Friday, September 19, 2008

A look at Fletcher Martin- the agency behind Arbys' ad stunt

Special surprises greeted thousands of Atlanta commuters during their drive down I-75, yesterday. If they took the time to observe any of the billboards, they may have noticed the Arby's logo on large helium balloons  floating above faces of local and national celebrities (to imply the were "Thinking Arbys"-as the logo says).

The guerilla advertising stunt  made the rounds on adrants so it tempted me to take a deeper look at the firm behind the stunt- Fletcher Martin. On first glance,the company's motto flashed across the screen: It doesn't matter how well you say the wrong thing

A quick read over  the About us section made me feel like I was combing through the first chapter of a self-help book. Fletcher Martin's view on advertising:

"We're not saying advertising is broken, but the system it operates in currently leaves a lot to be desired.Which is why we took a long look in the mirror and at our industry and analyzed the problems we saw recurring over-and-over again. (how's that for redundancy?) We cant fix our industry, but we can at least fix ourselves.

Well, I wasn't too impressed by the Dr. Phil jargon they spewed in the intro, but I proceeded to research the specific details of their strategies, and I discovered some simple but worthy insights.

The last ten years have forever changed the advertising landscape. The typical advertising formula no longer works. Consumers are too savvy to believe that your product is "World famous" just because you say so. They go online. They scour message boards. They find the truth. The power dynamic has shifted. Consumers go looking for what they want. And you have to be ready to answer the call.

Obviously, there are many different areas where their strategies could and should incorporate SEO, but Fletcher-Martin never specifically cites it as one of their methods.

Fletcher-Martin uses results-based fees for their clients. Obviously, there's some form of scale they must use to determine  the amount each client "achieves", compared to their former ad agency. A list of their clients  include Carvel ice cream, Learjet,Northwest airlines,Twa,Arbys,Sonic drive-ins,GE, and Energizer.

Personally, I consider the Sonic TV ads to be some of the most annoying  I've ever seen, and the Arby's TV ads are slightly less annoying. Perhaps those reasons, along with to the poor feedback from their online and print ads.one of the main reasons Arby's resorted to Fletcher-Martin and the balloon invasion.

Overall, I think Fletcher-Martin has some solid principals and unique approaches to marketing, we'll just have to see how those Atlanta drivers respond, and what Arby will resort to for their next stunt.

By Matt O'Hern at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)

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