The agency / client conundrum - what would you do?

Part One - The conundrum (18th August 2009)

Let me set the scene (fellow agencies and freelancers might recognise all or some of this story)

You've built a good website for your client and they're happy hurrah! You get paid - you're happy. You then move into the marketing phase; SEO is a difficult pitch (at this stage) so you opt for a PPC campaign with Google. A test budget of £1000 is agreed and you do your job well; setup conversion tracking, do your research and manage the spend diligently. In fact you've done your job well enough for the client to double the spend for the next month - so far so good.

But, and here's the conundrum, because you manage a number of similar accounts you are not happy with a 1.79% click to conversion. The truth is you think this is just the early stages and you heartily recommend they invest in additional design time allowing you to develop a landing page with the goal to increase conversion. [Secretly you want to go all out and start A>B testing and in the back of your mind you are yearning to get into multivariate testing]

It is at this point that, for the first time, you do not have a meeting of minds. The client wants you to manage the increased spend but does not buy into the additional costs to develop a landing page?

At this point I would love to know - What you would do?

Please take 5 seconds to cast your vote: http://twtpoll.com/pjl17x

This was a scenario we (i-KOS) faced in July 2009 - I will share exactly what we did in a follow-up post in one week; along with the results from the poll.

Part 2 - The result - (24th August 2009)

The results can also be viewed here: http://twtpoll.com/r/pjl17x

So what did we do? Well we opted for:

D) Suggest a cost per sale deal for increased sale

Confident that we could up the sales from little more than a landing page we proposed a £15 per sale for all sales made above and beyond a 1.79% conversion rate on the proviso that a £2K budget was spent. The result an extra 60 sales were generated - as the conversion was up by 24.8%

Commission earned £900 - client happy - agency happy. A real win-win!

Want to know more?

You can follow my riffs, and ramblings on running an agency @mylesdavidson (http://www.twitter.com/mylesdavidson) and if you are seeking an agency who just might back their ideas then speak to me at i-KOS 01322 277255

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Graze - a lesson in branding - is there anything they don't do well?

Building a brand to stand out from the crowd takes a real commitment from a business leader or manager with both the vision to see the value of building a brand and the tenacity to instill it throughout every fibre of the company. 

Too often, as an agency, we are called on to redesign a brand to a stipulated brief that asks us to evaluate an existing logo. The normal driver for this is perhaps that the brand looks tired or, over-time has become disjointed. 

In this era a brand has to encompass far more than just a logo, and how it looks across various media. One must consider how the brand will communicate and interact. 

To this end I hold up Graze as lesson to us all. Since I was first told about them (thanks to @simonsurtees) I was impressed; a visit to their website had me hooked - I ordered on my first visit. The order process was a pleasure; I actually got better informed and more excited as I went through the process. 

The follow-up e-mail was just great; the tone of voice was friendly, informative and caring. The day before my first food parcel (ed - box) was to arrive I got an e-mail letting me know it was on its way and what was in it. Thursday arrived and this wonderful little box appeared, opened up three trays were neatly displayed with fresh cut pineapple, apple strudel, and black pepper cashews. It tasted as good as its presentation suggested. With little wastage in packaging there was one insert - letting me know exactly what was in the box - oh and some personalized coupons offering friends a box for £1. 

Currently I have left my order open so that I get one box a week and the nuts and seeds always get shared out. Should I be out the office when a box arrives @twittlelegs normally swipes them! Although @dereckjohnson likes to nibble the nuts!

What happens next is a really nice 'feed a friend' promotion offering anyone I care to share with - a FREE box and even a second box for half price. Even the URL has been thought out http://www.graze.com/feedyourfriends - nice!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

So if you fancy trying the product and experiencing the brand please get your first box free by clicking here http://www.graze.com/p/BDM75M9 (if you are prompted to add the voucher code its BDM75M9).

Now if you do I will be given the option to get £1 off a future box or donate it to the Rainforest Alliance (which I will do). 

If this post has one point its this - I have taken personal time out (which is very sparse) to tell you about Graze. Neither I or my agency has any association with Graze. What they have done IMHO is create an amazing brand that I for one want to talk about. Compelling isn't it. 

Enjoy your box and please let me know by commenting below what you thought. 

Best

Myles Davidson

(some people have decided to follow me on Twitter - god bless them - you can too ----> http://www.twitter.com/mylesdavidson or simply @mylesdavidson)

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The agency / client conundrum - what would you do?

Let me set the scene (fellow agencies and freelancers might recognise all or some of this story)
 
You've built a good website for your client and they're happy hurrah! You get paid - you're happy. You then move into the marketing phase; SEO is a difficult pitch (at this stage) so you opt for a PPC campaign with Google. A test budget of £1000 is agreed and you do your job well; setup conversion tracking, do your research and manage the spend diligently. In fact you've done your job well enough for the client to double the spend for the next month - so far so good.
 
But, and here's the conundrum, because you manage a number of similar accounts you are not happy with a 1.79% click to conversion. The truth is you think this is just the early stages and you heartily recommend they invest in additional design time allowing you to develop a landing page with the goal to increase conversion. [Secretly you want to go all out and start A>B testing and in the back of your mind you are yearning to get into multivariate testing]
 
It is at this point that, for the first time, you do not have a meeting of minds. The client wants you to manage the increased spend but does not buy into the additional costs to develop a landing page?
 
At this point I would love to know - What you would do?
 
Please take 5 seconds to cast your vote: http://twtpoll.com/pjl17x
 
This was a scenario we (i-KOS) faced in July 2009 - I will share exactly what we did in a follow-up post in one week; along with the results from the poll.
 
You can follow my riffs, and ramblings on running an agency @mylesdavidson (http://www.twitter.com/mylesdavidson)

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The perils of auto-posting everywhere - you have been warned

Firstly I am a huge fan of Posterous so this post is not in anyway agin them. Moreover is is a heads-up warning to others, like me, who are dabling with a multitude of broadcast and micro-blogging tools; and really enjoying how they all 'talk' to each other.

 But here's the scenario (true story) whilst on a trip to LA I set-up my e-mail auto-notification (hands up who has already jumped to the punch line) and, yup you guessed it, I posted to Posterous (using the post@posterous.com) address. This then triggered a game of ping-pong between Posterous and my mail server; as Posterous mailed me back with a note letting me know my post has published successfully - which got my out office message - which appeared as a new post - which begot a message from Posterous - loop (50 got to 10 springs to mind).

 Worse still each post informed Twitter and my other blog (miles of marketing) and my Tumblr play space.

 By the time I deleted my linked accounts on Posterous and logged in and turned off my auto notification I had received over 200 e-mails, 200 posts, approx 50 twitters etc.

 Fortunately I mailed the guys at Posterous and my thanks goes to Sachin (Co-Founder) for his immediate assistance - who deleted all the erroneous posts, in a flash - and is I am sure going to put safe guards in place to stop this happening again. My concern is I could have just as easily posted from my iPhone without having all my passwords to hand and this would have caused havoc. As it is I had to spend a few hours deleting tweets, and posts.

 I am sure to the tech savvy this gets a sigh but to those, like me, simply trying to use this wonderfully simple technology be aware of the infinite loop possibilities when autoposting.

 To see what other mishaps and chaos I create you should follow me on twitter @mylesdavidson (http://www.twitter.com/mylesdavidson)

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Official facebook press release regarding Friend Feed Aquisition

http://www.facebook.com/press/releases.php?p=116581

 Sent from my iPhone

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AudioBoo - Boo Part Picture courtesy of @documentally and Benjamin Ellis - good times

What was I thinking?

 

 Some of the other pictures from the AudioBoo Booparty:

 These from Christian Payne aka:@documentally
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christianpayne/

 These from Benjamin Ellis aka:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamin2/sets/72157621847753563/

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Seth's Blog as a .PDF Weirdest billboard ever (or brilliant targeting)

I have been experimenting with Tabbloid, a service that takes any rss feed and converts it into a magazine styled format delivered as an e-mail with the journal as an attached . PDF

I'm doing this as a means to capture some of my favourite blogs in a really readable format - something that allows me to properly read articles as opposed to the screen 'scrapping' I find my self doing when following a link from Twitter for example. 

Here is how my Tabbloid arrives daily based on one feed (you can set frequency and source of feeds).  

Contents

1. Seth's Blog: Weirdest billboard ever (or brilliant targeting)

Want a copy? 

Use this link to get a copy of this Tabbloid. You'll receive your own copy to print and read!
http://www.tabbloid.com/share/44081/

Download now or preview on posterous

tabbloid_2009-08-09_0134.pdf (111 KB)

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Counting to 10 in Japanese by Conor (5)

via AudioBoo

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Boo party event

via AudioBoo

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Pre booparty drink at Roast. Borough Market

via AudioBoo

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Leaving the office and heading into London for the audiobooz up

via AudioBoo

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You know times are tough when James Bond chops in the Aston for a Smart Car

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Interview with Tim Absolom PGA golf pro - tips on curing the dreadead slice.

via AudioBoo

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I'm a dablr not a blogger - a post for occasional bloggers dedicated to Sara.

via AudioBoo

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Wow they finally made it - Qstik EVOQ Bluetooth DSP Headset

via amazon.co.uk

Back in 2005 http://www.i-KOS.com (formal declaration - I am a director of the aforementioned agency, never let it be said I hid that from you!) pitched to Clement Clarke Communication (www.c3headsets.com) - a uk manufacturer of headsets for the Army & Navy (not the de-mob clothing store) amoungs other industries.

Anyway the pitch was for the branding and marketing comms. of a new bluetooth headset with some really new whizzy technology (Digital Signal Processing, A2DP...).

During the pitch to the board we absolutely went for it - and built the pitch to the crescendo where we unveiled the name QStik; and even a draft logo which is still close to the finished version seen here.

Paul Campbell - designer at i-KOS came up with the name QStik whilst walking back from WHS Smith - as soon as he explained the acoustic link we knew we had the pitch in the bag!

This was not expected and I am pleased to say got a rapturous applause - I was the only one not wearing a tie and getting the props.

I am pleased to say that we went on to develop the branding and marketing collateral (some of which can be seen here http://bit.ly/PwGt2) and I remember being in the meeting when Alloy (the product designers) presented the EVOK concept drawings and model.

The whole QStik project however was beset with problems and until I saw this link for it on Amazon I had no idea it went into production.

For £12.99 I think i just might get one - for nostalgia if nothing else.

@mylesdavidson

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