I’m sure everyone has heard of the Late Night Wars between Jay and Conan (I’m on Team Coco) or the current “Map” wars between AT&T and Verizon. Well, if you haven’t noticed, there is something very close to my heart in a bit of a tussle – Pizza Chains. I know a lot about very few things in life, but one of them is pizza. I’ve dedicated at least half of my life to pizza. Okay, I may be exaggerating for dramatic effect. However, if you need a good pizza recommendation for any occasion or location – I’m your man.
The top three pizza chains in America are Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and Papa Johns. Currently they are all running campaigns that are very creative and yet different from one another. Pizza Hut is stressing value. They are hawking the $10 pizza and it looks to be a major hit especially in this economy. In the past they’ve had the 3 pizzas for $5 campaign as well. They’ve also branched off into pastas and wings. Pizza Hut was the first chain to develop an iPhone application and consumers can order a pizza in two clicks. Domino’s has been running a new recipe campaign trying to address their critics and draw in more customers or bring old ones back. They’ve run a major tv campaign and combined that with a very aggressive social media campaign. We had an employee make a comment about the new recipe on Twitter and received a free pizza coupon! Papa John’s is a very strong #3 in the market and charging. They are running a “Papa’s In the House” campaign that features their founder possibly showing up at your door to deliver your order and good times. They are about to launch a strong social media campaign as well, encouraging consumers to “create a recipe” and partake in the rewards if it takes off.
I think the common thread between these three is that they are marketing aggressively and with a media mix. You see them on tv, hear them on radio, read them in print, clip their coupons and now they are all online in creative ways. Not to mention their public relations teams that keep their brands in front of the consumer. All three are after your hard earned dollars. All three are taking different approaches and thriving.
Our president, Andrea James, spoke today at the Des Moines Convention and Visitor’s Bureau seminar on marketing. The topic was “Making the Most of Your Marketing Budget.” At Love Scott, we endorse research first. Find out what you don’t know. Have a professional administer the process. The second part of research is believing what it says. You would be amazed at how many clients don’t want to believe the results of research. You have to accept what the research tells you to take correct action. Once you assess the research and create a marketing plan, execute your plan. Our plans always include a media mix. There is no “magic” medium that will fix all of your marketing problems. Just like a good financial plan, you can’t put all of your eggs in the stock market. A strategic mix is always the best course of action. Of course just like a good financial plan – this can be done on a budget. We constantly strive to work with our clients to create the best course of action for them to thrive strategically.
You don’t need to be in a “war” to be creative, strategic and responsible. Are you using the media mix to your advantage?
- Adam Jensen
We had a discussion among the 
One of the truths about anything presented as being fact is that people are inclined to believe it. That can be dangerous because sometimes facts are not, in fact, facts. All too often what passes for a fact is not fact at all, but rather, an assumption. There’s a very big difference between a fact and an assumption and while a fact can sometimes be mistaken for an assumption, an assumption should never be mistaken for a fact. Assumptions are nothing more than a best guess and my best guess is that your best guess is no better than the next person’s best guess.
Well, only part of that is true. I stopped chewing bubble gum quite a while ago – shortly after offending my soon-to-be ex girlfriend and her entire sorority pledge class at a football game in 1992. I actually stopped believing in the mysterious “fart bubble” about 12 minutes after that…
When I was interviewed for my first “Ad Agency” job, I distinctly remember saying, “I just want to do good work for good people.” (Jiminy Cricket has nothing on me…). Naive? Sure, but at 22 (and just off the search for the elusive fart bubble) I took relationships pretty seriously. I knew I had the skills to add value to any creative department, but if it wasn’t for “good people,” as I put it, then what would be the point? I might as well just jump right to the “scotch-guzzling, Camel non-filter smoking male chauvinist pig” stage. Thank God I found “Good people…”
We just finished a complete re-branding of our own company. We felt it was important to not just talk the branding talk, as many ad agencies do, but to actually walk the walk. We preach the importance of positioning to our clients and the importance of integrating the brand throughout their marketing plan. But we recently realized we were like the barber’s kid who goes without a decent haircut. We were so busy helping our clients become brand smart, that we weren’t looking very brand smart ourselves. So we entered into the discipline with Love Scott as the client.
It all started with the basics and, as often happens, a minor identity crisis. What are we as a company? Are we an advertising agency? (We do so much more than just advertising.) So maybe we’re a marketing communications company. That moniker is mostly met with blank stares until we follow it with the more familiar, “You know, an advertising agency.” Then the lights go on.
The temptation for a company selling golf ball dimples and looking for someone to head up their marketing is to find someone with tons of golf ball dimple experience. Apparently, the theory is that industry experience trumps discipline-specific knowledge every time. I suggest a better plan for this company would be to find someone with tons of experience in marketing and teach them about golf ball dimples. Then leave them alone and let them create effective, cost-efficient, high-return marketing programs that will move golf ball dimples by the trainload. And please don’t insult their expertise by subjecting their every idea to a “hall survey” where virtually anyone with an opinion is invited to weigh in and is taken seriously.
I admire a relevant story compellingly and creatively told. Period. That’s what I signed up for.
“Nice Post, Andy…” (from… “nameless”)
As a reminder, I keep a list of these famous failures to remind me that it takes a considerable load of failure to recognize (and eventually realize) true success.
If that doesn’t make it clear enough, let me elaborate. My father is 
People who have worked with my dad at some point through his 40 years in the ad industry love to tell me I have big shoes to fill. Yeah, I know. But knowing what this business has meant to him, and to the whole family in fact, means I don’t take this gig lightly.
