MarketingInsideOut.com

OK, everybody knows about Agency.com and their attempt to “push the envelope and change rfp “meet-and-greet” credentials videos forever” which turned out to be something more along the lines of “Sister Mary Margaret’s 5th grade class records their interpretation of “what it’s like to be a “big time, trendy” ad agency in New York”.  Pretty cool idea to make the video viral.  Pretty lame execution.

Everyone’s buzzing over whether or not it was the dumbest thing ever, or surprisingly brilliant in some out-of-the-box way.  Dumb or brilliant it did drive one clear point home.  Whether you’re a “big time, trendy ad agency in New York” or a small full service shop in Dubuque – you pretty much approach a client challenge in the same way.  While everyone is volleying about whether or not Agency.com made the right choice in sharing their innermost process they have failed to see the main point here.  The world now knows that “big time, trendy ad agencies in New York” don’t do it any better than the average small to medium sized shop in Anytown, USA.  Even the self-proclaimed risk takers are doing the same damn thing as everybody else.

The best thing about the video was that it was real.  I defy anyone in the ad business, in a shop with at least a handful of people, to deny that they’ve been in some of those exact conversations, with colleagues, while contemplating an impending pitch.  It felt real, but not exclusively for Agency.com – not by a long shot.

And when you get right down to it – there are some processes that just make good common sense.  Get to know everything you can about the prospect, through them and through their customer.  We all do that.  Discuss various approaches and ideas examining their pros and cons.  Nothing new here.  No, I think the big controversy is that the whole world was made privy to the fact that the Emperor really has no clothes!  And we’ve seen clear up his proverbial skirt!  So thanks Agency.com, for letting that cat out of the bag and leveling the playing field.

And if I were to give Agency.com one piece of advice it would be “don’t tell us that you’re cool and that you’re risk takers” because as my Mother always says “those that have it don’t have to talk about it”!  Sorry to hear that you “rolled out” of the Subway pitch – hope it wasn’t the heat in the kitchen!

All you have to do is spend ONE day with a teenager to understand why the music industry is in such a state of angst. Everything about the way music is promoted, distributed, listened to and purchased, has been in flux for a long time and it continues to be a rapidly moving target as technology advances up the ante. I was reading a story in the current Rolling Stone magazine about the lengths they are going to market new music — like using user-generated video and free downloads.

As part of the ritual back to school shopping this year, both my kids bought the new i-pod integrated backpacks — where they can plug their ear buds right in to the strap and control the volume and song selection. Between classes and everywhere they haul those backpacks (hopefully not during class) they can now tune in to their favorite music. When I pick up my youngest after school, she either stays plugged in or in milliseconds she’s pulled out her i-pod and wirelessly connects it to the radio. Heaven forbid she ever gets in the car without her music because she just curses the radio and no station gets over a 4 second listen.

At home, she either docks her i-pod in one of sound docks or she’s online and has her i-tunes or Rhapsody blasting or is surfing to find new music. She’s found all kinds of obscure music sites. Neither kid has been to a music store or bought an entire CD in a least 18 months. They hear a song they like somewhere (sometimes blasting on someone’s MySpace site) and then they track it down and buy it (the one thing I managed to beat into their thick skulls was that they actually had to obtain the music they put on their MP3 players by legal means [meaning buy it] or risk my taking all of it away.

My kids are constantly on the lookout for new ways to get music. Yesterday my 14 year old was excited about two things she discovered — one was the latest development with AOL and SpiralFrog and the other was that SpiralFrog plans for an online service that allows users free ad-supported downloads of music and videos. She sees no problems in dealing with ads to get what she wants because to her music and her ability to download what she wants when she wants it is an expectation – as basic to her as breathing.

SO…Is the CD dead? If not, it’s certainly gasping. What about pure play record stores? Are they experiencing death by a thousand cuts as a recent e-Marketer story says? Well Tower Records declared bankruptcy (again). So that isn’t a good sign for that model. Many believe music already is and will become even more so… a loss leader way to sell some other type of product. Maybe Starbucks could be the primary physical distribution channel. …they’re already in the biz. And there are something like 9,000 stores–one on every corner. We could just stop in…grab a Caramel Macchiato…download some tunes for the morning commute…and be on our happy way.