May, 2012 | Margie Albert

Archive for May, 2012

Today’s remark – (boring) scripts are not ideas

– Posted on May 21, 2012 by Margie Albert

A friend of mine recently became a GM at a TV station. He came up through the ranks without a sales background. I asked what his biggest surprise was in his new role. His answer? The salespeople were not focused on the customers’ success! He said he looked at several proposals – all were very pretty but they were all about his station. Lots of statistics and why the customer should buy TV and even what programs they should buy but nothing very creative directed at the client from the client’s point of view. He was shocked.

I see the same thing everywhere. Lots of the same old “your commercial will be seen by X number of A25-54” with some Marshall Marketing or Scarborough thrown in to make it look more customized. The research justifies the schedule. And sometimes a script was included. That’s about it.

Any station can do that and most stations do.

What will set you apart is your idea – an idea specifically designed for your advertiser focused completely on their best customer for the product they are featuring. Ideas that will break through the noise and make that best customer want to engage with your advertiser. An idea that intertwines all delivery systems (website, mobile, email, etc) to maximize impact on that consumer and give them multiple engagement points. An idea that compels that best customer to interact and respond with the advertiser because she simply must!

There’s a reason ad agencies come to stations all the time asking for ideas. It’s because they figured it out long ago. To remain relevant to the advertiser it isn’t just about cpp’s or whether they use TV, radio or door-hangers. To the advertiser it’s about establishing a relationship between them and their consumer and relationships are established with relevant compelling ideas.

I know you’ve heard this before but why do proposals today look so similar to proposals done 10 years ago? Basically, they all say “Use TV, use my station and here’s a (boring) script!”

People who take the time to really think and identify the advertiser’s needs and create and develop great ideas to establish the relationship between the advertiser and consumer will always be remark-able.

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Today’s remark – rules

– Posted on May 13, 2012 by Margie Albert

Lou Holtz said, “Everybody needs four things in life: Something to do, someone to love, someone to believe in and something to hope for.” (I add we need to be valued when present and missed when we are gone.)

He also simplifies things down to three simple rules paraphrased in some cases:

Do the right thing – if you make a mistake say you are sorry and move on. No one is perfect but always try to do the right thing to begin with.
Do everything to the very best of your ability within the time allotted. Not everyone will be an All-American, not everyone can finish first, and not everyone can be great at everything. But give it your all in the time allotted and move forward.
Show people you care – really care. Ask how you can help them and mean it. If you are a consistent reader of my blog you know I write about this a lot!

He also says people have three basic questions:

Can I trust you? Without trust you have no relationship. Period
Are you committed to excellence? Best way to prove that is to do everything to the very best of your ability all of the time.
Do you care about me? Caring about others is not about making their lives easy or being their friend. It is about enabling them to be successful. a FOCUS ON CUSTOMER SUCCESS.

Think about someone you have a problem with and ask these three questions – is there trust, a commitment to excellence, and do you care? If any of the three are missing you have a decision to make. You can change it, live with it as it is or move on.

Much of this came from a recent column written by Harvey Mackay. It struck a chord so here it is with my twist. I think Lou Holtz and Harvey Mackay are both remark-able.