T2.5 Database (Redbooks Online)

Since I am majoring in marketing, I took advantage of this assignment by expanding my knowledge of how marketing works, and chose an advertising and ad agency database. Redbooks is a database that has expanded to the internet. The database allows for a full detailed search of available advertising or ad agency for any company. The Database has a full detailed profile of around 13,500 ad agencies in the U.S. as well as internationally. This specific profile includes contact information for businesses to get in touch with the agency, the field of specialization that the agency does their work for, the breakdown of gross billings by media, as well as the accounts that are represented by each agency (1). "For advertising agencies, the database includes information on an agency's specializations; its key personnel; its accounts and their associated brands; and its corporate hierarchy" (2). Organizations can see right there on the Agency profile, how much they will have to spend for the use of the Agency and if they can afford it. I checked out the actual Redbooks website, where there was a list of how many Ad Agencies, Advertisers, Key Contacts, and Brands are involved with the database. Companies have access to 15,000 Ad Agencies, 21,000 Advertisers, and 200,000 Key Contacts. A total of 130,000 Brands are involved with this database (3). This gives a very broad range of many different types of Ad and Advertising Agencies available for business. It seems that any business or organization would be able to find any type of Agency that they desire for the benefit of their advertisement. When I was reading about this database, I thought of a show that I began to watch the other day on TV. It was a show about advertising. Subway was looking for a new ad campaign and approached two different agencies that have to compete against each other to think of the best idea for the new campaign. Both teams were working day and night like dogs to put together to brainstorm ideas for a possible campaign. I think that this database would have been easier for Subway to use. They could have searched for exactly what type of agency they wanted for their campaign. The database lets you look at who each agency represents and all of their information. Companies can use this database for a very select and specific search to fit their advertising wants and needs. Answers to questions: 1. One challenge that I can think of is that the database does have a password. There is a free trial that I saw online, but after that, the database needs to be paid for to be used. It may be challenging to get a search narrowed down like the way the database says it is able to do. 2. The database provides a competitive advantage for the organization using it because it really lets the company do an exact search of what type of agency they want and which agency will benefit them the most. Most companies would pick any random agency, but this one gives the opportunity to get the most for your money by choosing an agency that specializes in your personnel and is able to give the organization exactly what they want for the most beneficial advertising or campaign. 3. The only improvement that I can see from the free trial that I did would be a better organization of the Agency names. A few of them had strange numbers and symbols in front of the names and may or may not have gotten in the way of a proper and beneficial search. That is virtually the only improvement I can think of. I think the database is very useful. (1)http://www.nypl.org/collections/articles-databases/advertising-red-books-online (2)http://www.lib.umich.edu/database/advertising-redbooks (3)http://www.redbooks.com/