by Doug Weaver on June 24, 2004 at 5:00AM
There are two things we know about online advertising today. First, that it’s once again growing at a very healthy clip: according to the recent IAB Revenue Report, the Q1 ’04 total of $2.3 billion represents a 54% increase over the same period in ’03. Second, we know that things are playing out differently this time: growth is being funded by major marketers who – finally – are starting to reallocate budgets toward online. Unlike the VC-funded dotcoms that drove the online gold rush of the late 90s, today’s online advertisers bring a more balanced perspective to the task. They look at online as a staple in their marketing diet, not as some kind of rare, flaming dessert dish. They have the right outlook, they’re gaining the support of upper management and they have loads of quality advertising options on today’s evolved, high-speed, works-pretty-darn-well Internet. From where I sit, all they lack is the right catch phrase. So I’m volunteering one.
RETURN ON INTEGRATION. Write it down. Read more
by Doug Weaver on March 17, 2004 at 5:00AM
Looking back over 50 years of TV and film, the advertising agency business has served as a backdrop and focal point for comedy, drama and social satire. It’s an oeuvre whose DNA chain links The Hucksters with Lost in America with Bewitched with Crazy People. Despite the wild divergence in quality, tone and notoriety, the portrayals of ad agency people always followed a well-established formula:
- The account executives – the suits – were sometimes Machiavellian, sometimes feckless, often both.
- The creative guys – the art directors, the copywriters, and the directors in charge of the commercial shoots – were sometimes Machiavellian, sometimes tortured, sometimes noble, occasionally all three. But always – always – they were cool.
- The media people didn’t exist. Invisible. They may as well have been office furniture. To be in media services was to be a non-entity. Worse yet, within real-life ad agency culture (an oxymoron, I know), life tended to imitate art.
But the world has turned, vertically. What was up is now down, and down is now up. The once mythical creative process has been demystified, commoditized. Post-production work is now done on the desktop. Increasingly the “creative” idea is simply a reflection of the increasingly frenetic 24-7 media whirl that surrounds us, rather than a groundbreaking new concept. And those who ad-critic Bob Garfield calls the “all-in-blacks” have come to seem more than a little anachronistic, like the aging arena rock bands that now play county fairgrounds.
And Media? Media is really cool now!
Not only has media become the economic engine of the post-15-percent-commission age, it is also the most dynamic and – yes – creative discipline left in the marketing world. Quick: think of the most interesting and provocative issues facing advertising? TiVo penetration… new media platforms… online communities and social networking… mobile advertising… Madison & Vine…integrated communication…all media issues. What’s more, it’s going to be a hell of a long time before any of this gets routine or predictable. So the media strategist steps into this post-nuclear media landscape like Mad Max.
For at least the next decade, media strategy will be less about science and more about art… impressionism, to be precise. The changes in how information is being consumed are not incremental; they are seismic and permanent. Media is no longer a channel for great creative ideas, it is a rich mosaic of information, behavior and data that must be interpreted and finessed as never before. Only by taking a truly impressionistic, creative, intuitive approach to the task can media strategists really begin to crack the code. And herein lies the big challenge.
The easiest way to land a new media services account is to promise the client (a) a lower overall price for media and (b) perfect accountability for every dollar spent. Having done so, you will promptly (a) lose the account to another media services provider who promises an even-lower overall price and (b) you will burn out your staff and disillusion your customers chasing a phantom. I’m convinced that to realize the true future and potential of media services, you need to bury the tools of the past. Trying to cram all this richness and depth into predictive media models and third party research panels just isn’t going to work. The media strategist needs to skip Statistics and instead audit Human Behavior, Information Architecture and Social Networking 201… to understand the fabric and feel of both media development and media consumption. You are the DJ’s of the information age.
Interpreting today’s exploding media world through the lens of yesterday’s media tools is like hitching your old plow horse to the front of your shiny new tractor. The media landscape of the next 10 years is the most interesting marketing, business and social story of our lifetime. For God’s sake, be storytellers! Give your clients competitive insights into that landscape — become mentors and Sherpas instead of accountants – and they will reward you with deference, loyalty and richly deserved compensation.
Media, this is your moment. Unless it’s not
Send your comments and questions directly to Doug Weaver
by Doug Weaver on March 14, 2004 at 5:00AM
Perhaps it’s because the market’s appetite has been whetted by the hyper-focused nature of Google advertising. Or maybe the web’s marketing technology has finally caught up to its hype. But there’s no question that targeted advertising has arrived, and it’s very much for real.
If we don’t screw the whole thing up.
Highly targeted advertising on the web is, of course, not a new idea. As far back as 1996, edgy companies like Firefly (my alma mater) were using crude web tracking and registration tools to deliver micro targeting to curious advertisers. The path to the targeting grail was then well worn by companies like MatchLogic, DoubleClick and Engage. But wide proliferation of ad targeting was constrained by technology, audience and privacy concerns, and ultimately by the implosion of the online ad market. But now, in a robust market, the scent is once again in the wind, and there’s intense interest in targeted advertising.
To be clear, online ad targeting falls into three somewhat overlapping spheres:
- BEHAVIORIAL TARGETING: We watch what consumers do on our sites, use that clickstream data to put them into behavioral buckets (“interested in financial information,” “outdoor enthusiast,” “gardener” and so on) and then send them ads based on their profiles.
- POINT-OF-ACTION TARGETING: Kind of an extension of behavioral targeting, POA targeting focuses on reaching only consumers who are “in-market” for a given product or service. If you’ve repeatedly checked interest rates or compulsively looked at new car models and finance packages in the last 30 days, you’ll likely be targeted with offers for refinancing or a new Mazda.
- DEMOGRAPHIC AND GEOGRAPHIC TARGETING: Through visitor registration, sweepstakes and other means, actual real world identifiers like gender, age and location are collected and associated with the consumer, who is then targeted with appropriate messaging.
Today there are at least a dozen companies out there taking cuts at the targeting issue. Tacoda and Revenue Science work with media companies to gather and sort information about their visitors in order to target them. Claria – nee Gator – and When U promise to help advertisers reach consumers right at the point of action. Sites with heavy user registration and a quality ad serving platform can ostensibly offer some levels of geo and demo targeting right now. And there are several companies and products out there that promise advertisers real-time optimization and targeting through observation of “anonymous” user behavior and transactions. I’ll save comment on the merits and viability of these varied approaches for another column. For now, let me offer five bits of advice that will serve all those who might slice and dice the Internet audience:
- THE CLUSTERS HAVE TO MAKE SENSE: Assuming that (a) media providers still want to make money and (b) advertisers want those media providers to be around next year, it’s important for everybody to recognize the practical limits of targeting. It may feel great to tell the Marketing Director that he can reach just young-female-allergy-sufferers-in-the-market-for-a-Hyundai, but it makes zero economic sense for the media provider to sell that cluster. Targeting clusters need be of a certain size (nobody looks good when a buy ends up delivering 57 customers!) and they need to be predictable. ADVICE: If a site has invested in targeting technology, collaborate with them to determine the best means of reaching the kind of customers you’re after. You may end up with a broader target that might be your ideal, but it may end up providing you with better distribution of your message, a better reach among potential customers, more reasonable frequency of messaging and a better result.
- PAY ATTENTION TO INVENTORY PREDICTION AND FREQUENCY: The advertiser’s desire to microtarget and to reach a given number of customers – often within a specific time frame – puts tremendous pressure on the media company to agree to the deal and then work like hell to deliver what’s been purchased. But even under the best conditions, inventory prediction is rocket science. Throw in targeting filters and you’ve got a mess. So what if there aren’t enough of the kind of buyers you’re after? You get massive frequency… absolute carpet-bombing of the targeted customers with your message. A good thing? Not for you, not for the site and not for the consumer. ADVICE: Something’s got to give. Either the target gets bigger, the contracted number gets smaller or the duration of the campaign gets longer. Very few sites have the kind of scale to deliver targeted buys within a short time window. Don’t force them to set unrealistic expectations to get your business.
- TARGETING IS A TACTIC, NOT A STRATEGY: Advertisers are better served by taking a more expansive approach to online advertising. Want to reach your customer while she’s connected with her favorite website? Go with a mix of specific placement, targeted impressions and run-of-site. Being able to target is not the same as being able to target well. There is an awful lot we don’t yet know about targeting, inventory distribution and user behavior. ADVICE: A mix of advertising programs that includes targeting is – today – a better strategy.
- CONTEXT AND RELATIONSHIPS STILL MATTER: The web may be a wondrous, chaotic cacophony of diverse voices, but if you’re advertising something besides PO*RN, VIA*GRA knockoffs and low-low interest rates, you probably care where your ad appears. When aggregators or networks offer targeting and on-the-fly optimization, advertisers owe it to themselves to ask the content question. Are there really thousands of quality sites out there? Divorcing the targeting agenda from the ad environment question is a dangerous move. ADVICE: Advertisers should draw a line around the kinds of ad placements they’ll accept and those they won’t. Then examine the targeting options within your universe of acceptable sites.
- PAY AS YOU GO: In every other medium on the planet, segmentation and targeting cost money. The media provider is accepting a smaller buy, and going to more trouble to deliver it, so the advertiser pays a premium. This should seem obvious, but the point’s been lost on many interactive buyers. For targeting to truly develop online, it needs to have a solid financial foundation. ADVICE TO SELLERS: Set and hold the line on targeting premiums. ADVICE TO BUYERS: Wanna play? Gotta pay.
If we all keep our heads up and take the long view, we might just get it right this time.
Send your comments and questions directly to Doug Weaver
by Doug Weaver on January 6, 2004 at 5:00AM
This fall I was honored to write the foreword for Carat Insight’s “Moving Forward” quarterly report. I was asked to offer some perspective on the changing fortunes of our industry and of the medium we’re all building together. In this first Drift of 2004, that perspective seemed appropriate. Here’s to a remarkable and rebellious 2004!
Recently I heard the former CEO of a major U.S. packaged goods company say that the economic boom of the 1990s had masked what he considered “the fundamental collapse of marketing in this country.” While most marketing and media professionals in the crowd collectively gasped at this rather harsh assessment, I found myself vigorously nodding and warmly smiling at the speaker.
Harkening back to the rather heady time I spent at Wired in the early 90s, I’ve come to view digital media and communication as nothing less than a revolutionary force in marketing, advertising and media, where I’ve spent the past 20 years of my career. Nourished and encouraged by the ideas of McLuhan, Brand and other media bomb-throwers, we felt we could clearly see the shortcomings in existing media and marketing practices. And just as clearly, we could see the ascendant role of digital media: the Internet, wireless, handheld computing and more.
It took a few years, but the revolution has taken hold. Media and marketing have changed, profoundly and permanently. But as William Gibson wrote, “The future is already here. It’s just unevenly distributed.” Some of us will embrace change and make it the cornerstone of opportunity and innovation. Others will defend the status quo and attempt to retrofit the business and marketing models of the 1970s and 80s to the 21st Century world. How we as individuals and organizations adapt to this brave new world is a matter of personal choice and commitment.
While we can be certain that television will remain a vital marketing medium for years to come, we can be equally sure that it will never be the same. The emergence of Personal Video Recorders, proliferation of media choices and the continuing erosion of the consumer attention span have created the “perfect storm” for the 30-second TV spot. If it’s to continue to serve marketers, television itself will have to rapidly adapt, bringing new imagination and creativity in creating solutions.
Another force that is dramatically changing the marketing and media landscape is generational change. I was fortunate enough to be involved this year with Carat Interactive and Yahoo! in the creation of “Born to Be Wired,” a landmark research study and marketer event. Today’s teens and young adults – “Millennials” – have never lived in a world where the Internet wasn’t a primary media and communications platform. And as the “Born to Be Wired” study confirmed, these young consumers take a fundamentally different view of “all” media as a result. To them, the web and the cell phone are the “framework on which the media world is constructed.” This presents a bracing challenge to marketers and agencies to rethink their current media buying models and practices: “These are your customers for the next 40 years…meet them on their own terms.”
Yesterday’s marketing and advertising models have indeed collapsed, creating a vacuum that’s being filled by creativity, vision and innovation. As Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison, “A little rebellion every now and then is a good thing.” To those who would lead with imagination, the media revolution is a liberating force and a pathway into the new world of marketing, communication and customer relationships.
Send your comments and questions directly to Doug Weaver
by Doug Weaver on December 4, 2003 at 5:00AM
I’ve been underwhelmed the last few years. Disgruntled one might say. Admittedly, I’m a cantankerous creative guy who is easily frustrated by the eternal quest for all that is new and exciting.
Advertising was beautiful. Technology was beautiful. I wanted them to get married and have kids that I could play with. What happened?
The battle for our attention has become a deafening din and we are more time-impoverished than ever. So why, I ask in my more reflective moments, has advertising not kept pace? Why do agencies still crank out :30 spots with little apparent attention to astronomical production costs or any expectation of addressable, measurable response? Why, I broodingly ruminate, does there continue to be this yawning chasm in the space where technology and marketing are meant to intersect? Is there any relief? Is there anything to warm a disgruntled creative director’s heart on a chilly December day? Indeed there is, gentle reader, indeed there is.
There is a grassroots movement afoot that auspiciously melds self-publishing, storytelling, and Macromedia Flash. Yes, yes, I know storytelling has been around since Og lied to the others about some spectacularly bogus dinosaur hunt, but only recently has Macromedia Flash brought the sacred and profane art of storytelling into the digital realm in a compelling way.
As a word of warning, most creative directors like strange things and I am no exception. We delight in things that make our eyebrows shoot up and make us wonder how in the hell anyone ever thought that stuff up. (That would be what we call “creativity.”) Whatever would prompt one to create animated shorts on the subject of muffins (http://www.muffinfilms.com/)? Or come up with a series like making fiends (http://www.makingfiends.com/)? And what kind of mad genius would create a 1930’s style, black and white animated cartoon for the we(http://www.bulbo.com/)? How exactly does one scare up a richly bizarre character like this one(http://wecomeinpeace.free.fr/)? I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I do have a theory. But before we talk about that theory, let’s take our creative exploration to the dangerous side of town.
There is a raw, garage band feel to some of the work being produced today and some of it is art of such a personal nature that one tends to just stare slack jawed at the screen long after the whole turgid affair has ended. While certainly not for the faint of heart, “We Like The Moon” (http://www.rathergood.com/moon_song/) and “Gay Bar” (http://www.rathergood.com/gaybar/) are two such examples. You might never use something like this to sell baby food, but man, you don’t soon forget it. This is crazy stuff, but how does all this translate into advertising?
By now you have probably seen the work by Mekanism (http://www.mekanism.com/) for Napster 2.0. These animated shorts are, IMHO, brilliant. The concept is tight, totally on-brand, and the execution is flawless. Tommy Means, executive producer at Mekanism said in a recent phone conversation, “It didn’t make sense to launch Napster 2.0 with a traditional TV spot. It wasn’t right for the brand and the young early adopters, the cultural influencers 15-25 wouldn’t have gone for it. We focused on where the critical mass audience is today and storytelling has always been the best way to get a message across.”
Instead of launching with television, Mekanism created 12 animated shorts in Flash, which it rolled out with an unpromoted link off the Napster site. Soon, through viral marketing, the animations were seen by over 1 million people. They also repurposed three of those Flash animations into current broadcast spots. Now here is the kicker kids, the cost of the entire campaign (website, 12 animations, 4 spots, tracking and e-mail database) equaled the cost of producing one broadcast spot. Yeah, that got
your attention, didn’t it?
- SO WHAT IS IT WITH FLASH? It’s been around for a while, but only recently has this compelling work started to appear. I asked Tommy Means why he thinks this is so and he told me, “Tools like Flash and Final Cut Pro are changing the industry. We did some work for Pioneer that came in around $300,000. It would have cost in the millions two years ago using software like Toon Maker.” The work for Napster points in an interesting direction. Nielsen has said that the networks have lost male viewers 18-34. Well, creative shops like Mekanism have found them with Flash and storytelling and have found a way to extend the storytelling beyond broadcast. And they have found a way to do it at an awesome price point!
- SO WHAT’S NEXT FOR FLASH? Well, as I said earlier, I have a theory and here it is: in this age of accountable marketing there will be much less talking to empty living rooms. Advertisers want to dialogue with (not broadcast to) content-attached audiences. One could argue that point-of-sale and online are two of the best places to engage these consumers through storytelling. It can work in-store and it can work online. For years agency creative directors have turned up their noses at the web in pursuit of the perfect reel. Well, all that is changing because the work that I see being done in Flash today is damn compelling and it has the interactive capabilities that marketers increasingly require.
Did you already forward this column or some of the links to someone you know because you thought they would enjoy them? I’ll venture that you have, because they’re simply compelling. And being compelling is what advertising has always strived for.
We need to focus on the intriguing dance of storytelling, Flash and self-publishing that’s taking place at the intersection of marketing and technology. It just might be the future of advertising.
Send your comments and questions directly to Doug Weaver
by Doug Weaver on October 13, 2003 at 5:00AM
In the final installment in a series of “Drifts” devoted to sales strategy and tactics, we focus on the character and quality of client meetings.
At birth we possess all the tools we need to be great salespeople.
We focus…we listen…we show emotion…we create empathy. Throughout much of our early lives, we use these qualities and talents to develop and foster relationships. We share. We take turns. We make things together.
Then some of us go into sales and it all falls apart.
When you ask customers – as I have – what they truly value in a sales relationship, they all seem to recite from the same list: “He cares about my business;” “She really listens to me;” “He anticipates my needs;” “She’s not always trying to just sell me something.” Ironically, the most effective, most trusted sales reps are those who seem the least like textbook salespeople. Perhaps that’s because the textbook is badly in need of a rewrite.
I’ve been speaking to audiences recently about what I call “sales call culture.” Too much sales training and literature seems based on conflict theory, treating the customer as an adversary to be vanquished or a set of objections and issues to be neutralized. The young salesperson who brings optimism and empathy to the profession soon has those qualities stripped away. In their place, he learns about “objection management” and presentation skills and how to create a really spiffy PowerPoint deck. Quickly, he becomes the very embodiment of sales call culture.
What’s wrong with sales calls? Having witnessed or participated in thousands of them, I can say with impunity that the model is flawed. The vast majority of sales calls are centered on some form of canned presentation and are driven by the needs of the seller. And most often, there is very little real communication taking place. Instead we witness the familiar model. Smalltalk, followed by a rote recitation of the buyers “objectives” — which the seller rarely hears — followed by “the pitch” or “the capabilities presentation” or “the introductory presentation” or “the product overview” or… at which point the would-be buyer mentally checks out of the process.
The answer? A fundamental restructuring of how we think about sales training and strategy.
- TEACH ACTIVE LISTENING SKILLS. Too many sales people still don’t listen to understand. Instead they’re simply thinking about the next point they’ll make or the next detailed follow up question they’ll ask. Active listening is the cornerstone of a great meeting, but it’s not something that just happens. You may be born with it, but unless it’s stressed and nurtured, it soon fades away.
- LEAD WITH NEEDS. Every customer meeting should be maniacally focused on one or two well-researched customer needs. Tight schedules and short decision-making cycles have rendered the “capabilities presentation” and the “fact-finding call” purely anachronistic: You simply won’t get a second call to talk about “the really important stuff.” You also won’t get much time on your first call to get to the point.
- HAVE A DISCOVERY PLAN. The most effective sales people aren’t those who simply learn about their customers: They’re the ones who systematically learn about customer needs. I recommend having sales people structure discovery around a specific set of potential client needs. An informed point of view about what the customer might need can be an outstanding door opener.
- ASSUME SKEPTICISM, EVASION AND DISENGAGEMENT. And prepare for them. Even the most well-structured sales meeting can go awry based on the customer’s biases, moods or inclinations. I advise sales people to recognize when things are going South during a meeting and be ready with a set of “What” and “How” questions. When confronted with a stressful meeting, too many reps try to talk their way out of it. Re-engaging the customer is always a better solution.
- STOP TRYING TO CONTROL THE SITUATION. Every “objection” doesn’t need a response and every random question doesn’t need a detailed answer. Sales call culture stresses the parry and thrust of the sales process; as though coming up with the “right” answer or the “correct” response to an objection will automatically win the business. It’s not about winning and losing. Often reps feel like they got the better of a customer in a sales exchange, only to lose the business to a competitor. Focus instead on strategies that keep your customer talking about problems, opportunities and concerns. This is the fertile ground where deals happen.
- QUALIFY. THEN QUALIFY AGAIN. Woody Allen said “90% of genius is just showing up for work.” I’d amend that by saying that 90% of sales genius is showing up in the right office. Sales call culture says that any meeting is a good meeting. Time being our only finite resource, I disagree. Before scheduling a meeting, ask two questions: “What do I really want and need from this meeting to move the business forward?” And “Is this person going to be able to give it to me?”
“No More Sales Calls” means no more rote sales behavior. It’s an invitation to challenge your team and yourself to invest in the human relationships that underlie all great sales relationships. The result will be not only more high quality client meetings, but also more long-term business and a more satisfying sales life.
Send your comments and questions directly to Doug Weaver
by Doug Weaver on September 19, 2003 at 5:00AM
As the Fall selling season continues, we offer the second in a series of three Drifts focusing on practical sales tactics and strategies.
Without some serious changes, e-mail is over.
You may be nodding your head in agreement at this point, but you need to know that this column isn’t about e-mail marketing, opt-in lists or spam. It’s about the e-mail that we all send to our customers every day. We e-mail to advise them of all the great things going on with our sites; we e-mail to ask them about their businesses; we e-mail to implore them to meet with us; we e-mail to offer them advertising opportunities. And overwhelmingly, we fail to make any impact at all.
In the earliest days of digital communication, e-mail benefited as a sales tool from “the inbox imperative:” the relative novelty of e-mail gave it a potency and importance that elevated even the most pedestrian sales letter. But since then we’ve obviously all gone through the digital looking glass, and the world looks quite the opposite of what it once was. The rampant proliferation of e-mail – not just spam, but needless CC’s, corporate mailings, retail offers and the like – has made the inbox a very inhospitable place for sellers.
Over the past years, I’ve watched hundreds of sales executives waste thousands of hours creating e-mail that flies completely under the radar of their beleaguered customers… or worse yet, actually erodes trust and puts even more distance between seller and potential buyer. Yet little has been done to train sales people on the strategic use of e-mail. When working with sales teams, I offer a few simple rules to improve the e-mail batting average.
- DABBLE IN VARIOUS MEDIA. Think of the e-mail you send as one communication element in a full multi-media campaign to reach your potential customer. Use it strategically for what it does well, and then compensate with other media elements for the areas where it falls short. Try an e-mail, followed by a voice mail, followed by a mailed copy of a research paper, followed by another e-mail. Use quality voice mail to humanize your approach; let e-mail convey facts… but not too many. Which leads me to my next point…
- STAY ABOVE THE FOLD. Does your message fit within the friendly confines of the Outlook preview pane? If not, you’re sending a message that your e-mail is going to eat into the precious time of the buyer. Tight, focused messages are appreciated. Use an attachment (also edited for brevity) if you need to say more. But recognize that the text of your e-mail is a door opener, rarely more.
- LEAD WITH NEEDS. ALWAYS. The rule I recommend to sellers is simple. Both your subject line and the very first sentence of your e-mail must directly address a customer need. “Influencing Your Retailers,” or “Explaining the benefits of your product to consumers” and the like. The more specific, the better chance of connecting. Don’t know much about the customer or can’t predict a need that they have? 20 minutes worth of web-based research and you’ll have enough client data to make an educated guess about their needs… and open the door.
- STRUCTURE YOUR MESSAGES. Here’s an easy way to structure your message for maximum effect. 1. I’ve learned from…(a trusted source)… 2. that you’re faced with…(the business problem you hope to help them solve)… 3. and I think we can help with…(a sense of the strategy or solution you can offer)… 4. resulting in… (benefits the client will enjoy in working with you).
- MAKE YOUR E-MAILS ACTIONABLE: Too many sellers don’t have a desired set of conclusions or action steps in mind for their e-mails. At the close of your note (that would be near the bottom of the preview pane) recommend a couple of options to the client: “Please forward this to your assistant, Ann, and I’ll work with her to line up the appropriate time for us to meet”…”Please share this note internally with the other stakeholders in this kind of decision”…”Reply to this message to let me know which of these proposed dates looks better for you.”
- RARELY SEND BULK MAIL. ALWAYS TELL. It’s rarely a great idea to send the same note to dozens of customers. Make it a practice to individually address e-mails and to find something to personalize even a general announcement, if only a line or two. When you do need to send to multiple clients at the same time, remember to use the BCC field and explain in the text of the message that this is going out to multiple clients and why. The cardinal sin is sending the same message to everyone and trying to make it look personal. Don’t go there.
- SPELLING & PUNCTUATION STILL MATTER. ‘nough said.
With inboxes looking the way they do, we can’t assume that a sales message will get even token awareness unless we go to extraordinary lengths. For too long, e-mail has been too easy to write, too easy to send and too easy to ignore. It steals time from the seller and offers only the false promise of sales progress. Overcoming the anti-e-mail bias requires focus, strategic thinking and consistency. This list of steps and rules might be a good start.
Send your comments and questions directly to Doug Weaver
by Doug Weaver on September 8, 2003 at 5:00AM
As the post-Labor Day selling season is upon us, we devote the next three editions of The Drift to practical sales tactics and strategies.
I wouldn’t call it a movement just yet, but there’s a growing chorus of dissenters who just don’t seem to like PowerPoint anymore. In the August edition of Inc. Magazine, ad agency president Adam Hanft chides the popular program for its “obsessive-compulsive organizational structure and truncated syntax.” http://pf.inc.com/magazine/20030801/ahanft.html. And the high-priest of the anti-PowerPoint movement – Edward Tufte – is even more harsh in his assessment in Wired Magazine: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html “…the PowerPoint style routinely disrupts, dominates, and trivializes content. Thus PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play – very loud, very slow, and very simple.”
In my own “road to Damascus” conversion moment, I’ve started using PowerPoint a whole lot less these days. In seminars and training workshops, I’m telling sales people to go cold turkey: to try a month of sales meetings with no PowerPoint. For consulting clients, I’m advocating strict organizational standards about when the program will — and won’t — be used. This might sound a bit extreme in an industry where PowerPoint sits at the center of virtually every meeting, both internal and external. But there are several insidious ways that PowerPoint is costing you money, stunting the intellectual growth of your organization and building walls between you and your customers.
POWERPOINT IS LINEAR.
A meeting with a potential customer is a dynamic event. Success depends on the sales person’s ability to listen, adjust and respond. A canned PowerPoint forces both speaker and audience to follow a plodding, slide-by-slide progression. Ironically, PowerPoint’s rigid progression makes it less interactive than a printed media kit or brochure: at least with those you can jump around a little.
POWERPOINT PUTS DATA AHEAD OF TRUST AND RAPPORT.
Ever had a near-stranger tell you everything they know on a topic? The customer meeting should be about building trust and identifying issues and opportunities. PowerPoint presentations do neither. They force the seller into a recitation of facts and data points, often before any meaningful discovery has been done. At the end of the day, facts don’t persuade unless they’re preceded by trust and driven by ideas.
POWERPOINT IS A CRUTCH.
Remember the boring teacher you had in high school who would constantly resort to films to bail himself out of class? To the weak or inexperienced seller, PowerPoint is the ultimate shield… a way to avoid the messy business of real human interaction. Instead of looking the customer in the eye, you both start looking at a common screen. Kind of like your family all staring at the tube instead of talking, now isn’t it?
POWERPOINT GIVES A FALSE SENSE OF PREPAREDNESS.
“Grabbing a Deck” or asking the marketing team to put one together for a client meeting is just too easy. Having a bunch of PowerPoint slides in tow often gives the seller delusions of preparedness. She’d be better served spending just five minutes “visualizing” the meeting and anticipating client needs and questions.
POWERPOINT IS A RESOURCE DRAIN
If your marketing or sales support teams are in the business of churning out PowerPoint Presentations, you need to consider the important work they’re not doing. Investigating client business needs. Developing sales strategy. Planning focused client-specific events. Generating ideas. Look at the numbers and assess the raw volume of PowerPoint slides and presentations your organization is creating. Is this the kind of creative work and problem solving that will drive your customer relationships forward?
WHAT TO DO?
Can’t buy into a moratorium on PowerPoint right away? Then consider these simple rules to help wean your team off the PowerPointPipe:
- The first slide of any deck must clearly state the customer need you’re addressing. The second slide offers a strategy or idea for addressing that need. All slides that follow support slide two.
- Six slides maximum, and not that many words on any given slide. You won’t believe how you can economize when you have to.
- No PowerPoints on the first call without the express permission of a manager.
- Take three or four of the slides you would have shown and print them out instead. Watch how much the dynamic of the meeting changes when you start handing old-fashioned paper back and forth.
- Only one graph or chart per presentation (and, yes, it does count against your total of six slides.)
- If you have a slide in your possession that reads “who we are” or “about us” please seek it out and destroy it immediately.
As a manager, ask this question before every client meeting: “How will showing PowerPoint slides to this client build our relationship or advance our cause?” Then wait patiently until you hear a really good answer. I think we all understand – or at least sense – the value of real human connection in the sales process. So many great things can develop during a customer meeting: Ideas, trust, opportunity, discovery… unless, of course, we turn out the lights and start showing slides.
Send your comments and questions directly to Doug Weaver
by Doug Weaver on August 7, 2003 at 5:00AM
“The future is already here – it’s just unevenly distributed.”
~ William Gibson
Summertime, for me, always includes an annual rite of intellectual refueling. I try to work through a dozen or so books of different tone, outlook and subject matter in the hope of grabbing a handful of key ideas and themes to share and build on in the long, cold months ahead. This summer I lit on two titles that touched something quite deep for me, and it was in the synthesis of these books that some very powerful ideas emerged. The first book is all about the visionary past; the other takes a historical look at our future.
“WIRED, A ROMANCE”
By Gary Wolf
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375502904/qid=1060263513/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-6291705-2625436?v=glance&s=books
Being an early “Wiredling” myself – I opened the company’s New York operation back in 1994 – I was insatiably curious about this one. As the title implies, this is more than just another cartoonish ’90s tale of wretched excess. Gary Wolf looks back on the early days of Wired Magazine and HotWired with a mix of wistfulness and affection; not necessarily for the people involved, but certainly for the outrageously big ideas they espoused. Wired was always about far more than the Internet. It was about the power of digital technology and networks and how they would completely reshape the way we live. This may all seem a bit obvious now — perhaps even quaint. But remember that Louis Rossetto was saying all this in 1993, a year before the first commercial web browser would become available and e-mail was used by only about 3% of the population. He may as well have been wearing animal skins and eating locusts in the desert.
Ten years later the web is ubiquitous, hand-held computers are commonplace, digital editing has reshaped the film industry and… and the founders of Wired are virtual non-entities today. So there’s an element of tragedy here as well. How could Rossetto have been so right about so many of the big ideas and yet unable to parlay that vision into business success and intellectual triumph? (Despite being the very first commercial website, HotWired was — ironically — slow to embrace the true nature of the web; it limped along and was ultimately sold to Lycos. The assets of Wired Magazine were sold to Conde Nast and Rossetto and his partner, Jane Metcalfe, were cashiered and shown the door.) In the pages of Wired: A Romance, you’ll get all the details. But the truth is that the founders of Wired were not so much ahead of their time as they were ahead of the generation that would end up living their vision. Which leads me to title number two:
“MILLENNIALS RISING: THE NEXT GREAT GENERATION”
By Neil Howe and William Strauss
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375707190/104-0042676-4947148?vi=glance
Last month I had the pleasure of working with Yahoo! to plan
“Born to Be Wired,” an advertiser conference and research initiative exploring the relationship that today’s teens and young adults have with digital media and technology. To help understand this generation, we brought in Neil Howe, who – along with co-author William Strauss – virtually coined the term “Millennials” (the generation born between 1982 and 2002.) In listening to Neil and in reading this fascinating book, I began to finally understand who the “digital vanguard” would really be – and why those Baby Boomers and Generation Xers who gave life to Wired and voice to the big ideas couldn’t take them further than we did.
Howe and Strauss are historians and economists, so in exploring the nature and interplay of these generations they take a long view…and they back up their case with numbers. The first thing they tell you about the Millennial generation is that the mainstream media have it all wrong. While the media obsesses about Columbine, Ecstasy and Marilyn Manson, youth violence, teen pregnancy and high-risk behaviors are all on the decline.
Statistically, this is a generation that’s well grounded, focused and optimistic about the future. And why shouldn’t they be? Starting in the early 1980s – the age of the mini-van with the Baby-on-Board sticker – we started nurturing and doting on this generation in a manner that hadn’t been seen in nearly 100 years. And we haven’t stopped yet. But please don’t call them “Generation Y.” Millennials are radically different from Generation X, a group characterized by relative isolation and disillusionment. (As we get worked up about the music, movies and TV that Millennials consume, it’s important to remember that it’s all being financed, produced and written by Baby Boomers and Generation Xers.)
Millennials are also the first generation to grow up surrounded by the web and all forms of digital media and appliances. The “Born to Be Wired” research study, commissioned by Yahoo! and Carat Interactive, found that Millennials see the web as the center of their media universe…the starting point and connective tissue for a radically different pattern of information and entertainment.
THE BIG IDEA
The creation of Wired and HotWired ten years ago is an interesting narrative. But it’s even more fascinating as an allegorical tale of generations. Louis Rossetto – a Baby Boomer – saw the media experience as something to be controlled. “What people want from HotWired is our point of view, our mix, our insight, our personality.” To Louis, the web was the new Guttenberg press and he was in the business of hammering out a new kind of broadsheet.
Much of the tension in “Wired: A Romance” stems from the generational battle between Boomer Louis and the wry Gen Xers of “the Grotto,” where HotWired was conceived and created. (Many of the bright lights of HotWired were, in fact, creating their own sites on the side, stealing not only Louis’s time, but also a fair amount of his bandwidth.) But in my opinion, they didn’t get it right either. To the Xers, the web was a megaphone for pure self-expression, self-satisfaction and irony. “Look at me! Look at how clever I am!”
Little did we know in 1994 that the first members of the real “digital vanguard” – those who would realize Wired’s vision of the world – were only in middle school at the time. The first Millennials are graduating from college this year and to them the web isn’t about publishing or protest; it’s just the center of the universe, the foundation for all they do, learn and say. Millennials also tend toward a higher level of cooperation, collaboration and teamwork than those in Gen X, which is borne out in their use of cell phones, IM, blogs and more.
Marketers and media purveyors who appeal to teenagers, tweens and younger kids have already experienced the tectonic shift in media usage and media attitudes among their customers. As the Millennial generation slides into young adulthood, its true social, financial and cultural impact is just beginning to be felt.
Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing today, please know that you were right about all the big ideas. And know that your kids are the ones who will make it all happen.
Send your comments and questions directly to Doug Weaver
by Doug Weaver on June 19, 2003 at 5:00AM
As I write this column, I’m in the Green Mountains of Vermont, a continent away from this week’s @dTech conference, which I read is “abuzz with optimism” about the feisty comeback of the online advertising business. Those reading the tea leaves point to glowing report cards issued by Goldman Sachs and the IAB; to the stellar performance of Yahoo! and Google; to recent bullish public remarks by McDonald’s and MediaVest; even to the number of booths at @dTech, which may or may not be your most solid economic indicator. While there’s nobody more bullish on the core value of the Internet as a marketing medium, I have to ask that we all take a breath before we declare the onset of the next boom.
If you believe – as I do – that a fundamental reallocation of marketing dollars toward the Internet is underway, then you may be hoping – as I am – that we don’t screw it up this time around. With that in mind, here is a “reality checklist” to help us remain tethered to what’s solid and bankable about our industry… and to avoid the pitfalls that can derail the growth track that we’re on.
1. BROADBAND ISN’T “THE ANSWER.”The is no “the answer.” Just new sets of questions. There’s no question that the adoption figures and improved user experience afforded by broadband are all great for the online ad business. But let’s not over-sell and over-hype broadband the way we have every other technical feature of our medium. Stay focused on the relationship your customers have with the Internet – and your site – TODAY.
2. TARGETING MUST CO-EXIST WITH SCALE. I hear from a great many publishers who are exploring ways to segment and categorize their user-base to deliver on the web’s promise of meaningful ad targeting. But as they begin to discuss the possibilities with buyers the whole thing becomes somewhat surreal. Can you target high school students in Ohio who have downloaded a rap MP3 file in the last 90 days? Maybe. But why the hell would you want to? You’ll reach about nine of them and will actually lose money on the deal. When you target, target big, substantial audience clusters, and charge a premium for them. To move dollars into the medium, we don’t need to fulfill the fantasies of the media planner; we just need to be better than “adults 18-49.”
3. INTERRUPTING IS OK… What we’re doing is advertising, which by its very nature is intrusive. If six of your site visitors complain about an interstitial or DHTML unit you run, that’s not a backlash and it shouldn’t drive policy. We can always make our advertising more relevant, funnier and better looking, but let’s also agree that, no matter what we do, no consumer will ever love advertising or choose to get more of it. Let’s stop overreacting.
4. …BUT INTEGRATING IS EVEN BETTER. If the inventors of TV advertising could have foreseen the remote control, the VCR and the TiVo, they never would have invented the stand-alone 30-second spot. In response, TV is already beginning its ham-handed scramble toward content integration through product placement, fuzzy infomercial content within regular programming, screen crawls and on-screen animation. We can avoid this fate if we never segregate our content and advertising in the first place. Put your organization’s creative energy into more elegantly blending content and marketing services. Don’t settle for just doing “Internet commercials.” Use the whole screen.
5. STRATIFY THE ENVIRONMENT. For the next couple of years, when you say “Internet advertising” the public is going to think one of two things: pop-ups and spam. Like it or not, our business is going to be defined negatively by the least attractive and satisfying forms of advertising we employ. So far, the Direct Marketing Association has been largely mute on the issue of spam, while the regulation and capping of pop-up ads has been a low priority for the IAB and for many of its member companies. But as I’ve said many times, major advertisers are going to want a “clean well-lighted place” for their messaging before they commit body and soul to this medium. Sites that distance themselves from questionable ad units and practices will, in my opinion, be the long-term winners. Cleaning up the neighborhood is the ultimate solution, but distancing your site from the bad guys is a great first step.
6. STOP TALKING TO OURSELVES. There are many incredibly smart and dedicated people in our medium, including great interactive ad agencies and outstanding interactive point-people at many brands. But we’ve got to come to grips that we’re still living together in the interactive ghetto. Unless and until we really engage with chief marketing officers, brand managers and ad agency presidents, we’re not really moving forward. Focus sales time and marketing money on the highest levels of customers. Don’t wait for “the industry” or the trade organizations to do it. Take action yourelf. NOW.
Advertisers are – in the end – very smart people. Today’s average brand manager is about 30 years old and has spent an entire career in a world dominated by digital media and communication. They get it. The heavy rate increases by network TV in the face of declining ratings are a bitter pill to swallow. Change is happening: Online is on the ascent.
The only things that kill the momentum are the confusion we sow and the unreasonable expectations we set in the minds of customers. Let’s all be more thoughtful… this time around.
Send your comments and questions directly to Doug Weaver
