July 2007

Advertising Agency Question ::Should we be blogging?

What is the purpose of our blog?

This is the first (and most important) question to ask. In other words:

1. Who are the relevant audiences and does it provide a platform to connect with them? – Is this internally or externally focused?– Externally to new clients or current clients or

both?

2. What are the objectives?– Get our company-brand out there? Reposition

ourselves?– Thought leadership to what end? Prospect new

business?– To learn?!?

Let’s take a look at other agencies have done— or not done—with their

blogs.

The Outward Facing Culture Blog :: W+K London

Becomes a tool for recruiting and retention

The Agency Site Becomes A Blog :: HHCC

Proves its commitment to new media

The Branded Dept. Within An Agency Blog :: BSSP

New business tool for Influx and agency including bundling posts as “thought packs”

The Solid Dept. Within An Agency Blog :: Fallon

Maintains planning reputation for recruiting and conversation catalyst

It has gained interest/buzz rivaling the agency’s site.

And all without any PR hustle

The We’re A Unique Collection Blog :: Naked

Aggregates individual employee feeds and creates its own agency community

The One Man Bigger Than One Agency Blog :: Modernista!, Digitas, and Leo

Burnett Toronto

Planning Director Gareth Kay’s blog has much higher traffic than Modernista’s m!ndless

The Blogs That Were :: BBDO and TBWA Portugal

BBDO used its blog as an education tool and TBWA as a place to showcase work.

May they rest in peace.

And what corporations blog?

Companies with which we work and would like to work (almost 10% of the Fortune 500) and including:

• Food, Beverage, QSR: Whole Foods, McDonald’s• Airlines: JetBlue and Southwest• Healthcare: Johnson & Johnson• Technology: Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Dell, hp, and

Sprint• Internet: Amazon, Google, eBay, and Yahoo

+• Our clients: X and X• Their competitors: X, X, and X

So what does all this mean?

An agency blog can be useful, but needs a purpose.

The conversation is happening.

Attitude towards blogging is reflective of agency culture with more experimental, cutting-edge agencies blogging.– Don’t talk about it, be about it.

The types of companies we admire blog.

So, the question is not do we want to be a part of it but how do we want to be part of it?– Gives us a platform to take a stand, for us to be the

next big thing.– WATCHOUT: It is not a place for our corporate

manifesto.

We must start with a goal.

Appendix

Thought-Starters (depending on goal)

• Promote Collaboration.– People from different departments weigh in on the

same topic

• Connect with our other office.– Engage in coast vs. coast agency benefit debate

• Become a community that people want to be a part of.– Giveaways from our clients, featured ad spot for

other companies that participate, chance to get a job, etc.

• Create buzz around our true culture.– People cover what X is really like from the X

floor

Resources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_blog

• http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/003804.html and http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/001607.html

• Benefits of corporate blogging: – http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/columns/article.php/3547411– http://www.blogopreneur.com/2007/03/30/the-benefits-of-

corporate-blogging/

• Execs are slow to see value: – http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3604931

• http://www.thecorporatebloggingshow.com/2006/12/19/six-aparts-anil-dash-with-tips-tricks-for-more-effective-corporate-blogging/

• http://www.socialtext.net/bizblogs/index.cgi