How to make your agency rivals hate you
In the desperate world of agency new business, anything goes.
But even so, Dr Mumbo suspects that Indago Digital will not be making many friends with its current paid search marketing campaign.
The company has been bidding for paid search ads on Google based on competitor agencies’ names.
Search for full service agency Atomic 212, for instance, and you’ll see an ad asking: “Unhappy with Atomic 212? Talk to the digital experts”.
The ad then links to a page on Indago’s website that asks: “Are Atomic212 failing to turn your results nuclear? Are you tired of ads that aren’t generating returns? Unsatisfied by low sales and leads numbers thanks to poor website optimization? Is your online presence simply going unnoticed by the most valuable potential customers? Then it’s time for you to have your digital campaigns reviewed by Indago Digital.”
It then goes on to promote the expertise of agency boss Gary Nissim.
Dr Mumbo suspects that the implication in the first line alone will be enough to earn Indago a legal letter from Atomic 212.
And Atomic 212 isn’t the only agency being targeted. Switched On Media also gets the Indago treatment, with an ad asking: “Need switched on marketers? Speak to the digital experts.”
The landing page again goes in hard, asking: “Are Switched On Media failing to deliver?”
Dr Mumbo suspects other agencies are also being targeted. And he’s curious how the likes of IAB, ADMA and Google (who currently have a bit of a PR problem of their own) will feel about their names being brought into it.
In a discussion over on LinkedIn, the tactic has been earning itself plenty of opprobrium, with Switched On’s media director Mike Hagley labelling it “pathetic”, Amercian Express bigwig Ciaran Norris suggesting “How to cheapen your brand”, and former We Are Social boss Julian Ward suggesting he plans to create a script to endlessly click on the ad to drain Indago’s budget.
Dr Mumbo suspects that we’ll be hearing about this one again.
2pm update: It would seem that Atomic 212 is taking it on the chin. Boss Jason Dooris tells Dr Mumbo: “”I love it and wish I’d have thought of it. The media industry has become so serious and while I’m not sure how effective the ad will be, it did make me chuckle. It cuts right through the poppies and we like that.”
Whilst I suspect I would also be unhappy if it was my agency being targeted, I don’t understand why knocking copy – one of the oldest tricks in the traditional advertising book – would be so frowned upon just because it’s digital? Bizarre…
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PS – why would he care if his agency rivals (who incidentally could probably outspend him 10x on staff, marketing and client acquisition) hate him?
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I am shocked. I am appalled.
“Are Atomic212 …”. “Are Switched On Media …”.
FFS it should be “Is Atomic 212…” etc.
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That depend on whether you’re using British or American English.
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For an agency proposing (digital) marketing and brand solutions, they are breaking a simple rule: don’t sh*t on your category.
All this negative stuff does, ultimately, is breed more distrust which in the end is worse for everyone.
It is a cynical ‘race to the bottom’ strategy, otherwise known as bottom-feeding.
If there are clients who care to engage someone who is happy to associate his own business with this low road approach, good on them.
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Surely these agencies know that indago are doing nothing wrong? Also why have they not followed Google’s guidelines and brand protected themselves. More fool them.
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Aggressive? Sure. Creative? Definitely. Given Indago Digital likely have a shoe string marketing budget they’ve raised their brand profile amongst potential clients and talent and generated inbound links that will help with SEO with a minimal investment. It will be interesting to see if they can translate it into some new business momentum.
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Good ole Dynamic Keyword Insertion playing up again
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I believe their budget would be better spent on YouTube next to ISIS videos. Apparently some cheap inventory available there at the moment.
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Might be worth nofollowing the link to Indago’s landing page in the article? Wouldn’t want them to benefit from this write-up…
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Search ‘Lavender agency’ and The Works come up.
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1998 called, they’d like their PPC activity back.
I’m all for creative marketing stunts, but this isn’t one of them.
All it does is makes your brand look tacky. If the only way you can win business is by taking pot shots at your peers, then you have big problems. Presumably their offering isn’t good enough to sell on it’s own merit.
Industries like ours are small, the community doesn’t forget. Get people’s backs up and not only will you be the black sheep and avoided like the plague, you’ll also find recruiting good staff increasingly hard – who wants to work for an agency with this attitude?
And if this is how they conduct their own advertising, would you want to entrust your own brand to their “tactics”? Unlikely.
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Google love this shit – conquesting one of their largest cash generators. Speak to anyone at an agency and they can’t recommend it enough. Auto, airlines, insurance, banking … why would media services be any different. Great CPC yields …
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“depends” 🙂
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There is seriously something wrong with you if you think this is worse than having ads show up next to terrorist related content.
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Bidding on another’s brand and offering your services, if fine. This is a staple of PPC advertising and I don’t think anyone is contesting that.
What makes you look petty and desperate, is when you aggressively talk down the other brand in your ad copy. If it was tongue in cheek, like the sort of thing you sometimes see on billboards calling brands out (i.e. this famous example http://cdn.bmwblog.com/wp-cont.....3233_b.jpg), then that is usually ok as long as it’s done with clear humorous intent. But just out right trashing another is only going to make you look cheap.
This was never going to end well for them.
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I think that was the joke…
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Let’s lift the industry people. Stop racing to the bloody bottom. Make better business decisions. Have integrity. Earn respect. Stop pitching for free. Stop ripping clients off. Start using adserve filters. Sort it out. Those that put the industry in the shadow should be seriously frowned upon, it extends well beyond this. We NEED a Hall of Shame. Mistakes In case everyone hasn’t realised, it’s an industry spiralling down to dark places. If it was a client, we would be telling them to go to Crisis Management mode. Whilst the search thing is just stupid, we must start to crucify our own if they damage the industry. An industry made of very smart, hard working and passionate people. Stop it with adding Innovation to everyone’s title and start with earning trust back.
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Simply brilliant- this is exactly what Indago wanted & it’s what they got. We’re all talking about this move – how many of the other agencies (when with clout & marketing $$$$) are in our minds.
Bravo Indago, this is why we look forward to moving our business to you in the next FY.
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I wouldn’t hire an agency that couldn’t hyphenate its own name.
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Hahaha,
What business is that? Hal’s Burgers in Marrackville?
Thats my guess, or a positive review from an overworked Indago staffer.
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So they wanted to receive unanimous negative press & to be called out as not being able to run brand-sensitive advertising campaigns, even for their own agency? I see. Interesting analysis there, Hal.
Enjoy selling those viagra pills, PPI claim leads or payday loans next FY. I presume your business operates in one of these stellar industries if you’re looking forward to running similar “attack” initiatives…
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Actually, no Dougie. I do not have my own burger restaurant. I flirted with the idea- long ago now- but decided on a career in IT instead- so not an Indago staffer either. Admittedly, you were right about being over-worked. So call it half a point?
Troll much?
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Neigh.
Pretty judgemental there ‘Horses for Courses’.
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Well pb-212 has a half life of just over 10 hours. For the scientists out there, there are a number of puns that can be derived from that.
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Actually, if you were a brand wouldn’t you want to have your name/link appear higher than your competitor? The rest (eg. the predatory copy and landing pages) is pretty petty.
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Dale Carnegie would be turning in his grave at these tactics.
Cheap, tacky and a clear demonstration of the level of integrity of indigo digital.
As the old saying goes ‘dessert is a dish best served cold’.
PS. Hope you got that promotion Hal ??
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This type of unprofessional nastiness of slagging off the competition doesn’t make clients want to work with Indago.
I doubt that their clients are terribly proud of stating that they work with an Indago after seeing this. They have let their egos get ahead of focusing on producing great work. Great work is actually the true mark as to why clients sign with agencies.
Arrogance above quality work.
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