It’s Hard to Know Where to Spend Your Money
“It’s hard to know where to spend your money.” This is a quote from Mat Zucker at Agency.com, an Omnicom Shop from Adweek.
I circled that quote three times over because it optimized the confusion and quandary most agencies have today. They really don’t know. They are not sure whether they should ethically advise their clients to shift major budget to the web or protect their existing bread and butter in print and TV. They don’t know whether to build a microsite, re-build the existing corporate site or build landing pages within social networks like Facebook. They simply are more confused, conflicted and truthfully unable to make good strategic recommendations going forward. So, they guess and pontificate and recommend using old school “push” methods and creative mentality that does not work on the web, costing corporations billions in lost marketing dollars.
There is no reason for confusion. It just takes a little guts to do something new for your client, or if you are the client, new for your company. Find out what your target audience does, where they go, what they like and then use those channels and information to market to them.
Aaron Kahlow is managing partner of BusinessOnLine and chairman of the Online Marketing Summit. He is a regular columnist for Electronic Retailer magazine.
Tags: aaron kahlow, ad spend, adweek, agency.com, businessonlione, mat zucker, online marketing
March 27th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Hey I just saw your comments on the quote from Adweek.
Actually, this quote was out of context, so let me clarify so you don’t think I’m an idiot.
What I said was that, with so many emerging and proven choices and variations in what is quantifiable or can demonstrate impact, it’s hard for clients to know exactly where to spend their money — it’s our job as valued stewards for brands in the digital age to help them figure it out. (this last part wasn’t in there).
Agencies can be humble about this but some of us do know or at least can help clients sort through it and make some wise choices, worthwhile tests, and optimize accordingly. It doesn’t have to be just about guts but it does require in some cases just doing it and building on or scaling what works and what doesn’t.