Re: Choosing an Ad Network / Email Partner

From: Dana Farbo <dfarbo_at_creativepriority.com>
Date: Wed 19 Mar 2003 18:09:27 -0600

Brandon Meyers <brmeyers_at_yahoo.com> wrote:

>I guess my question I pose to this board is what types
>of questions should I be asking these companies that
>might not be so obvious? Of course every company I
>speak with will tell me what they are good at but I'm
>not sure what they aren't good at and I don't want to
>partner with the wrong company. We need quite a lot
>of creative work to make this campaign effective I
>realize so would going with an agency rather than
>dealing with an ad network directly be a better
>choice?

I agree with Cliff Kurtzman that testing, testing, and more testing is
critical for the success of your campaign. The issue that most of our
clients face is how to manage vendor selection with limited initial
knowledge of the dynamics of the online ad buying market and limited
personnel to handle that evolving task. This is true for Fortune 100
companies as well as start-ups. There is also the issue of Creative
optimization. The majority of advertising in the online space remains
mediocre at best and even the large advertising agencies do not have
dedicated online creative specialists for advertising. They are either the
print people or the Web site development group. The industry has been very
good at taking these mediocre ads and using technology to optimize placement
by switching out those that work for those that don't. But when you start
out with lower quality creative, you needs lots of different executions that
get tested to keep the optimization engines working well.

Back to the agency issue. We are a creative agency and we work with media
companies such as Media Contacts, New York, to create campaigns that attain
our client's goals. My recommendation if you have the budget, find an expert
like Media Contacts who can help you with strategy and optimization of all
your resources. Have them work with your creative group, like us, to get the
highest quality creative out there so that it doesn't take too long to reach
those goals. Also, not sure if I totally agree with Cliff on one point...

it should be entirely
free to you (at least it would be if I was
doing the media planning.

It is true that agencies get a discount but the ones we work with typically
use this to show a client their buying power clout and pass the majority of
the savings on. They do charge an agency fee and it is based on a percentage
of the media dollars spent.

We, as a creative agency are also working on a project or hourly basis and
that is typical for a creative agency. However, for direct response
campaigns, I am testing a performance based incentive program with one of
our clients. Should be interesting.

Hope this helps,

Dana J Farbo
President/ Managing Director
Creative Priority LLC
135 W. 27th Street
New York, NY 10001
dfarbo_at_creativepriority.com
www.creativepriority.com




Received on Wed Mar 19 2003 - 18:09:27 CST