Normally right around this time I send out a “Year in Review.” However, this year I’d like to send out a note that looks forward; that describes who we have become and where we are going. I hope you enjoy it.
Social media, branding, digital and traditional PR, direct response, advertising creative and media buying—indeed, all communications disciplines—have blurred together in new and unimagined ways. As a result, confusion and even fear reign among many marketers. The old, easy-to-understand, easy-to-implement marketing approaches are gone forever. In their place have come a new lexicon, new skills, new strategies making communications more effective and more efficient than ever before. Marketers understand the power of social media but many simply lack the experience and skill sets to strategically employ this critical new tool into their marketing mix.
While many agencies claim to have special social media expertise, it is often an empty promise. For social media is not a “me-too” tool. It is a true communications specialization that requires a unique organizational structure.
That is why Middleberg Communications is morphing into Laundry Service. We are a completely different agency than we were just two years ago. With 31 of the best people in the business, today we are about producing measurable, tangible results using owned, earned, and paid media. Producing great content drives so much of what we do. Media relations, while still important, is a part of the marketing mix. At the end of the day our secret sauce is the ability to both create great content and to amplify it through smart, hyper-targeted and cost-effective paid media. That content can include media coverage, original photos and videos, interactive experiences and contests. The point is that few shops of any size have our chops in these two critical areas: content creation and media buying. Within the big agency holding companies, there are media buying companies and creative shops. On social media, that doesn’t work.
Our unique model is what is driving our growth—up 40 % from a year ago. Our client family today includes such great brands as: Amazon, Easy Spirit, iStar Financial, Major World, Rachel Roy, Theater Mania, The Movie Loft and Van Wagner Communications, among the 25 companies were are proud to represent.
So we start 2014 in a completely different mindset. We are intensely committed to being fast and nimble, so that our clients are always a step ahead. With full-service capabilities across owned, earned, and paid media – we are a social media agency.