Orange County’s advertising and public relations shops don’t have time for a learning curve to get campaigns online.
Their clients want it now.
“The Web is the most impactful communications tool in the history of marketing,” said Mark Maricich, chief executive of Irvine-based Maricich Brand Communications. “It allows true interaction. It caters to the specific needs of nearly everyone on the planet. It engages. It creates community. And it is all trackable. This is beyond a trend,this is the way of the new world.”
During the past five years, marketing executives say they completely have retooled the way they put together campaigns for their clients.
Most have launched interactive divisions, bought small interactive shops or hired people to bring them up to speed on the latest trends that are driving marketing plans.
We’re talking blogs, YouTube streaming videos, Podcasts, e-zines (online magazines), e-alerts (e-mail news blasts), Webcasts, search engine advertising, widgets, text messaging, banner advertising and more.
“Our entire approach to public relations has changed,” said David Paine, chairman of Paine Public Relations in Irvine. “PR firms simply cannot rely upon traditional offline media outreach if they hope to reach the many different audience segments that are important to clients today.”
Campaigns have to be integrated to be effective, involving multiple parts, such as traditional print, radio and television ads, public relations and online marketing.
Just going with public relations alone is a “dead discipline walking,” Paine said.
Julia Labosky, integrated advertising executive at Orange Label Art + Advertising in Newport Beach, said there is an “unavoidable progression” toward even more online media in the future.
“It is crucial in the world of advertising that those who attempt to keep their feet firmly planted in traditional marketing mediums realize they will be left behind,” Labosky said.
The pressure has been on for marketing executives to keep savvy on the latest Web sites and new media strategies that can be used in campaigns.
Ian Crockett, president and co-owner of Orange Label, said it helps that many of his clients target teens.
“So far we’ve been ahead of the curve in using (social networking) sites such as MySpace and Facebook, blogging and creating special landing pages for certain products or short-term promotion,” Crockett said. “By creating traffic to our clients’ sites and consistently blogging we help to optimize our clients’ sites” and get them higher placement when people are searching on their own, he said.
Most shops say their employees regularly attend classes and seminars on computer-based advertising, bring in experts to talk on topics, train workers and tap freelancers for technologically advanced projects.
Irvine-based RiechesBaird advertising shop also offers a professional development program so all employees can get up to speed.
“It requires a dedicated commitment to stay abreast of technology, trends and user habits,” said Derek Wilksen, executive vice president at RiechesBaird. “The Web and its corresponding online communities have become ingrained in our everyday lives.”
Shops also continue to scout for people to focus on technology. Santa Ana-based DGWB Advertising and Communications recently bought online marketer Argus Interactive, which focuses on search engine marketing, Web design and more, to help the company make a bigger push.
Hill and Knowlton public relations shop in Irvine has hired people with untraditional public relations experience, including video games, film production and advertising to make sure people think “visually as well as strategically,” said Molly Smith, vice president of the firm’s digital practice.
“Content is king and video is queen these days,” Smith said. “It’s important for our digital team to stay abreast of the latest technologies, cultural trends and consumer behavioral dynamics. The interactive landscape changes almost daily.”
But that doesn’t mean shops should chase every new technology.
Charlie Granville, chief executive of Capita Technologies in Irvine, which handles online promotions, search engine optimization, streaming video and more, said it can require “significant investments in education, training and marketing” for shops to offer new interactive services.
“It is important to be selective with new technologies,” Granville said. “The saying, ‘staying on the leading edge versus the bleeding edge’ is very important with the explosion of new digital offerings.”
It’s also critical that shops educate clients about possibilities.
Hill and Knowlton recently worked with Doner Advertising, which is based in Southfield, Mich., in its Newport Beach office to create a social networking campaign for Irvine-based Mazda North American Operations that involved popular site Facebook.
“Mazda’s target buyer is the second youngest in the industry and really knows the online space,” Smith said.
But some clients are resistant to change.
Hilary Kaye, president of Hilary Kaye Associates Inc. public relations and marketing in Tustin, said some of her customers “proactively ask for” digital media in campaigns and others she’s “pushing and prodding” to go in that direction.
The biggest challenge shops face: “educating clients and helping them feel comfortable with new modes of consumer interaction,” Hill and Knowlton’s Smith said.
To really engage customers, companies have to give up “absolute control of yesterday’s ‘Here’s our ad, believe it’ strategy,” she said.
