The Little Agency That Roars!

"Soylent Green is people!" So is the internet.

For all the hype, buzz, tweets, posts, blogs, links, acronyms and important sounding jargon, the internet is just a communication tool. Email is a tool. Social media is a tool. Mobile is a tool.  They're just a conduit, a medium, a vehicle who's sole purpose is to connect you and me together.

What makes any communication tool useful and powerful and actionable is the story you have to share. What benefit do you have to offer? How do you engage with your customers?

Once you've figured out your story, internet tools (like traditional marketing tools) tend to take care of themselves.

Lead or be lead.

Sales are stagnate. Traffic is so-so. You've held your "Grand Opening," your "President's Day Sale" and your "Hail Sale" events, but still Kansas City isn't consistently flocking through your doors. You're got two choices: Lead or Be Lead.

Leaders make a ruckus, shake the norm and change the game. Leaders bring new disruptive ideas that demand action and response. Leaders stick their necks out and take a risk at failure… they make drastic price changes, they give away what used to be pricey and find another way to profit, they break things before they're broken, they sidestep the masses and become cult-like to the fringes, they zig while others zag and take the lead on ethics. The downside is that you might mess up a good thing. Entrepreneurs know that's exactly the way to create a great thing.

Or you can listen to the customers who are finding your door and let them tell you what they want you to do. The downside is that they might not know themselves.  

Can you hear me now?

Thanks to email, Nigerian princes, loud announcers, Facebook, 50-years of "urgent" TV ads and telemarketers... it's no longer enough to just have an incredible idea/product/service/business. Today you have to prove yourself worthy of attention BEFORE your idea even gets a glance.

In a recent post Seth Godin puts it this way: 

"Before your link gets clicked or your proposal gets read, a busy person (and who isn't these days?) is going to triage it to find out if it's even worth glancing at. Since everyone is now connected, the new permeability has created a deluge of noise, and just about everyone worth contacting is taking defensive measures."

Your message and marketing is getting pre-screened:

• Do I know this person?
• Did someone I trust send them over to me?
• Where does this person work?
• Is she famous? Award-winning?
• Are there typos? Is the design sloppy?
• Do I already follow this person online?
• Who else is referencing or working with this person?
• Is it too good to be true? 

It's not enough to be brilliant. Today more than ever, you have to also be connected. As marketeers our job is help you make the connections between you and your contacts, that will push your brilliance out of the noise.

Kansas City is getting on board The Metro.

Hats off to our partners at The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA). After posting a 5.7% ridership increase in 2011, The Metro has started 2012 strong. Ridership in both January and February was up nearly 20% over the same time period last year.  The Metro attributes the ridership  increase to an improving employment picture, rising gasoline prices, a new University of Missouri–Kansas City pass program and an increased awareness of public transportation. 

Look for a new multi-media marketing campaign from The Metro in April that uses these elements to demonstrate how The Metro touches each of us everyday.

 

It's all in the family.

How does an agency continue to thrive, 37 years after opening its door? Why do we have the lowest employee turn-over in the industry? Why do our clients keep coming back year after year after year?

Michael Fasone wrote this memo years ago. It not only answers these questions, but also defines who we are as an ad agency. It's a great reminder of why we come to work on Mondays, why vendors want to work for us and why businesses like to partner with us.

"We are family. Each of us plays an integral role in the agency. We are supportive. We work together for the welfare of the group. We are connected, untied in our effort, a family. This is the key reason for our long-term success: 35 years and counting (now 37 years and counting). 

This is not the case at most advertising agencies. Ask the people who have worked at other agenies, especially the big ones, and you will hear stories that are shocking. They are not family, but more like Wall Street traders looking out for their own because they know they will only be there until the next door opens. So the big agency fortunes rise and fall as do their people.

It takes a village. It takes a family. It takes all of us to secure the success of our agency. We are not striving for that quick dollar or the pot of elusive gold. We want more than that. Something better. We want to preserve the lifestyle we have created at the agency.

We work at an advertising agency that provides us a sense of freedom and self-respect. We treat each other like responsible professionals that deserve and give each other something really valuable – consideration.

We work hard because we want to be really good at what we do. The best of the best. We want recognition from our peers and from those who really matter – our own family. And we want to succeed and grow to keep our agency from the evils other people live with – long hours, bad managers, a loss of human spirit and most of all a loss of self.

It's nice to have a coworker ask about your weekend because they really care about you, your home life and the significant others in your life.

It's a luxury to work with people that you know will be there year after year.

It's amazing to see so many people, who have worked here and moved away, come back to visit and reconnect with the agency family that gave them roots and a knowledge of the business.

It's wonderful to be part of a family that is supportive, productive, working to be part of the solution, and gives me a sense of belonging because they know and I know it takes all of us, a village, a family."

Fill in the meme for small biz branding

No time for marketing plans and branding strategies? Follow the popular meme:

If you start looking at your business from your customers', competitors', community's and your employees' eyes you'll start to see how your brand is now. Look at your competitors to see how your brand is measuring up. Then look at how you see yourself. Between these multiple views of your small business is your big branding opportunity. 

 

Head-scratchers wanted.

At some point we're all sitting too close to our project to see that we're being confusing. Instruction manuals are perfect examples. I'm sure the technical writer thought he was being crystal clear, I mean he understood the manual perfectly. How much better (and useful) would that manual be if only he had given it to a "head-scratcher" to read over first. By letting the head-scratcher share her confusion, we'd all be better able to "insert tab A into slot B."

Everyone needs a head-scratcher. Someone outside your culture who can point out what's not totally clear about your idea, your promotion and your project before the real confusion sets in. 

 

Go big or go home in 2012.

Planning big is the best way, really the only way, to make great things happen consistently. Sure sometimes you get lucky and greatness falls into your lap, but it's exceedingly rare and fleeting. Big planners are the odds on favorites to have great things – great sales, great profits, great successes in 2012.

Plan big, and then write down your big plans. Now you're focused. Share your big plans with teammates, your partners and your accomplices. Now you're locked in. 

Then take action. Act on your big plans today, before lunch, put your big plans into action right now. Get yourself ready to experience greatness in 2012.

After all, you've planned for it.

 

You've done it again.

Toys for Toddies 23 was another roaring success! Fasone's little elves are currently shopping, wrapping and putting your donations to good use as we get all the families' wishes taken care of and their immediate needs met. Thanks again for your help, your donations and your business.

 

You're Invited: Toys for Toddies 2011

Cap off your year with us at our annual Toys for Toddies party, Dec. 8th at the Boulevard Brewing Co. (2501 Southwest Boulevard, KCMO). 

Bring a toy, item of clothing or household goodie off the following list and we'll buy your toddies from 4pm to 7pm. Or let the Fasone elves shop for you. Cash and gift card donations are always put to good use.

After party we'll sort, wrap and buy batteries for all the presents. We'll use your cash donations to fill out the wish lists and buy shopping carts full of groceries for the families.

All you have to do is join us at the Boulevard Brewing Co. See you there!