Why all my business will go to "Say It Loud"

I always tell everybody here at The Orlando Weekly that we have to earn our clients trust. People don't just hand over their money or their business to just anyone.

That's why, after attending the Orlando Addy Awards on Saturday night in Orlando, all my clients are going to hear me talk about Say It Loud (www.sayitloud.us)

Here's why: Saturday several ad agencies won awards and we got to hear from some of them through their acceptance speeches. Congratulations to Push, Anson-Stoner and Fry Hammond Barr (who, along with Say It Loud, dominated the categories.

Yet, when Say It Loud came up to give an acceptance speech, Creative Activist Julio Lima came up and.... get this!.... he thanked his intern for handling most of the creative on one of the winning campaigns. He didn't take credit and, instead, he told the audience of about 280 people that he invests in his people.

The guy he thanked was hired as an intern while he was in school and when he graduated Julio hired him as a freelancer to work a campaign. It was that kid that was behind the award.

Julio and Say It Loud provided FREE tickets to a bunch of students to attend the event because he believes they need to see the best work in the industry. I know I'll be driving any of our clients that are looking for an ad agency that way from now on.

When I'm homeless because everybody tells me newspapers are going under, I think of one thing: I'm not going to have anything good to read. The blogs, this one included, just don't hit the mark of a good feature story. And, none of us have access to the resources or funding to conduct the watchdog investigations that we need to keep things right in the world.

There's just no community online. If I were a CEO of a corporation I'd be going all-the-way community. Community papers, community organizations, community funding and taking the surface streets to-and-from work. I might actually even take a bus. Maybe listen to a few folk on there. Times are getting tougher and I'm telling you now: Not everybody is pulling TGIF coupons off their Blackberry. Some are actually out there talking to each other, worried about their futures, and wondering what players in corporate America actually care about their well-being.

1.2 daily blogs

People create 1.2 blogs per day. So, in the age of misinformation we got more Chiefs; less Indians.

I'm totally old. I like the "select few." I like the Fourth Estate. I like people working hard to get to the upper echelon of any profession. Can you imagine NFL leagues in every state with 86 teams in each state. I am pretty sure I could make one of those teams. It would lose the thrill, be no fun. I wouldn't watch football anymore.

I like that I trust the alternative weeklies (which I work for) with researching and writing distinguished stories that are in-depth and useful. I look over the internet and most the content is waste. We want to cut back on waste everywhere yet we are overwhelmed with the equivalent of sitting next to the nonsensical talker on the bus. You can move around but then find that most people on the bus want to talk your ear off and nothing they say has any value to you.

"You know I heard they say if you fall asleep with your head leaning to the left, you'll be less likely to get cancer."

"If you beep your horn, you could be attacked by a rare bird that has migrated to the States"

"My mom made me play the piano and now I hate my father"

None of these have made any sense, don't hold a lick of value, and basically waste my time.

I worry what happens when there is no structured traditional media. I'd be all for that bailout. I think news and education are two cornerstones we can't afford to lose.

Thank goodness for that bailout bill.... money for the Philapino Veterans and that subway from Vegas to L.A. Should make a huge difference in the long run.

How about we kick some more coin to traditional and new media instead. Of course, I'm partial.

why give anybody your money

I wouldn't give the racist hotdog guy outside my window money and think he's going to talk to his customers about our newspaper and bring us advertisers so why do so many companies trust just anybody with their brand, message, cause, or product?

It's irresponsible.

Here's why: If you give somebody money you, 99.9% of the time, you expect something back (and rightly so.)

You want:

• Gratitude
• reputation
• awareness
• support
• opinion
• agreement
• customers
• distributors
• sales
• something...

If you give somebody money, here's what I recommend. Think of it like we're drinking red wine and we're in a seedy bar in South Jersey. No real deals of consequence ever get made there but everybody thinks so... so do this. Please. For me.

If you give somebody money:
Know them
Trust them
and know how to find them.

They should be somebody whom you trust will do their best to provide you a return on your investment and be willing to stand by and be there if there are any problems or to provide any support you might need.

Too many people throw money to advertisers without asking who the advertising medium's audience is. Ask us who we reach if we don't tell you and know this - if we don't offer it up excitably at first, you might want to really check and make sure you know who we reach and you might not even want to take our word for it.

Ask other people who have advertised with the company how their experience was. Did they get good advice, would they run there again, how was the customer service, was the price set (can it negotiate?)

And finally, know that the company has either been around for a long time or has some strong footing. Too many fly-by-night decisions get made in advertising. In traditional media it happens with some "community" paper that is up and running for a few months or a group of investors who love a common subject (Orlando just released "Pure Cash" that is all about - from the cover - gold chains and big bottomed beauties and it is as thin as a menu.)

Not too say if that's your niche market you shouldn't consider it. Your advertising doesn't have to reach everybody; it has to reach the most people that you believe are your target market.

Just don't waste your money. Pure Cash homie.