Agency Website Scorecard
Small Media Agencies

Thanks for viewing our agency scorecard for small media agencies. Below you’ll see scorecards for Blue Plate Media, MDG, and Wingman Media. RSW/US has been supporting marketing agencies’ new business efforts with our outsourced agency new business/lead generation program and reviewing agency websites since 2005. To learn more, click here.

Blue Plate Media

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User Experience

Easy to navigate?

Overall, the site is fairly easy to navigate. The reason for the “3” is two-fold:

1. When a prospect clicks on “news”, it takes them completely off the site and doesn’t allow the prospect to get back into the site unless they click the “back” button, which makes navigation a bit clunky.
2. And when a prospect clicks on “Services” they are taken to a page that has buttons for “research” and “media”, but they take you nowhere. You can click on them, but they bounce right back to the same page.

Other than that, the site’s presentation is simple, easy to follow, and easy to navigate.

Results-centric

Shows value of what agency can do?

In today’s world of data and analytics and the growing complexity of the media landscape, knowing that an agency can deliver against all of these things is critically important. While the testimonials are great – and there are many of them – there is a glaring absence of any metrics or any case studies. This would be a concern to a prospect checking out Blue Plate Media’s site.

Clarity

Gets to the point?

The site does not lack clarity. Everything on the site is presented in a very simple and straightforward manner – they do get right to the point. The tabs are broken out in a way that is easy to understand. The pages are not overwhelming in any way.

Positioning

Defines what agency does and how unique?

It’s crystal clear what segment Blue Plate owns: Kids and all things related to Kids. Their client base supports it, their testimonials support it. They make mention of kid-related things in their bios. And they speak to their expertise within the body of services and solutions they offer.
One thought, as it appears that a good majority of their clients are on the small-to-mid-size end of the spectrum, is trying to own that as well. On the AgencySearch side of our business, we speak to the fact that the small-to-mid spend client is what we know and own. Dialing down the ownership of Blue Plate to that level could help attract more prospects to their space. We’re pretty certain of two things
1. One is that bigger marketers that target kids probably have themselves covered with a full-service agency that bring media to the table or a larger media firm.
2. Or two, that speaking to the different challenges of smaller brands could be motivating for those smaller brands who don’t have a lot of options to turn to.

Legitimacy

Instills confidence in agency?

We give Blue Plate a “3” here because of the absence of case studies (or any kind of results).
While the use of kid images does help reinforce their expertise, we do however feel like there’s an over-emphasis on it – to the point that it lessens the perceived seriousness of the business of media planning and buying. Toning this down a bit might be helpful.
The fact that they have so many testimonials helps offset this a bit, but as mentioned above, operating in a world (media) that is so data and analytics driven, and not sharing any hard metrics with prospects, could prove a turn-off.
They do a nice job of showcasing a good range of clients, which also helps.
Even having a page where Blue Plate could have graphic tiles that feature the client logo and describe the business challenges the agency helped them resolve (with or without metrics – ideally with) would be a step in the right direction. You could tie the testimonial to the tile, so the prospect sees the logo, the challenge, and the “results” (via testimonial) all in one place.

Consistency

Tells a cohesive story across site?

Their story is very consistent. It’s all about helping kid-focused brands via their expertise and experience in the space. No issues there.

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Media Design Group

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User Experience

Easy to navigate?

The site is very easy to navigate, no issues.
We liked the fact that “About Us” sits near the bottom of the list of navigation buttons. Not sure if that was intentional or not, but it might make a prospect think “ok, these guys aren’t just about themselves”.
When a prospect visits the Case Studies section of the site, the agency makes it easy for the prospect to visit additional case studies. They also make the case studies very easy to digest. They have a very reasonable amount of text and are very simply organized to tell the story and share the results.
We also like the fact that at the top of their Services page, they give the prospect the ability to jump to the service that is most applicable to their needs/wants. Prospects don’t have to scroll through all four to find what they need.
The only issue (and it’s minor) is when a prospect visits the Case Studies page, and they scroll down to the bottom to see the tiles inviting them to see other case studies, the case study they just looked at is always one of the three. Might want to change that. Why would they want to see the same case study again?

Results-centric

Shows value of what agency can do?

The case studies are very rich in metrics/results, which is great.
One piece of advice is to repeat the metrics on the top of each case study – to help better draw the prospect into the case study story.
Two other pieces of advice related to testimonials:

1. If any of the testimonials are connected to any of the case studies, include them on the case studies. This will really round out the power of the work the agency has done.
2. The testimonials on the home page, while great, lose a degree of their efficacy because there is no company tied to the testimonial. These people could just be good friends of the agency and not ex-clients. While we’re pretty certain they aren’t, providing that clarity would be a good thing.

Clarity

Gets to the point?

The home page tells a very clean, easy-to-understand, and compelling story.
The headline (“Cool, Another Agency! Said No One”) puts the prospect in a different place in that it likely makes them think… “ok, there’s something different about this firm”.
And they immediately tell the prospect what they are (a “Media” firm), which helps as well.
The way they lay out the home page in very simple terms – presenting their services, their value, their credentials – it’s all very straight-shooting and to-the-point.
And the case studies follow the same framework in that they tell the reader very clearly what the challenge was, what MDG delivered, and what the results were.

Positioning

Defines what agency does and how unique?

The agency does a nice job of putting themselves in a bucket that is seemingly different from other firms in the market. They talk about themselves as being “Growth Hackers” and do a nice job of providing an RTB (SmartMedia Stack) why what they do is different (and presumably better).
The only reason the agency didn’t get a “5” for positioning is that while they introduce the concept of “SmartMedia Stack” as their reason-to-believe why they “Hack Growth”, they don’t really provide much more detail beyond introducing the concept. While we would never want them to go into intimate detail about the methodology, it would be nice to have a bit more information behind it. Everything else they talk about on the site is really well put together, simple, and clear. This is the one thing that lacks much detail.

Legitimacy

Instills confidence in agency?

Giving MDG’s site a “4” for legitimacy simply because we don’t know if the testimonials are their friends or real clients, and because there isn’t much conversation behind the SmartMedia Stack. Everything else on their site points to an agency that thinks about the world of media planning and buying in a different and better way – backed by:

1. The case study results
2. The client logos
3. The testimonials (even though they don’t have company names)

One additional suggestion. One of the principals apparently has a fairly storied history writing opinion pieces for Forbes. Looks like maybe it stopped a year ago. Obviously if that can be picked back up again, that would be great. But regardless of whether it can or can’t, rather than calling that section “Press” and headlining it with “What People are Saying”, call it what it is…something like: “MDG Public Perspective” and headline it with “What We are Telling the World” to have it speak to more of what it is: solid, value-added thinking and not just a bunch of articles about MDG.

Consistency

Tells a cohesive story across site?

Overall, the site tells a very consistent story. It all builds nicely, and with the exception of paying out a bit of the SmartMedia Stack story, there isn’t anything that is presented to prospects that would leave them confused or not understanding the value of the agency.

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Wingman Media

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User Experience

Easy to navigate?

No major issues at all in terms of being able to effectively navigate the site.
Only ask would be that the case studies give prospects the ability to more easily navigate between case studies. After viewing each one, the prospect has to go back up to the navigation bar and click on “Case Studies” again to see the full list of options.

Results-centric

Shows value of what agency can do?

Wingman does a nice job of showcasing results right from the beginning, with metrics presented on the home page, near the bottom of the scroll down.
They back up those results with a very exaggerated (but effective) presentation of testimonials, following the metrics on the home page.
While they talk the successes in metrics terms on the top of some of the case studies, they don’t do it on all (even though there are metrics to be called out). Giving readers the ability to quickly see the results that the agency delivered prior to diving into the case studies will only motivate prospects to want to read on.

Clarity

Gets to the point?

For the most part, the Wingman Media site is pretty direct and to the point.
We do have some concerns about the length of some of the case studies. Prospects don’t have time to read through a lot of material, and case studies like Sit ‘n Sleep carry on and on to the point that we’re not even sure what the case “history” is really all about. Organizing them more like the way Intelliloan is organized would make it easier for the reader to digest the content and walk away with a simple understanding of the value the agency brings.
If there are multiple stories within the single Sit ‘n Sleep case study, no harm in breaking it up into a couple or even three different stories. We’ve seen this done very effectively for other clients.

Positioning

Defines what agency does and how unique?

We really like the “Niche Products” positioning, but why create what appears to be two separate home pages? Why not incorporate the “Niche” messaging on the real home page? What happens if prospects only look at your real home page? If they do, they’ll walk away with a feeling like you’re just any other media planning and buying agency. Being a “NexGen” media agency is fairly generic in today’s world of many media agencies that do what Wingman does.
We’ll talk about this in the “Consistency” section below, but we feel there needs to be more consistency of the positioning’s messaging and value tied throughout the site. We also feel there needs to be more of an explanation of what Wingman does differently that makes them uniquely qualified to help “Niche” brands. Ok, they do microtargeting and are versed in things like Linear TV and OTT, but so are most media agencies worth their weight. We recommend explaining to visitors in more detail how these things benefit “Niche” brands and/or explaining more about their “Halo” process than just showing a cartoon video about a guy getting served a specific message on his phone – we’ve all gotten those messages for things niche and not niche.
We would also recommend that they wrap the “Niche” messaging throughout their site – particularly in their case studies. Even just talking about the fact that Sit ‘n Sleep is a niche brand with a very specific audience – which requires special handling, etc.—will make prospects feel like who they help and what they do is different (and presumably better).

Legitimacy

Instills confidence in agency?

As mentioned above, Wingman does a really nice job of presenting results and testimonials to legitimize their value to prospects.
Where they fall short a bit is in two areas:

1. One (mentioned above) is in how they payout—or rather don’t payout–their positioning.
2. The other ties to their positioning to some degree – it has to do with the expectation set by talking about “Niche” in the context of “Products”. When we think “products” we’re thinking specialty food products, high end audio products, high performance running shoes, or even iPhone repair services. We looked up “Niche” in Google and found this https://sixads.net/blog/niche-examples/ which provides some nice fodder for Wingman to incorporate on their site. At first, we felt like it was the limited number of case studies presented on their site that was “bothering us”, but after thinking about it for a while, it really boiled down to what kinds of clients Wingman serves and the lack of explanation as to why these services and products are “Niche” and what Wingman uniquely did to help them.

Consistency

Tells a cohesive story across site?

As mentioned above, the consistency of messaging across the site could be improved. Carrying the “Niche” positioning story throughout (“Home” page through to “Case Studies” – and even in the “About Us” section – possibly talking about the team’s experience working in these categories) would help improve the continuity and consistency of the story.

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Agency Website Scorecard
Small Media Agencies

Blue Plate Media

Media Design Group

Wingman media

Blue Plate Media

User Experience

Results-centric

Clarity

Positioning

Legitimacy

Consistency

Media Design Group

User Experience

Results-centric

Clarity

Positioning

Legitimacy

Consistency

Wingman Media

User Experience

Results-centric

Clarity

Positioning

Legitimacy

Consistency

Connect With RSW/US

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Agency Website ScorecardSmall Media Agencies

Blue Plate Media

Media Design Group

Wingman media

Blue Plate Media

User Experience

Results-centric

Clarity

Positioning

Legitimacy

Consistency

Media Design Group

User Experience

Results-centric

Clarity

Positioning

Legitimacy

Consistency

Wingman Media

User Experience

Results-centric

Clarity

Positioning

Legitimacy

Consistency

Connect With RSW/US

Site Map

Follow Us

Agency Website Scorecard
Small Media Agencies