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Why You Should Not Use an Advertising Agency to Manage Your Website
Because it is not the business they are in. Advertising agencies were never set up to manage Websites on the Web To explain further we must go back to the time advertising agencies came into existence and why they exist. Following the Industrial Revolution and the resulting ability to produce many products, it became evident that a way had to be found to advise the masses that the products existed and where they could be purchased. The what and where factor, if the masses did not know they could not purchase. The manufacturers and producers did not have the expertise or knowledge on how to reach this market. It was not the business they were in, so it was out-sourced to people who said we will do it for you; we know what we are doing. Agencies in other words. Ask any one in business do they advertise, and the reply will be an over whelming reply of yes. Rubbish, they don't advertise, they just pay the money; someone else does the work for them. Consider a small business that uses only the newspapers or radio, have a look at their print advertisements, did they do the design, the layout, the fonts, no, someone else did. Who wrote and produced the radio adverts, the jingles, I bet it was not the small business owner, they just paid the money. And the bigger businesses who use advertising agencies, they do so because they cannot produce the ad copy in house or know about ad placement. They use media buyers to place the copy where it is thought the best results are to be obtained. So whether you like it or not, the agencies controlled the destiny of businesses. This is not to say they do not do a good job because that was the day of the mass media but then came along the Web Suddenly in 1995 the advertising world was changed for ever. What was the change? Advertising went from shotgun to targeted, which is not the business the advertising agencies are in. Advertising agencies and the traditional media buyers operate in the area of mass media advertising (shotgun advertising) place the advert in many places and someone may notice it, spend enough money and hopefully more people will notice it. Newspaper radio or television it does not matter, these are media for the masses, read, listen or watch the advertisements because you won't know what is available until we tell you. The change the Web has made in everyday lives, is that people do not have to wait to be told, they can go on the Internet and use Search Engines to search the Web, to find what they require. They don't need an advertising agency to tell then via the mass media what is available Advertising on the Web requires a complete different set of skills, more than fancy fonts, pretty pictures and catchy jingles are required. The customer requires information which is usually provided by a Website. And this is where it gets scary, the bigger businesses usually out source this to an agency, possibly the agency which handled their mass media advertising. An agency who is skilled in the advertising procedures for the mass media but what do these agencies know about advertising on the Web which requires a complete different and opposite set of rules. Do these agencies know about the rules, guidelines and policies of the Search Engines, do they implement them, in my experience no. Because it is not the business they are in. If you are in business, in today's world you don't know where your next customer is coming from. No longer are buyers limited to the newspapers, radio or television for information, Prospective buyers have access to the Internet, the greatest information medium known. And advertising agencies were never set up to manage Websites on the Web So if you are in business, by all means use an agency to handle your website but please ensure they know what they are doing, because advertising for the Web requires a completely different set of skills to those used for advertising in the mass media. On the Web content is king, the customer requires information so they can make an informed decision. Building a website and making its contents available to the searching public is a process far removed from what an advertising agency undertakes in its day to day activities. It is not the business they are in. Media Buyers This brings us to the media buyers, which can be described as intermediaries, between the media and the businesses who wish to advise the public what they have for sale. Nothing wrong with this, the media cannot contact each individual advertiser and the businesses do not know who or how to undertake the advertising, so a media buyer is used. Use the words Advertising agency and Media buyer interchangeably because they are invariably one and the same thing. They make their money from the business and also from media with whom they place the advertising. Usual business practice. In the pre Web days, newspapers delivered words to their readers, and sold these readers to the advertisers, radio station delivered music and serials to the listeners and sold these listeners to the advertisers, Television stations provided entertainment and sold these viewers to the advertisers, we have bums on the seats, advertise with us we are better at the zero sum game than the rest. Then into this well ordered world entered the Web and the zero sum game was blown away, nothing is orderly anymore. People are on the Internet, viewing the Web; websites are everywhere, websites that people view so they can make purchasing decisions And if people are on the Web or using the Internet to find information, they are not reading the newspapers, listening to the radio or watching television. This media viewing change may have escaped the gaze of the business owners but it has not gone unnoticed by the advertising agencies or the media buyers. The only media growing world wide is the Web but upon which websites do we place the advertising. The Web allows every business to become its own advertising agency but because they lack knowledge about the Web or advertising on the Web or do not have the internal infrastructure they still outsource to an agency who they hope knows what it is doing. And the agencies or media buyers have an advantage, for many years they have been the trusted experts, the one who will deliver customers to the businesses, because they know the advertising business. And as long as they maintain a relationship with the unaware businesses that have the money, they too will remain in business. But do they know the advertising business of the Web The question is, upon which websites shall we advertise. The agencies or media buyers are now placed in the same position as the businesses, where exactly are the customers, they cannot say exactly, they cannot pin them down; they are all over the Web. The business model, the known infrastructure in which the agencies operated has been blown away. Businesses have money, they wish to advertise, how you satisfy their demands when you don't know where the customers are. A Ferrit by any other name is still a Ferrit. Ferrit.co.nz built under a flawed business plan. It was understood that people use the Web to find things, so all we have to do is contact all the big businesses, get them to advertise on our website, advertise the website extensively, people will visit, buy, and we will all make money. This one large website will do it all. How many millions of dollars does Ferrit lose each year? The share holders must be very happy. I suppose the idea of dealing with one large website has some appeal, it makes it easier for the media buyers, they can go out to the unaware businesses who have entrusted them to find an advertising vehicle and say put your money here. So following the Ferrit theme I read with interest the inception of a new large site Flossie.com, a website in New Zealand funded with millions of dollars pulling together several websites all under one masthead. The promoters of Flossie are ecstatic, they have media buyers lining up to spend money with them, well they are not exactly spending their money, they are spending money provided to them by businesses who are relying on the advertising agencies and the media buyers to deliver them customers. Wrong, the web is littered with ventures such as this, this business model does not work in the Internet age. The world of advertising has changed and businesses will have to get their heads around this. If customer buying habits have changed, don't you think the marketing activities of businesses should also change? Post Script: The more things change the more they stay the same. And if it comes to pass that businesses do not change they will find that once again the advertising agencies and the media buyers will control the destiny of the business Any comments Contact Us |