New Client Win at Oliver Russell

WaterShed Rainwear in Salem, Oregon has selected Oliver Russell to develop an interactive web tool that will allow customers to design their own rainwear. This tool, according to Oliver Russell, will be similar to those currently being used by footwear manufacturers, allowing customers to put their personal touches on products (Think NIkeID products from Nike).

Congratulations to the staff over at Oliver Russell on the new client win.

Technorati tags: watershed rainwear, oliver russell, interactive web tool, nikeid, nike

Job Opening - Media Buyer

Closed Loop in Boise has an opening for a Media Buyer. The full job posting can be found here.
(Courtesy of CareerBuilder.com)

Technorati tags: closed loop, media buyer job, boise marketing job, careerbuilder

Three Months Later

And Rizen Creative is still feeling a little awkward.

Have they really been that busy for the past several months? If that really is the case, good for them! But given the trend in the agency business, things tend to slow down a bit in the summer months.

I know I sound like a broken record, but doing your own internal work is just as important as doing client-specific work. While this internal work is not billable time, it can lead to future billable work, which ensures the ongoing success of your agency.

Now is an agency's website the end-all be-all when it comes to attracting new business? Of course not. But it is low-hanging fruit, and you're missing a piece of the puzzle by not taking advantage of it.

Technorati tags: rizen creative, idaho agency commentary

Job Opening - Media Buyer

Steele & Associates in Pocatello has an opening for a Media Buyer with two- to four-years media buying/planning experience. The full job announcement can be found here.

Technorati tags: steele & associates, media buyer job, pocatello idaho job

Something is brewing on the horizon

I came across an interesting article today from AdAge, discussing the "crisis" that the advertising industry is going through, particularly when it comes to hiring talent with digital experience.

While I don't expect it to happen on the same magnitude here in Idaho, it is interesting to see what's going on at the national level. In most cases, I don't believe that agencies around these parts bought into the dot-com hype as much as those in larger markets. Still, there was fallout at the local level from the overall slowdown in the economy, and it'll be interesting to see if those who were formerly in the industry get snapped up again as this apparent upswing in business filters down to the local level.

You can read the article for yourself here: Digital-Talent Dearth Breeds Crisis
(Courtesy of AdAge)

Technorati tags: adage, digital marketing talent

And in related news

Not only has c308 Marketing made a couple of new hires, but they are also packing up and heading to a new space in the Hoff Building.
(Thanks Boisee for the tip)

Technorati tags: c308 marketing

New Hires at c308

c308 Marketing in Boise has made a couple of new hires:

Katie Kerby has joined the company as an account manager.
Tom Labrecque has been hired as a project manager.

Congratulations to both.

Technorati tags: c308 marketing

Taking the easy way out

On the radio this morning, something caught my ear that just cannot go without comment...

There is a spot currently running on at least one, and likely more, of the Citadel stations in Boise for the Mountain Home Auto Ranch. That, in and of itself, is no big deal. The content of the spot itself is what left me scratching my head. The ad is for what they are calling Project 307 -- they "need" to sell 307 vehicles by July 5th.

July 5th.

Today's date? August 10th.

So, that begs the question -- why would an advertiser choose to run spots with a message that is outdated, and an offer that has long since expired? I'd be willing to guess that there was a conversation with the radio account exec. and the end result was something along the lines of the client saying "just use one of the spots that we've run recently." Okay, fine, but why would the account exec let a spot run with an outdated message? (Answer: he/she doesn't really care about the content of the ad -- as long as the air time has been paid for, he/she is getting their commission, so life is good in their eyes.)

By letting something like this happen, the account exec, and ultimately the radio station, is doing a huge disservice to their client. They are serving as nothing more than order takers (the client said run a recent spot -- here's the most recent spot we have), and are doing nothing to build/further the ongoing relationship between the station and the client.

While this may seem like an isolated incident, it really is symptomatic of a larger issue that pops up in advertising/marketing world: Taking the easy way out. It was easier just to grab the most recent spot for Mountain Home Auto Ranch and use it to fill the air slot. There was no actual effort involved, no service to the client. This is a service business, whether you'd like to admit it or not. Agencies are in existence to provide a service to their clients, not to simply take their orders and churn out a result. If that's all you want to do, go take orders at a restaurant. Even in that scenario, though, the better servers -- those that people come back and specifically request -- are those who go above and beyond the level of order taker.

Now the other side of the coin, of course, is the client. Is the client to blame for this situation? Of course they are. They allowed it to happen just as much as the radio station did. But at the end of the day, the client (in this case the car dealership) isn't in the business of buying advertising time. They're in the business of selling cars. Advertising is a piece of their business, yes, but not what they spend their whole day on. This again, is where its the responsibility of the agency (or account exec at the station) to act in the best interest of the client.

Did the radio station act in the best interest of their client in this case? No.
Is it going to happen again? Probably.

Are you, after reading this, going to keep the lesson in mind in the future?

Technorati tags: mountain home auto ranch, citadel communications, idaho ad agency commentary

Job Opening

Lexa Marketing has an opening for a Graphic Tech with Corel, Illustrator or Photoshop experience. The full description (poor grammar and all) can be found here.
(Courtesy of CareerBuilder)

Technorati tags: lexa marketing, graphic design job, careerbuilder

New Agency Addition

Temel has been added to the list of agencies here in Idaho.

While they are based out of Boonton, NJ, they do have an office in Boise, Idaho, which appears to support Hewlett Packard, primarily.

Technorati tags: temel, idaho agencies, hewlett packard

New Hire

Roy Kimball has joined the Oliver Russell staff in Boise as a production designer.

Congratulations Roy.

Technorati tags: oliver russell

Job Opening

Earlier this year, most of the hiring that happened 'round these parts were creative-type positions. Well, now that several shops have ramped up on that side of the house, it seems that the pendulum has swung back to the account/client services side.

Within the past few months, Oliver Russell has added a couple of new people on the account side, Stoltz Marketing Group has added to their account services staff (speaking of which, did they ever find their Director of Client Services? Anyone?), and Rizen Creative has also beefed up on the client services side.

That trend continues.

Oliver Russell is looking for an Account Services Director with 10+ years of professional experience, preferably including advertising/marketing agency experience. The full job opening can be found here.
(Courtesy of Monster)

Now, being somewhat familiar with the staff over at Oliver Russell, I think I can make an educated guess on who's coming and going. For the time being, however, I'm going to keep that one to myself.

Technorati tags: oliver russell, stoltz marketing group, rizen creative, account services director job, monster

Thanks for the nod

Thanks to Danny G. over at AdPulp for the nod yesterday.

Yes, its true that this is not the most active blog in the world, but by trying to keep the discussion limited to what's happening in and around Idaho, there are some pretty quiet days.

Technorati tags: adpulp