The article about Ignited zapping Zappos was one of the first things I read this morning. I was annoyed then and I’m still annoyed.
If you’re not familiar with the story, here’s the background:
Zappos put out an RFP for an agency and a $7MM marketing effort.
Zappos originally gave it to 16 agencies. But, when Adweek published the RFP, they opened it to any. While I don’t quite agree with this, the thought behind it fits into their core values.
Zappos got a total of 104 submissions.
Ignited, one of the agencies that submitted is pissed.
Through Google Analytics, Ignitied determined that the Zappos team spent about a minute on reviewing their proposal and only looked at 1/5th of the pages in the deck.
Here’s why I will never work with Ignited:
OMG. What babies. I get they spent a lot of time putting together a deck. But, it obviously sucked, the first five pages were NOT compelling enough to keep people turning or they weren’t on point with the brand.
They cried and criticized in public. Did Ignited even bother to have a follow up call with Zappos to understand why they weren’t chosen?
Kinda of 2.1… Zappos hand selected 16 agencies to send the RFP to. Did the 88 other agencies really think they had a good shot?
In their ranting blog post, they “threaten” to let future potential clients know they’ll be measuring time spent reviewing their submission. EWWW. Are they F*’ing kidding?! Yes, this is a great statement / mindset to kick off a new relationship with a partner.
In full disclosure, I’m friends with the person at Zappos who made the final decisions. Like me, she spent WAY more time pouring over the hard copies of the submissions than the digital versions. Yea… Ignited didn’t mention that they submitted hard copies in their rant.
Vegas is a small, close-knit town. You screw one of us, you screw us all. For that reason alone, I won’t work with Ignited. I think all of my counterparts would take the same stance.
Sure, I get that agencies work hard at a deck. But, think of it like sending an email to your CEO. How many times have you realized they didn’t read it and/or that they’re inundated with emails. With that in mind, how do you make your email stand out? The same theory should apply to mass RFP submissions – WOW ‘em on page one, make page two interesting enough to continue reading and keep the rest relevant, to the point and light on text.
Ignited – with your silly, bitter blog post and PR stunt, I think you lost more business than you’ll gain.
It is impossible to fall out of love. Love is such a powerful emotion, that once it envelops you it does not depart. True love is eternal. If you think that you were once in love, but fell out of it, then it wasn’t love you were in. There are no ‘exit’ signs in love, there is only an ‘on’ ramp.
Honestly, I don’t think I have high standards. But, I bring my A game and I expect everyone I work with to do the same. Of course, when people don’t, I feel like the below picture.
Before graduating, I had every intention of getting a MBA or law degree. But, then Senior Year hit. Not only was I burned out, but I started to realize that a BS was just that – a BS piece of paper. Looking back, there’s not a lot of things I still use from my classes. But, I sure as hell use what I learned from extra-curriculars and jobs I held during college. With that in mind, I gave the finger to higher education and got a j-o-b.
Lately, I’ve been considering going back to get a MBA. I think another BS piece of paper will help me get to the next step in my career. Needless to say, I was interested to see how this debate unfolded. But, the reasons to get a MBA felt lacking. Maybe it’s the industry I’m in, but below are a few of the arguments I disagreed with.
“It teaches you to evaluate and understand problems in the context of the entire business.” You don’t need a MBA to think like this, you just need to think operationally. If you want your campaign to be a success, you have to take into consideration how it effects each department. I do this everyday, for every project. You have to. What happens when you drop an eblast to 6 million and don’t tell your Call Center about the promotion? Yep, I think you’ll have an unprepared and un-staffed Call Center, leading to a lot of call abandonment, which ultimately equals less revenue for ME. Sure, not everyone thinks operationally, but it’s something easily learned; not something you need to take a class for.
“You learn to quickly and methodically assess business problems.” Until reading this, I didn’t realize people didn’t do cost-benefit analysis and SWOT for every project. Again, it’s something I do constantly. I’m baffled that people would dive into a project without doing a proforma first. And, once again, you certainly don’t need a MBA to create either of these documents, you just need to think operationally.
“It prepares you for dealing with greater ambiguity.” Maybe I don’t fully understand this one, but once again, I don’t feel like you need a MBA to take on more responsibility. You do have to WANT to take on more. You have to want to grow, expand your knowledge and take on tasks outside your job description. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of “checklists”. However, I am a big fan of delivering results. On time
Besides the, “Hey, you can’t be President without a MBA,” I’m still waiting for a GREAT reason to go back to school vs. self learning.
Second, part of me feels bad for all of the smaller agencies that attempted to throw their hat into Current’s RFP process.
In case you missed it, here’s the skinny: Back in April, Current TV’s VP of Brand Marketing put out an RFP for Current via twitter. Ohhh Ahhhh. It was new. It was cool. It was “cutting edge”. Every agency and their sister kissed ass and replied. With that, Jordan Kretchmer increased the list of participating agencies from five to fifteen. Of course, it made for a great blog post
It’s two months later. What’s happened? Well, Krechmer has left for a venture start-up (aka he was asked to resign), Current hired a new SVP of Marketing and they’ve decided to reassess, internally, their marketing strategy. Hmmm… guess where that leaves the participating agencies. Yep, NO WHERE. The RFP is on hold indefinitely.
Here’s my questions:
WTF? How do you put out an RFP without having it reviewed by someone at your company? Don’t you think at that time someone would have realized they’re not quite ready to go down this path?
The takeaway?
Everyone’s time is valuable. From the person putting out the RFP to the people within the agencies participating. Don’t screw around. Don’t waste people’s time. Oh yeah, and have balls. Tell people straight up, “No, you’re not the right fit.” That way, they don’t waste their time, you don’t waste your time and everyone can move on.
PS – I did it too, but it sure does suck when spelling/grammar mistakes in your RFP are made public.
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