Recently I attended a San Diego Ad Club event called “Mingle Bells.” This was not the first event I’ve attended that the Ad Club has put on and this is not the first time I’ve been to one with out encountering any other “creatives.”
What’s the deal?

We can’t be the only shop in town that sends people to these things. We went to see Alex Bogusky speak at USD this summer and Jeff Goodby this fall and really the only people there were advertising students and voice talent.

Let me just put it this way… there was nobody there who made me fear losing my job except for maybe the free Moltsons and the possibility of me asking an absurd question like, “Why did you give us free drinks for an hour and lock us in this room without beverages for 2?”

Anyway, back to Mingle Bells and its lameity; I suppose I was under the impression that I was going to finally walk into an ad event and meet some other creatives. This is important – it’s like seeing basketball players chum it up before the game. It’s nice to know what the happenings are around town in the world of advertising. This is normal. It happens all over the place. Usually when any kind of ad event is thrown creative people show up. I just moved here from Minneapolis where that happens. A lot.

I guess I sound like I’m complaining about the events that the Ad Club throws for its advertising community… When really I’m complaining about the community the Ad Club is trying to throw parties for. So I would like to thank the Ad Club for all of their efforts and as a creative agency we’ll be sure to show up to support the cause.
San Diego; I’m calling you out. Next time an ad event is thrown, you can guarantee Bailey Gardiner will be there rocking out! Here’s a little taste of what goes on when BG shows up to the party.

When will you represent?

What makes a good agency/client relationship?  What is the special sauce that breeds mutual respect, maximum collaboration and truly breakthrough creative advertising, design and PR campaigns?  Although we can’t be sure there is a formula that works every time, this is an age-old conversation that I would imagine is held at every decent agency in the world.

Ours is no different.  We just like to think we have given it serious thought, and maybe, just maybe, have figured out what works for us.  (Clients, feel free to chime in here…)

I was inspired by a blog entry by my friend and colleague David Landis, who owns a successful agency in San Francisco.  He and I had an interesting exchange about this concept after he posted his comments on LinkedIn, and I am glad to learn we think alike.

Indra and I realized long ago that if we have formed expectations about how we wish our client relationships to transpire, we need to say it — loudly and up front.  These go both ways — how we expect our clients to behave, and what they can expect from us.   So now, we list those expectations right in our proposals.  And we talk about them with new clients several times as we get started.  Periodically, we check in on these issues to make we are all on track.

What You Can Expect From Us

• Regular Communication — You’ll always know what’s going on and what to expect next. We will begin regular scheduled meetings with your team to keep everyone on track and up-to-date with current projects. We recommend these meetings be held weekly either by phone conference or in person.

• Honesty/Integrity — We say what we mean and mean what we say. You can count on us to give you our honest opinions and our best work in everything we do.  You’ll get an estimate (which must be authorized before work is started) on any new job, so there will be no surprises when you receive the final invoice.

• Commitment — Your goals and priorities become ours. We are driven by your success and will become an integral part of your team, always reaching for your next big milestone.

• Responsibility/Accountability — We do what we say we’ll do. We’ll do whatever it takes to “deliver the goods” on time and within budget. If deadlines need to be shifted, we’ll let you know ahead of time. When a project is complete, we’ll ask for feedback on its effectiveness, then assess strengths and weaknesses and make adjustments to our strategies and tactics as needed.

What We Expect From Clients

• Partnership — We’re on your side. We want to be true members of your team; included in all your thinking processes and marketing decisions. Our effectiveness depends on us having “the whole story”, so that we truly understand your needs and can work in your best interests.

• Commitment to Deadlines — It takes the whole team to make it happen. In our business, we live and die by deadlines, but it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We’ll let you know up front what we need from you to achieve our timelines, and then we’ll hold you to it as the project progresses and deadlines approach.

• Clearly Defined Goals – Hazy goals equal hazy results. Before we begin any new creative project, we’ll ask you to approve a creative brief. This document is our “road map” to effective advertising—defining our purpose, target audience, challenges, goals, tone and support. We believe that by thinking things through in this way at the outset, we create the greatest possibility for results that achieve your goals.

• Honest Feedback — We need to hear how we’re doing. Of course, we love to hear when we’re hitting home runs, but we also need to know when we’ve missed the mark. Your constructive criticism will allow us to adapt to your style and to tailor our efforts to better suit you.

How healthy — good communications at a marketing communications agency.

Imagine that.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

No doubt, this time of year most offices are being inundated with the usual barrage of candied, chocolate coated and nut-rolled holiday gift confections.

So for our holiday gift, we decided to give something different.

And we decided to make it ourselves.

After all, each project we work on here at BG has our own hand-crafted touch—there’s no reason our holiday gift should be any different.

Using water-based organic matsui inks and organic cotton bags from terratote the team screenprinted a series of five bags. One for each area of BG’s expertise—advertising, public relations, media, interactive and design. And each with it’s very own representative icon created by art director Nik Helgaas.

Right here at BG we burned the screen printing screens using photo emulsion and printed each bag with our own little hands. It was a little stinky at times (thanks to the screen cleaner) but overall lots of fun and a true team effort.

To finish, the bags were tied together with hemp rope and an accompanying note and hand or rush delivered to each recipient. Thanks to all involved!

Oh, and don’t forget to keep an eye on your inbox for our holiday e-card. It features Jon and Indra in tacky Christmas sweaters (not to be missed!).

This blog post is primarily for people who run an agency, own an agency or are thinking about either of those things. Unless you have had the stars align and had the good fortune of a)learning how to run a business, b)have worked in good agencies and learned process and c)have a head for numbers, then you know the utter misery of running an agency and wondering what the hell you’re doing.

Last week I was invited to lunch by a woman who started a small agency about 3 years ago. She picked my brain about life as an agency owner. All the usual issues came up - human resources, new business, pricing, job management. I told her what I’ve learned over the past 14 years. And I told her about the Counselor’s Academy.

When I was 3 years into running Bailey Gardiner, I didn’t really have anyone to turn to and ask those kinds of questions. We were learning the hard way. When you’re an AE or a designer, no one teaches you how to run an agency.  And after a while you wonder…is everyone going through the same stuff I am?

About four years ago, I discovered Counselor’s Academy, a member group within PRSA comprised of small to mid-sized agency owners and managers. When I sat down at the first breakfast roundtable and listened to people who were having all the same issues I was with staff, clients, insurance and new biz it was so reassuring. And helpful. The amazing thing about this group is that everyone openly shares their best practices and learning.

The 2009 Counselors Academy Spring Conference, entitled Your Business Matters: Maximizing Profits, People, and Potential is going to be held at La Quinta Resort from May 31- June 2. Some of the topics planned include Managing to Profit; Negotiating the Best Agency Agreements with Your Clients; Driving Profit with Fewer Clients; Managing Three Generations; and Online Marketing Strategies for Business Growth. Don’t those look like subjects that might help you navigate more successfully through 2009?

The learning is beneficial, the networking is terrific and of course the weather will be lovely. Shouldn’t you be thinking about attending the ‘09 CA event?

Not so long ago, it used to be that companies seeking to hire new employees would run recruitment advertising to lure potential candidates.  As though a promise of a better life in sunny San Diego was enough, here is an historic 1960s example of a local company’s efforts.

These days (although the recent news reports on layoffs and rising unemployment figures would suggest otherwise) companies are still hiring, but the most modern recruitment methods are far more sophisticated and targeted.

For example, our agency has recently hired several people — all of them sourced without running the traditional “want ad”.   Being the social media experts that we are, our agency utilized our online resources to get the word out.  Here’s some successful avenues to consider if (and when — and there will be a when again) you are hiring up and trying to find the best talent to join your company:

• Your company blog - We’ve hired all our recent interns this way.  Young, web-savvy college students and recent grads live online, so it’s natural they would find your job posting there.
• LinkedIn - Great connection site for professionals of all makes and models.  There are groups to join for your own specialty area, plus ways to ask your network if they know anyone who might fit your job opening.
• Online job posting sites -  These have been highly successful for us.  In our industry, we use TalentZoo and Creative Hotlist.  AdWeek, Monster and HotJobs are okay too, but frankly have not worked as well for us.  Craig’s List is a bust — too many yahoos.
• Club/Organization website - AdClub, PRSA, IABC ,and AMA all have sites with job listings.  Whatever your industry area, there’s plenty of opportunities for networking.
• Twitter - 140 characters to let your followers know about the link to your blog post on the job opening
• Stalking - No, not the creepy kind.  The in-person kind when you literally go to meetings and places intending to introduce yourself to potential candidates.  We hired a fantastic new copywriter right out of Miami Ad School by going to their graduation ceremony and meeting him there.  (Thanks for listening, Mike!)

And the best way to entice potential employees to consider your company for their next great success is your own website.  Let it be known you seek top talent, and when someone sends you a great resume, save it!  You never know when you might need to fill a position fast, and having a mailbox full of resumes helps you leapfrog the collection process.

Here at Bailey Gardiner, we’ve formed an online specialties group. Each person is responsible for becoming an expert in one specific online specialty. One of our social media and online consultants, Jason Baer, has helped each of us find specific ways to help our clients grow through doing more online marketing, SEO, etc… The area I’ve been becoming an expert in, is email marketing.

I’ve learned, it’s pretty amazing how much companies can benefit from just making a few simple tweaks to their current emails. Of course, if you really want your open-rate, click-through rate or even your profitability off of emails to skyrocket, you really should contact us. But for now, here are a few simple tips to help you send more effective emails:

1)  Send your email to half of your list on one day and the other half on another. I recommend Wednesday or Thursday as those two days have the highest click-through and open-rate. This will allow you to see and test what day of the week your target audience is most likely to open or click-through an email.

2) Subject lines are key. People are more likely to open an email if the subject line relates to the company or a specific product, not the actual promotion. Try testing a couple different subject lines on the same day and see which one is more effective at reaching your target audience.

3) For the best results, add 6-10 links per an email. Don’t over do it, but make sure all relevant information has a link, ie “click here for products”, “$10 off”, etc… Make sure each link goes directly to the page they are wanting to see and not just to your homepage. That involves more time, more clicking and could potentially result in losing that customer.

The amount of marketing emails people receive every day is outstanding. Just look at my Yahoo! inbox. I haven’t even clicked on one of them…

Make your email be the one that stands out!

I know, awkward question. Now the age-old question “What is your budget?” doesn’t seem so uncomfortable.

Believe it or not, we don’t ask the budget question so we know how many kegs we can buy for the Holiday party (we’ve been saving money for Holiday booze since March). Understanding a client’s budget not only saves time, it leads to a stronger strategic plan.

Here are three (of 100) reasons to share your budget up front:

1. We will recommend the best strategies and tactics to meet objectives within the budget. When we plan a program with an open-ended budget (i.e. the client says “they don’t know what their budget is” or “they need us to recommend what it should be”) the client, inevitably, treats the plan like a Chinese menu — not necessarily selecting the items we would recommend with a limited budget.

2. We need some guidelines. Keep in mind that we are creative AND strategic. We can think of a million and one ways to promote your brand - keep us grounded. Don’t worry, you will still get creative solutions. Just more realistic ones.

3. It’s hard to get excited about the more affordable campaign that fits within your budget when we originally suggested that you buy out the halftime show at the Super Bowl (Remember, we didn’t have any budget parameters so opportunities were endless!)

Keep avoiding “How much do you weigh?” and “Why do you always smell like pickles?” but certainly be prepared to answer the budget question.

Either you’re already following the Bailey Gardiner troops on Twitter, or you’re tired of hearing about it. Chances are if you know what it is and you’re tired of it, you’re not on it. So to simplify the trial and error process, here are a few steps to get you started. I promise it will take no more than 10 minutes. Need some convincing? Here’s 12 reasons to join Twitter.

1. Go to http://www.twitter.com. Enter your chosen user name, and I recommend making it something easily recognizable. So, if for example your name is Jon Bailey, I’d recommend using the name “JonBailey.”

2. Let twitter search your contacts to start you out with some familiar faces to follow. Spare your friends and skip the invite to those in your address book who aren’t already on Twitter. It’s like AA, they’ll get there when they’re ready.

3. Now you have an official account and it asks you, “What are you doing?” Don’t answer that. Nobody cares what you’re doing. Give us something good, like a helpful link, a comedic realization, a timely piece of news.

4. Write something! First note that your name is no longer “jonbailey”. It’s now, “@jonbailey” and I’m “@lizzied.” So if you want to say something to someone in particular, you write just that, “Hey @lizzied, nice blog post - look I’m on twitter!” Remember, you only have 140 characters per post.

5. Follow and be followed. What does it all mean? The great thing about twitter is that you don’t get littered with info you don’t want. You pick who you want to receive info from (follow) and others choose to follow you. So everything you post is visible to only those who follow you and those who search you. Use the search tool to find people talking about your interests. Find people in your industry and look at who they’re following and who is following them - go ahead and snag a few of them for your own. If you want to be followed, just write some interesting things and consider your key words if you want people with common interests to find you. Chances are once you follow someone, they’ll return the favor.

6. Try a direct message. Being that anyone can find you and read what you’re posting on the World Wide Web, if you want to say something private, follow this format, “d jonbailey Don’t tell jamieortiz that I put all her office supplies in jell-o molds.” Because of the “d” no one but @jonbailey will get that message.

7. If you’re unlike me and you sometimes leave your computer, consider clicking the “settings” tab, followed by the “devices” tab to set your twitter account to your phone. You’ll only receive direct messages to your phone, but you’ll be able to twitter your messages through text message.

8. And my best tip of advice for getting started: Go to http://www.twhirl.org and download the time-saving platform that feeds your twitter feeds into an Instant Message-like platform, eliminating the time it will take you to continually check the twitter website.

Now you’re tweeting, but you’re a novice. In the words of @samirb, “Once you set up a twitter account, remember there’s a short learning curve, like going from a PC to a Mac.”

Have no fear, I’ll be back with some best practices in a following post.

What questions do you have? Don’t ask me what that picture is, you’ll figure it out on Twitter.

I love Thanksgiving. And I hate it too. The chill in the air, the family, the pies. Awesome. The cooking, the cleaning, the quickness of the meal. The cleaning. Did I mention that already? Oh yeah, anyway, the thing is that I think this year there’s a lot to be grateful for. Really. I know the economy is in the tank and our 401ks look like crap, but if you’re reading this then you probably a) have a roof over your head, b) have a computer so you can connect to the world and c) will have a decent meal tomorrow. I’ll bet you could make a pretty good list of what you have to be grateful for, if you think about. I’ve been thinking about it and I am DAMN grateful.

Meanwhile, in Twitterville, some pretty terrific people (who I don’t know) are trying to raise $10,000 in 48 hours to build a classroom in Tanzania. The project is called Tweetsgiving and you can get involved here. When you set out to do good, the Internet makes it a whole lot easier. Tweet what you’re thankful for, give a little money and you might not only change the life of a child in Tanzania but make someone’s day a little brighter (of course they have to be reading Twitter, but isn’t almost everyone? Yet?). That’s pretty easy. And awfully nice.

So, back here at BG, here’s a quick list of things I am grateful for - all agency/work related:

All the new additions to our staff - your thinking, creativity and excitement are fantastic. And our pre-2008 staff ain’t chopped liver either. You all rock.

Our clients - who pay us to do great work on their behalf. Thank you is insufficient. How about a pie? A cocktail?

All the new colleagues we’ve met - especially the ones who are leading the way on social media and digital marketing. Your knowledge sharing is inspiring.

Our consultants - Nancy, Jason, Bob, David and Simon - who have helped us be smarter and better at what we do.

The new opportunities that keep coming our way. The universe has heard us and is responding in a big way.

So, if you’re feeling grumbly about the world, remember this: ‘The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.’ Now, get out there and have a great(ful) and delicious Thanksgiving!

When people visit our agency offices, they always comment on the visual experience we present — they love seeing the vibe we create because it represents an escape from the traditional office environment.  Sure, we showcase our creative talents in advertising, design, PR, etc. by posting our latest and greatest on the walls.  While we are very proud of the work we create for our clients, and our clients love seeing it displayed, we need creative inspiration as well.

That’s why, when we’re not showing our own creative art,  we decorate our walls with original works by local artists.   We’ve collected some pretty cool pieces over the years from some pretty well known local painters and mixed-media artists — and many were obtained from the same place.  The San Diego Art Institute:  The Museum of the Living Artist is in San Diego’s Balboa Park, and their space displays works from local artists in variety of media and genres.

And here’s what’s cool.  Twice a year they have a fundraiser called C-Note, where they sell works donated by their artist members for $100 or $200 each — and many are even framed!  What is a c-note you ask?  Well, in urban slang it means a hundie, a benjamin, a 100 spot, a Texas dollar and a bunch of other nicknames for a one hundred dollar bill.

In this case, the C-Note is a free-for-all “art grab”, where they open the floodgates and everybody runs into the museum and starts grabbing art off the walls.  For those that don’t want to spill their wine in the process, the activity calms down considerably after the first 20 minutes and you can then leisurely stroll through and choose pieces you’d like to purchase. The only rule is that once you take it off the wall, it’s yours and you must buy it.  Throughout the evening, the walls are replenished a bunch of times as people take things down and museum staff puts new things up.  Most of the pieces are valued at much higher prices than the one or two c-notes they sell for, so you end up with art that immediately appreciates in value.  Seriously, it is a major deal and so much fun.

So if you have time, go check it out and support our local artists.  It’s a great way to add to your collection and help out a deserving non-profit in the process.  (And it’s a tax-deductible donation!)

It’s November 22 from 5-8 pm, but get there early….