Dave’s Take

The phenomenal success of the iPhone and iPad has been both a boom and a bust for their proprietary wireless provider, AT&T. On one hand, having the exclusive rights to the millions of smart phones and fancy pads is like owning a money tree; but on the other, it is more like the sword of Damocles, waiting to behead the corporate giant of its profits and reputation for what many customers have described as horrible customer service and shoddy reception. After years of simply ignoring the complaints, AT&T recently decided to change direction and has begun to actually encourage customer input. Is this latest move an act of desperation or inspiration? I firmly believe it’s the latter and industry insiders are beginning to agree with me.

Just how serious is AT&T about rehabilitating its image? Plenty, as evidenced by their proactive hiring of “social media strategist” for customer care, Shawn McPike. After coming on board last August, McPike has moved to increase his department’s staff from one to 19 full-time customer care agents. Among those, are five who do nothing but deal with AT&T social media mentions, which number over 10,000 per day. How successful has their customer outreach been? To date, over 47% of customers reached via social channels like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have responded to AT&T’s correspondence, resulting in over 37,000 service responses per month. In explaining their (AT&T) new approach to complaints, McPike stated, “It’s hard to sit there and let someone blast you, but that’s the only way we are going to improve. As much as it’s not pleasant, I have to fully acknowledge and encourage people who come to me and listen.”

To mollify customer criticism, the customer care team responds directly to those who engage them via Twitter (@ATTCustomerCare) or through their wall on Facebook. And while they can’t immediately provide any help concerning bandwidth complaints (the number one grievance), they can boast about AT&T’s response in spending over $19 billion this year alone to improve both its wired and wireless infrastructures. The question remains, is this enough of a response to garner increased customer satisfaction? “I’m glad AT&T is pushing forward. They’ve really let the media run the story for the longest time,” says Chris Brogan, president of corporate PR watch dog, New Marketing Labs. Brogan agrees with the philosophy that doing something is better than doing nothing in regards to negative publicity spread via social media sites.

As a long time customer of AT&T mobile services, I welcome any attempt at direct communications between the multi-national giant and its customers. To me, there is nothing more frustrating than failing to at least get someone to listen to your service-related complaints. Whether that channel of communication actually solves any problems is secondary to the mere appearance of concern from a provider. While it may at worst end up being just lip service, at least it satisfies the eternal need for all of us to at least be heard.

As someone who has worked in the ad biz for more than 20 years, I can honestly say that I’ve never seen the industry in as bad a shape as it is right now. Every advertising and marketing person I know is singing the blues, wondering if the outlook on our profession is as dismal as our imagination has led us to believe. Now we have factual proof that our fears are indeed based upon truth. In the recently released, “Advertising Age’s Agency Report – 2010″, the dismal state of affairs in which our industry currently wallows is spelled out in detail. While it documents how bad things truly are, it also gives us hope in reporting the corner has been turned and perhaps recovery is on its way.

The severity of the national decline in ad revenue is astounding. According to the report, 2009 witnessed the greatest decline in industry revenue in the 66 years Advertising Age has tracked it. Statistics reveal that total revenue for the American businesses of advertising, marketing, public relations and media services dropped 7.5% to a total of $28.4 billion spent last year. Not surprising, this rate just happens to exactly match the 7.8% drop in advertising/marketing/PR jobs in 2009. Even the ever-growing health care advertising market witnessed a decline of 1.6%. And despite the lowest cable and network broadcast rates in years, media placement agencies reported their net income fell over 10%. Event marketing took its medicine as well, with promotion-based agencies suffering through a 13% decline in revenue for 2009.

The final shot of bad news documented within the report is found in the number of registered agencies in the United States. Between 2008 and 2009, the total number of ad agencies dropped from 912 to 883. In regards to specific positions, U.S. agencies laid off a collective 58,400 jobs during that same time. A depressing 107,700 ad jobs have been lost since the recession began in 2007, with January of this year topping out with the lowest level of advertising employment since 1994.

But before we all jump off the nearest bridge we need to contemplate the good news the AA report has contained within its pages. It seems (hopefully) the worst has passed and the future is beginning to look brighter. Optimists point to all the major accounts in play as a sign the ad biz is gearing up for its rise from the ashes. There are even signs some of the major agencies are either preparing to or are actually hiring new employees. I sure hope that’s true, as even the most optimistic advertising professional has had their world turned upside down for the past three years. I think we all deserve a change of fortune and here’s to wishing 2010 is the year it happens.

For the majority of my life I’ve watched Public Service Announcements (aka-PSAs) on my television warning me of the dangers of everything from smoking to dropping out of school. Some of the most memorable PSAs are as burned into my brain as much as any book or movie I’ve enjoyed. Who can forget the anti-liter campaign featuring an actual Native American Chief with a tear in his eye as he witnesses the destruction of his land by litterbugs? How about the series of spots reminding viewers to wear their seatbelts featuring the world famous Crash Test Dummies? Every time I see an old Perry Mason rerun, I think of the powerful anti-smoking PSA made by William Talman shortly before he died of lung cancer.

Despite their effectiveness and backing from the National Ad Council, the American broadcast PSA has pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur. While once protected by law, the public service announcement of the 21st century is now mostly confined to paid placement. Thanks to the removal of regulations during the Reagan administration, television and radio stations are no longer bound by law to provide a certain percentage of their airtime for free to PSAs. Despite the proliferation of cable and satellite channels, the powers that be apparently find PSAs to be too intrusive to the profitability of broadcasters. And that’s a shame.

We need well produced PSAs as a daily reminder of the kind of important issues we are all too busy to think about or to teach others, including our children. A properly produced PSA can cut through clutter and can leave a lasting impression on viewers, especially young viewers. If anyone doubts this, they only need look to the cutting edge anti-smoking campaign that has been running since the big tobacco companies settled with the government. The “Truth” PSAs have been incredibly successful in cutting teenage smoking in the states that have funded their airing. The reason for their success? Truth. They don’t lecture or depend on the claims of exaggerated side effects like the ineffective anti-drug campaigns of the past. They show smoking like it is – a filthy, dirty habit that will eventually kill you.

Despite their success, the majority of young viewers will never see the Truth spots because their states elected to steal the tobacco settlement money they received and divert it to funding the daily expenses of government. This is just one more example of a bureaucratic blunder that has a direct and deleterious impact on the daily lives of Americans. The public needs to demand a return of mandated funding and airing of Pubic Service Announcements. They are a proven method of bettering our lives without having to reinvent the wheel.