I handle several retail clients for CurrentMarketing, which means that even slight changes in the world of financing can rock my world from a creative perspective. Lately, we've seen serious changes take hold.

Gone are the days of promoting "interest FREE" or "0% financing" - welcome to the world of "No Interest if paid in full within 12 months, minimum monthly payments apply."  That poses a big enough real estate problem, right? Follow that with two paragraphs of disclaimer copy at 8-point type (minimum) and you can see the conundrum with creative for our retail clients.

In spite of the challenges newspapers are facing these days, the cost of a print ad in the local newspaper is still very expensive (that's another blog topic all together). Now we also have to consider the amount of costly real estate that must be left for financing and disclaimers, not to mention shrinking widths and heights to accommodate for increased hard goods costs.

So, the dilemma becomes how to explain to my client that the extra retail price point they want to include in an ad has to be cut to leave space for the disclaimer? Or how do I justify to my client that the space we've secured has to increase to allow for the additional copy requirements on financing?

We can't leave financing out of the equation, especially in a competitive division of retail, and the associated fees for espousing inaccurate financing offers can be steep.  We've considered moving budgets to other forms of advertising, but banks are also savvy and have imposed special requirements to all forms of promotion, even digital arenas.

What is the best way to handle the changing face of financing?  Any ideas?

8:00 am: Arrive in office. Open up the building for the day.  Very few people around but all are beginning to filter into the office. Grab some coffee and prepare for our morning meeting (Jolt).  Review billing from accounting, a quick look at emails from over night, check phone messages and then head into for morning Jolt.  Following Jolt, I handle a few HR and operations issues that have arisen and then proceed to my desk for the first round of client and internal emails I know await me.

9:30 am:  Finalize packaging estimates for a client and review proposals with our creative director before client presentation.  Then I begin the tedious work of reviewing projected budgeting sheets for some of my retail clients.  This results in standup meetings with our media department to make the final tweaks to the budgeting forms before client presentation tomorrow.

10:30 am: Begin gathering elements for an upcoming retail circular.  Downloading hi-res images for the designer from several manufacturing sites.  Sit with the designer to discuss client goals with the upcoming sales flyer and provide direction on flow of creative.

Noon: Back to the desk for a quick bite to eat.  Check voicemail and email again and respond as needed, then onto the next week’s ROP ads.  I enter reports in our trafficking system (CurrentTrack) which provide content direction for upcoming ads and then discuss these reports with the designer. It never hurts to have some face time with my team!

1:00 pm: Time for follow-up phone calls on projects with several clients.  I have to make sure that each client feels important each and every day!  Yay, the follow-up calls resulted in approval on 2 new projects.  Time for me to prepare a contact report so the projects will get opened in our system and the first steps can get under way.

2:00 pm: Internal meetings for HR team, client billing projections and a kickoff with the internal team for the 2010 planning for another one of my clients.  Whew!

4:00 pm: Time for more coffee and my second wind.  Both retail clients call with a request to change something in the ROP ads for tomorrow and the next day, Accounting department shows up with yet more billing for review and approval and one of my account coordinators needs help with a project.  Wow, sometimes when it rains it pours (that always seems to happen at 4?!).

5:30 pm: Finally, got the crises handled.  ROP ads are revised and out to the pubs, billing is complete, co-worker issue is handled and now I am headed to daycare to pick up kiddos.  Then its off to field hockey practice, some special shop for some specific new “it thing” both my girls simply must have, and finally, dinner!  Whew, what a day.  Let’s do it again tomorrow, OK?

User generated content (UGC) is a buzz phrase that has our industry all atwitter.  Mostly, marketing communications processionals are scrambling to harness the power of UGC for to move product.  But here's the thing:  the consumers we're targeting with UGC -- X, Y & Millennials -- aren't buying.  They're sharing, and learning and building relationships online.  Mostly with other online-people and sometimes with brands.

CurrentMarketing has always been a technologically forward-thinking company and we have long included email blasts, websites and seasonal web content as a part of our clients' marketing mix. Cue it up...pull the trigger...next!  It became a parallel function -- in timing and execution --  to the traditional media it reinforced or replaced.

But UGC is more of a slow cooker than a microwave.  It takes time, thought and coordination.  Mostly time.  Reggie Bradford points out in a recent post  that UGC and other social media builds long-term assets, requiring persistence, along with appropriate integration with a brand's traditional promotional calendar.  It must be nurtured and cared for.

There are some who define a "brand" as the consumer's relationship with a product or service.   UGC builds that relationship stronger and deeper than any award-winning campaign.  I haven't seen the proof that it's enough all by itself.

So while traditional media like broadcast and print -- and nowinteractive media like podcasts, SMS text programss, and blogs -- may still have a place in the marketing mix, social networking also need to be integrated into promotions and brand building formerly entrusted these media.