Philosophy

We are not an advertising agency.

Advertising agencies are places where creative types go to express themselves. They believe that advertising is art. They assemble dramatic Powerpoint presentations and large, heavy portfolios that showcase “the work.” If you ask advertising agency people to talk about results they babble about things like ADDY Awards and other distinctions granted by creative people for being creative. They avoid specific questions about response data and sales metrics related to their efforts. They would much rather talk about fluffy things like “increased awareness” and “brand perception”, feel-good topics that are fun to talk about but difficult to quantify.

Advertising agencies had a good run.

For nearly a half-century mass market advertising was the fuel that powered the consumer economy. Companies could buy some ads, sell some product, buy more ads and then sell more product in a fortuitous cycle. The system was simple and it scaled. Advertising agencies attained rock-star status by coming up with memorable ads that made people laugh, cry, or just sing along. Huge marketing budgets were poured into television, newspapers, magazines and billboards. At the heart of all this spending was the advertising agency with its predictably quirky creative directors and friendly account executives. Everyone knew where to reach the consumer, the trick was coming up with a clever and memorable message that could be neatly condensed into 30 seconds of broadcast copy or a few inches of space in a newspaper.

Over time the system stopped working. The number of media channels exploded as did the number of commercial messages delivered to consumers. The result? People stopped paying attention to traditional advertising and traditional advertising stopped working.

Advertising agencies have been reluctant to respond to the changing landscape of marketing. After all, their business model is based upon the old system. Everything from staffing decisions to their compensation structures are dependent on creating traditional ads and running them in traditional places. The irony of all this is that in today’s volatile consumer market businesses need assistance with marketing more than ever. But the advertising agencies of yesterday are just not equipped to navigate the waters of online marketing, social media, and a world where consumers are in control.

Contact Media was built to fill the vacuum that advertising agencies left behind.

We believe that marketing campaigns should deliver a positive return on invested capital. We believe that advertising should be tracked, measured, and optimized continuously. We believe that data collection and analytics are every bit as important as the color palette chosen to design your logo. We believe the fundamentals of effective communication with consumers have shifted from an  interruption-based model to a permission-based model. We believe that businesses need strategic partners that can advise them not only on how to position and brand but also on how to take advantage of emerging technologies and use them to gain an unfair advantage over competitors.

If you believe what we believe but could use some help making it a reality for your business, drop us a line here.

If you are interested in learning more, download our FREE report The 7 Deadly Sins of Small Business Marketing available at the top of this page.

Seth Godin also gives a nice summary of the reasons why traditional advertising methods are becoming less effective here:

Seth Godin explains why traditional advertising doesn’t work any more.

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