Politicians Politicking: MGH’s Digital Dilemma

By SuperSpy 

MGH Advertising, Ocean City Maryland’s AOR for seven years, recently convinced the town to redo their website. If you take a look at the site, then you understand why they badly need an agency on this mess. But, just as MGH was popping the corks on the champagne, Councilman Joe Hall decided to put the entire job of advertising the city up for review. Hall said:

“MGH’s contract expires in July and I think that council needs to have a serious discussion about how we want to proceed and if we want to reach out in this new economy and find someone new. I bet there’s some very hungry agencies that would want to come in here and competitively bid on this job.”

Oh no he didn’t! Apparently, the city council suffered from sticker shock on the price tag of the website with Hall being the lead in this little insurrection. However, President of MGH Andy Malis, says the council was well aware of the dollar figure.

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“It was known by everyone that voted unanimously for me to take it in front of Mayor and City Council,” he said.

Now, everyone in digital knows that this is the middle of the road price for a small town’s tourism site. By the way, the cost of the website is just 3% of the Ocean City’s overall ad budget. Totes reasonable. What this boils down to is just politicians politicking. The town heard the price tag and went ape, leading the council members to back up and take action.

Now, Malis and MGH are on the hot seat. In order to keep the overall business, it all hinges on a gigabyte and the overall argument, “Is the internet worth it?” Raise your hands if you’ve been down this road with a client? MGH is in the same position as many agencies when it comes to proving the cost and value of digital. And so the wheel of advertising turns on… Good to luck to MGH.

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