Coast Ride 2009

Another Coast Ride is in the books. San Francisco to Santa Barbara, 3-Days, 380 miles... all by bike.

This was our fourth year doing this annual ride. In all, 15 cyclists made the trip down Highway 1. The ride averages around 125 miles per day, which is just enough to make you worried, but not enough to make you scared. We had spectacular weather this year (high 70's) and I am already counting down the days until next year.

Group rolling along Highway 1

Pia crushing it up one of the climbs in Big Sur


Mary undressing for all the boys in Guadalupe.... again

And, finally, my yearly pilgrimage to McDonalds

Don't Believe Everything You Read

Case in point.... I recently ran across a study conducted by PubMatic that was published on Clickz.com. According to the study, display advertising was suffering, and suffering badly.

The Title: Display Ad Prices Fall 50 Percent in Q4.

On the surface, the study seems pretty legit. The study, which looked at over 5,500 different websites found that "The price for advertising on Web sites of all sizes dropped by about 53 percent from Q4 2007 to Q4 2008, according to the index. The numbers also show that every vertical category suffered steep declines, with Business and Finance leading the way at 61 percent." This tells me that they had a pretty good sample size and they were looking across multiple verticals. Both of these facts made me think the study was on the up-and-up.

That said, I have run across recent reports showing that display advertising is actually gaining market share despite a down economy..... and have even experienced my own successes with display advertising (see my previous post). But, being a little skeptical, I dug a little deeper.

As I dug, the validity of this study, more importantly, the reality of what the study looked at shocked me. While never discussed in the article, the study included remnant inventory. That's right, this study included low-cost, bottom-tier ads that nobody wants. Being a closet research geek (thank you Jeff Rosenblum), this study is meaningless to me. There are simply too many questions that could affect the outcome and vailidity of the results. Fore example, how much of the data was based on remnant inventory? 10% 100%??? These kinds of studies infuriate me. They serve no other purpose than to mislead people by telling half-truths.

Lesson learned... Don't believe everything you read; especially online!

Budget Crisis

I spent an amazing weekend winding my way from San Francisco to Santa Barbara on my bike. Just me, my wife and a good group of friends. The things I saw were both amazing, and amazed me (and not in a good way). But, I digress.....

During our night in Morro Bay, I heard a news report announcing that California was likely to issue IOU's for tax payers. Seriously, an IOU?

Does this mean that I can issue the state an IOU for my property taxes? Sorry, I am having my own budget crisis.

Anyone else?

Update: Whopper Sacrifice

And the hits keep coming..... My previous post touched on some of the WINS and FAILS of the new Crispin effort: Whopper Sacrifice.

I just learned that the Whopper Sacrifice was recently hacked. Apparently, a blogger posted a line of JavaScript code that allowed users to get a free whopper without sacrificing their friends. The website has since been fixed to keep this from happening, but damn. I understand that a high profile campaign like this is going to get scrutinize more than most, but come on people. QA has to mean more than just checking links and browser/OS checks. Of course, I am making a big ASSumption that they QA'd the experience.

- Chris

Whopper Sacrifice

By now, most everyone has either heard of, or checked out the new Whopper Sacrifice effort by Crispin. I really like this latest effort. Here are some of my thoughts.....

Positives
1. They broke out of the traditional advertising model and used Social Media to promote the Whopper brand. For Crispin, this is a big win.
2. They spent pennies on the dollar to create and seed this effort versus producing a large national tv/print/radio campaign.
3. Everybody I know has heard about this..... ahh yes, the power of social media.
4. Every blogger in the ad world has picked up on this.
5. Rather than just "checking-the-box "and creating a "Whopper Facebook Page" they went one step further and created an actual application.
6. They built a small microsite to promote the effort and easily link users directly to Facebook to download the app. Very smart.

Negatives
1. As much as I like it, once again the Whopper brand is associated with something negative (de-friending your friends on Facebook). Then again, I can finally get rid of some of my Facebook friends that I really don't want.
2. They did not use SEM (Paid Search) to help drive users to their microsite. They spend all this money on the application, but when I type it into Google, they haven't bought SEM to ensure they are on the very top of the Google search results. Um, that is a big FAIL in my book.
3. And, as with typical ad agencies, they just don't understand SEO. The microsite isn't search engine friendly.... at all. Yeah, it looks good, but looking good isn't going to help customers find it (especially without SEM). Another FAIL.

Thoughts? Come on people, clickity-click the comments link.

Layoffs hit close to home

No surprise, the layoffs are happening everywhere; and not just within the technology or advertising sectors. At last count, 11 of my friends are out of work. When I was laid off in 2001, I re-invented myself and went to work as a Pharma Rep for Eli Lilly. It was a great way to learn new skills that would benefit me once the economy picked up and ad agencies began hiring again. I was selling my ideas, marketing strategies, etc in my advertising job. So, working as a drug salesman was a great way to build upon skills that I would use on a daily basis.

For many of my friends, they are also re-inventing themselves now that they are out of work. While some of them are continuing to pound the pavement in their old industries, others have explored new avenues. Here are my top three favorites....

1. Professional Bike Racer
2. Technology and Gadget Reporter
3. Gigolo

Ok, I made the last one up. But, its probably only a matter of time before this happens.

- Chris

The Power of Relationships

I was recently reading over three RFP's (Request for Proposals) that came across my desk this morning. While each RFP is unique, they all share the same basic requirements for the responding agency. As I read them over, it struck me that none of them asked for the agency to discuss what is important to them in a client/agency relationship. I was shocked.... Really?

For me, relationships are paramount. Good relationships between and agency and client are what breed trust and great work. Good relationships is what keeps agencies thinking about a clients business and going out of their way to ensure success. So, why don't typical agency searches do more than just give lip service to relationships? Meet-and-greet presentations are completely manufactured and the so-called "agency video" does little to give a client a feeling for the people they will be working with.

So, what is the answer? Why are relationships not given the importance the deserve? Is it too difficult to uncover until after an agency has been selected?

Clicky-clicky the comments link below. What do you all think?

Me, teach a class?

Recently, the Miami Ad School reached out and asked me to teach a class on Interactive Concepting. In reality, this class is less about how to "concept" and more about how to approach the digital medium(s) in relation to the offline medium(s).

Some of the things I hope to teach in the class are 1) Provide a thorough understanding of each digital medium to enable them to understand how they can be used to support a larger advertising program, 2) Discuss the uniqueness of each medium in communicating a message and how the value of each medium affects how it can/should be used in a program, 3) Discuss the importance of a clear key message or takeaway... and how each medium is best used to support this, 4) Why concepting for print isn't the same as concepting for an rich media ad unit or Facebook application or widget, etc., 5) The list continues....

I'm curious, what would you want to learn?

- Chris