Megan Sullivan-Jenks, Director of Marketing at Choozle: We sometimes like to kick these off by asking the most important questions first. If you could only watch one movie for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Jeff Jones, Director of Media Services at McCulloch+Company: The logical choice would be Groundhog Day, right?!
MSJ: When growing your agency, self-service media buying was your first instinct. Why?
JJ: A few reasons:
- No minimums for programmatic campaigns
- Control of campaign setup and optimization
- More speed of campaign management and reporting
- Ability to make additional revenue through expanded agency digital services
MSJ: What won you over when you started exploring Choozle as your in-house programmatic solution?
JJ: A low-pressure salesperson, the small, nimble, forward-thinking Choozle team, and exceptional training and account support.
MSJ: Have you seen any immediate time or cost savings on your team?
JJ: Absolutely. Without having to play phone tag with outside sales staff (revisions, reporting, optimization, troubleshooting, billing), we’ve seen tangible time savings. Additionally, outside ad tech vendors often have significant turnover that requires re-training sales staff and account managers.
MSJ: What are some long-term benefits of using Choozle at your agency?
JJ: We’ve seen an increased perception as a digital leader among clients and prospects, and additional revenue. Self-service is the way the industry is headed!
MSJ: You’re working with some huge names in the B2B market, specifically targeting auto dealer owners, which is a really niche space. Who are your ideal clients?
JJ: B2B can be very rewarding and digital tactics are becoming more sophisticated. This continues to be a target client base for us. However, B2C clients can be more engaging and help with new business efforts and employee retention since they’re more “sexy.” We continue to seek national, regional, or multi-market brand in the retail, CPG, technology, healthcare, travel/tourism, banking, transportation, and service categories.
MSJ: What marketing strategies do you use for your clients?
JJ: In addition to digital, we are experts at radio, TV, cable, SEM/Search, out-of-home, print, direct mail, and more. While the overwhelming majority of our programmatic efforts are managed within the Choozle platform, we do some direct digital buying and enlist select ad tech vendors that may have unique creative or tech offerings.
MSJ: Why these strategies over all the others?
JJ: We are agnostic and recommend whatever combination of media tactics best reach our clients’ target prospects. It’s finding the most effective mix that makes this job challenging and fun.
MSJ: High-quality campaigns and client retention are really important to you. If you had your pick of clients to expand beyond your current market, who would they be?
JJ: Like our mantra, good media ideas, we’re always looking for clients that are genuine and provide a useful product or service. Whether they are eco-friendly, market disruptive, or entrenched in their communities, these type of worthwhile brands energize our staff. Marketing isn’t on the same level as politicians and lawyers, but we’re not heart surgeons either. We seek partners that recognize our expertise and the value of true partnership.
MSJ: How do you source and/or pitch new business?
JJ: Most new business comes from relationships, but we are seeing success from our search efforts and are launching our own programmatic efforts targeting c-suite marketers. Since we are media-centric, some come from our creative agency partners. We’re also being more aggressive about industry event participation and speaking engagements to raise our visibility and thought leadership in the community. Agency newsletters and outbound efforts have been challenging because of our niche as a media-centric agency. RFPs are a waste of time and energy!
Jeff Jones is the Director of Media Services at McCulloch+Company in Roswell, Georgia. He has been a skilled advertising media professional since 1990, with extensive experience in the development and implementation of multi-channel media programs. He is accomplished in digital marketing (search, display, video, social), broadcast, print, OOH, and direct marketing channels. Additionally, Jeff has extensive B2C and B2C category depth, with notable success in retail, healthcare, travel/tourism, and automotive categories and is well-versed in brand management, research and data analysis, creative campaign development, materials trafficking, account stewardship, and proof-of-performance metrics. Jeff has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oral Roberts University.
