NJ Advertising Agency

How to choose the best agency and spot a huckster at 100 yards.

There are many questions to ask any advertising ageny when you meet with them. However, your agency should have as many questions for you as you have for them. Here are some things to consider when interviewing your agency or marketing expert.

At Purpose Advertising, we interview our clients to make sure that we are all seeking the same goal and objective. Very often, companies can differ on what they deem as success or achievement of a goal. We tend to raise the bar for ourselves and our clients, and must admit, this is not for everyone.

Holding your advertising campaigns to higher standards is something that many New Jersey Ad Agencies are uncomfortable with. In fact, many despise change and writhe and wriggle during the death throes that typically accompany the end of their era. This is quite normal, as change and adaptation is not for every agency, and most likely your current agency is struggling to survive even as they show their best country club grin and chuckle about their favorite golf courses.

Again, Golf courses, classic cars, country clubs, and talks about “living the lifestyle” do not help your company sell more through the utilization of an efficient and effective advertising agency. Smart Agencies and Marketing companies in New Jersey have competed for years based upon relationships, bonds, and friendships above all else. This house of cards has been collapsing as new generations of business owners begin to question why they are lining the pockets of their traditional ad agency without any return on investment or accountability.

Before you go about the difficult task of choosing an ad agency for your small buisness, you should ask yourself 10 questions:

What makes an advertising agency a SMART Agency?

Is it their many years of experience in media?

Is it their relationships with newspapers, radio stations, or TV advertising?

Is it just the fact that they have survived long enough to stay in business riding off your coat tails?

Smart Advertising consists of a true, open, and honest approach about advertising and marketing your business, organization, or company. Real, trackable, results, not just a list of services and some track records that date back the the age of their 1969 Pontiac GTO. What is working now, and how can you prove it? As Wendy’s used to say “Show me the Beef”. Too much Sizzle and not enough steak = poor marketing results, lower sales, and more agencies spinning like a wheel to try to shove some stats in front of you to justify some skewed logic that only serves to justify more budget for their company.

Ask a few questions when choosing your next NJ Advertising Agency, and here are a couple to get you started:

1. What do we require from our ad agency: help in planning, researching, creating, producing, picking media, all of these, or none of these? If you don’t have a need, you may not need an agency. Do not just go with the flow, consider your true needs for your company. If your agency does not inquire about all of your needs, then you may need to consider another marketing agent to work with.
2. Should the ad agency handle the media buying, should we use a media-buying service, or should we do it ourselves? Just because the agency offers a service doesn’t mean you have to use it, and just because they offer it, it doesn’t mean they know what they heck they are doing. Many NJ Ad Agencies use what we will refer to as “me too” services. They see other agencies offering Search Engine Marketing, and they will say that they also offer this service when in fact they may be outsourcing it to some unnamed company.  If they throw terms at you all of a sudden, then chances are they found some new “vendor” that offers a variety of services and they (just like spaghetti) are throwing things at your wall to see what sticks.
3. Will the agency be compensated solely by the commission it earns on the media it purchases and the added commission it earns on production, or will you pay a flat fee that includes all services? I’ve never heard of a surgeon charging a commission on the cost of the operating room. But watch out for hourly fees. Agencies often nearly bankrupt companies with these, and not on purpose. I recommend getting a monthly estimate of what the hourly fees will be. Flat fees can work, commission-percentages can work, and hybrid situations can work all depending on your exact needs and your agencies experience, resources, and payment options. Flexibility is King right now in these economic times.
4. Are we picking an agency because we want a specific kind of advertising campaign or because it’s the best agency? Beware of agencies that specialize in one kind of advertising. Your company isn’t like the others for which they have created advertising. You’re different, and your ads should reflect that. Some agencies have a wall full of ads and will reward their designers for selling “off the shelf” ads versus true creativity. Agencies are for-profit entities and recycling in this case can just mean slapping your logo on some other clients ad.
5. How important is it that we have regular and unlimited access to the president of the agency we select? You need to see the person who’s involved with your account regularly. If you get to see someone from one management layer down, and that person lives and breathes your business, the president means little to you. On the flip side, often the agency president may have the least amount of knowledge but may have the slickest suit in the room, the fanciest Mercedes, and the tannest tan. However, ask him about the specifics of any of his services and watch the merry go round spin. Delegation is fine as long as those who are running the company have a good working knowledge of the intricacies of all services they are selling.
6. Does the agency have quantifiable prowess in direct marketing and the Internet since they so closely tie in with marketing? If the answer is no, go directly to the next agency. Direct marketing and the Internet are integral parts of marketing, growing in importance every day. If the answer is yes, ask for specifics on the spot. Do not accept “Let me get back to you” or “We will get you results, we are the experts”. It’s bull, and we all know what that smells like. Sometimes, it takes a while to smell it but it all comes out in the wash. Just try to pre-qualify your Ad agency before they sell you a bag of goods.
7. Do we require an agency to handle only our existing advertising, or our new-product launches and grand openings as well? Ideally one agency should handle everything. How adept is the agency at introducing new products, and does it have access to first-rate public relations services? The two right answers are “great” and “of course.” You may be geniuses and have more creative ideas that Bill Gates has dollar bills, however a plan without action has no effect and puts no dollars in your pockets. Ideas are like mouths. Everyone has one.
8. Does the location of the ad agency matter to us? In these days of e-mail, faxes, cellular phones, and satellite transmission, location is less important. Nonetheless, personal contact is the best form of communication. You need to consider how well your agency knows your market, area, DMA, district, or area of responsibility. Bottom line, can they understand my customer or prospect.
9. Although we have the ultimate say-so in what advertising runs, who will really be in charge of advertising decisions – someone at our place or theirs? Do we respect that person? Is their trust in place? Will we over-ride clear cut knowledge and relie upon our old gut feelings of what has worked for 10 years versus looking at the cold hard truth of call tracking, website monitoring, and coupon or store redemption?
10. Finally, do we love both the work done by the agency and the results it has achieved? Do we like the people? Do we trust them? Are they more concerned with awards, sales, or their own ego? Subtract 10 points for everything they say about awards, personal sales, or name dropping. You can win international advertising awards, but we are far more proud of the profits our clients have earned. Awards don’t pay the bills. For our company or yours. If you exceed your clients expectations, you expect to retain a client for life. We want to exceed your expectations, bring more to the table, and always, always, put more additional effort into our work than any competitor out there.

Purpose Advertising is an NJ ad agency that specializes in both traditional media and online marketing for companies who desire better and more accountable results from their advertising.

Our traditional advertising services and NJ search engine marketing services have brought great results.

Purpose combines both traditional and Internet marketing efforts to create a total in-house experience for your target audience or clientele. Our goal is top of mind awareness at the most effective cost possible. We achieve our goals through our e2 process which helps to quickly identify efficient|effective forms of promotion and marketing. We track everything from a website click, site visit, form submission, phone calls, and even video view penetration. We will go so far as to Analyze website click patterns to help you better optimize your
website for conversion. Our deeply motivated Analytic mindset combines with tremendous enthusiastic marketing skills to create the perfect balance.

We work with for-profit and non-profit organizations that offer life- products, services, and information. We are big enough to provide incredible results, and small enough to care deeply.

Our Founders and employees have diverse NJ traditional advertising agency experience for clients in
New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, and the entire Northeast as well as clients who are marketing outside of New Jersey.

Purpose is also deeply entrenched in online and social media and can integrate a full service advertising campaign throughout all available promotional channels.

Together, our Purpose is to make a difference in you r business or organization. To learn more or schedule a conference or meeting, contact us on our website or pick up the phone and give us a call. We would love to hear from you. Visit our Online NJ Advertising Agency