Believe it or not we have entered the post-Twitter era. Just a year after its boom, experts are wondering: what will be the next popular social media network?
There are several that have crept up, such as Google Buzz, which is basically a copycat of Twitter, but it hasn't caught on as well as expected. I have been reading more and more about Foursquare - the uber creative interactive app that offers digital crowd-sourcing and has the potential to revolutionize peer-to-peer marketing.
Foursquare has been signing on big marketing contracts left and right, and is becoming popular by the day. From a marketing point of view, it's an excellent way to promote a business by getting Foursquare folks to digitally "check-in" to their location, offer special deals and promotions to "mayors" of places (mayor= a person who "checks-in" the most over others).
It's an incredible and adaptable social media application that is already transforming the way people connect and share information about places they go and experience. At Fuseideas, we vote YES to Foursquare!
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3/23/10
Five key challenges small ad agencies face today
Sometimes challenges feel endless for small business owners, but overcoming the obstacles is part of identifying them. As a small business CEO, here are the top five challenges I tackle every day to make sure my business grows and thrives!
1.) Commitment to new business. It's a juggling act of time, creativity, work, cash, and staffing, but going after new business is just as vital as maintaining your accounts, streamlining good work for clients, and keeping the pipeline full of new opportunities for them.
2.) Moving up the food chain to compete with larger agencies on bigger pieces of business. Small agencies shouldn't be afraid of going after massive projects or large accounts. There are concrete benefits in being serviced by small ad agencies, but it is a challenge to compete with big fish agencies. Internal agency branding is important as well - showcase expertise and project work and make it viral with social media.
3.) Being stereotyped as a particular type of agency. While hyperfocusing is already challenging, specialization can backfire and leave you out of big RFPs your agency can service. Try to avoid being the hi-tech agency, or the lifestyle only agency. Capitalizing on your expertise can help you leverage and win new business without being sterotyped.
4.) Getting the attention of agency search consultants who only pick from their regular flock of agencies. I face this challenge very often. It benefits businesses to look outside their list of regulars and be open to fresh new ideas, especially in today's ever changing environment. Getting your agency's name and message out there requires dedication, persistence and time well spent.
5.) The normal small business operations issues. Cash flow, staffing, time lags, client management, reporting, accounting are required daily operations that must be handled and managed well. Time management skills are put to the test with this challenge; for any machine to work, it must be well oiled and maintained!
As a business owner, finding a balance within the load of all the responsibility is key. It isn't easy, and there are always setbacks I have to manage. But, I keep thinking that by tackling challenges head on, I take the first step in overtaking them.
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1.) Commitment to new business. It's a juggling act of time, creativity, work, cash, and staffing, but going after new business is just as vital as maintaining your accounts, streamlining good work for clients, and keeping the pipeline full of new opportunities for them.
2.) Moving up the food chain to compete with larger agencies on bigger pieces of business. Small agencies shouldn't be afraid of going after massive projects or large accounts. There are concrete benefits in being serviced by small ad agencies, but it is a challenge to compete with big fish agencies. Internal agency branding is important as well - showcase expertise and project work and make it viral with social media.
3.) Being stereotyped as a particular type of agency. While hyperfocusing is already challenging, specialization can backfire and leave you out of big RFPs your agency can service. Try to avoid being the hi-tech agency, or the lifestyle only agency. Capitalizing on your expertise can help you leverage and win new business without being sterotyped.
4.) Getting the attention of agency search consultants who only pick from their regular flock of agencies. I face this challenge very often. It benefits businesses to look outside their list of regulars and be open to fresh new ideas, especially in today's ever changing environment. Getting your agency's name and message out there requires dedication, persistence and time well spent.
5.) The normal small business operations issues. Cash flow, staffing, time lags, client management, reporting, accounting are required daily operations that must be handled and managed well. Time management skills are put to the test with this challenge; for any machine to work, it must be well oiled and maintained!
As a business owner, finding a balance within the load of all the responsibility is key. It isn't easy, and there are always setbacks I have to manage. But, I keep thinking that by tackling challenges head on, I take the first step in overtaking them.
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www.fuseideas.com
3/18/10
Find inspiration in little things and meet challenges head on
A case study by Fuseideas CEO, Dennis Franczak
Every agency owner goes through a day, a week, or even longer where things don’t go your way. You might now win some new business, a client might decide to stop spending money, your employees might start feeling down, or someone might even decide they don’t need your services anymore…you get the picture. Having been in this business long enough, Dennis Franczak, our CEO at Fuseideas, realized that doing this is a marathon, not a sprint, and nothing always is perfect and how you deal with it tells a lot about your character, but also your agency.
As a small agency owner, you have to deal with the wide variety of emotions that it takes to run a successful business. When things don’t go your way, are you pouting in the corner, blaming factors beyond your control, blaming the client, or taking a real look at how you can make your business better for not only you, but your entire company? Dennis thought it would be beneficial to other small agency owners to share how met a recent challenge he faced at Fuseideas during the crisis:
“Last spring/summer, Fuseideas faced a real crisis. The economy was imploding, staff morale was down, our rent payments were too high and we weren’t winning any new business. Things seemed very bleak for us indeed. I remember the day when I bottomed out and finally decided I was going to do something about it. I had gone out the night before to commiserate with some friends about my plight and needless to say, had a little too much to drink. The next day, my wife and her neighborhood friends decided to go out for a day of shopping (of all things!) and I was left to not only try and watch my kids and the neighbor’s kids (10 of them) with a hangover, but also have to deal with the stress of being in a huge slump in my business.
As I laid out on the back porch with a splitting headache pitying myself, watching happy children beat me over the head with nerf bats and shoot me with squirt guns, I realized I needed to stop feeling sorry for myself and thank God for the positive things I had. My kids were laughing, happy, carrying on and I realized it that I owed it to them to do something about it.
I called my partner Rich over in Prague and talked about what we needed to do. He agreed. He had been having similar thoughts and that we needed to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of what we could control.
So what did we do? We did the OPPOSITE of what people thought we would do. We stopped chasing tons of new business and focused on our current clients. We visited each and every client and told them how important their business was to us and how our partnership with them was helping us survive. During those conversations, they told us what they liked about us, what more they wanted from us and how we could help them. Those conversations turned into new projects which carried us through the summer and resulted in a profitable 2009.
We also fired clients. Yes. We fired clients. As a small agency, you need to focus on your good relationships and partnerships, not focus on trying to work with clients that don’t appreciate your efforts, or try to make you do work at the lowest prices, and in short, treat you like a vendor. In a struggling economy, you need to work with people that appreciate what you bring to the table. To that end, we made a concerted effort to prune our client list and focus our company on servicing the clients that we felt were true partners with us.
It was the best decision we ever made. Clients were re-energized with us, morale improved, profitability increased and all of the sudden the clouds cleared and we started winning new business again.
Not every single day is going to go your way. There are always going to be ups and downs. But I learned a lesson last summer that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Take stock of the good things in your life, let them give you strength, so that you can make the tough decisions that need to be made to run a successful business so that you can provide for your family, your staff, and yourself.”
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Every agency owner goes through a day, a week, or even longer where things don’t go your way. You might now win some new business, a client might decide to stop spending money, your employees might start feeling down, or someone might even decide they don’t need your services anymore…you get the picture. Having been in this business long enough, Dennis Franczak, our CEO at Fuseideas, realized that doing this is a marathon, not a sprint, and nothing always is perfect and how you deal with it tells a lot about your character, but also your agency.
As a small agency owner, you have to deal with the wide variety of emotions that it takes to run a successful business. When things don’t go your way, are you pouting in the corner, blaming factors beyond your control, blaming the client, or taking a real look at how you can make your business better for not only you, but your entire company? Dennis thought it would be beneficial to other small agency owners to share how met a recent challenge he faced at Fuseideas during the crisis:
“Last spring/summer, Fuseideas faced a real crisis. The economy was imploding, staff morale was down, our rent payments were too high and we weren’t winning any new business. Things seemed very bleak for us indeed. I remember the day when I bottomed out and finally decided I was going to do something about it. I had gone out the night before to commiserate with some friends about my plight and needless to say, had a little too much to drink. The next day, my wife and her neighborhood friends decided to go out for a day of shopping (of all things!) and I was left to not only try and watch my kids and the neighbor’s kids (10 of them) with a hangover, but also have to deal with the stress of being in a huge slump in my business.
As I laid out on the back porch with a splitting headache pitying myself, watching happy children beat me over the head with nerf bats and shoot me with squirt guns, I realized I needed to stop feeling sorry for myself and thank God for the positive things I had. My kids were laughing, happy, carrying on and I realized it that I owed it to them to do something about it.
I called my partner Rich over in Prague and talked about what we needed to do. He agreed. He had been having similar thoughts and that we needed to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of what we could control.
So what did we do? We did the OPPOSITE of what people thought we would do. We stopped chasing tons of new business and focused on our current clients. We visited each and every client and told them how important their business was to us and how our partnership with them was helping us survive. During those conversations, they told us what they liked about us, what more they wanted from us and how we could help them. Those conversations turned into new projects which carried us through the summer and resulted in a profitable 2009.
We also fired clients. Yes. We fired clients. As a small agency, you need to focus on your good relationships and partnerships, not focus on trying to work with clients that don’t appreciate your efforts, or try to make you do work at the lowest prices, and in short, treat you like a vendor. In a struggling economy, you need to work with people that appreciate what you bring to the table. To that end, we made a concerted effort to prune our client list and focus our company on servicing the clients that we felt were true partners with us.
It was the best decision we ever made. Clients were re-energized with us, morale improved, profitability increased and all of the sudden the clouds cleared and we started winning new business again.
Not every single day is going to go your way. There are always going to be ups and downs. But I learned a lesson last summer that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Take stock of the good things in your life, let them give you strength, so that you can make the tough decisions that need to be made to run a successful business so that you can provide for your family, your staff, and yourself.”
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3/12/10
Four things agencies must do right this year
We've all seen the swanky offices of big-time agencies, the fancy coffee makers and state of the art conference rooms with sound-proof windows. There are many things agencies have done wrong during the recession, such as laying off expert staff in a panic, or not prioritizing business needs properly. However, there are agencies who worked through the toughest time in a plaguing 2009 economy, and now as the recovery begins with its noticeably slow pace, here are four things that our CEO, Dennis Franczak, suggests agencies must do right in order to be successful as we move into the new decade.
1) Spend time thinking about the client. It's one thing to execute a plan and produce deliverables to the client, and clearly another to provide "thinking time" for them. Thinking about a client's business is the most genuine part of the relationship. It's productive, it's personal, and it communicates to the client that you care and are interested about their brand's well-being.
2) Enough with the constant billing! I can't tell how people should run their business, but I can understand the frustration clients face when they receive their monthly bill and it includes charges for each time they picked up the phone to call their agency for advice or direction. If agencies want to produce good work, then the communication between client and agency should be open. Fear of over charging can lead to major miscommunications and other blunders that can be costly on both sides. It's important to agree on an estimate for each job that makes sense to both sides, but ballooning fees that make no sense to the client will eventually set you back.
3) The big idea, re-energize! Finding the big idea for every ad, PR and social media campaign is the key to success. Unfortuantely, many agencies don't spend the time to come up with one solid positioning statement for a brand, and rather create a mosaic of ideas that relate, but don't necessarily communicate a strong message. We're in a message cluttered world now more than ever. Agencies must work closely with their clients to develop those key messages that will form a holistic marketing campaign
4) Credibility and then more credibility. In an era where everyone is the writer of something, information lacks credibility. Agencies stand out because of their quality of work, their track record of servicing clients, awards, successful campaigns, and so forth. Spend the time to do some internal PR and use the tools of today to communicate what your agency does to add value to your clients' brands. Writing a concise blog that provides useful information that readers can benefit from is a great beginning. Discussing agency work in a case study is another way to start building credibility. You will shine not only in SEO searches, but in the eyes of your current and prospective clients.
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www.fuseideas.com
1) Spend time thinking about the client. It's one thing to execute a plan and produce deliverables to the client, and clearly another to provide "thinking time" for them. Thinking about a client's business is the most genuine part of the relationship. It's productive, it's personal, and it communicates to the client that you care and are interested about their brand's well-being.
2) Enough with the constant billing! I can't tell how people should run their business, but I can understand the frustration clients face when they receive their monthly bill and it includes charges for each time they picked up the phone to call their agency for advice or direction. If agencies want to produce good work, then the communication between client and agency should be open. Fear of over charging can lead to major miscommunications and other blunders that can be costly on both sides. It's important to agree on an estimate for each job that makes sense to both sides, but ballooning fees that make no sense to the client will eventually set you back.
3) The big idea, re-energize! Finding the big idea for every ad, PR and social media campaign is the key to success. Unfortuantely, many agencies don't spend the time to come up with one solid positioning statement for a brand, and rather create a mosaic of ideas that relate, but don't necessarily communicate a strong message. We're in a message cluttered world now more than ever. Agencies must work closely with their clients to develop those key messages that will form a holistic marketing campaign
4) Credibility and then more credibility. In an era where everyone is the writer of something, information lacks credibility. Agencies stand out because of their quality of work, their track record of servicing clients, awards, successful campaigns, and so forth. Spend the time to do some internal PR and use the tools of today to communicate what your agency does to add value to your clients' brands. Writing a concise blog that provides useful information that readers can benefit from is a great beginning. Discussing agency work in a case study is another way to start building credibility. You will shine not only in SEO searches, but in the eyes of your current and prospective clients.
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www.fuseideas.com
3/5/10
Five tips on how to do great creative in 2010
It's no secret; creative is going through a crisis along with everything else in our economy. But, it doesn't have to be that way. The best work can be done if an agency understands how to challenge itself by mastering the art of quality - not necessarily quantity - and by leveraging the right technology tools to bring a marketing vision to life. Here are five tips on creative in the face of a new decade by our very own Dennis Franczak, CEO of Fuseideas:
1: Think big, even on small budgets. It's a modest philosophy that can yield high returns. Agencies, especially small ones, shouldn't be afraid to think big when the budgets are small. Aspiring to great work, will bring even better work. Agencies need to place trust in their expert staff and their capabilities.
2: Leverage technology to bring the idea to life. This is a no-brainer, but with so much technology evolving out there, agencies constantly need to monitor and be on the lookout on how to make their creative even more cutting edge so it can stand out. There's no greater feeling than having your work align seamlessly with the client's brand strategy.
3: Think multiple channels. Traditional, new media, interactive, all channels must work in harmony these days more than ever. It's important to understand new marketing dynamics, from social networks, to new interactive apps and how they can work best with traditional media in order to provide a holistic approach to a client's marketing campaign.
4: Challenge traditional ways of thinking. In order to evolve, we must assess and reassess. Constantly. Success lies in asking the right questions and challenging the old way of doing things. Embracing the success of the past, will help shape future success, but only if agencies understand what elements should change. Challenge keeps us on our toes, and keeps us thinking forward.
5: Spend time doing multiple concepts to get to the right idea. Prep work is the most important part of generating a marketing campaign. Look at your toolbox and decide what tools make sense to use in order to bring a concept to life. Building blocks with a strategic concept in mind will create a solid campaign. The best ideas will come after you guide the concept in the right direction.
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1: Think big, even on small budgets. It's a modest philosophy that can yield high returns. Agencies, especially small ones, shouldn't be afraid to think big when the budgets are small. Aspiring to great work, will bring even better work. Agencies need to place trust in their expert staff and their capabilities.
2: Leverage technology to bring the idea to life. This is a no-brainer, but with so much technology evolving out there, agencies constantly need to monitor and be on the lookout on how to make their creative even more cutting edge so it can stand out. There's no greater feeling than having your work align seamlessly with the client's brand strategy.
3: Think multiple channels. Traditional, new media, interactive, all channels must work in harmony these days more than ever. It's important to understand new marketing dynamics, from social networks, to new interactive apps and how they can work best with traditional media in order to provide a holistic approach to a client's marketing campaign.
4: Challenge traditional ways of thinking. In order to evolve, we must assess and reassess. Constantly. Success lies in asking the right questions and challenging the old way of doing things. Embracing the success of the past, will help shape future success, but only if agencies understand what elements should change. Challenge keeps us on our toes, and keeps us thinking forward.
5: Spend time doing multiple concepts to get to the right idea. Prep work is the most important part of generating a marketing campaign. Look at your toolbox and decide what tools make sense to use in order to bring a concept to life. Building blocks with a strategic concept in mind will create a solid campaign. The best ideas will come after you guide the concept in the right direction.
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3/1/10
Why auto DMs on Twitter are a no
Twitter has evolved to one of the most immediate and effective marketing tools in the social media world. As Twitter continues to filter through junk, it has started scanning spammers and allowing users to block them if necessary. But, generic, automatically sent Direct Messages on Twitter are simply annoying and clutter your inbox. For some, it's a top reason to unfollow people. Simply stated: don't automatically DM people with a special offer or a link to your site. Instead, make it personal. We hope the next step in the Twitter evolution will be a more personalized forum, where information can be shared in an effective way that promotes good marketing practices. We love seeing direct messages thanking us for an RT, or something we might be particularly interested in. DMs have the potential of building real relationships on Twitter and provide an opportunity for quality networking. Don't ruin that by offering an automatic DM with specials that few care about!
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