Buzz, Balls & Hype

The Ad Man Answers #38

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Q: What is the most creative advertising trick you’ve ever seen?

A:  Back when the Ad Man was a newbie and working on the Los Angeles McDonald’s franchise business, his boss – the agency’s media director – had a brilliant idea.

This media director noticed that TV stations were spending more and more airtime to promote their shows.  As hard it is to sell a burger in health-conscious city like LA, it became even harder for the TV stations to break thru their own clutter to let their viewers know ‘Law & Order’ was moving to a new day and time.

Watching all this commercial inventory converting to internal promotion, our media director said:  “I want in on that.”  And because she controlled one of the largest accounts in LA, the stations reluctantly listened to her.

This is how she positioned it:  You TV networks are going to spend the money and time to pump up your shows no matter what, but do you need all 30-seconds to do it? I’ll give a higher share of my TV budget to anyone who is willing to incorporate my message into their promo time.

She proposed trimming 5-10 seconds out of their promo spot, then pairing that with a McDonald’s mention, making it a “Promercial.”   This was possible because Mickey D’s already had universal brand recognition, and only needed to get across short, easy-to-understand taglines like “2 for $2 Fish Fillet Fridays.” 

Suddenly, instead of running a couple hundred commercials a month, McDonald’s was getting thousands of additional on-air mentions, without spending any extra money.  The TV stations that ran the most Promercials got higher shares of the normal commercial time, which we were going to spend anyway.

Best of all – from McDonald’s point of view – it came across like they were actually sponsoring the content, even though they had nothing to do with the creation of the associated program.  This ‘rub-off’ effect is even more pronounced when the product offering is similar to the content.  Like Wolverine work boots being partnered with History Channel’s “Ice Road Truckers.”

You see these Promercials – also called “enhanced tune-ins” – all the time now.  With the advent of TiVO, getting your commercial message integrated with desirable content helps prevent skipping.

Here’s one from featuring Suzuki Automotive ‘sponsoring’ TBS’s slate of comedies:

Download EnhancedTagSuzukiRev.mov

Typically, an advertiser has to spend a boatload of money in order to qualify for these sponsorships.  But if you’re a book author, you can try using the same strategy on a smaller scale.

Let’s say you hear that your publisher is going to purchase a full-page ad in the Thrillerfest program to congratulate one of their authors nominated for “Best Paperback Original.”  Instead of getting pissed they’re spending money to pump up someone else, why not pose this question… “Hey, since you were already planning to buy it, how about you let me buy 1/5th of that page? That way you save a little money, and I piggy-back on your existing ad.”

From the readers’ perspective, there is very little difference between a full-page ad compared to one that dominates 4/5th of a page. From the publisher’s perspective, they have a little more budget to spend somewhere else. From your perspective, you’ve just scored an adjacency next to someone in your publishing house being feted for best PBO… giving an implied endorsement that your book is worthy of similar consideration, and you have the backing of your publisher.

That’s a piggy-back worth squealing about.

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE and is currently on submission. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #37

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Q: How rational are consumer buying decisions?

A:  For this one, I’m going to defer to a report by MediaLife's Heidi Dawley, who concludes:

Simple fact is,
we're fools with money

We as human beings are highly rational, and the belief we share in that rationality pervades our every thought and action across countless decisions each day, minor and major, from the $4 cup of latte we pick up on the way into the office to the really great deal we just got on our new flat screen TV, with free shipping.

Now here’s some disappointing news. That's all hooey.

This grand notion of rationality is entirely in our heads. In reality, we as humans are predictably irrational in our decision-making process, and that's proven over and over again by the poor buying decisions we make. We overpay, we buy things we don't need. And perhaps most discouraging, we never seem to learn from our mistakes.

In short, we're kidding ourselves about our ability to make rational buying decisions.

“The idea that we could compute all the possible options of every motion and decide what the optimal course of action is – I just think it’s inhumane,” says Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at MIT and author of “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions," a new book on how consumers really behave in the marketplace.

“We are just starting to understand that the reality that we experience is not just about what’s out there. It is about what we create.”

This of course hardly comes as news to marketers, whose very expertise is in persuading people not only to buy their products but to rest in the comfort that they made the wisest decision.

As a behavioral economist, Ariely looks beyond theory -- say, Adam Smith's writings on capitalism and how it works or ought to work in the grand scheme of things, to how things actually work based on observing consumers in action.

It's enough to break Smith's heart, were he to return. A lot of Ariely’s experiments show just how much consumers are swayed by what they choose to believe versus the facts at hand. Call it willful self-deception. While believing they're weighing the evidence at hand, they often reach back into memory -- all those associations built up over years -- to make decisions.

Case in point: Ariely tested pricing on a pain reliever that was actually a placebo, vitamin C. First he priced it at $2.50, then at 10 cents. Which one delivered the greater pain relief, in the minds of test subjects? Most thought the $2.50 pain reliever was effective. Half that number thought the cheaper one did the job.

Our minds are embedded to believe in a correlation between price and quality, when in so many cases it's simply not true.

Yet at the same time consumers are invariably taken in by offers of free this or free that. The word "free" may be the most powerful word in the English language, and certainly the most powerful device in the quiver of marketers, even though common sense tells us that nothing is really ever free.

In another experiment, Ariely offered two beers to groups of students, one a name brand and the other a brew containing a special ingredient. The special ingredient was balsamic vinegar, but the students were not told that. They mostly preferred the special brew.

However, if told beforehand that the unique ingredient was vinegar, they found the drink unpalatable. Balsamic vinegar is not an expected ingredient in beer, so it must not taste very good, and of course it didn't.

“Your ideas,” he explains, “change the realities of what you experience."

He firms that notion up citing yet another experiment, a Pepsi versus Coke taste challenge. The participants tasted the two drinks, and as they did so their brain activity was measured. Researchers found that the brain reacted differently when the product names were revealed than and when they weren’t.

The mention of Coke stimulated the area of the brain relating to higher order association. That's to say, the mention of the Coke name earned a more positive response.” That’s where the higher enjoyment comes from, not the taste,” says Ariely.

Coke's years of brand building were paying off where it mattered most, not in the mouth but in the brain.

What might consumers take away from Ariely's research? That perhaps we ought to rethink how we make decisions based on the real facts at hand versus the entire set of beliefs we've stored up.

Ariely also believes there's room in the marketplace for products that accept our irrational side rather than exploit it. One idea he proposes is a credit card that would allow the user to set certain limits for different types of products per month. This would help people live within budgets.

Another is a healthcare plan where dates of important screening tests are mandated, either by the company or upfront by the consumer, to avoid procrastination, another key failing of the not-so-rational human brain.

“My hope for behavioral economics is that if we could design a world that is suited for our needs, that would be great,” says Ariely.

We should perhaps remember what “Star Trek’s” Dr. Spock told us years ago: “Nowhere am I so desperately needed as among a shipload of illogical humans.”

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE and is currently on submission. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #36

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Q: What can Robert Downey Jr. teach us about author websites?

A:  Don’t disclaim.

In an interview for the movie “Iron Man,” Downey Jr. was asked if he had something to prove to people who didn’t think he could play a superhero.  His response:

I thought it was an interesting opportunity to do something that people probably wouldn’t have imagined I could do.  But I had to believe in myself.  And there’s the lesson, right?  If I’m not in my own cheering section, why should anybody else be?...  Don’t let on that you’re less sure than they are. 

Downey Jr.’s on-screen character, a weapon’s designer named Tony Stark, takes this bravado to the next level:

*They* say that the best weapon is the one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That's how Dad did it, that's how America does it... and it's worked out pretty well so far.

After a series of columns on author websites (#30 - #33), the Ad Man received several requests to check out newbie author homepages.  A common thread between many of these author sites was an underlying lack of confidence. 

Conscious or not, these authors were coming across as slightly embarrassed about having their own website – like they were uncomfortable with the attention, or apologetic for not yet having a six-figure advance from HarperCollins.

“Disclaiming” can take the form of:

• Too-long author bio that lists everything you’ve ever written, including your third-grade book report on bullfrogs
• Too-short author bio that skirts the issue of your inexperience by omitting everything but your name and hometown.  If you don’t have writing credits, show us that you at least have a personality.
• Pleas for help – financial or otherwise.  Allowing Google Ads is another form of begging, since you’re basically saying:  “I’m too cheap to pay $10/month for my own web hosting.”
• Rants about the publishing industry.  Save your frustrations for your diary or blog.
• Irrelevant information.  Writing tips or bonus material for your book is one thing.  But does Lee Child have pictures of his kids or childhood pets on his website?  You shouldn’t either.

When I mentioned these points to one author, her reply was:  “I was trying to compensate for nothing much going on with submission by adding a bunch of other, unrelated content.”

Trying to compensate.  That’s a natural reaction, right?  It’s why some short people choose to wear lifts, bald guys get fitted for toupees, and Hollywood starlets avoid red carpets without Spanx.

The trick is finding the right balance between quiet confidence and over-the-top cockiness – so you’re not drifting into Tony Stark territory.   If you need an example of how confidence is done well – without being egotistical or bratty – you should model your author website after this.

Sure, you say.  It’s easy to be confident when you’re getting reviewed by Janet Maslin and jetting off for a nationwide book tour.  What to do when you’re struggling to sell your first novel, and have already been rejected by every agent and publisher in the NY Tri-State area?

Make your homepage about you and your work as it exists today.  If you don’t have quotes from other people about your writing, solicit them.  If you don’t have anybody writing stories about you, interview yourself.  Share good news and forward progress, but gloss over the setbacks.  Hire a professional photographer and website designer.  Focus on putting your best foot forward and eliminate anything that brands you as a hobbyist.

Treat your website like it’s a blind date.  And be honest, which guy is more attractive?  The one shows up at your doorstep whose first words are:  "I don't normally wear Hawaiian shirts, but I'm kind of feeling bloated today, and my good pants are at the dry cleaners, so normally I look much better, really."

Or this one?

"Hi, my name's Ted.  Good to meet you."

So be confident.  If that doesn’t come naturally, follow the advice of JA Konrath:  Fake confidence, and real confidence follows. 

And if all else fails, keep repeating the mantra from Robert Downey Jr… Don’t let on that you’re less sure than they are.

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE and is currently on submission. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #35

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Q: How often is it acceptable to contact your agent, or prospective agent?

A:  To call or not to call, that is the question.

The Ad Man is still a publishing newbie, but after getting pitched thousands of sponsorship packages in my business career – similar to how agents/publishers get inundated with queries – I’ve learned a thing or two about contact protocols.

Rule #1:  Publishing is a business. 

Therefore, your annoyance threshold is in direct proportion to how much income you’re generating for your agent.  If you’re in the middle of a sale/contract situation – or happen to be John Grisham – then multiple contacts a day can be acceptable.

When I’m at my ad agency, I receive upwards of 10-20 e-mails per day from TV and radio stations, outdoor vendors, sports teams, websites – all wanting my client to advertise on their space.  If I’m currently negotiating a sponsorship package, that gets handled first.  Second priority goes to people with whom I’ve done business in the past, even if their current proposal doesn’t fit our needs.  Those might get answered within 2-3 weeks.  But if I’ve never done business with that vendor, it could take me a month to review their submission, sometimes longer.

In my book career, as a newly-agented author on submission with a first novel, I’ve generated exactly $0 for my agent thus far.  So my expectation is that she’ll allocate a much higher % of her time servicing her top thriller clients like Alex Kava, Rick Mofina, and Linda Richards.  My agent is good about sending updates, but the submission process can be a long slog, so if I haven’t heard anything for over a month, I might send a brief e-mail to check-in on the progress.

If you’re unsigned, and still querying agents, your status on the totem pole is even lower.  Some agents receive upwards of 15,000-30,000 unsolicited queries a year.  Even if that person instantly rejects 90% of those queries, that still leaves over 1,500 partials for review – more than 4 per day, without days off for nervous breakdowns.

During the query process, my policy was no re-contact attempts for at least 8 weeks.  After that, unless a partial was requested, I’d only send a reminder e-mail if and only if I had new news to report.  Tweaking your opening chapter is not new news.  Winning a contest is. 

Rule #2:  Don’t call. 

Nowadays, e-mail is the preferred method of receiving business “check ins,” because it can be filtered and responded to during slow times.  Unless your agent is so old-school they don't own a computer, save phone calls for urgent business only.  And unless you’re about to sign with another agent or going to miss a submission deadline, it’s not urgent.

Rule #3:  Remember the percentages. 

Your agent is 100% of your focus, because he/she is the only one representing your interests during the publishing process.  However, most agents have at least 40 clients.  So, at best, you’re 2.5% of their business model in respect to maintaining ongoing correspondence.

Remind yourself of that when you’re temped to obsessively check your in-box every five minutes.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to e-mail my agent…

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE and is currently on submission. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #34

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Q: What commission is considered standard in print ad biz vs. the web ad biz vs. the radio ad biz?  Do some ad folks work entirely on commission?

-- JA Konrath, Chicago

A:   Nowadays, advertising agencies rarely work off the old “standard commission” model.

Standard commission used to be 15% of the total cost of the media buy.  So if a TV network, radio station, magazine, newspaper, or billboard company was charging $10,000 for a media schedule, they'd sell it to an accredited agency for $8,500, and that agency would keep the difference ($1,500) as their fee.

In advertising terms, the $10,000 media schedule would be called the “Gross” cost… and the $8,500 charge (after taking out the commission) would be called the “Net” fee.

This process is similar to how interior designers get discounts on home furnishings that are not available to the general public.  Media vendors are motivated to give this 15% commission to agencies because they’re the ones holding the purse strings on their clients’ ad budgets.  The more TV and radio stations play ball with the big agencies, the more future business might flow their way – sometimes from multiple accounts on the agency’s roster. 

But several things worked to destroy the old commission structure.  First, the advertising business became more competitive, with some agencies agreeing to take less than the standard commission to win new business.  For example, if it was a really big client, the agency might agree to only keep 11% of the commission, then rebate 4% to the client.

That led to agencies “unbundling” their departments in order to cut overhead.  So instead of “full-service” agencies – which offer creative work, account planning, media buying, commercial trafficking, and research under one roof – you started seeing companies specialize in one thing, like media buying.  Thus, purchasing advertising space became like shopping at Costco – where you generated more savings by buying in bulk. 

Meanwhile, a wave of mergers hit the advertising landscape, as large conglomerates bought up ailing shops in order to share resources (like back-room accounting), leverage media spending, and provide a Chinese menu of client services.  There are now 6 holding companies, like Omnicom, that control a large share of the global advertising and PR spending.

The fallout of all this unbundling and merging is that everyone now charges something different.  A client like Burger King might have a media buying agency that works for 2% of their gross media spending, while having a brand-planning consultant on retainer, then paying a flat annual fee to a separate creative boutique.

From a client’s perspective, the benefit to paying a flat agency fee instead of commission %:

• You’ll know in advance what you need to set aside for annual fees
• You don’t have to worry about your advertising agency overestimating media budgets just to beef up their fees

From a client’s perspective, the benefit to paying off commission % instead of a flat fee:

• It’s usually an invisible cost, since the agency fee is theoretically covered by the difference between the Gross and Net invoices
• If you end up trimming your advertising budget, your agency fees will decrease proportionally

From an agency’s perspective, the benefit to getting paid a flat agency fee instead of commission %:

• More stability in matching overhead vs. fixed revenue
• Can be more dispassionate when setting media spend levels with client, instead of constantly justifying recommendations and worrying about budget cuts

From an agency’s perspective, the benefit to getting paid off commission % instead of a flat fee:

• As media budgets rise, compensation increases… so you’re sharing in your client’s success

Internet is the one media form that came along after the old commission model.  So online media vendors generally work in NET and do not have commissionable rates.  To buy certain online banner ads, you don’t even need to hire an advertising agency, just fire up your computer and download free software. 

To sum up… if I’m a freelance media buyer, and I need to place one newspaper ad for my client, and I know in advance I will get paid a flat fee of $500 to do that job, the conversation might sound like this:

Me:  “So what’s the cost for a half-page, full-color ad in your Metro section?”

Newspaper: “$9,000.”

Me:  “Is that commissionable?”

Newspaper: “Yes.”

Me:  “Would you sell it to me for $8,200 instead?  I once got a beer coaster signed by James Patterson.  I could mail it to you.”

Newspaper:  “I love James Patterson!  You sure drive a tough bargain…  $8,200 it is.”

Me:  “So that’s $8,200 Gross, which translates to $6,970 Net.”  (less 15%)

Newspaper:  “Correct.  Would you like to get invoiced in Gross or Net?”

Me: “Net.” (because I’m getting paid on a flat fee instead of commission)

So the newspaper would send me a Net invoice for $6,970, which I would then add on $500 for my fee before sending a final bill to the client for $7,470... which is considerably cheaper than the $9,000 the client might've been charged if they'd tried placing the ad on their own.

And that’s how advertising gets negotiated.  Once signed beer coaster at a time.

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE and is currently on submission. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #33

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Last time, the Ad Man brought you Part One of our interview with author Toby Barlow, who created a kick-ass website for his debut novel from HarperCollins, “Sharp Teeth.”

What’s unique about his site is that Toby himself is barely mentioned.  Since he’s is the Executive Creative Director at J.Walter Thompson (Detroit) he knows the advertising business inside and out.  So what was he thinking? The Ad Man asked.

Toby, as someone who's successfully branded clients like Ford, Kleenex, and Welch’s, how do you reconcile not branding "Toby Barlow the author"?  Someone like Michael Crichton has fans that'll pick up his next book, regardless of the topic.  But if your intention is to avoid the traditional author homepage, and only use the web to bring new dimensions to future books, are you running a risk of readers not being as familiar with your name, and not knowing about your other titles?

I'm not that interested in marketing myself. I probably should be, but right now it's the ideas that I'm working on that interest me more than anything. In a paradoxical sense, while the cult of personality ultimately sells a lot of books, it probably adds to the decline of literature because if you're famous you just don't have to try as hard. Michael Crichton is a brilliant guy and each of his books would probably be just that much better if he had to prove himself from scratch every time.

Who shot the "Is Your Dog A Werewolf" video?  I notice it's on YouTube and Amazon.  How else did you disseminate it virally?

I wrote and shot the "Is Your Dog a Werewolf" video driving around to friends houses who have big dogs. I asked a local editorial company called Kinetic to chop it together. They were the ones who really made something of it. We posted it on werewolf groups on Facebook and on MySpace. I think they've probably been viewed a thousand times or so.

Can you share any website traffic statistics that would support an argument that it was worth the expense and effort?

I don't have the numbers, but I am guessing it's been pretty successful as a site. There has been good buzz about it on the web.

How much traditional advertising did you do to support your book launch?

Not a lot. I made some postcards and some business cards that I sent far and wide. Every time I go to a restaurant I am really nice to the staff and I leave a big tip along with one of my Sharp Teeth cards. It's all kind of fun while being simultaneously pathetic. I'm not sure what good print would do. I think you could be pretty foolish with marketing money in this business, the whole industry is just so fractured. Then again, it seems like the publishing business doesn't quite know how to market itself properly. Incredibly enough, it's simultaneously one of the world's oldest businesses and a wild new frontier.

You also did a series of blog ads with Authorbuzz.  Did you find those generated awareness and traffic to your website?

Hard to say. HarperCollins controls the website and I haven't seen the numbers, but the click through rates from the blog ads were strong and sales have been surprisingly good for an epic poem about dogs, so I have to say that every bit helped. Someone once said that 50% of advertising budgets are wasted, you just don't know which 50%. But I'm pretty sure this was a good idea, I certainly don't regret the investment.

Are you and your publisher happy with the book sales thus far?  And if so, how much credit do you attribute to your website?

I am happy with the sales. I think my publisher would prefer a big bestseller, but I think they're pretty happy too. For a debut novel of free verse featuring werewolves to wind up getting as much mainstream attention as this has gotten is, to me, nice and incredible. I don't know how much the site helped, I just tried to make it worthwhile and have fun with it (which is sort of the same thing I did when I was writing the book). In the end, I think the site did what it was supposed to do.

Do you still get free grape juice?

Nope. In my experience, you don't get a lot of free stuff working on accounts. And while I loved working on Welch's, we parted company a little while back. They're good people. I have been really lucky in my career, I love having the chance to work with these amazing brands. Each one is a novel in and of itself. 

Thanks again to Toby for being so generous with his time and not unleashing his werewolves on MJ’s pampered dog.

And now a final question for you readers… which author has your favorite website?  Leave your nominations in the comments below.

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE and is currently on submission. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #32

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

The past two columns, we covered author websites – the good, the bad, the eyesores. 

In a change of format, the Ad Man is bringing you a two-part interview with author Toby Barlow, whose debut from HarperCollins, “Sharp Teeth,” has been featured by the likes of NPR and The Bat Segundo Show.

Buzz, Balls & Hype approached Toby because his website breaks the mold for a book release. Of course, he’d have to be a fellow Ad Man… currently the Executive Creative Director at J.Walter Thompson in Detroit.

Without further ado…

Toby, before taking on the Ford Auto account, you previously worked on Kleenex, Diamond Trading Co., and Welch’s.  So you obviously understand how to run a brand campaign, right?

I don't know if it's true that I "understand how to run a brand campaign" but I have been thinking about it for a long time.

Digging a little further (i.e. looking at the bottom of your homepage), it appears you site was created by "Honest" who did Boredomhurts.com for Ford.  My Ad Man instincts tell me that you had a pre-existing relationship with Honest and tapped their designers to whip up your kick-ass site, probably calling in all kinds of favors to get it for peanuts. 

I did have a pre-existing relationship with Honest Design, but it actually preceded the work they did for Ford. I met them when I was starting the Plimpton Project and together we created that website. I have no idea why they helped me with it, we had no money, but Plimpton Project turned out to be an awesome site. We were even nominated for a Webby, competing in the fan category against the likes of The Grateful Dead and Harry Potter. Honest also had a pre-existing relationship with HarperCollins, as they had done the site for Michael Crichton's last book. So the opportunity seemed to be there.

What I love about your website is that it creates a whole mood -- an immersive experience -- around your book's world.  It strikes me as something you'd see in support of a feature film, not a hardback book.  What were your goals in creating the site?

The biggest question you have to ask when you're putting together a website for a book is honestly, why the hell do you need a website for a book? A book should be a pretty all encompassing universe of its own, so either you're going to do something that is redundant to the content of the book or it will be somewhat irrelevant. The only answer I could come up with was to use it to add some color to the book, bringing dimension to the tonality, which the web can do really well since it's such a visual medium. So creating animation and public service announcements and photography of the sorts of neighborhoods that inspired the book seemed to frame the book without revealing too much.

Did "Honest" create your website for you before or after you sold the novel to HarperCollins?

After.

Was this something that you funded on your own – or did your publisher end up footing the bill?

The publisher paid for it, but not a lot. So instead of money we gave Honest a mess of creative freedom. I find that if you give people material they think is fun, work they can use as portfolio pieces or work that might win awards, and you let them collaborate with you and come up with ideas they actually want to produce, then money recedes as an obstacle. You also have to be really appreciative and sincere and remember to say "thank you" a lot.

Speaking of the bill, are you comfortable giving a ballpark cost estimate of the site and video elements?

A-Less expensive than a Focus

B-Less Expensive than a Taurus

C-Less Expensive than an Explorer

D-More expensive than an F-150

As I said, it was really cheap. The Honest Guys did it 'cause they are true artists, the animators did it for much the same reason. I had worked with the animators before on another project (the Billy Collins action poetry series) and I think we were all really happy with the way that project had turned out. I just kept asking the animators "Who wants to do that again, only now with my book?” until I found a few who didn't say no.

By making the world of "Sharp Teeth" the focus, and not Toby Barlow the author, you're setting yourself up for creating unique websites to support all future novels.  Is that your intent, or are you planning to design a more catch-all, traditional author home page?

I'm not interested in creating a traditional author homepage. I don't know what the purpose of that would be unless it was to show off odd, unmarketable ideas (come to think of it, I have a lot of those). But I do think the web is better geared to bringing ideas to life and not as some sort of glamorous self-portrait project.

*      *      *

In part two of our interview, Toby will discuss how he shot his “Is Your Dog A Werewolf?” video, what kind of traditional advertising he did for his book launch, and how he reconciles being in advertising, while not branding himself.

What do you think about Toby’s website?  Go ahead and leave your feedback in the comments section.

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE and is currently on submission. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #31

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Q: What’s the most common mistake you see in author homepages?

A:   Last column, we discussed the basics for starting or re-designing your author website.

After reviewing countless author homepages, the most common flaw I see is a lack of focus. 

As novelists, we tend to be… well… wordy.  We want to put all our thoughts out there for the world to see.  Good design is the opposite.  It focuses the eye to the most important, salient image. 

Good advertising copy uses the same principle.  Compare this:

You really should get out there and go jogging; I know your knees kind of hurt and you’re probably still hung over from those two glasses of wine last night, and boy it’s chilly this morning, probably low 50’s if you take into account the wind chill, but exercise is good for your heart, and you’ve been meaning to lose those last 15 pounds, haven’t you?

to this:

Just do it.

Which gets you more motivated to strap on your Nikes?  Now let’s apply the same critical eye to a different industry, say, pet fences.   

Exhibit A is what I’d consider a poorly-designed site.  Signing onto their homepage, I feel like their entire catalogue has been lobbed at my head – duck!!  Remember, when everything is given equal importance on the page, nothing is important or memorable.

Exhibit B strikes me as amateurish, like the company is run out of someone’s garage.  On the homepage, I keep scrolling down, and down, and down… I’m getting carpal tunnel trying to find a local dealer.  And where should I start reading?  All that copy is making me so sleepy…

Exhibit C is not as cluttered, but where does your eye go first?  The homepage has nine small images of dogs, and one tiny picture of a random owner.  No wait, let me get my microscope… hey, that’s Tracie Hotchner, from NPR’s “Dog Talk,” who endorses the product.  Now why isn’t that the most important call-out on the homepage?

Exhibit D has a better design scheme.  It’s cleaner, and your eye is drawn to the dominant doggy picture on the top left.  At the top right, you’ve got an easy-to-use dealer finder.  I’m starting to feel more comfortable giving out my credit card number.

Exhibit E.  Finally, the gold standard of pet fence websites.  Not only is the design clean and professional, but the image and copy (“Safe Pets. Happy Owners.”) plays on the emotional connection between Mom and Fido.  The navigation makes it easy to locate products specific to cats, small dogs, or large dogs.  And the homepage only includes two featured products, not a laundry list.  This website understands that “less is more” when it comes to design and advertising copy.

After eyeballing these five websites, which company would you expect to have the best-made products and most-responsive customer service?  If I owned a free-wheelin’ pet, I’d trust the people behind Exhibit E – and even expect to pay more for their product.  The other companies may very well have comparable or even superior pet fences, but you’d never guess it from their websites.

As you’re designing your own site, here’s some additional keys to keep in mind:

1)      Know your limitations.  Personally, I can write a 350-page novel and plan a media campaign for national and local advertisers.  But website design is a separate beast, and there’s no way I can do it as well as someone who specializes in that field.  Give your designer basic parameters – including sites that you find inspirational – but don’t tie their hands with too much initial direction.  Let him/her come back with some overall concepts… you might be surprised they created a look and feel for your site that’s different (and better) than anything you ever imagined.

2)      Most people find it incredibly hard to advertise themselves.  It’s hard to separate bragging from modesty, important details from fluff.  Which is why I outsourced my website copy to a freelance advertising copywriter (who just happened to be my wife).  If you can’t afford to hire a freelance advertising copywriter (or aren’t married to one), I’d recommend asking a writing colleague to do your “about the author” section.  Here’s an example of what I consider great advertising copy for an author bio.  Notice how it’s short, snappy, gets in a few key details, but never gets bogged down with the author’s accomplishments:

Michael Flocker grew up in West Berlin until the age of nine when his family moved to Wilton, Ct. At the age of nineteen he moved to Manhattan where he quickly became immersed in the New York club scene and the world of fashion.

At twenty-two, he set off for Los Angeles where he appeared in a few commercials, did some bit parts on soaps and landed the occasional hand modeling gig. He went on to write and direct the campy and twisted, low-budget film Hideous Puppets which was a hit on the IFP Cinema Lounge circuit.