“I’d like 3 ads, 7 TV spots, 2 emails, some direct mail and a website”
It seems rather strange to me when you consider how fast marketing has changed, yet so many big businesses revert back to age-old methods to secure their next great advertising campaign and/or firm. Despite the fact their old-fashioned processes do not work!
Specifically, I’m referring to allowing “procurement” to handle the RFP duties to help their companies save money and treat the process of an advertising agency search as just another can of wax in their quest for their next full service marketing agency that will give them the biggest creative bang for the deepest discounted price.
I just went through this process with a big insurance company and my firm, Johnson Direct, did not make it to “round two” of the process. Never mind that our documented successes includes the likes of AAA Life, Northwestern Mutual, GMAC Insurance, CUNA Mutual, Humana, 13 different blue cross plans, and at least another dozen, reputable insurance companies. We must have answered the fill-in-the-blank questionnaire incorrectly (maybe they didn’t like our choice of font?). Or, perhaps we refused to give away the farm, err, I mean firm.
In my world great advertising and marketing begins with goals and a budget. From there, you can present ROMI scenarios that make sense and you can even volley-up a testing plan that may help the company even exceed their stated goals.
Am I biased? Well, results should matter. If your marketing produces results, it’s an investment, not an expense. It’s not like that can of spam that the cafeteria is serving up for lunch today. Seriously, have you ever tried to reason with someone in procurement? Nice folks, they just don’t GET marketing and they surely don’t understand the concept of direct, measurable marketing. I know, I’ve been dealing with these folks for 25 years and, win or lose; the model just does not work.
Isn’t it time for businesses worldwide to get with the times? The 1970’s are long gone.
