FBI MEMOS
Memos from the ad agency

We were in a new business pitch a couple of months ago. The client was with a Big Agency that did big work on big accounts. This company’s $8 million per year budget was tiny compared to the agency’s big clients. So this company was firing the Big Agency. Why? Because they never knew who at the Big Agency was going to answer the phone when they called.

Here are some reasons why a small ad agency might be right for your business:

1. There is little or no middle management at a small agency. There are fifteen people working in our building. We have a system for keeping the flow of the work manageable, but clients are free at anytime to talk to anyone here. President, Creative Director? No problem. That would be Bobby and Tim. Just call ‘em up.

2. Speaking of Middle Management, there is a lot of bureaucracy at a big agency. Which means a lot of it is people covering their asses. In order to get anything done, it has to go up and down and through the system, approved and re-approved, so if there is a problem, fingers can be pointed. Small agencies are quick to respond to changes. If Gunnar gets a call for a change on a Honda ad, he buzzes Greg and says, “Hey Greg, I’ve got a change on that Honda ad.” It’s just that easy.

3. Small agencies are flexible with billing. We have a hourly billing rate that clients can track, but we’re not beholden to it. If a client wants a flat rate for a project, no problem. Once again, there is no bureaucracy to go through to get it approved. We just do it.

4. We’re fun. Small agencies don’t have a bunch of people hanging on until they can find a better job. Most of our people have been here a long time and we’re all happy to be here. We have a professional, yet laid back style and our clients stick with us for a long time.

Big agencies are great for handling big budgets. That’s what they do. We couldn’t handle a $100 million fast food account. But we can sure handle a $10 million account or a $4 million account. That’s right in the small agency wheelhouse. If you are looking for an ad agency, and you think you want to play with the big boys and girls, you might want to think again. Being big doesn’t make the creative any better. Fit your advertising needs with an agency that is the right size for you. You’ll be glad you did.

I used to have a personal blog that I started many years ago. (Remember the heady days of blogging in ‘05 and ‘06?) That led to a business blog that got me famous as an early adopter of new media to promote business. I got on the news and in all the local papers and even in the Washington Post. I won’t reahash the details herre, but I am availabe to tell that story to your group for a small honorarium.

My business, a restaurant, is no longer open. And the personal blog? Well, I ran out of material. Writers block. Whatever you want to call it — I shut it down.

I have tried to keep this blog relevant to what we do here at Frank/Best International. But sometimes I just want to talk about the odd topic here and there. Without a personal blog to indulge me, I’ve decided to start doing it here.

Since this ad agency blog originates in Nashville, I want to say something about the (currently) 11-1 Tennessee Titans. All through their run-up to 10-0, they were questioned as to whether or not they were for real. The the NY Bretts came to town and beat them soundly, and they were “exposed” as the frauds that they are. They killed the Lions on Thanksgiving, but that doesn’t count, because the Lions are terrible. Well, you guys in the East Coast NFC-East-or-nothing media can just keep right on talking about the Giants and Cowboys. I’ve watched the Titans in every game this year, and you better watch out. We are happy to stay under the radar here in little ol’ Nashville.

Speaking of media, please don’t write any more headlines about a “Titanic Achievement” or a “Titanic Effort.” It’s tired and played and lazy and cheap.

I reported yesterday that I am in the process of figuring out databases and SQL and PHP and all kinds of stuff I’ve never dealt with. I added our search marketing experts, Work Media, to the user list yesterday here at FBI Memos, and today I added Frank/Best International president, Bobby Frank. Look for some fascinating, insightful and life-changing blog posts from them soon.

I have been poking around and found what look like errors in the database configuration, now I have to figure out what to do to fix them. If I can fix that, then I have to figure out why pictures are uploading but not inserting into posts. Oh, and tags, too. I really like this kind of stuff. For a while. (What’s the over/under on when I finally just call somebody?)

Anyway, there is (theoretically) going to be a lot more activity here with some new authors contributing. Get some popcorn ready, because here we go.

There have been some issues going on with this blog. One has been that I haven’t been able to add new users through the regular Wordpress Admin page. So I upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress onto the server. Still no luck. I finally figured out a database corruptoin issue using SQL queries and devised a manual workaround.

Why is this important? I’ve never been on a server in my life. I’ve never installed an upgrade that involved backing-up databases. In fact, I’ve  never messed around with a database (especially one that contains our website as well as many of our clients’ websites) in any capacity. I dont’ know if “SQL queries” is an actual term. The only thing I knew before this week about databases was that you can get in there and really screw things up, because there is no undo. I was a nervous wreck. But there is only one way to learn how to do something right, and that is to just get in there and do it, even if you run the risk of making a mistake and putting us and several of our clients out of business.

Anyway, I hacked in a couple of new contributors to FBI Memos. First is search marketing experts, Work Media. These posts will come from Chris Work and Jerry Work who know more than anyone I’ve ever met about search marketing including SEO, SEM and PPC. They are the sister company, of our Nashville based ad agency Frank/Best International.

Next, I am going to hack a username in for Bobby Frank, president of FBI. He has promised to try to post on a regular basis. I have now officially put him on the clock.

If you are on twitter, you can follow them @workmedia and @bobbyfrank.

Now if I can just figure out why Wordpress won’t let me post pictures.

A recent study by the MacArthur Foundation has found that the Internet might be good for your kids.

The most extensive U.S. study on teens and their use of digital media finds that America’s youth are developing important social and technical skills online – often in ways adults do not understand or value.

“It might surprise parents to learn that it is not a waste of time for their teens to hang out online,” said Mizuko Ito, University of California, Irvine researcher and the report’s lead author. “There are myths about kids spending time online – that it is dangerous or making them lazy. But we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age.”

It doesn’t surprise this parent. Of course, my kid isn’t a teen yet, but at seven, she’s very computer savvy and even sends me text messages.

I wonder why these kind of studies even need to happen. When I hear or read about adults that think teens are stupid, lazy and narcissistic because they spend time on the Internet, I have to wonder how they could have become so disconnected with the memories of when they were growing up. Teens have always been stupid, lazy and narcissistic. They have also always been intelligent, resourceful and caring. “Teens” are also “people” and come in a wide variety of personalities.

As a social media user and early adopter, I have no problem with my kid spending time on Webkinz, nor will I have any problem with her spending time on whatever the equivalent of Facebook is by the time she becomes a teenager. It is far superior to “the good old days” when I was growing up. If I was at home after school, I was plopped in front of the TV watching Gilligan’s Island reruns. The only occasional social interaction I might have was through the telephone on the wall in the kitchen. Today, if a kid is at home watching TV, she can connect with a whole group of friends at the same time. And during all the gossiping about the latest cheerleader/QB scandal and who wears too much make-up, there is a chance that someone might post a link to something that is interesting, intelligent and educational. Believe me, there was not one single instance when I was a teenager when someone called me on the the phone to tell me to head to the library to read an interesting new article on dolphins.

This whole ridiculous “internet is making us lazy” argument reminds me of the time when calculators became affordable. Adults fretted that these machines were going to make our youth lazy and unable to do long division. Well, they were right. Most people probably can’t do long division anymore. Why should they? They have a calculator on their phone.

The theory behind branding is to get the name of your product or service so ingrained in the psyche of your publics that you’re top of mind when they need assistance with their cash outflow needs.

(Note: If you know me, you know I would never use the terms like “psyche of your publics” or “top of mind.” I’m just showing off in case any pretentious MBA-types stop by.)

That is why a lot of companies spend so much on advertising when it seems unnecessary. Sometimes it works too well, the brand becomes synonymous with the category, eliminating any differentiation. Like Band Aid and Kleenex. And here in the south, Coke.

(Note #2: In the south, “Would any of y’all like a coke?” means, “Would anyone here like a cold, carbonated beverage?”)

Most brands need to evolve over time. I talk a lot about social media for brands, which is the most recent evolution being embraced by a lot of companies. Evolving is often a matter of staying current or losing market share.

There is a brand that I am very interested in, the home of our ad agency, Music City. The Chamber uses it, the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau uses it and it is well known around the country. And like all good brands, it is evolving.

Or, at least it is trying to. What got me thinking about it is the tremendous amount of attention that Nashville is getting right now. At this writing, the NFL Tennessee Titans are 9-0, which bumps their games up to game of the week status, bringing attention to Nashville on home game days. And tonight is the CMA Awards. Good Morning America is here and lots of media folks from LA and New York are coming to town for the show.

And they’re bringing cowboy hats. Which inspired this tweet on my personal twitter account yesterday:

“CMA week. The only time people wear cowboy hats in Nashville. And they’re all from LA and New York.”

I have news for you folks from the left and right coasts coming in for the CMAs. We don’t wear cowboy hats here. Sometimes you’ll see them on tourists, but that’s it. They wear them in Houston and Laredo. Not Nashville.

(Note #3: Some of the pop country acts wear them. Often it is because of a receding hairline. See Kenny Chesney)

The cowboy hat is a symbol of the biggest hurdle that the brand Music City has to overcome. Many people still have the “hay bale and Hee Haw” perception of Nashville that was put out by the country music industry for decades. What people don’t realize is that the original brand for Nashville was “The Athens of the South,” because of all the colleges and universities here, as well as the fact that it has traditionally been a center of the publishing industry. In fact, a full-scale replica of the Parthenon was built for the city’s centennial to celebrate the Athens of the South theme.

(Note #4: There is a gigantic statue of Athena inside the Nashville Parthenon. I’ve never been in there. I hear it’s impressive.)

So in the mid 1900s the country music industry hijacked the Athens of the South brand and Nashville became Music City, USA. And in the 60s and 70s, the TV show Hee Haw was syndicated all over the country with its good old, down home, hayseed, hillbilly humor. And Nashville has become synonymous with songs about tractors and country boys and girls and watermelon wine. And cowboy hats.

After several years of shunning the Music City brand in the 80s, the CVB and Chamber decided to embrace it, for better or worse. I had a discussion with a friend recently who thinks that the city should once again abandon the Music City brand because of the backwoods connotation. I disagreed with her. I think the brand needs to evolve. The city can’t shun country music, nor should it. But it can embrace all the other music that comes out of this town. People don’t realize that the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan Simon and Garfunkel, Joe Tex, Roy Orbison, Perry Como, Carol Channing, Kansas, Bob Seger, Frank Black, Matchbox Twenty and Kid Rock (to name a few) have all recorded here. We just opened a new symphony hall which is being described as one of the best in the world, and it houses a world-class symphony. The largest classical music label recently moved its headquarters here from L.A. It’s not unusual to bump into Michael McDonald or Sheryl Crow or Steve Winwood or Jack White around town.

So the challenge that I see for the brand evolution of Music City is not discarding the country roots, but adding the wide variety of other music that originates in this town to the discussion. It’s an interesting, ongoing case study that I’m watching closely.

Now, I’m gonna put on my cowboy hat and walk downtown to see if I can catch a glimpse of Brooks and Dunn.

I have talked a lot here about social media and the importance for companies to use social media sties such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to increase their visibility on the Web. It is good for search engine traffic, and when done properly, can be very good for customer relations.

The most important rule when using Twitter as a corporate tool is to have a voice and a personality. We have a Twitter account for our ad agency in Nashville which I update. I try to keep things professional (the crazy stuff goes on my personal account) but I also make sure it is conversational and fun. Home Depot and Comcast have embraced the service to help folks out who are having problems. It adds a great personal touch to what are usually faceless corporations.

Well, there is a new kid on the block at Twitter, and I think what they are doing is so clever, I wish I had thought of it and pitched it to them. I’m talking about the Twitter account of George Dickel. For those of you who don’t know, George Dickel is one of only two Tennessee Sipping Whiskeys (the other is Jack Daniels). The Dickel distillery is located in Cascade Hollow, near Tullahoma and was founded in 1870.

The brilliance behind the Twittering George Dickel is that it is written by George Dickel, circa 1870. When I discovered the account, I went back and read all the tweets. Twitter has a “favorite” feature where you can save tweets that you are especially fond of. I started hitting the yellow favorite star immediately — and I am pretty stingy when it comes to favoriting.

Vodka? Heavens! Boiler-room potato-spirits of the lowest order.

{Camp-Fire Coffee} Wake; prepare coffee up-on camp-fire; fill cup with coffee; add 4 saddle-thimbles whisky; consume; fish.

On election day:

Why the long queue at First Presbyterian Church to-day? Perhaps they have decided to off’r penny-beer with their Calvinist heresy

And another favorite, a good-natured poke at neighbor and competitor, Jack Daniels and their Lynchburg Lemonade:

{Cascade Hollow Lemonade} Chill whisky over-night in spring; fill cup; add 3 sq spring-water; send 1 lemon to J. Daniels via post.

There is more to this story than me just heaping praise upon someone being able to write clever one-liners in the style of a 19th century whiskey maker. Having spent most of my life in Kentucky and Tennessee, I have an affinity for whiskey, both Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey. I have consumed my fair share of Dickel, but I vary my purchases, depending on mood and time removed from payday. I haven’t bought Dickel in a good, long time. Yesterday I bought a bottle of it and had a sip or two while watching the elections returns. The reason I did so is solely because I am such a fan of what they are doing on Twitter.

The George Dickel Twitter account is fairly new. I hope they stick with it. George, if you’re reading this, well done. Joining Twitter resulted in one less bottle you have to worry about selling.

There is an excellent article about new business by Noelle Weaver in Advertising Age magazine called “Agency Reviews During a Recession.” She talks about how tough it can be to find new business during difficult economic times. That’s a no brainer. But then she goes on to the unsettling changes that are happenning in the review process, specifically with RFPs.

As a new-business director, I’m not hearing crickets quite yet, but I have noticed that many of the RFPs we have received are either project-based and/or aren’t quite as solid of an opportunity that we’d like to think it is.

Consider two increasingly common questions found on RFPs:

Question #12: Tell us what a creative program/campaign might look like.
Question #13: Please tell us what a program such as the one you outlined above might cost.

It’s becoming a trend.

At that point, I thought Noelle must have our offices bugged. Or if she was reading my mind. We have had some interesting RFPs come our way lately. Some of them were so “interesting” that we had to pass on participating. There was a review for a new product launch a month or so ago that our agency was uniquely qualified to handle. We would have gone into it feeling like we were the front-runner for winning the account. The account was large enough to get us all excited. Then we read the RFP. They wanted a full spec creative campaign presented in their headquarters, 1000 miles away. And they wanted it in a week. We’re a small shop. We couldn’t possibly get that done. So we had to pass.

In a perfect world, all new business would grow organically out of relationships made through networking. A new client would go through our capabilities and get to know us and then decide to engage our services. Also, in a perfect world we would all ride on unicorns and it would rain candy. So, we have to deal with the RFP process. It is a process that is inherently flawed. And we learn more and more questions to ask up front every time we go through one. For instance, we put a whole lot of time into a response, only to not make the first cut. We found out later that there were 26 agencies invited to respond. Now, we ask how many are involved up front.

I could go on and on about the RFP process. But I won’t. I will say this, if you are looking to hire an agency and you are going with the RFP route, there is some responsibility on your end. You need to do some due diligence up front. Investigate potential agencies and narrow down your choices. Don’t ask for spec creative to be conjured up in an information vacuum. Don’t ask for responses from agencies you have little interest in working with as “a favor.” Remember, it’s a Request for Proposal. Make your requests reasonable.

Or, better yet, just hire us.

I grew up in the telephone generation. Written communication was limited to two occasions a year - after Christmas and my birthday when my mother insisted that I sit down and write thank-you notes. If I wanted to communicate with someone, I went to the phone in the kitchen and dialed, or, more likely, waited until I saw them again.

If you define a friend as someone you have frequent communication with, I would say people I knew growing up had four or five real “friends.” And I think the reason for this is the inherent shyness and social awkwardness that is present in everybody. I might have sat next to Bob everyday in math class for a year, but if I had never called him before, to do so would be taking a huge risk of possible awkwardness. The thought of having to explain who you are on the phone to someone can be quite daunting. “Hi, Bob, this is Jim. From math class? I sit next to you? Remember, the skinny guy with the bad complexion?”

Email changed all that. It is much easier to explain who you are in writing, because you don’t fear the awkward silence from the other end if the person doesn’t recognize you, no matter how unlikely that might be. Suddenly, people were comfortable striking up communications with folks they hadn’t talked to in years, or only met briefly, because it was from the comfort of a keyboard. Suddenly, the number of “friends” people could claim skyrocketed. Adding someone I just met to my address book and forwarding jokes was a great way to begin lasting friendships. Even if I never found myself in the same room with that person again.

Now, email is old school. Adults send three emails for every text. With teens, it is the other way around. Young consumers play by their own set of multi-tasking, micro-messaging rules. And most marketers are failing at getting any message through to them. In a world they completely don’t understand, marketers just assume more is better, and they increase the frequency of their old school messages. This is a generation that can do homework, chat on Facebook, keep up with Twitter and text messaging, all at the same time. According to a 2007 study by MTV and Microsoft, 14-24 year olds have an average of 53 people they consider friends. Multi-tasking is all they’ve ever known. They can filter the noise out.
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The smart marketers are getting involved, and they’re getting noticed for it. Every company should have a blog. Every company should be on MySpace. Every company should be on Facebook. And guess what? If you do all that, you’re already behind the curve.

I’ve mentioned my current obsession, Twitter, here before. Some people I follow were having a debate over which theme park within driving distance from Nashville provided the best bang for the buck. I had something to add a few days later, but couldn’t remember who was talking about it. One of the parks was Holiday World, so I did a tweetscan search. Lo and behold, Holiday World had just started using Twitter. I went to their Website. They have a blog. Because this communication is all personal and engaging, I now follow them and added them to my RSS reader. Come summertime, when I need a quick getaway with my kid, you’d better believe Holiday World is going to be top of mind when considering destinations.

There’s always new stuff coming down the pike. The next application I need to explore is something called BrightKite. All the cool kids are doing it. I’ll let you know what I find out. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go Twitter a bunch of friends, many of whom I’ve never actually met, a recommendation of my new friend, Holiday World, a place I’ve never actually been, as a great family vacation destination.

We won some more Tellys. The press release follows. If you are from Adweek or the New York Times, I officially give you permission to reprint this anywhere you want.

May 4, 2008, Nashville, TN - “Frank/Best International, a full-service advertising agency located at 705 2nd Avenue in Nashville, was the recent recipient of four Telly Award Finalist trophies at the 29th Annual Telly Awards based out of Ashland, KY. The Telly Awards are a national and international advertising competition honoring videos and television commercials produced at the local, regional and spot market level. FBI won for television commercials produced for Honda Lawnmowers, the Nashville Zoo, Columbia State Community College, and Honda Generators. (See commercials below.)

This year, the Telly Awards had over 14,000 entries from film & video production firms and advertising companies representing all 50 states and several countries. Over the years, Tellys have been featured as coveted marketing accolades in movies and TV shows alike. They’ve appeared on shows like the Bob Newhart Show, Thirtysomething and The Closer, as well as in films such as Nothing In Common and What Women Want.

“We’ve been very fortunate over the years regarding Tellys,” said Tim Best, FBI creative director and founding partner. “We’ve won a bunch but it’s always nice to be recognized by one’s peers and, of course, clients don’t mind having a cool trophy on their shelf, either.”

Telly Awards are the same height and weight as an Academy Award and are manufactured by the same company. In its 11 years of business, FBI has won nearly 30 Tellys.

Besides Honda Lawnmowers, the Nashville Zoo, Columbia State Community College and Honda Generators, Frank/Best International works with clients like Sprintz Furniture, RODE Microphones, Honda Marine, SmartSpace, Honda Engines, New Fossil and, just this week, was awarded television production assignments from Austin Peay State University.

For more information, contact Jim Reams, VP Public Relations at 615-255-6234 Ext. 103

Honda Lawnmowers:

Nashville Zoo:

Columbia State:

Honda Generators:

Last Friday, we had a cookout at the office, followed by a journey to Third and Lindsley, which is a legendary live music club a block from our office, to see FBI President, Bobby Frank, play drums with his classic rock band, Zig Zag.

We had burgers and brats and cole slaw and potato salad and beer and Cokes. (If you aren’t from the South, “Cokes” is the term we use for all soft drinks. It is equivalent to “pop” or “sodas.”) I put my camera in the hands of Greg, who was obviously more interested in the beer than the picture taking. We did get a couple of shots.

If you were our client, you would have been invited. Don’t you think that’s enough to hire us as your advertising agency?

The office hasn’t been abuzz like this since we won the Honda account. It finally arrived in the mail, and was installed within minutes. Yes, we are in Music City and to prove it, we now have this:

Hopefully, this addition to the Frank/Best International Galactic Headquarters will inspire some great creative thinking.

We use the term Web 2.0 around here with a bit of a chuckle, because it doesn’t actually mean anything specific. It is a constantly changing and evolving buzzword for way to interact with others online.

Which, for businesses, means interactive marketing and public relations. And because of it, branding has never been more vital than it is right now.

Search Engines, bloggers and chat rooms have made brand reputation one of the most important aspects in success or failure in this Web 2.0 world. A brand’s reputation used to be defined solely by product quality and the message a company pushed out from its headquarters. There were very few avenues for consumers to find out about product quality, good or bad, without shelling out the money to buy it. Clever 30-second TV spots, slick magazine advertising and a good training program for the staff could cover a multitude of sins. Today, pissing off the wrong person, such as a blogger, can cause irreparable harm to a brand’s reputation.

Restaurants and moviemakers have known this for a long time. A bad review in the Sunday paper could always do far more harm to a film or eatery than a good review could help.

If your company doesn’t have a two-way interaction going on with your customers and potential customers, you are way behind the curve. And the companies who are setting the curve are finding more and faster ways to respond to their customer’s needs. Case in point: Twitter.

For the uninitiated, Twitter is a micro-blogging site that asks the question, “What are you doing?” And the posts, or “tweets,” are limited to no more than 140 characters. You decide whose updates to follow, and it becomes sort of an ongoing, online chat fest.

Many companies, LinkedIn, H. R. Block and Southwest among the most notable, have Community Managers who follow what people are saying about them on Twitter. This allows them to contact, (instantly in some cases) folks who are having problems. For instance, Helen Mosher, who blogs at The Mosher Pit, had trouble with a company called Mixx, and wrote a short tweet about it to vent her frustration. What happened next surprised her.

“Next thing I knew, Mixx had added me on Twitter. The good folks at Mixx asked what hiccup I had run across. I was very impressed: within a few minutes of making a complaint about a technology, the technology folks approached me with “Hey, I see you had trouble with our platform. What can we do to make it better?”

OMG if VW had done this with me when my Jetta was made of fail, I might not be driving a Toyota today!”

Twitter can also be used as a direct marketing tool, something Southwest occasionally does, to announce sales and specials to its Twitter followers (which includes me).

Obviously, if Twitter’s popularity continues to grow, the logistics of following your products and services in real time may become impractical. That is what traditional customer service channels are for. But tech-geek early adopters will always be looking for the next new social media communications platform. And smart companies will follow them there, too. And if done well, it will only help their brand reputation.

If you need help integrating your company into the ever-evolving world of Social Media networking, send me an email at jim at fb-i dot com. Or, if you’re already on Twitter, shout out a tweet to @jimreams. Maybe you’ll end up with some Frank/Best drumsticks.

(This is the blog for Frank Best International, an advertising agency in Nashville, Tennessee. This post was written by Jim Reams, Twitter Geek.)

Working closely with our Search Marketing group, Work Media, over the last several months has really opened my eyes to the vast amounts of money that changes hands in the world of paid search advertising. We have many research tools that use technology such as web scraping to estimate who is spending how much on paid search. I’m used to the numbers now, but in the beginning, they blew me away. There are some companies that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars per day on paid search advertising. If you have ever wondered why Google has so much money, there’s your answer.

But when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Search marketing is the most targeted form of advertising in existence. Your ad is only seen by people searching for keywords you choose. In other words, if you are selling spiked dog collars, and someone is searching for spiked dog collars, you’d certainly be happy to pay a dollar or so for that person to click through to your site.

We have the Super Bowl coming up on Sunday. If you are a Pepsi or a FedEx, the $2.7 million dollars you are shelling out for thirty seconds of air time is worth it, because not only is the audience tremendous, but it is one of the few times where millions of people actually look forward to watching the commercials. However, when you do the math, you could buy $7,400 per day for an entire year in highly targeted, paid search advertising for that kind of money. I expect that the marketers buying time on the broadcast will also be buying keywords related to their ad creative. If they’re not, they are missing a huge opportunity to convert the passive experience of watching a TV spot into an active customer connection.

We think that the rumors of the impending death of the thirty-second TV spot are greatly exaggerated. And if you are looking for an advertising agency to do your Super Bowl spot for next year, by all means, give us a call. We still believe in the power of TV. But remember, it’s a brave new world out there. Incorporating search into your overall marketing plan is a great opportunity to make sure your message is getting to the specific people you want to hear it.

Bobby Frank and I just got back yesterday morning from our trip to the NAMM show in Anaheim, CA. NAMM is the organization that used to be the National Association of Music Merchants. It is a convention of manufacturers of musical instruments and accessories who set up booths for the folks who buy such things, like music store owners and buyers.

We were there supporting the work we did on the booth for RODE Microphones, out of Sydney, Australia.

We managed to find two Aussie girls now living in LA, Szilva and Shelly, to act as hostesses during the show. Here I am giving them a pep talk.

You see a lot of musicians walking around at NAMM, many of whom are only famous inside musician circles. (”Isn’t that the guy that played keys in Flock of Seagulls?”) We saw Danny Seraphine, the drummer from the early days of Chicago walking around. He was one of the main influences for both Bobby and me to start playing drums. (Both of us attribute the four bar solo from “Make Me Smile” as pivotal in our initial instrument choice.) So I took Bobby’s pic with him. Danny is on the left. They look like long, lost cousins.

Here’s a photo of Lita Ford. At least, I think it’s Lita Ford.

I listened to a group called Synergy Brass Quintet at the Conn-Selmer booth. They played Rossini’s Overture from “Barber of Seville”, which most of us remember as the soundtrack to Bugs Bunny’s “Rabbit of Seville.” This photo is of their French Horn Player, Jon Hurrell, and his very distinctive hair style.

And finally, speaking of hair, NAMM is known for it. There are tens of thousands of aging rocker dudes who haven’t cut their hair in decades milling about. In fact, much like a company might say “our staff has over 200 years experience” I decided that the NAMM show has “over 1,000,000 years of hair.” I also coined the phrase “Crystal Male” which is the distinctive straight hair down to the belt look that a lot of rocker guys are know to sport. There were mohawks and braided beards and pink hair and green hair and half-shaved heads and any other style of hair you could imagine. Then, there was this:

All in all, it was a good show, there’s a funny story involving blue duct tape, a big magnet, a two-block ride in a stretch Hummer and maybe just a little bit of alcohol. But sometimes, you have to let what happens at NAMM stay at NAMM.

I don’t know how long FedEx has been using their current logo, but I suspect it has been at least 10 or 15 years. The trucks and boxes are everywhere, and I have seen the logo thousands and thousands of times. A seven-year-old pointed out that there is an arrow between the E and the x. All these years of seeing it, and I never saw it. Now that I know it is there, it shines like a beacon that can’t be ignored.

Well done, FedEx logo designer.

Bobby Frank and I are going out to California this week to the NAMM Show in Anaheim. We are supporting a booth we designed for a new client, RODE Microphones, out of Sydney, Australia. We’ll also do a little networking while we are there, as the music business is one of our specialties.

So I went to weather.com to plan my packing. No surprise, it’s going to be 70 during the day and 50 at night. What I found amusing was that there is a 10% chance of rain every day.

Really? 10%? Everyday? That’s just covering your butt in case somebody feels a rogue sprinkle up in Burbank.

There really is no need for weathermen in L.A., is there?

Steve Martin in L. A. Story

A friend was over watching some football the other day, and he mentioned how bad he thought the Coors Light campaign using press conference footage was. I have to agree. It is ham-fisted and not very funny. But they seem to be sticking with it. He’s a version I found that I can get down with.

Part of my job is finding new business for the agency. One common approach is to send some of our materials, samples of our print ads, our radio and tv work (our reel), to marketing directors and CMOs and other assorted bigshots at various companies. I also send a pair of our very popular Frank/Best International drumsticks. After a week or two, I call to follow up with them. 98% of the time, I get voicemail, so I leave a message. Most of those messages don’t get returned. That’s no big deal, I know I’m cold calling them and I don’t take it personally.

So I wanted to send a holiday card to all the folks who didn’t return my call. I wrote a tongue-in-cheek ode, poking fun at the political correctness that has taken over the holiday season. The boss, Bobby Frank, thought it was funny, but was apprehensive about actually sending it out. I changed his mind at an after-hours meeting at our favorite watering hole. The whole point is to elicit a laugh and maybe someone will actually talk to me. It has worked before. Behold the beauty of my holiday greeting:

I sent you some drumsticks, our book and our reel,
Then I gave you a call, just to see how you feel.

Your phone rang and rang, but from you not a peep,
So I did what you asked — left my name at the beep.

I’ll admit you don’t know me, it was a cold call,
That you didn’t call back, I don’t blame you at all.

Still, - tis the season of goodwill and cheer,
So to get in the spirit of this time of year,

I’d sure like to wish a Merry Christmas to you,
I would, but I can’t, - cause my boss is a Jew.

At Frank/Best we love each religion and sect,
So it’s imperative that I be politically correct.

Happy Holidays.

It’s funny, Bobby feels that the word “Jew” is sort of offensive (or at least off-putting), yet the word “Jewish” is not. The problem is, “Jewish” doesn’t rhyme with anything.

Anyway, if you are looking for an ad agency, give me a call. You’ll get a free pair of drumsticks out of the deal.

(This is the blog for Frank Best International, an advertising agency in Nashville, Tennessee. We currently have a Christmas tree and a menorah on display in the lobby. Happy Hanukkah!)