Please note: This is part ten of a twelve part series. A new entry will be made each Thursday. To view the entire series, please visit the Death of an Ad Agency category.
Diversified Recruitment Advertising (previously Classified USA of Nevada) quickly became the Las Vegas Review Journal’s largest client in their classified (help wanted) section. You would think that the newspaper would respect that relationship. The opposite was true.
The RJ continued to refer to us as ‘that company’ who owns the Employment Guide, which we no longer did. After multiple conversations with upper management about our selling the media group holdings to Trader Advertising (a Cox and Landmark Communications partnership that no longer exists), you would think they would have accepted this fact. They did not. In the meantime, we continued to receive what I consider to be the worst customer service in history. Clients have since reassured me it is no different than how they have been treated for years.
The fight that was brewing between the agency and the newspaper was not one that I could gauge; nor could I project what would happen next. In the past, I would rely on Ted Stepien (my partner from Classified USA who I had bought out) to fight these battles. Ted had done so for decades with success, both as owner of Classified USA and Nationwide Advertising Services (NAS). This time I could not rely on Ted; he had no vested interest in the agency any longer. As the sole owner, it was my battle and I had to fight it myself.
Undercurrents about our educating clients on the effectiveness of the Internet were always prevalent. The newspaper felt that our loyalty should reside with them and only them. Fortunately for our clients, our commitment to excellence and delivering the absolute best service, always outweighed the demands of the newspaper.
The comment “Our client is our boss, not you” became the Groundhog Day (movie) of my life. The Review Journal’s aggressiveness became an annoyance; one that was met with an increased desire to develop a better solution for our clients than the mediocrity the newspaper offered.
My non-compete agreement with Trader Advertising forbid me from owning any type of media within a 50 mile radius of Las Vegas. However, we began experimenting with a concept that combined the success of the Internet and the fact that the talent Nevada needed did not live here yet. The media website would actually live outside of my 50 mile boundary and market to those who lived outside of it as well. The concept was a website that we did not put a name to until August 2001. It was www.lvnurses.com.
LVNurses would be a blend between a job board for nurses and a relocation portal that would assist a nurse in moving to Las Vegas. It would address the Las Vegas nursing shortage from a supply-demand perspective and attract nurses from around the country to relocate to Nevada.
The concept was simple - market Las Vegas as the greatest place to live, nurse and play. And use the Internet to get the word out. And of course – encourage our clients to invest their recruitment advertising budget where results were measured and delivered; guaranteeing cost-effectiveness as we always have.
Clients saw the value and began to talk openly about the innovative idea that was being developed. Budgets were being allocated for the near future and word was out on the streets of the healthcare community. Major employers outside of our existing client-base began to ask how they could get involved.
Then somehow, the solution and a spec design of what the website would look like, leaked into the hands of the RJ.
The animosity we already felt from the Las Vegas Review Journal was just an early symptom. The two headed snake that Ted Stepien warned me of back in 1996 was about to rear its’ head.
Stay tuned: This is part ten of a twelve part series. The next entry will be next Thursday. Thanks for reading Death of an Ad Agency.
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