Bad news for ad agencies or is it time to maximize marketing opportunities?
Bad news sell newspapers – well whoop de do for newspapers! It certainly doesn’t do the rest of us any favours. The UK’s red tops struggle to find a front page headline unless Amy Winehouse slaps someone or a Big Brother contestant farts on air unless there’s a sensational crime to write about. Failing that it’s a case of let’s follow the broadsheets and create gloom and doom in the UK by reporting on every last snippet of bad news from the high street.
This desire to sell newspapers regardless of the messages sent out by the news articles creates further gloom and despondency in the high street which spreads throughout the land to create a massive downturn and a countywide malaise. And what for? Just to sell newspapers? That may not be entirely true but it is not without some credence and it is a fact in the UK that bad news will rise to the top of the pile to be reported before good.
What I am getting at is that if you want to look at things in a pessimistic light then just read the papers and then panic. However, things are not all gloom and doom and we can interpret so many facts and figures in a more positive way. No matter how dark the outlook is being painted by the newspapers and other news media, there are always opportunities to do well if you are willing to look for them and to make the most of those opportunities when they present themselves.
We work very closely with the advertising and marketing industry and I would hate to see newspaper headlines that read: Agency Closures due to forecasts of reduced profits and would much rather see: Agencies bring client success despite forecasts (not much of a headline but it might make the trade press). However, in order to achieve client success agencies will have to work harder to make their sales and marketing campaigns stand out and get noticed.
One area in great need of improvement in effort is direct marketing. I am still receiving letters from credit card companies, insurance companies and so on that have not changed one iota in style for years. And yet if there is a squeeze on, shouldn’t these direct mail pieces be screaming at me rather than offering the same old lame format that is unquestionably heading straight for the bin.
For years, we have been spreading the message that companies should try harder to make their marketing efforts really work. Maximize your opportunities by ensuring that your marketing efforts really do hit home. Our product range offers different ways in which to beef up a direct marketing campaign in order to give it maximum effect and increase the chances of the campaign becoming a great success.
The range can be turned to all kinds of advertising, marketing and promotional applications and UK agencies should consider these ideas before making plans for future promotions. It will certainly give air to some new ideas and perhaps make the difference between success and failure in what are supposedly difficult times for the industry.
