The deep blue sea

When good synergy exists between ad agency and client, the back and forth quick-witted exchange of ideas is empowering. Cool builds on excitement, mediocre concepts turn brilliant. Both camps dream of working in this manner. Side by side they marry creative genius with retail pragmatism. It is a dream.

Today, my reality is working from the client side. Specifically, I am the client. And while I once dreamed of an advertising agency partner, my concept's birth pangs are all pain without straight line gain. Yes, we have our working concept, but I am vacillating on how best to promote my product and the ad agency isn't helping. They're redrawing, reconfiguring, running loops on how the story line transpires. They're regurgitating my ideas, confirming my concerns as their own, pulling the concept back and forth across the creative focus. In short, they are doing what I desire least. I am become what I fear - the client for whom naught is right, and filled with the sense that I'm smarter than they are and that anyone with a mushy grey matter can create better advertising than this.

The real challenge is that the good folks at the agency won't stand up to me. They'd find success if only a principled line had been drawn and defended. But they don't. I wonder if it is a Midwest cultural thing or if I've scared them with my dose of financial reality [launch this product right or my business goes elsewhere]. The ad team owes me some good pictures of our new coupon phone concept. I am personally invested in my product. Financially, emotionally, historically; the coupon phone is part of my being. Only the best for my baby.

If I were to go back in time and launch the iPhone, but only do the advertising by radio, would it have been a success? I can tell prospective customers all about this great product, how cool it is, how it changes everything, how there's nothing like it in the cell phone world. But would it have worked? I doubt it. The iPhone is one of those products that has an education component; people have to see it work with the finger moving the screen in cool ways with windows expanding and contracting, sliding and scrolling. It only takes a few seconds to see all this, but in those seconds prospects get excited and become customers.

The coupon phone is the same way. A prospect has to see the button being pushed and all the cool deals, discounts and coupons come flying out, ready to procure the "living a smart deal lifestyle" that the product promises customers. When the ad agency pitched heavy radio and static facebook ads, I balked. I need people to see this product work. I need a real thumb clicking a real button on a real phone. Animation can carry the multiples of coupons flying out. But the customer's excitement depends on their "getting" the button.

Concepting is a revolutionary process, and then an evolutionary one. A direction is chosen, then elaborated and carried in different views. Some are dead ends, and others show promise, only to be shot down later when they dead end. In total, I will get what I want. But is that what the coupon phone needs?

Customer feedback has been very positive at point of sale. My last two days have been spent at a 3rd party exclusive agent kiosk in a small mall in Fond du Lac, where I demonstrated the new coupon phone. Based on the feedback I will meet with the agency account team on Monday to discuss adding an option to the concept. The introduction of a new unlimited price point, a new company name and a new coupon phone feature is a lot to shove down the attention pipe of prospects and current customers alike. It'll take time to drive these ideas home and get sales strictly based on the coupon functionality. There's some magical combination of price and coupon phone idea that must prevail. I am glad we are launching the facebook/myspace ads on Monday with two different concepts - one that prioritizes price point with unlimited talk/text/web/picture mail, and the other that prioritizes the coupone phone with sub messages for price point. I'll feel better about a macro direction for the month's long campaign when the test starts to show which is driving the big click throughs. In one version, the coupon phone can be given the iPhone treatment. In the other, I ask customers to come for the price point but stay for the coupons. This bifurcated decision approach is exciting, maddening, elating, infuriating, awe-inspiring and terrifying. In short, there is no roadmap for the creative process. I am in the deep sea. I am happy.

Long live the coupon phone!

Mohammad had no idea what to expect. When I arrived this morning at his kiosk in the Forest Mall in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, he had all the literature, new branding and codes for activating AirFire Mobile customers onto the new $35 unlimited talk, text and web coupon phone. What he didn't have was a sense of why this was important. He hadn't seen the phone in action, and that's the point of this story - to appreciate the power of this device you have to see it. Just like the first iPhone couldn't have succeeded if the only advertising were to come through radio, the coupon phone requires a 30 second education to see the coupon button on the phone, press the button, see all the coupons you can call up, choose one and then realize all you have to do to redeem the coupon is show it on the phone when you're ready to buy.

Hopefully, the ad agency understands and embraces this aspect of the coupon phone and can drive it through both the conceptulization and operationalization of the media campaign.

Our customers get it. When I showed the coupon function to them at the kiosk they immediately thought it neat and an added value beyond the $35 price point. About half said they'd buy it just for the coupons. And several upgraded their non-web phones to new web-enabled coupon phones, even though they had been voice-only customers prior.

It was gratifying seeing Verizon and US Cellular stores empty all day while our booth stayed consistently busy. Every person who visited volunteered to tell others. Can't buy that sort of product evangelism. We've tapped the zeitgeist. Cool.

The Eve of Launch

One year in the making all comes down to tonight. For tomorrow the world gets its first glimse of my creation - the first coupon phone from a United States carrier. But as I sit here with all the launch activity buzzing around the office, with the light fading in the Midwest sky, I am breathing a big exhale and smiling. I have brought this new concept to life. A $35 per month unlimited talk, text and web phone that features local deals, discounts and coupons at the click of a button. Advertisers subsidizing a rate plan so my product can be less expensive than other carriers, leveraging all the strengths of being a carrier, with the localization and innovation strategy to guide our next steps towards increasing value in the product; I'm proud of the outcome.

Word is starting to get out early. The customer care lines are jammed with people trying to opt in to the new plan. The feeling around the company is optimistic - we're going to grow quick.

Trip to Madison

Drove two hours south to Madison, Wisconsin through dense fog. Not too many cars on the road at 4:45 am. High potential for accidents on the road leading to Madison (Rt 151), so I was glad to arrive without incident. The photo shoot scheduled for today started right on time at 7:00 am, with set up of the new AirFire Mobile brand planogram easier than I thought. The store staff, the KW2 ad agency personnel and even the Airadigm engineers all played a part to make the shoot smooth and concise. Then, as we are not launching the new brand, new plan and new products until later we took all the posters, banners, literature and what-not down to be stored until launch. Reviewing the raw footage, the agency and I agree that we have the shots needed to create our short story suitable for our website, facebook, linked in, myspace, and other critical sources of communication. I am starting to feel good about launch.