For a long time marketing has been about piggybacking on other people’s content. You buy ads in newspapers, during tv shows, and on billboards (I guess scenery next to the highway is content?). At some point marketers realized that they could become the content creators–that’s what soap operas were originally about. Today social media has forced nearly every brand into content creation. Doing it right on all of the important platforms is really hard. That’s why Chute, a San Francisco, CA based company, has developed a “visual content engine for brands” that makes “it easy to keep pace with your customers and create compelling, fresh content to engage with your fans, build awareness and, ultimately, increase conversion.”
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Yesterday we took a look at an online marketing company. Today we’re going to do the same. While today’s company offers many of the same services, the difference is that they tend to work with larger, national clients. This may seem like a small distinction, but the level of competition can make it seem like a different business. WPromote is an El Segundo, CA based company that calls itself “the country’s leading Online Marketing firm, delivering incredible results for [its] Search Engine Optimization, PPC Management and Social Media clients.” That’s big talk, but they must be living up to it if companies like Toyota, Ford, TOMS, Tumi, and Southern New Hampshire University are hiring them to do their online marketing.
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Online marketing seems to keep getting more complex. Now that every big brand is throwing money at every marketing platform they can, it’s getting a lot harder to drive results. What used to be something that a lot of companies could do themselves now requires an agency. One such agency is OneIMS. They’re a Skokie, IL based company that offers “everything from services like branding and web design to online marketing strategies like SEO and PPC.” Their clients range from small local business to national brands with e-commerce companies falling somewhere in the middle.
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I have a soft spot for Detroit, the entire state of Michigan, and Vernor’s Ginger Ale. My Dad’s entire family is from the Detroit area (including a former mayor going way back), but now I only have one Great Aunt still living there. The city has obviously seen better times, but I’m hoping that it will find its way again. So is Team Detroit. It’s an ad agency that in 2006 brought together parts of five legendary agencies that were under the same ownership (JWT, Y&R, Ogilvy, Wunderman, and Mindshare) and already working with Ford. Oddly enough, Team Detroit is actually based in Dearborn, MI, but I don’t think that should take away any street creed. They’ve been winning new clients and getting lots of accolades, so it sounds like they’re a winning team.
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As I mentioned earlier in the week, media and advertising are all about demographics. Unless you have the targeting capabilities of a Facebook or Google, it’s almost always better to build your properties targeted at a specific group. For SheKnows it’s all about women. They are a Scottsdale, AZ based company that has built a “women’s lifestyle media platform” that “allows brands to distribute authentic content and integrated advertising at scale.” What kind of scale? 40 million unique visitors per month. That’s a lot.
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I often find that the best ad agencies have websites with very few words on them. Instead of telling you how great they are, they show you. That’s what they do for their clients, so they should be doing it for themselves as well. A perfect example is Innerspin. They’re a Los Angeles, CA based agency that “is focused on growing global brands through effective brand building and digital capabilities” (those are about half of the words on their site right there). Apparently they won Season 2 of The Pitch on AMC, so they must be pretty good.
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The key to effective marketing and advertising is distilling a brand, product, or service into a simple message that the target customers can relate to. For some products that’s really easy, but there are plenty of markets where it gets really complicated–like healthcare and life sciences. If you’re a business in one of those industries, you can’t hire just any advertising agency. You need people who understand science but still excel at marketing… the kind of people who work at HDMZ. HDMZ is a Chicago, IL and San Francisco, CA based healthcare and life science marketing agency. They’ve been around since 1936, but they’ve kept up with the times by excelling at understanding their clients’ businesses.
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Fashion trends are fascinating. I generally dress the same way that my parents dressed me when I was four, but I understand the urge to get ahead of the latest styles. Some people just have a sense for fashion and can pull it off on their own, but most need help. That’s why the fashion media is so big. The Internet is only making fashion move faster, and that means that the media has to be faster too. StyleCaster Media Group is a New York, NY based company that aims “to bring style to the people, empowering millions of readers to discover and share their style through inspiring features, expert tips, and innovative resources.”
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I’m pretty bummed that we’re going to have to wait almost a full year for a new episode of Mad Men now. If you need your fix, you’re going to have to take a look inside a real advertising agency. Today we’re going to do that for you, and the focus is going to be Mason Zimbler, an Austin, TX based “integrated agency rooted in the digital space.” They’re owned by a bigger company called Harte Hanks, but they seem to operate mostly on their own by combining “a love of creative” with a “desire for results.” They have quite a roster of big name clients, so they must be very good at finding that balance.
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Businesses are always looking for ways to extract more value from their customers. Sometimes this means “sharing” customers with other businesses. I’m sure you’ve seen (and probably ignored) plenty of cross-promotional offers. The problem is that they often get in the way of what I’m trying to do right now. Maybe I’d actually take advantage of them if they were made a little more seamless. That’s what Cartera Commerce is doing. They are a Lexington, MA based company that offers “a comprehensive, fully-managed, performance-based offer platform for card issuers, frequent flyer programs and merchants.” What does this mean? I get offers through bank cards, credit cards, and loyalty programs. I can opt in with a click or a tap, and all I that I have to do to redeem the offer is use my card.
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I always enjoy when two people with moderately funny last names decide to get married. There’s always the question of will they combine their names with a hyphen? The best potential that I’ve ever heard of was Weiner-Butt, but the couple sadly did not decide to hyphenate. These funny combos can also be created by business partners. Imagine that a guy with a not very funny last name of Wong and a guy with a pretty funny last name of Doody decided to start an ad agency. They could try to invent some random brand name that doesn’t say much about who they are, or they could smash their identities together and start WONGDOODY (the company logo is equally smashed together). The agency is based in Seattle, WA and “is the most awarded independent advertising agency on the West Coast.” They’re relatively small, but they’re doing some serious work.
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When online video really started taking off, a ton of companies went to work figuring out how to monetize all of the new content. Most were focused on advertising, and they generally seemed to converge on the pre-roll ad as the most effective (and possibly most annoying) format. For every type of media, advertisers will try to find a way to use it to get their messages noticed; however, images seem to have been largely ignored even though they’re a huge part of the Internet. Sure, a lot of companies have put ads alongside images, but Luminate is putting them in the actual images. The Mountain View, CA based company has had a lot of success with this format considering that they are “serving more than 180 million users and over 6 billion image views each month.”
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You’ve probably looked at thousands of ads already today, but chances are that you haven’t thought about how they got in front of you. Behind all of those ads is a group of people who made a complicated set of decisions to get that specific message to you in a specific place at a specific time. Managing those kinds of decisions at scale is really hard. Centro makes it easier. They’re a Chicago, IL based company that works “to improve the lives of those working in the advertising industry by building media management software that helps marketers engage with audiences across all digital channels in the most successful manner possible.” The goal is put all of the options in one place so that advertisers can make the best decisions for themselves or for clients.
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Have you ever thought that you accidentally liked something on Facebook because a post suddenly showed up in your feed from a site that you recently visited? It’s creepy, right? It’s called retargeting, and it’s amazingly effective. For at least the last few years, advertisers have been tracking your movement around the web and showing you ads based on where you’ve visited. Taking to Facebook was the obvious next step, and that’s the specialty of Triggit. They are a San Francisco, CA based company that “enables advertisers and agencies to build, run, measure, and optimize retargeting-driven display campaigns from a single platform.”
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We all have a story to tell, but sometimes it’s better to let someone else tell it for us. That’s why so many brands use marketing and advertising agencies. Not only are they professional storytellers, but they are also able to offer an outside perspective (at least at first). Haberman is a Minneapolis, MN based agency that calls itself “modern storytellers for pioneers.” This means “creating integrated marketing programs in partnership with the leading entrepreneurs, innovators, healers and heroes of our day to help their companies and organizations grow and succeed.” I guess Haberman is a bit picky about the kinds of stories that they tell.
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It almost seems that a person’s comfort with buying something online has an inverse relationship with the item’s size. Books, digital goods (size = 0), and clothing are no brainers these days, but people still seem to prefer an in-person experience when it comes to furniture, cars, and homes. I guess it could be based on cost too. Either way, some things are easier to sell online than others. Home furnishings, decor, and outdoor furniture fall somewhere in the middle, but online will win eventually. Hayneedle is definitely pushing for it. They are an Omaha, NE based company that “has become one of the nation’s largest online retailers, offering more than 3,000 brands and nearly 2 million products for the home.” It all started with Hammocks.com, and they just kept adding niches.
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Health is all about information. There was a time when we didn’t know how unhealthy smoking was. Now we do. Many people will live longer, healthier lives because of this knowledge. Any tool that can help both doctors and patients make more informed decisions is immensely valuable. Healthline is a San Francisco, CA based company that has built “the largest, most clinically accurate classification of health information available on the web.” They offer this resource both to consumers in the form of Healthline.com and to brands in a variety of solutions.
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I barely shop in retail stores any more because I know that I can almost always find a better price online. Retailers have realized this and started getting much more aggressive about pricing merchandise competitively. The problem is that few people are willing to drive from store to store just to save a few bucks. That’s why you should do a little pre-shopping on Find&Save, a site run by Wanderful Media. The former seems to be the sole product of the latter at this point; however, the Los Gatos, CA based Wanderful Media is aiming “to transform the $4 billion business of traditional advertising circulars through digital innovation – just as joint media ventures such as CareerBuilder and Cars.com strengthened the industry’s position through the use of new technology.”
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When you finish reading this, what are you going to do next? You’ll likely read something else–an e-mail, another article, or maybe a Facebook status. That’s why I should have suggestions for related content at the bottom of every company profile (why don’t I?). You’ve seen this model on other sites. There are related articles recommended for you. What you may not have noticed is that some of those recommendations are ads. nrelate is a New York, NY based company behind many of these ads. They help “Publishers give their readers an easy way to find more great content from within their site or from around the web, while Marketers get their content in front of highly engaged readers.”
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Every time that Amy and I move (four times over the last six years), we say that we’re going to do a great job setting up our new place. When we move to the next place, we end up repacking the framed pictures that we never got around to hanging on the wall. Interior design isn’t our strongpoint. Next time we move, we’ll have to use Houzz for inspiration. They’re a Palo Alto, CA based company that offers “a collaborative platform for home remodeling and design, bringing homeowners and home professionals together in a uniquely visual community.” It’s kind of like Pinterest, but only for home design and decor.
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A few days ago we looked at a company called Groundspeak that uses GPS data to “to make everyone an explorer and to put an adventure in every location.” There are lots of other ways to use location data, and an obvious one is advertising. It used to be that you knew an ad would target a specific locale because it was on a billboard or a local radio station. Today it’s possible to advertise to people all over the planet with a few mouse clicks, but what if you want use where they are to your advantage? xAd is a New York, NY based company that allows advertisers to pinpoint “target audiences at pivotal moments during the consumer’s decision-making journey.” It’s a kind of targeting that seems to get far less attention than it should.
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I can’t stand political advertising, but it must be pretty darn effective. Why else would politicians have spent $6 billion on advertising for the 2012 elections? Though it may seem crazy to think that people who spend other people’s money for a living are rational spenders, remember that getting elected is what they’re actually good at. Still, they often need outside help, and that’s where Targeted Victory comes in. They’re an Alexandria, GA based agency that has “anchored digital campaigns on the local, state, and presidential level.” While at some point they seem to have worked with non-political clients, today they seem to only work on the Republican side.
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There are generally two ways to market to people. You can build your own audience, or you can rent somebody else’s audience. That’s why a lot of companies are built around building audiences to rent to other businesses. FierceMarkets is a perfect example. They are a Washington, DC based company that specializes in business-to-business media, publications, and marketing. The end goal is to “connect companies with the right audience and ensure each campaign generates the highest possible return on investment.”
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When I was a little kid, I’d visit construction sites with my dad, the architect. I absolutely loved it, but at some point I lost interest in the construction industry. For me building things online seemed more interesting than building homes and offices. If you disagree, you might want to check out Hanley Wood. They are based in Washington, DC, and they are “the premier media, event, information and strategic marketing services company serving the residential and commercial design and construction industries.” For nearly 40 years they have been the go to source for “builders, remodelers, residential and commercial architects, multifamily and public-works executives, and materials dealers and distributors.”
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I tolerate living in Chicago because my wife is from here, the summers are awesome, and the food is exceptional. Unfortunately, it’s not the best place for someone like me who loves spending time in the wilderness. That means I spend a lot of time in Northern Michigan, which is five hours away. It would be nice if I could discover some recreation options that are a little closer. That’s exactly what AllTrails offers. They’re a San Francisco, CA based startup that has built “the leading digital network focused on outdoor enthusiasts, providing 1 million people monthly with the information and tools to discover top destinations near them.”
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Last night was a disappointment for everybody except diehard Seahawks fans. I went to a friend’s house where the food and company were excellent, but we couldn’t get excited about the game, and the commercials were totally underwhelming. It seems that most of the big brands avoided funny and outrageous and went for emotional. Those types of ads don’t usually resonate with me, but the Budweiser ad with the puppy and Clydesdales really got me–and pretty much everyone else who saw it. The agency behind the ad is Anomaly. They’re based in New York, NY, and they blur “the borders between providing traditional marketing services and working as a business development partner.”
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I’ve always thought that it was weird that big companies use one agency for advertising on tv, another for PR, another for interactive, and probably three more for other types of marketing. We’re seeing more and more “integrated” agencies, but what that means depends on the agency. Tierney is a Philadelphia, PA based agency that does advertising, PR, media, interactive, crisis management, and branding. Their tagline is “Divisions, yes. Divided, no.” They’ve been doing it this way for a long time, so it’s not like they slapped a bunch of independent pieces together and called it integrated.
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The health and wellness industry is massive, and it just seems to keep growing. There are a lot of really smart business people who are playing a big part in the growth, but there are also a ton of people in the industry who would rather not concern themselves with businessy stuff. The kind of people who open yoga studios, salons, and spas usually aren’t in it for the money–they just want to make a living pursuing their passions. Unfortunately, running a business usually requires… running a business. MINDBODY is a San Luis Obispo, CA based company that believes that “small business owners deserve the time to do what they love.” Pursuing that belief has made them “the largest cloud-based software provider in the health, wellness and beauty industries.”
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At this time last year, Amy and I were in the thick of wedding planning. Part of me is relieved that it’s in the past (because the wedding was awesome), but I also kind of miss it. We were lucky to have an amazing wedding planner who proposed great ideas and narrowed down the early decisions for us to make them manageable. Before we got to that point, though, we had to do our “homework.” That meant looking through all kinds of books and magazines to mark what we liked and what we didn’t like. It was a bit old fashioned, but it worked. Loverly is a New York, NY based company that brings that process online. It’s “a one-stop-shop for wedding planning where brides and grooms find ideas, people to hire and things to buy.”
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There are a lot of advertising and marketing agencies out there. Some are huge and part of even huger conglomerates, and others are small and independent. They all have different strengths, weaknesses, and specialities, but in the end they all share a common goal: to drive attention towards brands with the hope of getting them to take a specific action (usually buying something). Hiebing is on the smaller side. They are a Madison, WI based integrated marketing and advertising agency “with a keen focus on the target market and the cartwheeling curiosity of a bright-eyed first grader.” Hiebing has been around for 30 years, is employee owned (~50 employees), and does about $50 million in billings annually.
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