It's not you. It's me.

In this week's blog posting, I've been asked to talk about why some companies have bad relationships with their creative agencies.

In the years that I’ve done marketing I've began to notice patterns with clients.  Many companies come to us –like a jilted lover- having had a very bad experience with their previous marketing firm.

Working with businesses like these is like dating someone on the rebound.  They are hurt, they feel betrayed, and they are looking for someone to blame.

But just like any relationships, some businesses find themselves constantly in bad ones.  They never see their own patterns.  As a result, they repeat the same mistakes and end up in the same painful relationships again and again.

One of the patterns is some businesses blame their previous creative firm totally for the collapse of a project.

Now, while I know there are a lot of incompetent creative firms out there, it’s also true that it takes two to tango.  Just like when dating, there are rarely any innocent victims.  One of the pair is usually passive aggressive, an enabler, a bad fit, or has unrealistic expectations.

But regardless of the couple, the story I hear from these jilted businesses is almost always the same:

• Business hired creative firm.
• Business assigned a project to the creative firm.
• Deadline were promised.
• Payments were made.
• Work was produced.
• Work was not liked by business.
• Work was redone many times.
• Work was still not liked by business.
• Deadlines were missed.
• Tempers flared.
• Projects where canceled.
• Relationships ended.
• Blame was assigned.
• Heartbreak ensued.

In all these cases, the companies professed to be the innocent victims of a shady and predatory creative agency.

But is that really a likely scenario?

For starters, marketing projects are expensive.  I find it highly unlikely that a company simply handed over money to a marketing firm without seeing a portfolio first and checking out come clients.

Somewhere during these discussions a proposal was put in place that outlined the deliverables and the time lines.  So there should be no surprises.

So does it seem likely that this creative agency went through the bother of forging websites and references, contracts and portfolios just so they can engage in a failed project to “rip you off”?

And, even if the business moved forward on a project based solely on the agency's portfolio, surely they must have enjoyed what they saw or else they wouldn’t have hired them in the first place.

Does it seem likely that a creative agency -whose work the company admired- suddenly started sucking and forgot how to do logos and websites?  Do you think that at the moment of starting the project, the agency somehow became terrible copywriters or branders?


When we have taken on companies who have had bad experiences with their previous agencies, we do notice something that may explain why so many of their past projects have failed.

In many cases, these companies have the same personality and engage projects with the same attitude.

Tell me if you see yourself in any of this (or if you are a fellow creative agency: if you see any of your clients):

Businesses with previously bad experiences with creative agencies have usually:

• Insisted on micromanaged projects.
• Insisted that they know more about design than the graphic designers.
• Insisted that they know more about copywriting than the copywriters.
• Insisted that they know more about branding than the brand expert.
• Insisted they know more about advertising than the advertising agency.
• Insisted that they could do their marketing themselves if they “only knew how to use the software”.

Without fail, companies who have had bad experiences with past agencies have had these kinds of personalities.  And you can now see why their past projects have failed.

A good creative agency only knows how to do one thing: good work.  They don’t know how to do bad designs or bad marketing.

So when faced with a client that is pushing to have things “their way” it becomes understandable that any credible agency will push back and try to convince the client to go in a more successful direction.  It is, after all, our responsibility to do so.  This is usually the source for most of this friction and the ultimate reason why many projects fail.

So if you have had a bad experience with a marketing firm, odds are you may have played a small role in the situation.  Don't feel bad.  You're in good company.

But If you feel that’s the case, call up your ex and tell them: "It’s not you. It’s me."


Yusuf Gad
President, a5MEDIA inc
http://www.a5media.ca

a5MEDIA YouTube Post: Copywriting: What, Why and How

Copywriting. Every business needs it. Few know how to do it well.

In this video we talk about the importance of copywriting, some tips to have better copywriting, and we even make some suggestions as to some books you can read to help you be better copywriters.

Those books are:

Words That Sell: http://www.amazon.ca/Words-that-Sell-Revised-Expanded/dp/...

The Copywriter's Handbook: http://www.amazon.com/Copywriters-Handbook-Step-Step-Writ...

The Elements of Style: http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-50th-Anniversary/dp/...

BP and the Epic Brand Fail of the Year

Last year I wrote about how green washing was going to be the big issue for the future. And BP is doing a great job of proving this.

As you probably already know, BP is responsible for the biggest environmental disaster in North American history. Their off shore oil rig sprung a leak and now the Gulf of Mexico is nothing more than an 1000 mile wide oil stain. The entire region will be devastated for a generation, and scientists are already saying that entire species may not survive.

But this isn't an environmental blog. If you'd like to learn more about that aspect of this story, you can find some great information here.

The survival story -or extinction story- I'm more interested in is that of BP.

When the Exxon Valdez spill happened in 1989, Exxon didn't collapse. The spill was horrific, it killed thousands of animals and ruined many lives, but the company is still here today and trading pretty well on Wall Street.

No one seriously thought that Exxon would collapse because of their oil spill, yet today, many people suspect that BP may not survive their spill.

The failure of BP has more to do with how it positioned itself in the market place then how it is handling the oil spill.

Let's get something straight: all oil companies are "big and evil". They know they make a product that is environmentally hazardous. They know that it is the source of much economic, political, and military instability across the world. And they know that they are getting countries addicted to a finite resource that will eventually dry out leaving us scrambling for options.

Exxon is a great example of a "big and evil" oil company. They make no bones about it: they are in the oil business to make money. Period.

BP, however, tried a different approach.

Until 2000, BP was known as British Petroleum, when someone decided it would be a brilliant move to rebrand themselves to look more earth friendly, and less imperial.

They undertook a revolutionary rebrand that transformed them from BP: British Petroleum to BP: Beyond Petroleum. It was genius. They had positioned themselves as the anti-oil company: an oil company that hated being an oil company, and was desperately seeking alternatives to their dirty main product. An oil company that wanted to place the planet ahead of the profits.

So when their oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico sprung a leak, it took many ordinary consumers by surprise that the anti-oil company was suddenly acting like their big, evil cousins.

From day one, BP has tried covering up the true volume of the oil being leaked into the waters, and even tried to force the oil rig workers to sign a release form absolving BP of any responsibility.

Never mind the fact that their oh so corporate penny pinching resulted in BP not investing in the very technology needed to have prevented the spill in the first place and to prevent the deaths of the 11 oil rig workers that died in the explosion that started this whole debacle.

BP may fail because -for years- it has been sending out a message and a brand promise that they are now undermining on a minute-by-minute basis. It's a hypocrisy that, in the digital age and the age of YouTube, is being pointed out and hammered home in the bluntest way possible.

BP is a classic example of an epic brand failure. If you break your promise you are doomed to collapse. As it stands, we may be witnessing something that hasn't happened in a generation: the collapse of an oil titan.

So what can you learn from BP? Simple: keep your brand promises and you will keep your business -not matter what the disaster.

Yusuf Gad

President, a5MEDIA inc

http://www.a5media.ca

a5MEDIA heads to YouTube!

Hi everyone!

a5MEDIA is now on YouTube.

Feel free to subscribe to our channel at http://www.youtube.com/a5media

We'll be talking about marketing, its importance, and providing you with tips and tricks as to how to do it better.

Check out our first video, and let us know what you think:

We're Number 1!!

a5MEDIA has been chosen as the number one consultancy firm by the readers of Metro and the members of Gig Park! Check it out!

Thank you to all that voted!

Yusuf Gad
President, a5MEDIA
http://www.a5media.ca

From Viral to Vital - Social Media Marketing Comes of Age

A funny thing happened last year. A few car companies went bankrupt. You might have heard about it.

But what you probably didn’t hear, was that Ford Motor Company didn’t. Go bankrupt I mean. They did just fine. In fact, Ford is going through, what can only be called, a modern day automotive renaissance lately.

In fact, Ford stocks have recovered all of their losses that they took leading up to 2008.

Now, there are as many reasons as to why this has happened as there are people to ask. I know what I think:

Ford, unlike most other American automakers, woke up and smelled the coffee a few years ago in a big way. Someone, looked out their office window and saw the vista of North America looking back and them and said: “You know what? All our clients are dying.”

For years, the North American auto industry has focused on middle aged white males. The problem is that, eventually, that demographic will buy its last car and drive its last mile. And for years, automakers have –for the most part- buried their heads in the sand about this problem.

They ignored the rise of female drivers, the new youth buying power, and the increased demand of more fuel efficient cars.

By doing so, they handed over the North American market place to the Japanese and Europeans.

But Ford has taken great strides to reverse this trend and to learn from past mistakes.

Part of their new strategy is tapping into the HUGE next generation of buyers. Within the next few years millions of youth will turn the legal age to drive and many more will be getting their first post graduate jobs.

That’s a big market to tap into. And unlike other car companies, Ford is going straight to them to establish their brand.

Part of their new marketing push is teaming up with online content pioneers such as YouTube, and their 20 something channel partners in what they are calling the Ford Fiesta Project.

And now, these young –in many cases accidental- social media celebrities are the new faces of Ford’s online advertising for their Ford Fiesta, and part of a bold experiment for Ford to grow its brand where the kids are: online.

YouTube’s audience is the exact market Ford wants to tap into: hip enough to experience brands online, and young enough to tap into before they make their first major automotive purchase. It’s the perfect chance for Ford to get customers for life.

Ford recently gave a select group of YouTube stars a Fiesta for six months to drive around for free. All they had to do was do one YouTube video a month for them to leverage their online celebrity with their budding consumer audience.

For a company that for a generation has been fanatical about controlling its brand, this is a huge risk. But it’s a risk that has great rewards if it pays off.

Ford’s bold new direction has lead it to become one of the greenest car companies around, and now this direction might cement it as the brand of choice for a new generation of car drivers.

Ford sees the writing on the wall. Do you?

See their videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/fordfiesta

I’ve selected my favorite one to showcase:

Avoid Business Hibernation!

Winter is usually the season where we all slow down. Bears sleep through the cold, bees hide out in their hives, Canadians gather in large stadiums to watch men chase pucks with sticks, and businesses tend to put things off till after the New Year.

Don’t do it.

Many businesses traditionally follow the following cycle: slow during winter, busy during spring, slow during summer, busy during fall. Sure there are exceptions to this, but you’ll be surprised how accurate this cycle is.

As a result, businesses put off starting a marketing initiative during the holiday season, preferring to deal with it in the New Year. Bad move.

Winter and the holiday season is actually the best time to begin new marketing projects.

The slowest period for any marketing initiative is usually the first couple of months. This is when your marketing partner is coming up with design mock ups, first drafts of copywriting, or branding ideas for your consideration.

Doing these things over the holiday season and early winter is the best way to ensure that you’ll have your marketing program ready to go for the spring time business rush.

If you wait until the New Year to start doing these, odds are you won’t have things ready to go when the snow melts and your customers come out of their caves looking to make major purchases.

Don’t hibernate this winter. Start working on your marketing, and you’ll be ahead of your competition come spring.


Yusuf Gad
President, a5MEDIA inc
http://www.a5media.ca