Here are my top 5. What ads made your list?

Amy Poehler Best Buy

My ribs still are still recovering from the bits Amy Poehler and Tina Fey did at the Golden Globes. I love these girls and Amy is perfect for this ad….”Does it make you uncomfortable when I use the word dongle?”

Hyundai Tailgating

We all need turbo to get around slobbering dogs.

Paul Harvey Farmer Ad for Dodge Ram Trucks

Late broadcaster Paul Harvey’s legendary voice narrates this touching and memorable ad.

Audi Prom Date Bravery

We all want to steal a kiss from the Homecoming Queen and beat up the King, right?

Psy Crackin’ Gangnam Style

Such a fun song, dance and now ad. Bonus: we played Super Bowl Bingo and one of the squares was “Someone during the Super Bowl must say ‘Get Crackin’.”

Nearly every day, I receive unsolicited direct mail to my home that is addressed to someone other than me: deceased former owners, living former owners, neighbors, nearby businesses, ….the list goes on.

Sometimes the mail looks like it’s meant for me or my family but the sender has spelled our names incorrectly or, occassionally, pulled from thin air a middle name that is simply not ours.

My wife still receives mail with her maiden name shown – we’ve been married for eight years!

Someone at your company should have ownership of the customer and prospect database

• Don’t blindly create your database and then ignore it. “Set it and forget it” will not work!
• Hire someone (or multiple people) to “own” the database.
• Craft data entry policies so there is no question on things such as what gets entered, syntax, etc.
• Take the time to train everyone who is going to enter data.
• Reduce and eliminate “rogue” spreadsheets that staff and departments are using as faux databases. There should be only one “source of truth.”
• Develop procedures that will open the lines of communication among the database administrator, BD, Marketing, Principals, and anyone else on the frontlines. We need to know what the data is before we can capture it.
• Immediately update the database when changes are brought to your attention. There’s not much worse than getting the information that a primary contact has moved or retired and not taking the time to update the record because you were busy on a deadline.
• Figure out a method of “scrubbing” your data to ensure it’s as accurate as possible.

Capturing and maintaining accurate data is crucial to the success of any firm. Initiatives such as targeted direct mailings, “warm” calls and emails, and referrals certainly depend on quality information.

What did I miss? Does your firm have a database administator?

 

Don’t let this happen again. Go “All In” on your next teleconference, proposal kickoff meeting, or other gathering that is begging for some leadership and engagement. Speak up! Identify something (there is always something!) that could use some feedback or discussion among the group that is there. Having trouble with the proposal you’re working on? Need a photographer recommendation? Have an idea to make a decades-old process better?

Run it by the group, create engaging conversations, and reap the winnings!

I know, I know. Restaurants go out of business everyday. But when the resto in question is one that offered delicious, healthy fare and was a great value, it’s very sad.

Take Sandella’s Flatbread Cafe on I Street in Washington. It’s been a go-to establishment on my weekly lunch tour for a while, and I had grown fond of the place since they first opened a few years ago. My better half, the Bitchin’ Dietitian, would approve of my faves: the Mediterranean Quesadilla (400 calories) and Chicken Fajita Quesadilla (510 calories).

Sadly, last week I went to grab a flatbread sandwich and the doors to Sandella’s were locked and it was dark inside. I think this location has just gone out of business, a real shame. I guess I’m not totally shocked since they were in a high-rent location and the place was never really packed with customers. The recession likely didn’t help.

But I can’t help but wonder if Sandella’s on I Street did everything it could to survive.

Lack of Social Media Engagement

 

Men’s Health magazine recently named Washington, DC, America’s most socially networked city. Not Palo Alto (aka Zuckerburgh) but your Nation’s Capital. Woot! Yet in my experience with Sandella’s, they never took the opportunity to engage and interact with these tech savvy customers. Here are some thoughts that may or may not have helped.

Twitter

Though several Sandella’s franchises around the country have fairly active Twitter pages, the main Sandella’s page (@sandellas) is really sad. It has over 100 customers following it, but the page hasn’t been updated since 2009. Actually, Sandella’s has only sent out 3 tweets! I’ve tweeted several times about my delicious lunch at Sandella’s but never had any response at all. It’s hard to imagine customers saying nice things about a business and them not taking the time to discover this easily accessible information and hitting the engage button.

Foursquare

I’m proud to say I was a one-time Foursquare Mayor of Sandella’s on I Street until Zack L. ousted me.  You already know that Foursquare is the super popular geo-social application with which users check-in to local businesses. These check-in’s can be announced on Twitter alerting the entire Twitterverse that customers are in  your store. In general I think businesses have been slow to take advantage of people saying, “I’m here at [insert name of business!]“. For example, could Sandella’s offer perks for the mayor of each of it’s stores? $2 off a sandwich or free chips? And what about special deals for customers who check-in a certain number of times? In social media, I really think offering something as trivial as a bag of chips can create buzz. Crazy, don’t you think?

Yelp

Brown Bag, just around the corner from Sandella’s, offers $5 off lunch for customers who write a restaurant review on the social networking site, Yelp. What’s interesting is Brown Bag wants both postive and negative reviews. They actually care about what their customers think about Brown Bag!  Could Sandella’s have done something similar?

What do you think?

Could these small social media steps have helped Sandella’s on I Street survive? What else do think may have made a difference?

Good help is sure hard to find. But we struck gold in the marketing group last summer with Geneviera and Phil.

As you start your search for summer 2011 interns, look for solid marketing young guns like these two. And when they arrive, make sure you treat them with the same respect and dignity I always offer to our help – err, I mean young professionals.

[thanks for being good sports, Geneviera and Phil!]

I’m a big fan of AMC’s new zombie series, “The Walking Dead.”  A child of the 80s, I’ve always loved those creepy, horror movies like Friday the 13^th, Halloween, and Nightmare on Elm Street.

Here’s something else that’s scary to us marketers in the AEC industry: the dreaded “Zombie RFP.” Ever heard of the Zombie RFP? I hope not. I want credit for that term!

The Zombie RFP is the fringe opportunity that is no go’d early only to come back to life a few days before the due date and make your life a living hell.

Tell me if you’ve encountered this situation: an RFP comes in for a decent project which your firm could likely complete. Perhaps it would look nice on your folks’ resumes and the photographs of the completed work would be pretty cool on your website.

But something is wrong. Actually many things are wrong.

Your Go/No Go analysis indicates that your firm didn’t take the time to visit with the client before the RFP was released, and now it has become apparent that there are two major competitors who have worked with the client in the last five years and have well-developed relationships. In addition, the RFP is asking for 5 relevant, completed projects from the prime with references in a specialized project type for which your firm doesn’t have great depth. Finally a detailed project approach to the scope is required along with a fee, but unfortunately, all of the potential project champions have a heavy project workload and are unavailable to help much. Sound familiar?

This RFP has flunked the Go/No Go test and you, the empowered marketing professional, have put this opportunity out of its misery. Hallelujah. No Go! You can see your hit rate increasing!

You go about your life working on other deadlines for which your firm is well qualified.

But then something incredible and not that uncommon happens. The opportunity comes back to life!

A higher-up who wasn’t involved in the initial No Go decision learns more about the project or is alerted to its existence by a potential teaming partner. It usually goes something like this – “I understand from a friend that even though the client is asking for 5 completed projects from the prime, we can submit unbuilt work or we can show projects from our teaming partners or consultants.” Or how about this – “I’ve been contacted by a potential teaming partner who plays golf with someone in the client’s office, and he has been encouraged to submit a proposal!”

So the RFP is now a Go and you drop everything to put together a pretty solid 11^th hour response. Because you’re a professional and that’s what you do.

In my experience, these responses to Zombie RFPs rarely result in a shortlist, much less a win. I would argue that it’s almost better to NOT be shortlisted for an interview so your firm can learn its lesson, save money, and live to fight another day. Even a great interview can’t be counted on to save a flawed pursuit.

What do you think? Have you responded to Zombie RFPs? Have you had any success? What are some good reasons you’ve been given to chase seemingly unwinnable work?

Next week: How to bury the “Zombie RFP” for good.

I recently discovered that MTV can be a great source of creative inspiration. No, The Situation’s abs did not get me back in the gym regularly, and I feel no need to take on someone on Real World/Road Rules challenge. Still, when it came time to create a holiday e-card for our company, the home of “16 and Pregnant” was there for the assist. 

Many of us would agree that the typical holiday e-greeting has become blasé. Of the dozens we received this year, only two or three truly stood out. (What do you think of going back to old fashioned print/sign cards?) Our group, therefore, was less than enthusiastic when tasked with producing our very own video e-card.

We started slow with a few pretty general ideas such as a series of quick answers from various staff members to the question “what is something cool or notable that happened to you in 2010?” After seeing a first draft, our lack of a solid organizing principle had us worried that we were crafting something more likely to win a Razzie Award than an Oscar.

[Cue Super Hero Theme Music] But then newest marketing superstar Kate Erdy was there to save us. She quickly saw that what we were trying to do was very similar to the opening of the MTV show “Made.” You know, it’s the self improvement show where teens try to be “made” into things like dancers, singers, and football players.

The opening is fast with quick responses from kids who say what they want to be made into: “I wanna be a drummer; I wanna feel good about myself.” The intro ends with the simple phrase, ” I wanna be Made.”

Suddenly we had our organizing theme. We needed a solid, attractive background. Very brief responses from staff were required. We needed to have quick transitions. Fun music was a must. And we could edit our video to give it a vintage, Super 8 feel.

We came so far from our first draft and our group was very happy with the result. Check out the video and let me know what you think.

SmithGroup Holiday Video

You graphic design types certainly live and breathe this everyday, but the process reminded me that inspiration comes from seeing something you like, re-crafting it, and making it your own. Design is an iterative process and it’ s mightly difficult to just sit there and come up with something brilliant out of thin air.

What did your firm do for a holiday card this year? What are your thoughts on e-card versus a “real” snail mail card?

I was ecstatic when fellow SMPSer Matt Handal asked me if I was interested in exchanging blog posts a few weeks ago. I’ve followed his awesome AEC marketing  blog “Help Everybody Everyday”  for the past year and love the fresh insights he offers to both new marketers and grizzled vets. So of course I agreed.

For 100 Percent Overhead, Matt waxed poetic about architects and engineers being overhead too, while I crafted a little diddy about being a “rock star” at your firm. You can read it here: http://www.helpeverybodyeveryday.com/marketing-101/339-be-a-rock-star-for-your-firm

Look out for guest blogging opportunities with folks that you’ve grown to admire. Exchanging posts can be a win/win!

Earlier this year, Vivian Rigney, a college friend of mine, summited Mount Everest, surely the realization of a lifelong dream. And no doubt one of the riskiest things anyone could ever do! In fact, by climbing the world’s tallest mountain, my buddy became only the third Irish person to scale the highest peak on all seven continents.

Vivian has always been highly motivated. I remember one group project we did together while studying for our MBAs in Paris where he was able to land an interview with the head of Nokia France for a project we were doing. Score!

When not wielding his ice axe and crampons, Vivian is the President of Inside Us, an executive coaching firm he founded in 2007. Based in New York City, Vivian is coaching senior level executives at Fortune 500 companies all over the world.

I have other friends that have taken the entrepreneurial plunge as well. Ron Braatz, a high school buddy with a real knack for all things tech, is rocking it at Liftoff deploying Microsoft Cloud Solutions to a variety of local companies. Branding and graphics diva Jill Spaeth is doing her thing at Citizen Creative helping clients communicate messages and tell stories.

My point? Be inspired by Vivian, Ron and Jill. You can do anything you want in life. You control your own destiny. Set some lofty goals and go after them!

We have a special guest poster today. I first met Matt Handal, from HelpEverybodyEveryday.com, at the SMPS national conference. Since then he has become what I can only describe as my personal Jesus. Here he takes the concept of 100 percent overhead to heart.  

Thanks Brian…What am I going to talk about on 100percentoverhead.com? Well, one of my favorite topics…overhead.

Overhead sometimes gets a bad rap. People in marketing get stuck with this label of overhead. “Oh, you are just overhead.” That’s something the technical staff might say to you to take you down a notch. They mean you aren’t billable, just a cost the company has to suck up. And don’t you wish you had a clever comeback?

 

“Hey, I’m more than overhead. I’m a person! With feelings! And you, my friend, just hurt every one of them!”

Don’t use that. Here is a better one. “Every hour I work on a proposal is billable. Every minute I sit down with a client in an effort to keep food on your table is billable.”

Yes, that is actually true.

I think overhead is something marketers should understand better, because it is misunderstood. Overhead is simply the cost of doing business. Electricity is overhead. Bonuses are overhead. Taxes are overhead. Rent is overhead. Everybody’s salary is overhead. Yes, everybody’s salary is overhead. Not just yours.

It gets better.

 

Further Down The Rabbit Hole

Based on the Federal Acquisitions Act (FAR) and generally accepted accounting principles there are two general categories for overhead to fall under: allowable and disallowable. Allowable means you may charge government clients this expense. Disallowable means, “don’t even think about charging us for that.”

An example of an allowable expense is writing a proposal. Another example is meeting with a client to talk about their construction program. An example of a disallowable expense is taking the chief engineer to a strip club.

So the government will allow you to bill them to cover the expense of your proposal preparation. It’s lumped into your rates. Most design is billed lump sum. There are no hours directly tied to the price. But even if your firm works on an hourly basis, each time Joe Engineer bills an hour it is ludicrous to think that this hourly rate just represents Joe Engineer’s effort.

But what if your clients are just from the private sector? Well, in that case we just bill the client for everything. As a firm, you control your costs by forcing a multiplier on Joe Engineer. So if you have a $300,000 assignment and identify a 3.0 multiplier, that means that Joe Engineer and friends do the job for $100,000. The firm takes the $300,000, then pays Joe Engineer, me, you and everybody else.

 

Further down the Rabbit Hole

I can get further into it and talk about accounting practices like variance. But the long and short of it is it’s important for marketers to understand how business works. You can learn more about pricing structures for A/E/C services on my blog. Also, you might want to check out my post, What You Ought To Know About A/E/C Marketing Costs. It also helps to gain a basic understanding of the FAR act. 

Armed with this knowledge, you’ll always be able to respond to any comment about overhead. I think that’s Brian’s point with this blog. Learn more and be more. That’s how you break free of the overhead stigma.

 

Matt Handal is a marketer, contributing editor of SMPS Marketer, and blogs about Marketing in the A/E/C industry.