measure the ingredients, they didn’t craft the product for the camera, and they referred to the ingredients partly in abbreviated Italian names and partly in English.

It brought back real images that I fondly remembered from my days growing up.

I was intrigued two-fold.

Several years ago, I wrote a blog about YouTube and how it was changing market perceptions of “staging” in filming and bringing to life reality TV. 

The broadcast industry reacted and two camps emerged.

One camp quickly emerged that embraced the YouTube format … in fact, actually produced shows that were comprised of nothing but video clips posting on YouTube.

Networks like MTV, SPIKE TV, VH1 and TruTV quickly integrated YouTube reality TV largely driven by the belief that the younger emerging audience group – that each network was fashioned around reaching – would quickly shift from watching reality video online to watching their network programming on the TV.

Few networks understood what was actually emerging in front of them.  Few networks ever really reached a level of the success they had envisioned.

The other broadcast industry camp believed that it was their mission to differentiate the quality of production and provide the viewership base with much richer film quality versus “that cheap stuff” being posted on YouTube.

More ad agencies posted membership in the second camp than in the first camp. After all, what could those "masses" out on the streets even begin to know about the art of filming a commercial?

And to film a commercial that cheap???

I have no idea who the catalyst of change was housed at the Cooking Channel, but someone perhaps up there in Knoxville, Tennessee got to sipping some of that Smoking Mountain Kool-Aid and ventured out with a camera in the back of the pick-up truck to produce a new television show.

What intrigues me even more was how this show might very well be a catalyst of change in we are re-rooting ourselves in the reality of just who we are and our heritage.

There was nothing contrived in the show.  Nothing staged.  No primping.  Limited special lighting.

The show captured a scenario and information set that is of value today.

As the Boomers re-discover the kitchen and Millennials experience it for the first time, Betty Crocker’s recipes are honest, real and truthful… something of a rarity in our new electronic world.

The show captured a sense of roots. 

Something that is returning whether individuals seek it out in Live-Work-Play communities or individuals are confronting as employers chuck the idea of moving teams around every two or three years.

The show captured a reality that we can place ourselves in that is believable and true.

What catapulted Archie Bunker and All In The Family was that it brought to the screen something that was not only perceived real in its staging, but more than anything, it confronted the really of what took place in many homes.

If you read the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), you cannot help but be connected with the brand and operational challenge faced by JC Penney.

I vow to write a blog about JC Penney and highlight it as a great example of what to avoid doing with a brand.

But for the purpose of this blog post, I will only use it as a great example of where reality was dismissed at the expense of staging the brand.

In today’s WSJ, there is an article about Sears and how its CEO’s push to become the mass brand for technology and entertainment is not driving sales.

My bet is that 90 days from now, that CEO will be replaced.

Speaking of being replaced, the CEO of P&G was replaced with the resurrected past-CEO of P&G.  That is also becoming an ongoing drama in the WSJ.

To P&G’s credit – and perhaps the past CEO who was ousted – a number of their household cleaning and detergent brands have been crafted to reach the emerging Millennial home-makers.

My bet is that there are many at P&G who cannot accept that there are market changes that truly challenge the conventional models that moved Consumer Package Goods brands in the 1990s.

On the surface, My Grandmother’s Ravioli is a great experience to watch.  You will learn some very genuine ways to cook great family dinners. You will also find the show to be very real and identifiable.

From a brand and business perspective, My Grandmother’s Ravioli provides a glimpse into the architecture of what is emerging in the marketplace that smart brand teams will embrace.

Ciao!

What's Really Driving Neighborhood Change

Neighborhoods change.

I am sitting in a coffee house early on Sunday evening in an Atlanta intown neighborhood called Virginia-Highland.

This is where I lived for10 years before selling my house and moving into the Brookhaven neighborhood about 4 miles to the north.

When I purchased my home back in 2001, the neighborhoods was one of the true hip and hot Atlanta ‘hoods.

Homes were being renovated, new indy coffee houses were opening up and fun, funky retail sores were staying packed well into the evenings.

While not all, much of the renovation and new retail moving in was being birthed by the Atlanta gay community and bohemian couple-hood.

It was truly a fun neighborhood to live in back then.

Now as I sit here, I cannot overlook what some refer to as the “breeders.” 

Not only have the “mom & pops” pushed out the true mom & pop shops, but they have changed what had been cool to what is now true Gen X cocoon heaven.

When I walked into the coffee house tonight, I was notified that the place would be closing down at 8pm.

“After all, tonight is a school night when parents need to spend time with kids doing home work.”

Neighborhoods do indeed change.

On the drive over here I passed by a real estate office.

They had a sign out front stating that there is a shortage of homes to sell and if a person lists one with the firm today, they would get a rebate on the commission to sell it.

In fact, that sign is communicating something that is hitting the home page of the news websites and the top news stories on the digital television sets.

There are now more folks looking to buy versus folks seeking to sell.

The news media talks a lot about the impact of economic recovery. 

Yet, what is really driving real estates sales is more an affect of a generational change wave than true economic recovery.

No question that corporate career mobility is no longer dependent on where people physically reside. Thanks to the Internet, people can work from virtually anywhere.

Physical flexibility is freeing up many businesses to adapt more quickly and operate more flexible than the past… and that’s a very good thing.

Another factor at work is that so many home-owners are still faced with appraised value of their homes and larger mortgages that they owe.  

The cost of real estates still has not recovered to pre-Great Recession price points and many of today’s homeowners purchased their homes with little-to-no down payments.

And then there’s the generational shift that’s taking place that the media simply overlooks in what they report.

The Millennials are now entering into the nest-forming life-stage. 

With more and more of the Millennials entering into their 30-something years, owning a home is their #1 goal… much more important than corporate or career commitments.

Some of the folks that I present this information to quickly come back and say that many of the homes that are selling are 3+ bedrooms in size and conclude that first time home buyers are really not what’s driving home sales.

As I share in this blog, at least once a month, I try to get out on the streets and talk with audience groups.  Dwelling behind the walls of an office quickly generates a very restrictive viewpoint of the marketplace at large.

About two weeks ago, I interviewed about three-dozen Millennials about their house hunting journeys. 

Many of those I interviewed not only talked about their goals of finding a home they could call their own and “sinking down roots,” but they also talked about finding a home that they could “grow into” over time.

A side observation… they didn’t seem to have too much of an issue with rooms sitting empty in the home right now… as long as they had space over time that they could make use of versus having to go back through the home buying search all over again.

Millennials do not plan to engage in the home search again when they decide that they are ready to make the $1 million investment in birthing a kid.

Other business folks I talk with still hold onto the belief that once the first time homebuyers elect to have kids, they will move out to the ‘burbs.

Whether it’s the frustration of the home buying and banking game or the frustration of engaging in commute traffic, Millennials are very reluctant to consider any move further out into the ‘burbs.

If in reading this blog you become more fascinated about the driving force of new home sales, I encourage you to spend time watching the HGTV, DIY, TLC, BRAVO and Food Network neighborhood, real estate and home design shows.

The vast majority of those shows center on the Millennial home-buyers.

Part of the commentary Millennials make when working with their living space is driven by a high level of expectation that what they see in home looks like what pops up on their mobile version of Pinterest. 

Other commentary is driven by what all they believe can be down with a visit to IKEA or the neighborhood flea market.

Neighborhoods do indeed change.

But so do the dynamics of the generational group moving in. 

Onward Beyond Co-habbing With The Ad Agencies

Part of change is coming to terms and accepting that it is indeed taking place and embracing it.

Howard Schultz wrote a super book that premiered a couple of years ago titled, ONWARD.  The book is about “how Starbucks fought for its life, without losing its soul.”

Schultz shares the challenges that the coffee house icon embraced in a rapidly evolving market… and a rapidly evolving organization.

I think in my reading it, I was most moved when he elected to shut down the entire chain for a day – in the middle of the week – and re-focus the core product delivery, its presentation, its packaging and its product quality.

He also goes on to share about how the brand team had to re-evaluate its space style, look and design. 

And he also talks about the refinement of the logo… something that I believe I challenged in one of the early blogs I scripted some 100 blogs ago!

I am writing this blog in my new space in Atlanta. 

Note, I did not say “office” space.

I am sitting in a place that carries a brand name:  ROAM.

While the space I am sitting in is very cool and I plan to share more about it in future Emails, the intent of this blog post is to share more about the change I had to embrace… and the change that others are challenged to embrace as well.

About three years ago, I made a decision that part of me regrets… I moved my office space for part of my week into shared space offered by an ad agency.

A year ago, I shifted from the space at one agency to the space offered by another agency.

This is something that I will never do again.

Both of the agencies are staffed by nice, good, talented people.  Both agencies are owned by very nice, good and talented personalities.

Problem is, ad agencies really no longer work… not that they don’t do stuff and spend time crafting things.

While the teams inside the agency walls today come together every day, what they generate is more often what the business should not be doing.

And many of those agencies remain confined in physical walls that they spend a bunch of dollars on making look hip and cool!

Ad agencies are out of sync. 

If you do not believe so, go Google a set of agencies… big ones, small ones, national ones, local ones… you will see a bunch of consistency.

The focus is most on making their clients happy. 

They will showcase their own branded “planning” process.  They will all talk about going in and speaking with top client management, marketing and sales.

They will highlight how they take what clients say about their products and how they develop creative to communicate it and media plans that will generate the reach and frequency to convince customers to believe it.

If you ask them what they do, the mantra is memorized.  And it has not changed. 

Sure… they will talk about integrating social media and online communications, but it’s all anchored around “building brand awareness” and the ability to “interact and sell in their client’s brand.”

My scripting this Email was delayed by about an hour while I contacted one of my client’s media teams. 

The media team brought a plan to the table two weeks ago that the client’s retail manager quickly dismissed and voiced concern over in that it “was no different” from what had been brought to the table before.

When I dwell among creative free lancers, film producers, ethnographers, brand inventors, entrepreneurs, app engineers… I hear them speak in a very different context than the context spoken inside ad agencies.

Many of these folks work in non-conventional space and rather inventive environments.

They elect to explore new ideas and challenge others with whom they relate.

As colloquial a phrase as it is… they do “break outside of the box.”

Here at EXPERIENCE, we are driven on a set of fundamental principles that truly do not match up well with the environment of the conventional ad agency.

Our strategy is not driven by the client, but instead by the consumer.

We challenge convention, make clients feel uncomfortable and do not shy away from it.

We re-invent conventional models of doing things relative to the execution of the brand experience, its delivery and they way it is brought to life in the communications dialogue with the consumers defining it.

I am writing this in the year 2013.  The year 2014 is now on the flow charts of my clients’ annual plans. The year 2018 is in the five year projection stats.

Ad Agencies had their hey-day in the 1970s to be sure.

I moved into a new context of work environment and will not move back ever again in my ownership of EXPERIENCE into the ad agency surrounds.

As Howard Schultz write… it is now moving ONWARD… and beyond!