It's the Pepsi Generation for . . . whatever

  

You've seen a billion of them. TV spots for everything from cars to phones to beer to vodka to  . . .  jeeze, probably even to long-term disability insurance.

They feature millennials just having so much fun as they run around, drive around, race around in the city, the country, on the beach, at a bar or at a party. They're quick cuts with lively music as they love their phones, their beer, their cars, their whatever else and  . . .

And they're repetitive and unoriginal. 

Our friend Lyn Thompson used to say back in the 70's that this sort of thing was "The Pepsi Generation for (product name goes here)."

There are two things about this that are kind of embarrassing. One is that they are for national brands who can't seem to find an agency with much in the way of original thought.

The other is that they run together so much and are so much one to another that it's hard to remember a specific or two.Which kind of seems to be the antithesis to advertising. Call me old-fashioned, but I never thought that the idea was to do ads and spots like everybody else's ads and spots.

Anybody can do that.

Nobody likes budget development.  So let's talk about budget development.

One reason budget development for hotels and resorts is often such a headache is  because of starting at the wrong end. With tactics.

If you start with a list of tactics and assign costs next to each one, you will almost always end up with more than you can afford. Do you start with a list of "things to do" like advertising, PR, SEO, PPC and so on and simply put a cost next to each one? Let's re-think that. Don't just start with last year's tactics.

Start with goals and expectations instead. Be clear in your mind what your goals and expectations are. Build occupancy? Increase rate? A little bit of both? Or just maintain and not lose any ground?

We've put a thought-starter spreadsheet in the Thinking section of our website that can help you determine a budget level – and you'll see how having goals in mind can help you settle on what that budget figure ought to be. This worksheet lets you play around with different revenue goals and budget scenarios.

The point is, have your goals and expectations and a budget figure all lined up. Now you can think about tactics. But this way, you're looking at which tactics will help you reach that goal the most cost-effectively.

You still may find that they don't all fit within your budget. But at least this way, you have some parameters with which to evaluate and prioritize those efforts and determine which will bring you the best return. That's good.

And one reason it is good is that it might force you or whomever you work for to examine exactly how serious you are about your goals. If you have aggressive goals, but aren't willing to apply aggressive resources to them, well then, the whole budgeting exercise can seem a bit pointless.

If you've approached this the right way – setting goals and expectations first, then setting your budget figure, then prioritizing the tools you need to reach those goals and you simply can't get there from here, it's time to go back and re-think your goals or your budget. That spreadsheet makes it pretty easy to do either one.

This is a big topic that could go on forever, so we posted a downloadable paper in the "Thinking" section of our website with more on it. Help yourself.

But if you're like many in the hospitality industry, when budget season comes around you are asked to do more with less. This might be a business-based argument to take to the CFO.

What's the actual goal here?

OK, so we're the creative agency for a warm-weather resort client and Somebody Else does the social media. Right now, it's cold as hell in the Northeast, but, of course, toasty warm at the resort property.

So, the client wants to get some Facebook ads placed right quick pointing this out to their target.

OK now believe it or not, Facebook has different ad specs if you want to drive business to your website and if you want to generate page likes.

We sort of assumed the goal was to drive people to the website. You know to, um, well book a room? The social agency patiently explained to us that their goal is to generate page likes, so we need to re-size the ad.

So, to repeat: It's cold where the target lives, warm where the resort property is and rather than try to get people to visit the web site to book a room our goal is to generate page likes?

That might make the social agency look good, but isn't the ultimate point here to sell rooms?

What am I missing?