Academy Media Group Yellow Pages Division is Now National Yellow Pages Media

It’s been quite a while since my last post and so much has changed! Let me briefly bring you up to speed. The Yellow Pages division of Academy Media Group has transitioned over to National Yellow Pages Media (www.nypmedia.com).

Renae Dabney and I are now employed by NYPM, a leading independent National Directory Marketing agency with no affiliation to any advertising agencies or marketing services holding companies.  NYPM works with a diverse base of regional and national clients.  The interactive division, YellowWord (www.yellowword1.com), provides search engine marketing, Internet Yellow Pages, online content management and performance-based advertising solutions for local, regional and national advertisers.

It’s been a few months and we’re finally getting acclimated with our new surroundings. We’ve missed the opportunity to correspond with you all and we’re in the process of starting a new blog.  The industry has gone through tremendous changes recently and we’ve got a lot more info to share with you.

Thanks for your patience and continued readership.   Please bookmark our new blog at http://nypmedia.wordpress.com.

Renae and I, as well as the rest of the NYPM team, look forward to hearing from you in the near future!

Media Plans & Budgets for 2009 – How’s It Looking?

Yes, it’s that time of year, planning.  At the recent Association of National Advertisers Conference, marketers, media and creative agencies and others participated in a poll about their marketing mix, budgets, plans and strategies for 2009.   I thought it was interesting to see the outcomes and that situations vary.  Some businesses will spend more, some less and some will spend roughly their current marketing budgets, but in different methods.

  

The following information is courtesy of an article published by “The Verified Audit Newsletter”.  We thought you’d be interested to review the results of the poll while you’re completing your own plans for the upcoming year.

 

Adjustment to current marketing and media plans to account for the recent downturn in the financial markets:

• 33% say spending will be reduced
• 33% say spending will be constant / marketing mix will be reallocated
• 27% expect to spend more
• 8% will keep everything status quo

CEO view of marketing efforts with respect to growth:

• 56% think of brand building as an investment
• 21% think it’s an unaccountable but necessary expense
• 15% are not sure
• 8% consider it an unnecessary expense

Preferred social media site for driving brand growth:

• 32% say none
• 20% say YouTube
• 18% say Facebook
• 12% like them all
• 10% say LinkedIn
• 6% MySpace
• 3% Twitter

Plans for marketing expense in 2009 vs. 2008:

• 26% plan to increase spending more than 10%
• 13% plan to increase spending less than 10%
• 28% will hold stable
• 14% will decrease spending less than 10%
• 19% will decrease spending more than 10%

The largest branding discipline offering opportunity for growth:

• 28% say social media integration
• 19% say grassroots, viral public relations
• 17% say traditional 30-second spots
• 16% say web advertising
• 7% say one-page advertisements in a newspaper/magazine
• 7% say direct marketing
• 5% say radio

Company’s current measurement method of brand growth:

• 70% say sales and net income
• 15% use third-party brand equity valuations
• 9% think shareholder value
• 4% measure by household penetration
• 3% say company culture

Source: Association of National Advertisers, October 2008

Small Business Marketing Unleashed, Columbus Ohio

I can’t believe SBMU, Columbus Ohio is over!  We surely made the right decision by attending.  Where do I begin?  There were so many great sessions that I’m not sure where to start.  They covered Website Development, Keyword Research, Copywriting basics, Link Building, Email Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click Marketing to name a few topics.

 

We received tons of handouts and plan to review them and provide some of the key tips and information for you over the next several weeks.

 

I’d also like to say “Thank You” to Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends.  During her session on “Marketing Mania: Driving Business Without Driving Yourself Crazy” I answered one of her questions correctly and won the book, “How to Make Money with Myspace”!  Also, we’d like to thank Rachel Phillips of Search Engine Guide for posing with us so that we could add to our pic collection.

 

So, all in all, great people, good food, helpful tips and information we can use to help our clients.

 

Check back in from time to time for more updated posts regarding this conference.  You could possibly learn something new or enhance what you already know.

We’re About to Get Unleashed!

So, we’re less than a month away from Small Business Marketing Unleashed in Columbus!  Even though we expect to network and enjoy the company and the food, that’s not our main reason to attend this conference. 

We’re anticipating the really cool topics for discussion such as website architecture, blogging for business, link building, viral marketing, copywriting and usability.  The bottom line is help businesses develop a plan to improve traffic and sales on their website.

The group of attendees is limited to 100 and Patti Spirko and I are fortunate enough to be registered!  Be sure to come back and visit us for updates from our notes and comments once we return.  If you attended SBMU in Houston,Texas we’d love to hear from you.

Worldwide Media Group has a new name (AND A NEW BLOG)!

Effective Monday, July 28^th Worldwide Media Group* is changing its name to Academy Media Group.  The content from the Worldwide Media Group blog can now be found here. 

We’re excited to announce the recent consolidation of divisions and name change within our organization. 

In keeping in line with industry trends and satisfying our clients’ needs, we have taken steps to diversify our product suite.  We’ve added Search Engine Marketing, including Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click, Website Design/Development and Email Marketing services to our existing offerings for National White and Yellow Pages advertising for print directories and the Internet.

In doing so, we’ve realized the added benefit of bringing our division together with our parent company, Academy Communications, Inc., to more effectively promote and market our organization as one entity, instead of two.  For the past twelve years each brand has worked independently and we’re looking with great anticipation toward the future.  Moving forward, Academy Communications, Inc. and its Worldwide Media Group division will be united as Academy Media Group!

We will continue to utilize our key resources, our employees, capitalizing on their strengths.  We will “marry” the two divisions and their respective service offerings to now include traditional media such as Radio, Television, Outdoor, Direct Mail and Promotions, in addition to the Search Engine Marketing, Web Design/Development, Email Marketing and the Yellow Pages services mentioned above.  This will allow us to work together more effectively, bringing you, and our customers, a total solutions service provider.

*Worldwide Media Group was not affiliated with Worldwide Media Direct, Inc.

Are Your Clients Happy? Just Ask!

Having just attended the Cleveland Tri-City Chamber of Commerce Luncheon, the key word was innovation!  As an agency with the goal of satisfying our client base, it’s extremely important to analyze various ways to innovate.  One of the best methods is simple…..just ask!  We want to find out areas where we’re excelling, and then fine tune processes that require improvement.  Great ideas and great food!

Getting the word out

The Worldwide Directory Advertising to Worldwide Media Group name change announcement made the Cleveland Plain Dealer.  It’s a tiny mention but hey, I’ll take the free publicity any time!  http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/business-0/120575852330380.xml&coll=2