Planning today is so much more complex and important than years ago. Back in the day, planners had to answer such simple questions such as where to place ads and how many times it would run a week. Every time I see the media gal make an appearance in AMC’s Mad Men, I just laugh. It was a new concept then, but far from difficult.

Today’s planners must be much sharper and have a greater knowledge of marketing and brand development. The cause of this is the evolution of a single ad campaign to a full marketing concept. Now every media plan will be measured based on how effectively it helps to attain marketing objectives. Another cause of change is the availability of more definitive audience research techniques. Add to this evolution, the boom of the Internet and the ability for the consumer to find, buy and be exposed to thousands of marketing messages a day and you now have a need for a top notch media planner.

Today’s advertisers expect more rationale and a science to the spending of their media dollars. The new planner must possess the marketing, research and creative knowledge to provide this rationale.

There once was a time when running a laundry detergent ad during the weekday when housewives were glued to the tv watching their stories was genius. Those days are long gone and your media planner needs to step it up.

The spot itself doesn’t tout itself as revolutionary – rather it is a somber acknowledgment of what happened and how to move forward. However, for those of us in advertising, this ad is the first time we have ever seen a sponsor launch an ad in support of a celebrity in the throes of controversy. The new Nike ad, launched this week, is below:

So everyone here at the agency had an impromptu discussion about the spot yesterday morning. Several different reactions and issues surfaced.

Earl Woods Voice

It’s an artful use of Tiger’s father’s voice, and eerily appropriate for the current situation. Also, the use of Earl’s voice could help prevent backlash because (1) the ad itself is already criticizing Tiger somewhat and (2) nobody wants to criticize the voice of someone that has recently passed. On the other hand, some might think it’s not in good taste. His father passed away several years ago and no one can say for sure what Earl Woods’ reaction would’ve been to Tiger’s behavior. Also, Earl was apparently unfaithful himself, which makes the spot ironic and deflates it’s meaning if such allegations are true.

The original quote wasn’t referring to Tiger

The original sound byte from Earl Woods was actually referring to himself, in the context of comparison with his ex-wife. Some of us felt that this was misleading to the viewer, who could assume that the quote was originally about Tiger. Others here felt that it was irrelevant what the original quote was for, and what is important is the meaning ascribed in this new context.

The Spot Exists in the First Place

Putting aside all discussion of the contents of the spot, the fact that Nike created it and put it out there is simply revolutionary. It’s the status quo for companies to distance themselves from celebrity and athlete spokespeople when they make a blunder like Tiger did. Nike was one of the only sponsors who didn’t drop Woods. That in and of itself was surprising, but to come out with a spot created to help relaunch their spokesperson into the world of golf and rebuild his reputation is entirely new ground. Think about it, no one has ever done anything like this on this level. Nike is taking an honest and powerful stand in support of Tiger Woods, a risk on some level, but ground breaking on another. You could make the argument that Nike was taking heat by sticking with Tiger Woods while the rest of his sponsors dropped him, so they made the spot to show that they don’t condone his behavior but still support him as an athlete. Regardless of the motivation, the spot coming from one of the world’s largest advertisers in direct support of an athlete and his personal situation is part of advertising history.

Miscellaneous Consequenses

This blog is getting long, so we will wrap it up. But we did want to mention that this ad spawned both good and bad consequences: the ad has become a huge talking point for media, and has also become very popular online. This ad will probably see twice the media impressions that Nike actually paid for. That said, there have also been negative parodies, some of which we think are poignantly amusing.

If you haven’t heard, Toyota has recently been hard at work cleaning up the mess of its 2.3 million vehicle recall. While it is potentially devastating for Toyota, whose entire brand image has been based on vehicle reliability, it led for some pretty opportunistic moments for others in the auto industry.

Hardly anyone took advantage, but GM stepped up to the plate with an awesome incentive program that helped capture what would otherwise be some pretty loyal Toyota consumers. The best part about GM’s plan is that they didn’t alter their positioning at all. They haven’t made any new promises or changed their advertising. They simply allow Toyota owners (who terminate their Toyota lease, of course) to get up to $1,000 off a new or leased GM vehicle: a pretty good incentive for making the switch. Toyota’s fumble couldn’t have come at a better time for a company like GM; it has allowed them to really push their own promises of reliability and quality to a very tuned in audience with a specific set of needs. So whether or not Toyota is handling their recall the right way is almost beside the point; GM has stepped in at exactly the right time to take advantage of their competitor’s weakness.

As far as any business goes, it is important for your company to be able to handle problems and crises with foresight and grace, but it is just as important to know what is going on beyond your company. Keeping tabs on your industry and your competitors can bring advantageous opportunities to really reach your audience.

At any advertising agency, there are many parts. There is usually some mix of creatives, account service, word of mouth/social media, traffic, and PR professionals. (Hint – if you want to see the people behind The Cyphers Agency, click on some of the links in this blog post)

We thought it would be a good idea to let you know what all of these people do, and why, when you put us all together, we come up with such great ideas.

Account Service – The people in account service at The Cyphers Agency are constantly making sure that our clients objectives are being accomplished. They oversee all projects and campaigns, and provide strategic and planning insight throughout the process. Communication (to keep clients happy, and keep the agency “account”-able) is essential with account service personnel.

Creative Department – These groovy folks aren’t just the ones creating ideas, websites, building facebook and iPhone apps, designing print ads, and filming television ads. Yeah, they do all that, but their most important job is conveying ad messages and accomplishing strategic objectives in unique and memorable ways. If you can see it, these people did it. And they put a lot of thought behind the idea.

Word of Mouth / Social Media (we call it “Push-N-Pull” here at Cyphers) – This department spreads the word for our clients. Whether our clients want to increase awareness, increase web traffic, improve customer service, search engine optimization, increase customer reviews, (BREATH….) perform market research, distribute promotions, handle a crisis, or just start “Facebook-ing” and “Twittering”, this is the department that will be getting your message to the people that want to hear it.

Traffic – This department handles the behind-the-scenes management of all the jobs. Who needs what? Where does that job need to go next? Traffic handles the who, what, when, where, and why for all of our clients. Most importantly, our traffic department ensures that all of our jobs are out the door to clients on time.

So hopefully you now have a greater understanding of how advertising agencies work. Why does ours work so well? Because we don’t just do our jobs separately. From brainstorms to our open office to staff meetings to following each other on social networks, there is a lot of communication here at The Cyphers Agency. That way, when something important happens, we all know about it quickly. Or when someone has an idea, we can all build on it quickly. This is just one of the reasons that The Cyphers Agency is greater than the sum of it’s parts.

We recently noticed a campaign that was truly integrated, and we wanted to point out how powerful complete integration can be.

Giveitaponder is a microsite created by mobile-phone-maker LG. The campaign is designed to motivate cell phone users to “give it a ponder” before sending that text message that they might later regret.

LOL!

We like the campaign because of it’s high-quality content (James Lipton!), integration with social networks, and strategic messaging. They have a YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook page, and also link to a Wikipedia page.

At first glance, we thought the campaign might have been weak (albeit funny) because the LG brand isn’t featured prominently in the ads. But we realized that the ads may be doing that for a reason. Most people don’t buy a phone based on the brand, they usually focus on the features and benefits. Consumers walk into the phone store and walk to the phone with the coolest features or that look neat-o. There isn’t a whole lot of brand loyalty with cell-phones (except for the iPhone!). The ads showcase the flip phones and full keyboards and also do a good job of identifying with their target audience.

Either way, the campaign is certainly integrated, with clear branding and content tailored to each social network.

brb getting a peanut muffin

Of course, we’re ad people, so maybe we’re overthinking it. What do you think of the campaign?