Time to Share

On March 29, 2007, Advertising Age wrote that VML, based in Kansas City, Missouri, won the lead the digital duties for Cadbury Schweppes. VML will also be the interactive creative and development agency of record. Nine days before, the Kansas City Star reported the same, but the link to the article does not work (404 not found). On February 12, 2007, Kristi Veitch, VML Partner and Human Resources Director, was the speaker at a KSU Ad Club meeting. Along with informative resume tips, she mentioned to us that VML has a new, big client - Cadbury Schweppes.

This leads me to wonder if all agencies acquire their client weeks or months before it is announced by the press. Did it take a month because the lawyers had to review what was written? Does the PR side take that long to write a press release? Why did it take so long?

Another Tidbit:

On Cadbury Schweppes' Web site, there is no mention (in the "Investor Centre" section) of VML being selected for their company. No results came up after typing in "VML". Why not? If I were putting large sums of money into a company I believed in - for profit or any other reason - as an investor, I would want to know where my investment is going. Should I have to look for the news myself? If it were mentioned in the news feed, I could better understand things going on. And I could/would then review the agency's work.

An investor could also be the CEO of a growing company that wants to advertise to more people but doesn't know how. (The thought of this happening seems unlikely, but I'm sure there are a handful out there.) Digital can certainly open the possibilities of a global reach. A digital agency like VML can surely help. The investor may not have considered the idea of using digital communication to create more investors in his or her respective company. Even if the CEO didn't go to VML - because it wasn't right at the time, or for any other reason - the thought is still there. The possibility of something in the future is ten times more likely than it was when there was no chance. Perhaps the CEO serves as a chairperson of a board. Other chairpersons are from other companies. This introduces the likelihood of the CEO to bring digital communication into a conversation with other partnering businesses. "It didn't work out for our company at the time, but maybe it will work for you." And the chain continues.

The same reward is what happens for bloggers. For example, I link to your blog because I find your content to be interesting, and you get more traffic. You link to someone whom you also find interesting, and the chain goes on. Links may not benefit every single person, but we shouldn't be interested in reaching every single person, although it would be nice.