With the World’s dipping economy and the US recession corporations could look to cutting back Marketing and Advertising budgets in order to save money. It might not make sense, from a marketers point of view, to cut back marketing spend during tough times but this could usher in a new challenge to the marketing fraternity in terms of making their marketing strategy and plans more effective.

Marketing has cemented its place in the global economy as a key department which ensures the creation of wealth. Reading a recent Bizcommunity article, a figure quoted was that of 20% of all advertising in South Africa, not only being ineffective, but actually damaging the brand it’s supposed to promote. Another R50 billion was quoted as being “wasted” marketing spend every year in South Africa. That’s an extremely huge number to ignore, and although I can’t find the global figures, one can only assume that these numbers remain roughly the same across different countries if not getting even worse.

Research agencies such as Millward Brown, Mindshare, AC Nielsen and Initiative are excellent tools for corporations to use in terms of understanding fully how to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of their marketing spend. Tons of money gets spent on market research every year which test everything from distribution to ad effectiveness.

What’s missing is the appropriate use of the information on every level of the marketing plan. Millward Brown has years of experience testing various ads and what separates the great ads from the good ones, those that exceed objectives and those which just barely meet them. This information is even broken down by country and LSM profile which means you get extremely targeted information. Using this information as criteria for judging creative work from agencies will put the effectiveness of ads on a whole new playing field.

Another aspect is the choosing of appropriate media, especially from a South African perspective, not many corporations are taking advantage of the new media landscape in terms of leveraging their brands on social media platforms such as Facebook, Myspace and even Twitter. Mindshare and Initiative are companies which specialize in media and have information which cover all types of consumer interaction with brands. Are we really using our media agencies to their full capacity? A few brands are, the rest are getting left behind.

Essentially what is being proposed is going right back to the basics of marketing, getting the core of the brand on the right path and following on from thereto make effective and efficient marketing plans and strategies. It is no longer the case of making a great ad and watching sales fly, consumers are more media and marketing savvy and they now have less to spend. Marketers need to ask… “What will make them spend the little money they have left on my brand?”

Freakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner has been the most engaging read I’ve had for sometime.

If you’re a wannabe planner then this will get your curiosity juices flowing. How are swimming pools more dangerous than guns? How were the Klu Klux Clan brought down by the Superman radio show? The answers are all in the data. Enjoy

So you’ve figured out now, maybe after a year of uni, or maybe after having finished your degree that your pre-university idea of dream job is just that, a dream. Or maybe you’ve realised that being part of the pinstriped brigade shuttling back and forth from Canary Wharf talking of mergers, acquisitions and dividends just isn’t your kind of hype.

On top of that, a cocky mate of yours has been talking about the advertising industry for a while now, and their constant referring to it as ‘the industry’ is a) pissing you off and b) sounding like they’re talking about California’s ‘adult entertainment’ industry.

Now what? What is the ad industry and how oh how do you get in? It’s too late now to get in for the grad schemes (and if you haven’t graduated yet they’re no use anyway) and the summer school applications seem so weird (where do they think up these questions is what you’re thinking) so where do you go? It’s those words you thought you’d heard the last of the summer after your GCSEs: work experience.

Work experience is one of the best ways to decide whether the ad industry is for you, and it’s a great way to put your name out there so people in adland take notice. So where to start? First stop is the library/bookshop and have a read of the books in Anton’s thorough recommended reading list. Read every word of the books you get your hands on, devour them. Seriously. It’ll help you loads later on. Step numero 2 is to go the crappy IPA website (www.ipa.co.uk) and register there. Once you’re registered then download the graduate factfile. This is your holy grail, as it has recruitment contacts for all the agencies that are hiring grads this year.

Because they’re hiring grads there’s a good chance they’ll need any help they can get. That’s where you conveniently step in. You’re an eager pair of hands, someone who wants to do anything to find out more about adland. Bingo.

But obviously it’s not that easy. You take an agency, have a good read of their website and ring up the recruitment contact, before you do that, check the time. Make sure you call them early in the morning, or late in the evening, they’ll be busy in between and often they’ll be busy anytime you call them. Be confident on the phone, don’t umm and ah, say who you are and what you want. Then shut up and let them answer, don’t jump in going “If you don’t need anyone that’s ok” No it’s not ok!! They might say yes, they might say no, they might say they’ll get back to you. Rule number 1 of adland is that HR people rarely get back to you, not out of malice, they just don’t. So you have to keep trying. At every agency. In a way you have to be shameless and confident in equal measures.

Now some agencies have structured work experience schemes (BBH, Saatchi&Saachi, M&C Saatchi, Leith London etc). They’ll be easier to approach but again perseverance is the key. And so is originality. Send the HR girl (they usually are) flowers/chocolate, it’s cheesy but it works, and worst-case scenario is they laugh about it and remember your name. In this industry that’s never a bad thing. And keep trying, ring up every agency and remember it only takes one person to say yes and you’re in. And once you’re in it’s a hell of a lot easier to get to other places.

Oh and remember, you will get in, it’s just a matter of time.

A big thank you to Sam for his contribution and wise words

Just read this here.

“First this: advertising does not work for the average blogger, even the above-average blogger. It only works for the big group blogs and a tiny handful of full-timers. Advertising as a means of support for bloggers is a complete, utter, and frankly, rather embarassing failure. If Fred Wilson can’t earn more than charity change for his blog - well-read, updated thrice daily, and a leader in an important category - than few others can. If Steve Gilliard has to hang out a rusty tin can on his blog and beg for nickels, then blog advertising has failed. If Joe Gandelman’s still on the ventriloquism circuit instead of sitting in a fine office, collecting fees for his incredible service to blog journalism, then advertising doesn’t work.”

I’d disagree with saying that advertising doesn’t work. It’s just that it’s not delivering what everyone wanted to believe it would. And anyway, in a lot of cases it does work - if all a blogger wants to do is earn enough to cover hosting fees, then what’s the problem.

Not everyone is trying to make a million from their blog.

The closest thing I can compare blogging to is professional sport. Sure, there are some superstars who make a fortune. There are also a huge number of talented people who make a decent living from sport. And then there are millions of people who look at it as a pastime or hobby that they love to do - yep, they dream about making the big time with their footie, golf or whatever, but time, family, and work, means that they’re generally content with taking part in local amateur contests.

So for some, getting your hosting paid with a few dollars to spare every month is the blogging equivalent of taking part in those local amateur contests. And winning them.

And in that respect, advertising works very, very well indeed.

W&K do it again with this brilliant new angle for Honda. I’ve heard many complaining about it’s length, it’s lack of target bla bla bla.

Again, people keep on thinking TV is to sell, sell, sell. I think this is a brilliant branding execution whereby people en mass are watching and engaging with this novel and clever association between a human choir and the sounds made by a car.

The previous Honda campaign to me was complete product line masturbation where we have the dinky moped turning into a super bike, a car into a sports car and a speed boat into a hot air balloon. An epic yes but I didn’t really feel it had anything to say about an actual product or the Honda brand - well it did just I thought it was lame and was an ad made for advertising people. This however is far more enjoyable and drives the intelligence and style of Honda

With ‘Choir’ what we see is a typical style of car advertising (focusing on features of the vehicle) but not in the usual winding mountain road kind of way.

Perfect and another testament to W&K that by remaining a modest agency with creative focus your ads will be talked about all over the place - despite the fact that some ad people may moan about them (probably because they don’t work there).