The Bulldog Reporter’s “Daily Dog” newsletter reports (here) that Richmond, VA-based AgencyFinder.com is launching an agency rating system for the agencies registered with its service.  The rating system helps rank agencies that meet the criteria required by the searching client or consultant.

As a disclaimer, let me say that I’m friends with the folks at AgencyFinder and have used their service to conduct a search for a new agency for a client.  The service is free to those who are looking for a new agency - the cost of the service is borne entirely by the agencies registered in the database. 

From my point of view, AgencyFinder’s new rating service will help keep things fair and objective (the first round of evaluations is done “blind” - meaning the client doesn’t know the name of the agencies they’re reviewing).  Keeping everything on an “apples to apples” basis will put small and large agencies on a relatively level playing field.

Congratulations to Chuck and his team on this new innovation.  I can’t wait to see it in action.

There’s an interesting piece in AdWeek this week that talks about a demographic class I hadn’t seen before … the “working wealthy.”  This group of consumers (also known as “middle class millionaires”) is defined by authors Lewis Schiff and Russ Alan Prince as having the following attributes:

Middle-class millionaires — the 8.4 million households in America with $1 million to $10 million in net worth — are setting the pace for innovation in new and fascinating ways. Although the word “millionaire” may conjure up images of first-class lifestyles and financial peace of mind, middle-class millionaires work exceptionally long hours to maintain their expensive lifestyles and most think of themselves as just plain “middle class.”

Though the working wealthy share many of their values with the rest of the middle class, they also exhibit traits that set them apart. For example, they consider themselves to be influential in their community. They are 50 percent more likely to say that they “tell lots of other people about products or services they like” than middle-class survey respondents. They also report “being asked for advice on what to buy” five times more often than our middle-class survey respondents.

I encourage you to read the whole article - you’ll find the information to be helpful in your marketing planning and of interest to your clients, as well.

Forty is too young to die.

I can say that now, as I’m all of forty-five.  Last week’s news of the death of DDB’s creative chief, Paul Tilley, hit home for me.  Here’s a guy about my age with a bunch of kids and a wife and (apparently) all the upside in the world.

But with the upside comes pressure.  And with the pressure, a darkness.

Ad Age had a very solid piece on Paul Tilley and the reactions to his suicide.  You can read it here.

One line in the Ad Age piece referred to a New York Post story (found here) that referred to the “Blogs of Death” - specifically AgencySpy and AdScam.  The “Blogs of Death” epithet is more the result of bad headline writing than any claim staked by either blog.

Do yourself a favor.  Don’t get caught up in the self-indulgent introspection of trying to figure out who’s to blame for this tragedy.  It won’t bring Paul Tilley back and it won’t make life any easier for his wife and kids.  Just morn the all-too-soon loss of a husband and father who, as it just so happens, was a creative director that did some excellent work.

Godspeed, Paul Tilley.

Maybe there’s something to this “social marketing” thing.  I mean if a bunch of drunk rugby fans with a fast Internet connection could do this, why not us hopeless Cubs fans?

Diego Rodriguez’s metacool blog started me on a search for sites and blogs that tracked the evolution of different brands.  There’s something about this that appeals to both the marketing guy and the historian in me. 

Check these out:

Evolution of automobile brands
Evolution of tech brands

Let me know if you find any more studies like this!

Kudos to Saatchi & Saatchi who hold a bi-annual competition to find great ideas with “to make a positive difference, and maybe even change the world.”  In this article by Saabira Chaudhuri, Saatchi’s ECD, Bob Isherwood explains why the ad agency holds the competition:

“We’re an ideas company. We rebranded ourselves in the advertising world in 1997 and took the word advertising out of our name entirely.”  

The winner of the competition receives a $100,000 prize ($50,000 in cash and $50,000 in consulting services).  The award is given to an innovative idea that has the potential to reach the largest number of people and make the biggest impact.

Read more about the competition and the winner (the LifeStraw, which aims to provide the developing world with clean drinking water) by clicking here.

According to MarketingVOX, CBS television has announced it will serve up classics like Hawaii Five-O, Melrose Place and Star Trek (The Original Series) on the three hundred-plus sites that make up the CBS Audience Network.  According to a news release from the broadcaster, all of the shows will be ad-supported and, as a result, will be free to viewers.

Book ‘em, Danno.

It’s an interesting journalistic question brought forward by Steve Rubel in this post on his Micropersuasion blog.  Steve refers to this piece on the Editor’s Weblog which lays out the issues surrounding the use of Wikipedia by newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times.

The problem, of course, is that sites like Wikipedia are tempting resources for journalists precisely because they serve as a repository for interesting and offbeat information you can’t usually find through more carefully vetted resources.

Other, more specialized wiki’s might serve as a more reliable source of information for a reporter, though.  Wiki’s built around special interests can attract very specialized experts and, because of their extremely narrow focus, aren’t attractive targets for mischief (after all, how much fun is there in pissing off a few thousand Trekkies?).

It seems wise to keep in mind the following about all wiki’s (from Wikipedia’s “About Wikipedia” section):

“… it is important to use Wikipedia carefully if it is intended to be used as a research source, since individual articles will, by their nature, vary in standard and maturity.”

This classic commercial sure is different from the latest Old Spice commercial, isn’t it?

Getting ready to “scratch a niche” with a widget-ized ad campaign?  Not so fast, buddy.

You could put an eye out with your misguided web 2.0 campaign if you’re not careful.  That’s why I found this article by advertising.com’s Nikole Brake to be so useful.

In short, Nikole advises marketers to keep these things in mind before pressing the “send” button and launching:

• Be ready to let go of your content and see what happens.
• Serve a purpose and serve it fresh.
• Stick with standards and partners you know.
• Have some answers for the questions of content distribution.

Read it all here.

For more on the basics/background of marketing with widgets, check out this interview with Lawrence Coburn by The Online Marketing blog.

Blogger Neville Pokroy from Mastermind Solutions has provided an interesting bit of advice for safeguarding your company against an economic recession.

And for those of you who don’t know what a recession is, check it out here.

Help some charities. Pick a brief. Design a poster. Submit it by April 20th.

Do some good.

How do you keep track of the conversations in the blogosphere that could mean the most to you? How do you locate the blogs that you should be keeping an eye on for you or for your client’s business?

Kami Huyse, at the Communications Overtones blog, provides some helpful links, advice and guidelines for doing just that.  If you’re in the reputation management business (as most PR firms are and many branding and ad agencies want to be), this is an essential post for you to read this week.

Thanks, Kami!

Ever have a burning desire to win a Quackie?  Me neither. 

But Steve Hall at AdRants ran this post summarizing the advertising awards show known as the Golden Ducks - a show dedicated to “the weird, the strange and the head-scratchers in advertising.”

You can see some of the award nominees here.

Heaven knows we’ve all seen enough of that (ref. the Tiddy Bear, a Quackie nominee if there ever was one).
 

According to the annual MarketingSherpa, end-of-year survey of top online marketers, the more passive forms of lead acquisition (e.g. banner ads in e-newsletters and rented e-mail marketing lists) saw a fall-off in investment in 2007 versus the previous year. The more organic forms of list-building (e.g. excercising house lists, contextual search ads and SEO) have seen the best return and appear to be destined for larger shares of top marketers’ budgets in 2008.

Top online marketing tactics for last year (according to the MarketingSherpa research) include:

• Behaviorally targeted ads favored: Still a favorite, marketers say they will be investing more in them in 2008.

• House lists top paid search: More marketers reported success with house email lists than paid search ads — a reversal from a year earlier.

• Test, test, test again: Marketers are measuring and testing more in almost all categories surveyed.

• SEO begets strong ROI: Search engine optimization is delivering a strong return on investment, according to more than half of the marketers surveyed.

• Viral gains converts: Agencies are urging marketers to explore viral marketing and advertising in mobile phones, online video sites and virtual worlds.

A good bit of time was dedicated to discussing viral marketing, too - especially viral video.  Among the observations made:

• 93% of marketers said agencies recommend either an increase in spending or begin spending on viral video.

• 87% reported recommendations to start or increase viral marketing on social networking sites.

• 62% said agencies advised advertising in games and virtual worlds – the highest number of recommendations for a first-time budget while paradoxically attracting the highest number of recommendations to decrease spending. This confusion clearly reflects the medium’s unproven status.

• 60% saying they are urged to try wireless ads on mobile networks –- it came in second in first-time budget recommendations.