“What are you going to do if the ball is hit TO YOU?”
A coach named BO, yelling that continuously from behind the dugout fence.
This was a popular refrain growing up. When I was playing baseball, the mantra of coaches, parents, and teammates, seemed to be the same….
“What are you going to do if the ball is hit TO YOU?”
Runners on 1st and 3rd, one out. I am playing shortstop.
Now, there are quite a few possibilities that can happen, if the ball is hit to me…..it depends on the speed of the ball, where the runners are when I field it…..and, a few others.
But, the focus (and message) was on being prepared, and focused.
It wasn’t about the physical aspects of the game, it was on the mental side. It was a coach telling his players to think about what they would do – what will you do with THE BALL, if it is hit to you.
What a lesson.
So many of these little tidbits of learnings happen when we are young, and we don’t even know that there is a valuable nugget of experience for our future, right in front of our eyes….
“ANDY – WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO IF THE BALL IS HIT TO YOU?”
In business, for most – the ball is hit to each of us, on a daily basis.
But what happens when the ball is being hit to us, and the people around us are not on the same page – and worse yet, our teammates don’t have gloves, bats, or the mindset to play like us?
The people “around us” I am referring to could be co-workers, they could be peers --- but for many companies, they are the PROSPECTS you are trying to sell.
In our world of digital media, the people “around us” I refer to are Advertising Agencies.
Last week, John Ebberts of Adexchanger, asked me for my predications on 2011. I kept it short and sweet.
“Major advertisers will begin the process of looking towards smaller, more nimble agencies, who are heavy in engineering, and creative talent – and less reliant on media planning and buying. 2011 will be the beginning of the trend of "smaller independent shops" taking away significant business from larger more established agencies and holding companies.”
Today in Digiday, DJ Edgerton writes:
“For the most part, the typical agency business model still resembles a walled society in which the leadership continues to steadfastly defend its desire for omnipotent control over all facets of client services. In the days of push-messaging, this ability to control the message was paramount to client success and winning new business.
Those days are fading fast. The effectiveness and efficiency of this model are slipping away amid a convergence of forces from both sides of the table. Consumers are demanding greater transparency in their relationships with brands, while brand marketers face a critical mandate to evolve their strategies to stay ahead of new consumption models and consumer demands. The drive toward a two-way conversation has left most closed-loop agencies scrambling to figure out where they fit in.
As technology evolves at a breakneck pace, most traditional agencies find it virtually impossible to maintain the necessary skill set and agility inside the “castle” of a large holding company environment. This sluggish pace inherently makes it difficult to stay on the forefront of innovation. Even the most adroit agencies have a tough time achieving and maintaining expertise in all emergent technologies.”
Many vendors are selling into situations where the client cannot readily answer, “What are you going to do if the ball is hit to you?”
Big companies are going through the motions. They will tell you they know the world is changing……but the true question is, are they prepared to react to the change?
Did travel agents know the internet would effectively end their business?
Did the Yellow Pages Book see that more local queries and lookups are done on Google, and monetized --- and not done in a book? (When was the last time you used the Yellow Pages book?)
Did AT&T move fast enough to understand how rapidly technology would change their long distance business?
I don’t know the precise answer to all of these questions of changes, but I do know that the ground rules have been altered, and they are changing so drastically that consumers and customers --- are not going back.
As a prime example, at Lotame we have relied heavily on agency sales. We have a team of dedicated professionals that sell agencies on our offering. In 2009, nearly 80% of our revenue came from agencies. In 2010, that changed to closer to 55%. It is more than a trend, it's an alarm bell ringing in my head.
At the end of every campaign we run we put together a comprehensive report, and send it back to the advertising agency that gave us the business. It is chock full of data and important insight – that can really show how much (or little) their advertising with Lotame moved a few key metrics. The reports are typically anywhere from 3-10 pages long and completely customized.
Here are 2 examples of learnings derived from a motorcycle and a technology company.
Motorcycles
For a major American motorcycle manufacturer, a year-long campaign to drive Awareness and Purchase Intent was accompanied by a year’s worth of custom research and study, detailing who in their audience of Male 25+ motorcycle enthusiasts responded positively to the campaign and how the interests, actions, and attributes in the profiles of those men affected how they responded to campaign ads. That same study provides detailed insight—such as data showing that Men with interests in Business content were the most likely to change their minds about buying a motorcycle after seeing campaign ads—into how the campaign findings can be leveraged to improve next year’s campaign.
Technology
For one of the world’s largest technology companies, a promotion-based campaign targeted to Teachers and Parents showed new insight into how particular attitudes towards children affected campaign response—such as showing that teachers who did not want children of their own were less likely to participate in the campaign promotion—provided valuable knowledge for future campaigns.
What have we discovered in the past year?
That these valuable insights that we shared with our agency partners, were typically NOT shared with their clients.
Why?
We covered off on key metrics, had kick off calls – and established what the success metrics and goals were.
Why would an agency NOT include data (or worse yet, in some cases our brand name) back to the client?
This has come to light for us, as we attend conferences, visit direct clients – and continue to grow. We are getting an opportunity to meet and talk to the clients, and tell our story of -- "working on their business."
Here is what we’ve heard: (after we give a copy of the report we DID FOR THEIR BRAND to them)
“You sent this report to my agency, I have never seen it….?”
“I am sure pieces of this data were in the summary I received from the agency, but this is a great in depth analysis”
“Please send these reports to me directly. I shared this internally and it was tremendously valuable..”
“This type of report helps me build a case to acquire more money for digital advertising – and away from print and direct mail. I wish I had this when we were doing our 2011 budgets!”
Are agencies not equipped?
Do they not have the bat and gloves to understand what to do, “when the ball is hit to them?”
I fear not. I think they WANT TO. But, it’s a combination of talent, mission, control and NOT embracing change – that has led to this situation.
I understand that agencies own the relationship. They are tasked with filtering information and determining what's important, and whats not -- when it comes deciding what data to ask a client to digest.
Agencies are launching trading desks and platforms to manage media buying and selling. They want to own more of the digital landscape.
And, they should.
But my hope for 2011 is that Agencies ask for more than a response to an RFP. Ask for more than the latest "out of the box idea" -- ask from the publishing partners, more than "what's your Comscore index/rating."
Clients demand state of the art analytics and research.
Here are some questions that agencies should ask publishers as part of the planning process:
1) Will you dedicate a research person to analyze our data post campaign?
2) What success metrics will you judge and report on? (and optimize)
3) Can you run an "in banner" campaign for a short question/survey to judge lift on your inventory? (not a 20 question survey)
4) Will you use 3rd party data to target, and if so -- what companies?
Business is changing.
We know agencies understand, and hopefully that trickles down to the planner, director and supervisor level.
"What are you going to do if the ball is hit to you?"
It's in play.
Do you have a helmet, glove, and bat?
"Put me in coach....I'm ready to play."
