Q&A with NIA: Your Most Common Marketing & Advertising Questions Answered

Over the years, we have found that customers and prospective customers often have similar questions and concerns.  Here we provide detailed responses in an effort to assist you with your marketing needs.  Read on as the information will be both helpful and enlightening.

Q:  Should we work with a boutique marketing agency or a larger, more well-known advertising agency? 

A:  Larger agencies offer clout as well as strong creative and often an impressive legacy of experience. But larger agencies are also a much more expensive investment, and often clients find that their needs are not attended to as well as they might have hoped based on the investment they are making. That said, if your company is looking for an agency with extensive consumer and broadcast advertising experience, a larger agency may be a better option for you. But if you are a B2B company with minimal or no need for broadcast advertising – and in particular if you do not have a large marketing budget, then a boutique agency may well do a better job of meeting your needs. In general, you will have greater access to executive management when working with a smaller agency, and smaller agencies will place a greater value on your account overall.  You’ll find that you have a closer working relationship with the creative team, and also find that a smaller agency is more responsive, more nimble and more dedicated to you and your needs.

Q:  When would a freelance designer be a good option for our company?

A:  Freelance designers can be a great option for smaller budget projects that have clearly-defined goals and design requirements. Many of our clients have one or more freelance designers who work on routine projects, but then they work with us on projects that are more complex and/or that require skills that their freelancer doesn’t possess. It is important to note that projects given to freelancers will need to be well-supervised by your internal marketing team, at least until you and the freelancer have worked on a few projects together. You will likely find that most freelance designers lack experience in creative direction or art direction, meaning that they may be able to execute your vision, but they may not be able to come up with that vision on their own. Like many agencies, NIA does bring in freelance designers where needed, enabling us to flex up and down to accommodate the changing workflow.  Most of our freelancers have been working with us for several years so we know which projects they are best suited for.  But no matter who executes a project, our Creative Director always leads the team, developing the concepts and providing detailed storyboards/shot lists/sketches etc to ensure that our vision is communicated to anyone working on a project, whether they are in-house or freelance designers. 

Q:  I’ve got an event coming up next month and I’m embarrassed to admit that I have really fallen behind in putting it together. I need a lot of help at this point but I think it’s probably too late to come up with anything interesting and frankly I don’t even have the time to work with a vendor on this now. Any ideas?

A:  If this sounds familiar, don’t worry – you’re not alone. So many of our clients have been in this exact position. Often they will re-purpose materials from previous events to at least have “something” to show, and this is an option you may want to consider.  But it may not be your only option, because you might find that it actually ISN’T too late – you just have approach an agency that has the chops and perseverance to work with you under challenging conditions. NIA has developed the dubious reputation of being a firedrill agency. Of course we prefer to have more time to work on projects, but we have taken on some very challenging situations and achieved significantly better results than our customers could have imagined.  For Carl Zeiss Meditec, we created a video wall and 12 flash presentations in just 8 calendar days – and this was the very first time we worked with Carl Zeiss, so we had a large learning curve. For Zhone Technologies, we produced all of the media for their first annual user conference, and did so in just 3 weeks. For DEY, L.P., we produced a motivational video for the sales team in just 5 calendar days from concept to completion…If you have a need, just ask your agency and they will be honest with you as to what they can accomplish within your timeframe and budget. (And if you have asked an agency other than NIA and gotten a disappointing response, please ask us for our thoughts as well because we might be able to help.)

Q:  I’m interested in having you help us with a PowerPoint presentation but I can’t stand PowerPoint…But all of us are required to use PowerPoint for our event.  Do you have any suggestions for me?

A:  In recent years, PowerPoint has become a more versatile application tool that often packs the punch customers are looking for. But to be honest with you, we don’t love PowerPoint either. It is a necessary tool, and one that we are happy to work with, but some of the animations and interactivity are a bit “canned” and from a design perspective, we would rather offer you a presentation that will be more appealing to your audience. But we also recognize that sometimes PowerPoint is the only option. In that situation, we work hard to create unique graphics and attractive design elements that really dress up the presentation so that it feels more compelling and less “like PowerPoint”.  We also integrate builds and custom animation and/or video to help tell your story.  And finally, in the event your company can consider other options, we can offer a Flash-alternative to PowerPoint that will enable us to utilize enhanced animation and interactivity.

Q:  How much is a website?

A:  This is one of our favorite questions. The answer is complicated, because every website project is different. Sometimes a customer has a very outdated website requiring a complete re-vamp, and other times a customer has a decent website that functions well, but it might need a re-freshed look. Some websites are 20 pages while others are 50 pages and still others are over 200 pages. Some sites involve the creation of a content management system (CMS) for dynamically-driven content while others are HTML and CSS only. Some sites have a flash banner and/or other unique interactive elements. Some sites require compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  And some customers are interested in sites that focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  We could go on and on.  So when a customer asks “How much is a website”, the answer is never simple, and requires extensive discussion of your needs and desired features.  We recognize this is frustrating, and we do try our best to clarify what information is needed for us to respond appropriately, as well as what elements drive the cost up vs. bring it down.  To illustrate the difficulty of answering this question, our Creative Director Chris Finetti often will ask “How much is a bag of groceries?”  The answer to both your question and his is the same:  It depends on what’s in it.

Q:  I’m working on my marketing plan for next year, and I have some extra money. I could allocate it for a direct mail piece, or an extended media buy for our print ad campaign, or maybe email blasts or a product demo on our website or a new datasheet…What do you recommend?

A:  To answer this question accurately, we would need to discuss your communications goals and strategy, as well as review the rest of your marketing plan. That said, we do have a general rule of thumb that we can offer:  where possible, lean towards spending your dollars on measurable campaigns and projects, and on campaigns and projects that will provide the best ROI.  Using this a gauge, we typically would recommend going with email blasts or creating a product demo that can be viewed on your website after a user completes a short form, enabling you to track user data. That said, it should be noted that there are methods of measuring the success of print ads or direct mail via creating custom landing pages,  making these options a bit more attractive; also if you are interested in direct mail, you may want to consider variable printing to improve your ROI - though direct mail is usually still not the best choice given the option of email blasts.

Q:  Why do agencies always ask me how much I have budgeted for a project?  I would rather not reveal that information as I don’t want my budget to limit the agency’s creativity in coming up with ideas that will meet our communications objective.

A:  Agencies do always ask about your available budget.  The reason they do so is because:

• If an agency has a sense of your budget and is able to develop a quote that falls within that budget (even if it is lower than they hoped), the agency will be more likely to win the project.  This is because the most-often cited reason why an agency loses a project is due to budgetary constraints - quite simply, their quote was higher than their client anticipated.  This is a simple fact, and of course most agencies want to earn your business.  Asking for your budget enables them to have a better shot at doing so.
• If an agency knows your budget, they will actually be able to be MORE creative in coming up with options that fit with both your message and your resources. There is nothing more disappointing to a customer than reviewing a creative concept that they love but simply can’t have because their budget can’t support it. Agencies only want to offer ideas that you CAN consider – it is in no one’s interest to do otherwise.
• There’s an old adage – “Quality, time, cost…Pick any two.”  Agencies will often tell you that if you have a tight deadline, then you will likely need to have a higher budget to accommodate the rush turnaround - unless you are willing to compromise on quality.  This is particularly true if you are working with a larger agency.  But because you work with NIA, you will find that in most cases we can work within both your time and budget constraints – and as a rule, we never compromise on quality.  We simply don’t offer that “compromise” to our customers.

Q:  When interviewing prospective agencies, what questions should we ask?

A:  Choosing the right agency can make or break a business, especially in a weak economy. Here are questions that should be part of any agency interview:

• Tell us what you already know about our business.
• What makes your agency different?  Why should we hire you?
• Describe your agency’s overall capabilities, but also identify your “sweet spot” so that we can determine how well your greatest strengths meet our current and future needs.
• What area would you describe as your weakest capability as an agency? 
• Who at your agency will be the primary person responsible for our account and what is his/her title? 
• Who in your agency will lead the creative for our account?  Please describe that person’s background in working with customers in our industry.
• To what extent will upper management be involved in our account, and how often will members of the executive management team be attending meetings with us?
• Will we have access to the creative team?
• Sometimes we have urgent needs that come up. If we contact our account person and/or a member of the executive management team after hours via email or cell, how likely is it that we will reach someone quickly?  If needed, will your team work overtime, weekends and/or holidays to meet our needs? 
• Please show us examples of your work, and show us examples that represent a broad spectrum of industries and project types as well as examples in our specific industry.
• Describe a project that was particularly challenging, and tell us how you overcame those challenges.
• How do you measure success?
• Approximately how many active accounts do you have right now, and what does your production schedule look like for the next few months?  Describe how you will make room for our account given your schedule and existing clientbase, and how you will ensure our account receives the attention and focus needed going forward.
• Besides your in-house team, what external resources and partnerships might you leverage when working with us?
• Do you have customer testimonials you can share with us?  Can we contact your customers directly to find out what their experience has been in working with your agency?
• How is your agency customarily compensated?  Via a retainer or on a project basis?  Based on our needs, what do you feel would work best for us and why?
• If we retain your services rather than working with you on a project basis, will you refrain from working with any of our competitors?  We can provide a list of competing companies so that we are all agreed as to which companies are of concern. 
• Will you provide us the source files for our projects without charging us anything additional for those files?

In addition to asking questions such as these, when interviewing agencies, it is also important to “experience and observe” the interaction.  Do the members of the agency team seem engaged and interested in you and your business?  Do they listen well and truly hear you and your concerns, or do they try to drive the conversation in a direction of their choosing?  Do you feel comfortable with the team, and do they appear capable of working with you under deadline and/or budget challenges?  Do they seem trustworthy and forthright?  Do you love their work?

We hope that this article has been helpful - please let us know if you have other questions you would like to see answered in a future issue by contacting Managing Director Jennifer Finetti at jen@niacreative.com and writing “Q&A with NIA” in the subject line of your email, or call us at 925-224-9900 and we’ll provide an answer on the spot.