Division of Labor Lands Prestigious New Business

RSS Industries Headquarters in Los Angeles, CA. So proud of this big win.

Last week, we ran a Labor Day Sale promotion in honor of Division of Labor Day. The offer: Free Advertising Campaigns to anyone working on Labor Day. We hoped it would yield some new introductions, branding opportunities and maybe a digital advertising campaign or a social media project. Boy did it ever.

We landed a huge new piece of business that we’re proud to announce today. Division of Labor is now the agency of record for the coveted Rich Siegel Sucks account. RSS is a pop culture, lifestyle brand with a social consciousness bent. The company is founded by Erik Moe—Director, Freelance Writer and part-time antagonist. The goal of RSS is to promote the notion that in this technology saturated, social media heavy, data-driven world, it’s still important to remember Rich Siegel Sucks.

The ironic thing about Division of Labor winning this prestigious piece of business is that we don’t know Rich Siegel, nor have we ever encountered the suckiness that the founder suggests. But, as one of the top ad agencies in San Francisco it’s our job to lend an outsider’s perspective, and help a brand see itself in new ways. We are hopeful this will be the case with Rich Siegel Sucks.

We look forward to delving more thoroughly into the market research. However, according to RSS founder, Erik Moe, the Rich Siegel Sucks brand has grown out of the fact that Rich Siegel does indeed Suck. Furthermore, as a freelance copywriter, Erik Moe is vastly superior—as is Division of Labor, but that’s another matter. Erik Moe’s Linkedin feed best illustrate the suckiness of Rich Siegel. However, we at Division of Labor are delighted to have been tapped by Moe to take the brand message and ongoing feud to a bigger audience.

To that end, we are sharing the complete creative brief as we plan our marketing strategy, creative presentation and media plan.

Main Thought/Idea

What’s the one thing we want people to remember? Rich Siegel sucks.

Support: Why does Rich Siegel suck?

He tries to steal work from Erik Moe.
On his Linkedin profile, he falsely claims to be 44-years-old.
He takes long lunch breaks that usually include swimming lessons, but then charges clients for the whole day.
He complains a lot, including statements about his neighbor’s dog.
His talent, such as it is, is more suited to selling vitamins than writing ad copy.

Deliverables:

One to three social media posts to run on Erik Moe’s Linkedin page next week.

Rest assured, we are hard at work producing the requested ideas. Pending our client’s approval we look forward to sharing them with you all soon. Thanks to everyone involved in this great win.

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The Small Agency Blog is produced by Division of Labor; a top San Francisco ad agency and digital marketing firm that’s been named Small Agency of the Year twice by Ad Age. The award-winning creative shop services clients on a retainer or project basis. They also offers brand consulting services and hourly engagements for startups and smaller brands. Click here for a free consultation.

Advertising, Branding and The Art of an Effective Tagline

Arguably, “Just Do It” is one of the most successful—not to mention memorable—taglines in the history of advertising. The award-winning ad campaign, which launched in 1988, was the catalyst for Nike’s meteoric rise to becoming one of the world’s top brands. Thirty years later the now legendary line endures, along with the company’s commitment to keeping their brand identity laser focused.

It goes without saying, that every client that engages an ad agency to orchestrate their brand launch (or re-brand launch) dreams of a similar success story. But know this: When searching for the best ad agency to sell your wares, it’s important to remember that advertising is part art, and part science. How consumers react is only partially predictable. Sound market research, strategic thinking and brilliant creative can help. But the thing everyone focuses on first, is the tagline.

If there isn’t an actual secret sauce to replicating Nike’s “Just Do It,” how do you increase the odds that your message will resonate? The tenets below serve as some basic building blocks of an effective tagline. Choose wisely and a few choice words will be ingrained in the consumer’s head today, tomorrow, and for decades to come.

Keep It Simple

A tagline is intended to encapsulate a brand’s personality. It’s definitely not the place to explain your product’s many benefits. When presented with taglines, clients will often say: “I like the line, but it doesn’t tell the complete story of who we are.” That may be true. But that’s not what the tagline is supposed to do. The tagline is simply about evoking an emotional response. Gillette’s tagline “The Best a Man Can Get” doesn’t explain why. It doesn’t explain how a close shave can help you present a well groomed image and therefore appear more trustworthy to others. It’s all about how a guy feels.

Embrace What’s Unique.

A tagline can help set you apart from competitors. What do you offer that’s different? Avis’s “We Try Harder” tagline is a great example of this. The tagline came out of a discussion between DDB creatives and the Avis management team. Asked why anyone ever rents a car from Avis when Hertz was clearly the brand leader they said: "We Try Harder.” This tagline, which prevailed for 50 years (the company went another direction in 2012) positioned Avis to not necessarily compete with Hertz, but embrace its second-place status. It’s a classic example of owning your negative to turn it into a positive.

If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

“A Diamond is Forever" has appeared in every single De Beers advertisement since 1948. The tagline drove diamond sales to a record high and made a diamond engagement ring as essential to a bride as her dress, veil, and a multi-tiered cake. In 1999 Ad Age named “Diamonds are Forever” the tagline of the century. And, nearly two decades into the 21st century, there’s no indication that the campaign’s effectiveness is waning.

If you can create a simple line that says something great, keep it. Change your campaign, executions, media, social content, videos, products, promotions, digital marketing, everything, but leave the line unless there’s a good reason to change it.

Cut Your Losses

If you’re working with a brand with established gravitas it’s not always advisable to re-invent the wheel. In 2014, Burger King scrapped its 40-year-old tagline “Have it Your Way” and replaced it with “Be Your Way.” The intent was to promote individuality. However, fans panned the new phrase because it simply made no sense. “Have It Your Way” lets the public know that they can customize their orders. “Be Your Way” just confuses the consumer. Although Burger King put a lot of time and money behind their new tagline, it never caught on. And, in the end, they quietly condensed the line to read “Your Way” which is ultimately a face saving move without any acknowledgment that the change to, “Be Your Way” was a colossal mistake.

Say One thing Well

Apple’s “Think Different,” which ran from 1997 to 2002, says nothing specific about Apple products. Yet, to this day, those two words are synonymous with the Apple Brand. It was a nod to the early adopters—at the time just 5% of consumers used apple products—who were thoughtful enough to embrace to totally different kind of computer, which operated in a totally different way than brand-leader IBM. More than two-thirds of Americans now own at least one apple product. And while Apple users now far outnumber other brands, the cache of being part of something innovative and unconventional lives on.

Trust the Agency

You know more about your company and its product than anyone else. But your ad agency knows more about how to endear consumers to your company and product than anyone else. When you say something like, “I ran the creative by my wife, brother, neighbor, dog catcher, (fill in additional name here) and they didn’t care for it” that’s neither helpful nor constructive. If you hired a lawyer you wouldn’t run his legal arguments by your wife, brother, neighbor, or dog catcher, nor would you seek a consensus opinion on whether your accountant filed the firm’s tax returns properly.

Early in my career, I was working for a guy who was, and still is, one of the most successful creative forces in the advertising industry. We were presenting new taglines to a large sporting goods company. Afterwards the client said: “I like this line, but do you have anything else.?” Without missing a beat, the creative replied, “This isn’t a fucking restaurant, This is your tagline.” Few ad execs could speak to a client so directly without losing the account. But, as I said, this guy is a legend. My point, however, is that the client backed off, ran the campaign and reaped the benefits.

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Long before Nike, there was Krazy Kaplan

Division of Labor is closing up shop for the Fourth of July. Like most of you, we’re taking a break from brand launches, digital marketing campaigns, and media strategies to instead celebrate this country and our freedom.

And as I will be traveling to the Midwest to spend time with family, it got me thinking about the face of the Fourth of July in the Midwest. Not Uncle Sam. Not a Yankee Doodle Dandy. But a deranged looking cartoon character called, Krazy Kaplan.

Krazy Kaplan Billboards line the highways of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. And growing up, Krazy Kaplan got us kids all excited to blow our fingers off. Krazy Kaplan’s outdoor boards have endured for decades. Nothing clever. No smart writing or design and certainly Krazy Kaplan isn’t spending $700 per entry to try to win a Cannes Lion. But these sons of bitches have sure sold a lot of fireworks over the years. And while I can’t recall the names of any of my children’s grade school teachers, I sure as hell remember that Krazy Kaplans is conveniently located just across the Illinois border in Hammond, Indiana. And it’s the go-to store for all my fourth of July fireworks needs.

And it appears Krazy Kaplans has expanded their inventory since I was a kid. They now apply that same marketing strategy - buy one get six free - to their artillery shell selection. The maiming possibilities are endless. Happy Fourth of July to everyone. Take time off and savor the day.

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Seven essential tips for an effective OOH campaign

In the digital age, the growth of traditional advertising, print, tv, radio—has stagnated with one notable exception. Out of home advertising (OOH), a catch-all term for billboards, transit wraps and point of sale signage is actually going gangbusters. According to the research firm, Magna Global, OOH spending grew 4.6% in 2018, a record high. But, of course, not every billboard campaign will yield record results for the brand. So how do you make sure your OOH money is spent wisely? Of course, a well thought out, efficient outdoor buy is crucial. But great placement with a boring, wordy, generic message is worthless. Consider these seven essential tips for an effective OOH campaign.

#1 — Strategy First

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Start with honest, human insights. An outdoor campaign for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, for example, targeted visitors to the city. The assumption is that people use social media to plan their trips, research their destination and ask for recommendations. But research found that 85 percent of vacation itinerary decisions are actually made at the destination. This one statistic was the driving force behind the See Them Both campaign. Rather than compete with some of the more iconic tourist destinations, the museum chose to capitalize on their fame by promoting the museum alongside, Alcatraz, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Golden Gate Bridge and other bucket list faves. Following a three month campaign, museum traffic increased 48 percent while the average ticket sale increased 14 percent. So not just more people visiting the museum, more people spending more money.

# 2 — Put Google to Work

Don’t try to explain everything while someone is driving 60 miles an hour. Compel people to do their own research. Ninety percent of Americans are proficient with the same research tool that got you to this blog post. If they drive pass something intriguing on their commute, they’ll Google it. This approach proved successful for Comedy Central, which in 2018 ran an OOH campaign with messaging that read: #CancelSouthPark. Fans rushed to the internet for confirmation only to discover that it was the creators themselves pushing for the show demise, capitalizing on past viral Twitter campaigns which successfully saved the tv shows, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Lucifer both slated for the chopping block.

#3 — Invest in Multiple Executions

OOH is meant to build brand awareness. And the best way to do that is to stick with one unifying message and then create varied executions that people won’t get sick of. According to the 23 Below Media Group, Multiple OOH executions improve lasting impact by 14 percent thus extending the overall life of the advertising campaign. This was the strategy used to help launch Roku back when awareness of streaming was only at 7 percent. Despite being a superior product, they were having trouble stealing market share from brand leader Apple TV. Before we explained why our small, black box was better than the other small black box, we had to equate Roku with streaming so that when people did decide to jump into the streaming market, Roku would be top of mind. We blanketed communities with out-of-home messaging around the holidays that was funny and simple, but also varied. So it remained entertaining like the TV shows they love. By the time the campaign was over, we had established brand awareness on-par with Apple TV and increased Roku sales by 30 percent.

#4 — Give Them Something to Talk About

People hate boring advertising. They love things that are funny, compelling or worth talking about. And, of course, outdoor advertising needn’t be static. Just recently, for example, Kelly Services needed a digital video execution for the Times Square facing side of New York City’s landmark NASDAQ building. It’s a fabulous location in terms of eyeballs. But because there are 26 windows smattered throughout billboard it’s a design nightmare. Most companies ignore the windows, which then breaks up the type and makes the images look pretty crappy. But Kelly, a temporary staffing agency, incorporated the windows into their creative concept seizing on the adage: “Every time a door closes, a window opens.” In this way, the windows went from distraction to focal point and dovetailed with their overall brand message that no job is permanent. And because we knew the installation would turn heads, we even hired a production team to record people’s reactions when it went live in Time Square, which prolonged the life of the campaign by allowing it to proliferate on social media.

# 5 — Keep it Simple

Less is more. We promise. Per research uncovered by 23 Below Media Group, OOH ads are 23 percent more likely to get noticed when they have fewer design elements. The billboard’s purpose is to build brand awareness. In the case of Metro Mile, for example, we cut right to the chase: Insurance for People Who Don’t Drive Much.” The message, coupled with a playful illustration, is a way to pique curiosity, not close a deal.

# — 6 Pay Attention to Placement

If a board or location is super cheap, there’s a reason. Is it behind a tree? In a bad part of town? Blocked by construction? Also essential: Pay attention to what’s being advertised on adjacent OOH real estate as it can negatively impact your brand. A billboard purchased by Burger King in Louisiana went viral, but for all the wrong reasons. The billboard was created to promote the fast-food giant’s meal deal—two sausage and cheese breakfast sandwiches for three dollars. Nothing provocative about it. However, it was placed alongside a billboard purchased by the American Heart Association (AHA) which read: One in three people will die from heart disease. No further explanation is necessary.

# 7 — Quit asking your agency to make the logo bigger

The logo should be visible, but not so visible it’s the first thing people see. No one gives a crap about your logo without a compelling idea. Give them a reason to WANT to know who is doing the message. If all you had to do was make the logo bigger, we would have done that years ago for all our clients and retired by now. Apple’s “Shot on iPhone campaign” embodies this approach. The company used crowdsourced photos shot with the iPhone to demonstrate the power of the product’s camera. The Apple logo is dropped quietly and tastefully into the lower left hand corner of each billboard.

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Free Sharks Tattoos and a Whole Lot of Free Press

They started lining up last night at 8:30 pm in front of Players Ink Tattoo Shop in San Jose to be one of the first 40 in line to get a free San Jose Sharks tattoo. “Sharks for Life” is the tagline we started using three years ago when we first started working with the team. Today, Sharks for Life became literal. Hundreds of fans came out to show their support for the team they love by getting Sharks ink.

We launched the marketing idea on social media before the Sharks had even won their second round series against the Avalanche. It was heartening to see how many people came out, in the rain no less, to be a part of this event. It’s also a great example of how to harness social media to build engagement and encourage brand loyalty.

We and the Sharks partnered with three local tattoo shops. The Sharks cover the cost of all the tattoos, they help promote local businesses, do something nice for their fans, build community spirit and brand awareness. Not to mention, they get a ton of earned media worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for a fraction of the price of equivalent paid media. It’s proof that if you take big swings and do something unconventional, it pays off for everyone involved. Thanks to the Sharks for always supporting bold ideas.

ABC News, NBC Sports, KRON4 News, San Jose Mercury News, Yahoo Sports, . SFGate, KSBW News, KFOX Radio, 105.3 Radio

The Small Agency Blog is produced by Division of Labor; a top West Coast advertising agency and digital marketing firm that’s been named Small Agency of the Year twice by Ad Age. The award-winning creative shop services clients on a retainer or project basis. And also offers brand consulting services and hourly engagements for startups and brands interested in testing new ideas, but who aren’t quite ready to invest in an integrated campaign or media spend. We can assist with brand strategy, brand voice, early stage asset development, video creation and other communications to get things up and running without busting your budget. Click here for a free consultation.

Brand Loyalty: a Marketing Case Study.

Marketing agencies are always trying to encourage brand loyalty. But the smart ones are also thinking about reciprocating brand loyalty. In other words, if you want people to love and embrace your brand, how do you give away and engrain your brand into people’s lives?

The San Jose Sharks have some of the most loyal fans in the NHL. They love the players and the organization and the passion the Sharks have brought to San Jose since 1991. So as the San Jose Sharks marketing agency, we at Division of Labor thought about how we could be even more loyal to those most loyal to us.

Fans already spend a lot of money on tickets and jerseys and swag. But there’s an even more passionate group of fans that have taken our Sharks for Life mantra to the literal level. The number of fans with Sharks tattoos is amazing and humbling and a beautiful sign of loyalty. It’s the kind of thing that makes the players want to win it all for this town more than anything.

So earlier in the season, we came up with the idea to give away free Sharks tattoos to fans. We’d already encouraged fans to paint their houses teal (Teal Houses of Sharks Territory) and we expanded that to create the Teal Cars of Sharks Territory. But giving away free tattoos? We weren’t sure how that would go over.

But the Sharks loved the idea. They embraced it immediately and knew they had to make it happen, the question was how and when? We wanted to bring artists into a suite and have them ink fans while they were watching a game. But that proved logistically difficult. So we developed a digital marketing plan around the playoffs.

The plan: We partnered with three local San Jose Tattoo Shops to give away free sharks tattoos during each away game of the Western Conference Finals. The first 40 fans to show up at the designated shop will get to choose one of six sharks designs. Of course, we couldn’t execute the idea until we made it past the second round. But we still had to prepare.

So we created social marketing assets that encouraged fans to gather at a pre-game street rally before game five of the second round. We brought a crew down to film fans already inked with Sharks tattoos who wanted to tell their stories. The response was incredible. In less than 2 hours, we rounded up 22 fans willing to share their Sharks ink with the world. And after Joe Pavelski’s triumphant game 7 against the Avalanche, we were off. The digital video went out onto Sharks social channels along with some digital display network ads and, as expected, the press got hold of it.

We are still 48 hours away from the first tattoo shop giveaway and already garnering lots of free, positive publicity for the team, including this story by Kron News.

Certainly, not every brand has the kind of fans as loyal as the Sharks organizations. But, no matter the product, thinking about how you can give loyalty while you get loyalty is a worthwhile, but shockingly underutilized marketing strategy.

If you’d like to talk about more advertising stuff, contact us here. If you’re a rabid Sharks fan ready to get inked, click here.

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Division of Labor Recognized on Clutch

Search Google for the top advertising agencies in San Francisco and there’s a good chance Division of Labor comes up toward the top of the listings, along with a company called Clutch. Clutch is a top provider of ratings and reviews for B2B service providers. Sort of like an aggregator or a matchmaker for business. Clutch uses data driven research to identify top firms in dozens of industries and categories, including ad agencies in San Francisco. And lately, we’ve been moving up the ranks on Clutch, sitting in the top 10 in a number of categories.

But how does Clutch actually determine its top 10 lists? Well, first their analysts conduct research on firms, considering factors such as marketing presence, company portfolios, and social media efforts. But most importantly, ranks are based on client reviews.

Several of our clients gave us detailed reviews of the work we completed for them. And, we’re happy to say, all who were interviewed (including the two below) gave us five stars. Reviews are conducted over the phone with Clutch analysts or online through a detailed questionnaire

“I loved their passion for creativity. They cared about my personal success and the success of my company.
- Former Director of Marketing, Roku
“They’re smart, and they get things done.”
- CMO, LA Marathon

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In addition to our presence on Clutch, we are featured on their sister-site, The Manifest, as one of the top video production companies in San Francisco. The Manifest is a resource for firms of all shapes and sizes, offering curated industry advice and how-to guides to help identify and address all manner of challenges. Our inclusion was the result of our work, as well as the size of our team and the cost of our services, and we are grateful to be recognized for our production talents. But in the end, it all comes down to great clients and the partnerships we have with them.

Thank you to everyone on the Division of Labor team, as well as our amazing clients. Our next high-water mark: Recognition as one of the top 10 West Coast ad agencies. Stay tuned. We will let you know when that happens.

The Small Agency Blog is produced by Division of Labor; a top West Coast advertising agency and digital marketing firm that’s been named Small Agency of the Year twice by Ad Age. The award winning creative shop services clients on a retainer or project basis. And also offers brand consulting services and hourly engagements for startups and brands interested in testing new ideas, but who aren’t quite ready to invest in an integrated campaign or media spend. We can assist with brand strategy, brand voice, early-stage asset development, video creation and other communications to get things up and running without busting your budget. Click here for a free consultation.

Kelly Services in Times Square - A Marketing Case Study

This past St. Patrick’s Day, Kelly Services was invited to ring the bell at the Nasdaq. It’s obviously a big honor, worthy of far more celebration than a green, plastic hat and a few shots of Jamison. The event reminds the company, and the market for that matter, that Kelly is a Fortune 500 company and a global leader in workforce services.

So how does Kelly honor this New York event? They tapped Division of Labor, one of many ad agencies in San Francisco, but arguably one of the few who could concept, design and produce a execution for an iconic video billboard, in just 10 days. That’s right. We were tasked with creating a digital video execution for the Times Square facing side of New York City’s landmark NASDAQ building. This is a fantastic location in terms of eyeballs. But here’s the catch: It’s a design nightmare because there are 26 windows smattered throughout billboard.

We looked into how other digital marketing agencies and branding agencies dealt with the problem. And for the most part, they just ignored the windows, which then breaks up the type and makes the images look pretty crappy.

Our solution: We recommended the windows be used as an asset to organically tell the Kelly story. For a temporary staffing agency, this meant seizing upon the adage: “Every time a door closes, a window opens.” In this way, the windows become the focal point of the ad. It’s also in keeping with Kelly’s positioning that no job is permanent.

Full disclosure: Our first idea involved filming on green screen so it looked like people were climbing out the windows of the building. We all thought this was pretty clever until someone suggested it might conjure up images of 9/11. And, well, as marketing strategies go, that’s a Bozo No-No.

In the end, we pulled off a powerful visual presentation that achieved the same goals without controversy. And while solid, strategic creative is the bedrock of any brand strategy, it takes a wealth a talent to bring it all to fruition. And there’s no doubt that without our producer, Julie Costanzo, plus Ned Brown, and Elisa Morse at Native Content and the fabulous VFX artist, Justin Leibow we couldn’t have pulled it all together so flawlessly.

In the end, Kelly’s story was told in a more memorable way through an execution designed specifically for this iconic piece of media. Did it require more effort on our part? For sure. But well worth it in the end. Congratulations Kelly Services.

The small agency blog is produced by Division of Labor; a top advertising agency and digital marketing agency in San Francisco specializing in brand marketing and digital advertising campaigns. Clients include Ford, Dropbox, Roku and San Jose Sharks. We offer the services you’d expect from an integrated, digital marketing agency, but we also offer hourly, brand consulting services for startups, smaller companies and brands that want to start doing something, but aren’t ready to get into a big integrated campaign or media spend. We can help with brand strategy, brand voice, early stage asset development and other communications to get things up and running without breaking the bank. Click here for a free consultation.

Living with the San Jose Sharks

What happens when the San Jose Sharks come live with a suburban family in their San Jose home? Well, the short answer is, not much. They’re pretty boring, actually. They hang around, do some chores, clip their nails, maybe plunge the occasional toilet. And that’s the point. The Sharks aren’t much fun hanging around at your house. It’s better to come watch them at our house.

And that’s the premise of our new San Jose Sharks campaign. The Sharks have the fans. They’re some of the most loyal in the NHL actually. But the goal was to move them from TV-watching fans to game-attending fans.

To make the point, we brought the Sharks players to a home in suburban San Jose and filmed them doing a bunch of mundane tasks and chores. We had them clean the grill, brush their teeth, paint miniature civil war figurines, you know, boring stuff.

Turns out, even when they’re boring, they’re pretty damn funny. Joe Thornton ordering window treatments from a catalog. Joe Pavelski clipping his toe nails on the living room couch, Brendon Dillon looking for his loofa to take his bath. It’s funny.

And the fact is, the NHL has a problem: it’s hard to see the puck when you’re watching on TV. We began combatting this problem with a Snapchat promotion where we hid custom hockey pucks around San Jose labeled with the headline: “It’s easier to see the puck in person.”

Anyone who finds a puck, enters a special code on the back good for two free tickets.

The success of these promotions helped lead us to this new work. Thanks to Donavan Sell, Director of Photography and an amazing crew who worked like mad to get it all done.

What's Klay Thompson’s Pre-Game Ritual?

A lot of NBA players have pre-game rituals. For some, it’s habit, for others superstition. Jason Terry wore the shorts of the opposing team to bed the night before each game. Kevin Garnett ate a PB&J before every game. While Kevin Durant unties and reties his shoes on the scorer’s table just before tipoff.

But Warriors guard Klay Thompson keeps it simple; he reads the newspaper. Before every game, the Warriors PR team puts a fresh newspaper in front of his locker for Klay to read before tipoff. On the road, any paper will do. When he’s at home, Klay prefers the local East Bay Times.

The Bay Area News Group owns East Bay Times along with the Mercury News and Marin IJ. And they came to us and asked for a campaign to help boost sagging newspaper readership among a younger demographic.

After a little research, we found out about Klay’s story. And we decided to just tell it honestly without getting in the way.

Klay’s gotten attention recently for his dance club moves in China and a commercial where he bathes in a bathtub full of shoes. But this is different.

An NBA star who reads an old-school newspaper shows a guy who’s clearly a lot deeper than he previously appeared. And maybe a generation of people who have foregone traditional news organizations in favor of news via social media will sit up, take notice and start a new ritual of their own.

Thanks to John Madden’s Goal Line Studio, DP Lou Weinert, Producer Ben Latimer and a great client team lead by Olga Mitina.

WANTED: Small Ad Agency with B2B Experience. Sort of.

As one of the premier small ad agencies in San Francisco, we're asked often about our B2B experience. We've executed a lot of B2B campaigns for a variety of different clients. But those campaigns have been successful not because we have B2B experience, but because we have B2C experience. And, because we think both those terms are passe' and need to be retired.

There's been a lot written about the consumerization of B2B. But John Becher from SAP summed it up best when he was encouraging his team to get to know their business customers as individuals and he reminded them that, “Big glass buildings do not buy products. People do.”

And there is no distinction between a person “at work” and a person “at home.” They’re always “at both.” We can’t manage to put our phones down at the dinner table, or stay off Instagram at the conference table. And where we happen to be located when we see a message does not change the way we make purchase decisions. It just doesn't.

The purchase process is the same no matter how long the purchase funnel is.

People need awareness. People want brand value. People read information and content about a category and products. People consult friends and colleagues. And ultimately, people make emotional decisions based on rational input because that’s the way people are.

Humans make emotional decisions no matter their physical location. They’re insecure and need to feel like they made the right decision whether their boss is judging them or their spouse is judging them.

SAP, IBM, GE and HP have done some of the world’s best advertising. Is it business to business?

Apple, Nike, AT&T and VW have done some of the world’s best advertising. Is it consumer advertising?

Marty Homlish, EVP and chief customer experience officer at HP sums it all up this way: In today’s networked world, terms like B2B and B2C are no longer relevant—it is all about B2C. Whether you are a CEO or a CPA, you can be a consumer anywhere and at anytime. You can window shop, read and write reviews, bargain hunt, or bespoke until you drop. And when you go back to being a CEO or CPA, you want the same always-on, simple experience in your “B2B” world since there is no longer a distinction between what hat you are wearing.”

The Small Agency Blog is produced by Division of Labor; a top West Coast advertising agency and digital marketing firm that’s been named Small Agency of the Year twice by Ad Age. The award winning creative shop services clients on a retainer or project basis. And also offers brand consulting services and hourly engagements for startups and brands interested in testing new ideas, but who aren’t quite ready to invest in an integrated campaign or media spend. We can assist with brand strategy, brand voice, early stage asset development, video creation and other communications to get things up and running without busting your budget. Click here for a free consultation.

Using Snapchat to build an audience.

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As a small ad agency in San Francisco, we take a hands-on approach to social promotions. And in this case, we used Snapchat to remind Sharks fans how much better the game is in person.

One of the biggest problems with NHL Hockey is that it’s a tough sport to watch on TV. Because you can’t see the puck. It moves too fast and it’s just too small.

So we hid custom pucks all around the Bay Area that said, “It’s easier to see the puck in person.” Find a puck and there’s a code on the back that gets you free tickets to a Sharks game.

The whole thing played out on Snapchat where we gave clues to where the pucks were hidden. People who found them became part of the Snapchat story. And their followers got introduced to the Sharks and the whole thing is one, big, happy social circle. And when people are reminded of how much a better a Sharks game is in person, they’re a lot more likely to go again.

The promotions were such a success last year, that a bunch are scheduled for this year. So follow sanjosesharks on Snapchat and get ready to see the puck in person.

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