Can A Grease Monkey Build a Spaceship?!?

Can a grease monkey build a spaceship? 

Having a printer create a concept for your collateral or a media rep create your ads is like asking your car mechanic to fly you to the moon.

For years Lippi & Co. has developed communication strategies that are built on a methodology to sell for our clients. As an advertising professional, I am sick of the marketplace being told by printers and media reps that they can handle the creative portion for their clients primarily to sell the ad space or sell printing. If I sound a bit course here, it's only because I am so passionate about what I know needs to be done to ensure efficient and effective marketing.

The media rep, whether print, radio or TV, will tell you that they will create the ad, radio spot or TV commercial for you at no additional cost.This is providing of course, that you pay for the ad placement. Let me explain that if you hire an ad agency, yes, you would have to pay for the creative as well as pay for the placement. What the media rep doesn't tell you, however, is that the person who is creating your ad, spot or commercial, is most often NOT a marketing professional. The cost to you may not be in the form of dollars, but in the less-than-adequate messaging, poor branding, or worse - you may have been sold placement where your target audience can't find you.

With the printer who wants to handle the creative for you, your biggest concern is continuity of branding. If your print message doesn't match your website, and these differ from your radio spots, email blasts or TV commercials, how will anyone be able to connect your advertising and recognize your brand? If you strategically plan your budget, you can spend less, and appear to be everywhere. If your message is consistent, you will be building a recognizable brand as well.

Being true marketing professionals, we base our clients' marketing plans on years of research and spending the time studying the marketplace and learning about our clients' competition. This process helps our clients' position against the competition. Our media planners know how to maximize an advertising budget to deliver the most bang for the buck. Ask your media rep or printer if they're prepared to do this for you. I suspect not.