Gorgeous Lawyer Advertising Is No Longer An Oxymoron

LegalScoops

Gorgeous Lawyer Advertising Is No Longer An Oxymoron

PRACTICE JULY 12, 2022 BY JACOB MASLOW

Finding the right lawyer to fit people’s legal needs was tricky in the U.S. before the early 1970s since lawyers couldn’t advertise their services. These restrictions made it difficult for lawyers to reach their target clients effectively since they relied on client word of mouth and the signage on their premises.

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of 1977, states could no longer prohibit legal and other professionals from advertising, and lawyers could better inform the public of their legal services. According to this resource from the American Bar Association, the Supreme Court pointed out in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona that their decision meant that advertising could help reduce the cost of legal services for consumers.

The latest survey by the ABA in 2020 shows that law firms and independent lawyers use several marketing channels today, with 81% saying they use at least one social media platform. However, video adoption is still slow, with only 24% of respondents (mostly larger law firms) saying it is a marketing tool. Still, advertising on television has grown into a billion-dollar-a-year industry.

Getting results from  legal advertising requires the inside perspective of a professional ad agency with seasoned marketing professionals.

Brantley Davis Focuses on the Details

Legal marketing experts hire Brantley Davis Ad Agency for client advertising. BD/AA’s work for some of the U.S.’s most successful law firms makes their advertising instantly recognizable, thanks to their clever marketing.

The results speak for themselves, with client reviews showing increased cases, record call volumes, and higher revenue. Saturday Night Live and Jimmy Kimmel parodied their ads for Cellino & Barnes, a law firm that closed but still gets loads of hits.

Founded by Brantley Davis, an award-winning writer, BD/AA provides complete advertising services for law firms, financial institutions, automotive retailers, and advocacy groups. The ad agency’s incredibly successful advertising campaigns prove the team’s dedication to each campaign.

Mr. Davis, with over thirty years of experience, writes and directs for the Washington D.C. marketing agency. The agency’s team follows its founder’s principles with marketing tactics that provide creative hooks, the right media spots, and competitive frequency benchmarking, helping to keep it in the spotlight.

“Our ads have been “borrowed” coast to coast and into Canada,” says  Brantley Davis, President of BD/AA. “Lawyers come to our agency for their legal marketing to achieve a higher-end product that works harder for their firms.”

Even the most insignificant detail is essential to the perfect result. Therefore, every agency member makes their own professional contribution to the final result. First and foremost, Brantley Davis directs the players, including the attorneys, ensuring a solid impact. After that, only the best footage makes it to the final editing process, where powerful editing tools help create perfect client images.

With +20 years of experience, the agency’s experienced directors of photography have shot major motion pictures and understand how to capture the beauty of each scene.

According to Brantley Davis, music portrays a powerful message in advertising and cannot appear as an afterthought in a marketing spot. Therefore, choosing the musical theme is as important as the marketing spot’s writing, direction, cinematography, and editing.

Brantley Davis – Getting Gorgeous Ads Seen

Generating legal cases means more than just making quality ads; it also requires negotiating impactful media time at the best rates. The media landscape has become highly competitive, and Brantley Davis knows it inside out. So besides knowing which law firms have which spot on television, they use a winning approach to plan and negotiate media times at the lowest possible rates.

With a history steeped in law firm media, Brantley Davis sold airtime to personal injury firms at Washington DC’s WDCA-TV. Today he remains personally involved with the whole media strategy and tactics for each client. Another person playing a significant role in getting ads seen is Sherri Franklin, media supervisor at BD/AA. Ms. Franklin has decades of experience negotiating for some of America’s most prominent brands, including Pepsi.

Last Take

Gorgeous lawyer advertising is no longer an oxymoron. Still, it does require professionals to help meet the ethics requirements, perfection in writing and filming, and getting those ads seen by the people that need to find an attorney.

Brantley Davis has a rich tradition in legal advertising with memorable campaigns, and creative hooks, including the unforgettable “What’s Your Case Worth?”


Insurance Companies Use Animals in TV Ads: Now, Lawyers Do Too

Film Daily

Insurance Companies Use Animals in TV Ads: Now, Lawyers Do Too

The global advertising market has been valued at $590.3 Billion in 2021 and the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.2% until 2027 when it will reach a value of $792.7 Billion. Digital advertising has become the norm and this has led to a shift in the ways that advertisers create their campaigns.

Due to the high prevalence of mobile devices, mobile advertising has grown considerably in recent years. This is a factor which is expected to drive market growth over the next five years. A world with more digital marketing means more audiovisual content which can grab attention and be consumed rapidly.

The world is continuing to spend more and more on entertainment and media. This is indicative of the accompanying rise in the capacity for consumers to spend and acquire more mechanisms to consume advertising. Advertising firms themselves are also advertising constantly as this is a necessity in the modern business environment.

There are certain factors which make mobile advertising appealing for marketing. These include: convenience, cost-effectiveness and the ability to target very specific groups of people for marketing. A continuing growth of the digital advertising space is another factor which is contributing to the overall growth of the market.

Insurance Companies are known for their use of a variety of different elements in their advertisements to keep viewers interested. One of the techniques which they use is featuring animals in their advertising. In opposition to this is law firm commercials, these tend to be straightforward without the same level of emphasis placed on grabbing the attention of the viewer.

However this advert produced by Brantley Davis provides an entertaining legal advert without the need to involve live animals. This device is used as a means of emphasizing the message of the advertisement. “For a large segment of our blue collar target market, smart phones have become the new PCs,” commented Brantley Davis, President of Brantley Davis Ad Agency. “That’s why we craft our law firm marketing with diminutive mobile phone screens in mind. It’s the smart call when it comes to scoring impact with legal advertising.”

The Brantley Davis Ad Agency

The Brantley Davis Ad Agency, also known as BDAA, is an advertising firm specializing in creating high quality advertising for law firms across the US. The agency is staffed by a collection of experienced advertising professionals across a number of different fields.

They are committed to the objective of increasing the standard of legal advertising and in order to set the standard they use intelligent, marketing-oriented thinking and professional cinematography. Brantley Davis is regarded as having drastically altered the nature of legal advertising for the better through their usage of various marketing techniques and strategies.

BDAA is based in Washington DC and the agency was founded by Brantley Davis. Davis is a writer who has won numerous awards for his work over his career. He has a great deal of experience with a number of different target audiences and has chosen to hone his skill with legal advertising.

His advertisements have been written about thousands of times and they have had significant effects on the US. They have led to presidential executive orders, assisted in the passing of major federal legislation and helped build personal injury law firms.

Television adverts specifically and audiovisual adverts in general are what Brantly Davis specialize in to grab the attention of the legal community. The advertisements are produced with a focus on two important features: quality and entertainment.

The team at Brantley Davis are aware of the impact which well crafted advertisements can have on people and the potential for return which this provides. This is why many law firms from across the entire country trust Brantley Davis to produce their television commercials.

On top of their skill in creating successful advertisements, Brantley Davis also knows how to position an advertisement in the right place and at the right time. They use their considerable experience of over 30 years to investigate, negotiate and purchase the best possible media buys for their clients.

This ensures that the right ad reaches the right people and that a well-crafted commercial is not in the position where it never gets seen. They also understand the frequency of when commercials should be aired to provide their clients with the most eyeballs at the right times. This has the potential to ensure that the target audience of the advertisement is reached and that money is not wasted.

Final Thoughts

While insurance advertising is not perfect it always knows how to grab the attention of the viewer. The same cannot always be said for legal advertisements. That is why Brantley Davis Ad Agency is regarded as being responsible for changing the face of legal advertising.

This has resulted in a shift away from tradition, to direct legal advertising in favor of a greater deal of flair. Brantley Davis ensures that they produce high quality advertising through a combination of their seasoned staff, their attention to strategy and a high level of production quality.


How An Advertising Agency Struck Gold in the Midwest

Congrats to everyone at BDAA! Proud to be the Gold Standard in Law Firm Marketing!

BUSINESS NEWS

How An Advertising Agency Struck Gold in the Midwest

In the most recent figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on the business formation statistics for May 2022, business formation has decreased across the country by 0.6%. With 420,586 new businesses being formed in May this represents a small seasonally adjusted decrease from April. The North East and West regions of the US increased their business formations while the South and the Midwest reduced theirs. The South and the Midwest are projected to continue to slowly decline in the number of businesses which are formed there. This is indicative of a business environment which is not necessarily supporting the creation of new businesses in the manner which it perhaps should. However, this has not stopped Brantley Davis from being able to drastically increase marketing return for a law firm in the Midwest.

How Brantley Davis Ad Agency Created Gold in the Midwest
Brantley Davis Ad Agency is a law firm market agency which specializes in high quality audiovisual advertising. They also provide the service of delivering the advert to the air and they have used their experience to inform them on the best way to maximize the return on their media purchases. The following is a case study of Brantley Davis taking over the advertising for a law firm in the Midwest.

The law firm had the same marketing agency working for them for five years and they were not seeing results. The advertising agency was delivering a low-quality product which did not stand out from the crowd or effectively market the unique value proposition of the law firm. Another factor complicated the situation further, the law firm, Morgan and Morgan, had entered the market in January. The timeframe which they provided to produce advertising was quite short with the firm expecting adverts within the first quarter of the year. BDAA was put in a position where they would have to perform in order to be able to retain the client.

Creative
The creative side of the production was made easier by BDAA’s 30 years of experience in marketing law firms. This experience has allowed them to understand, “what works and what doesn’t”. In the last two years BDAA has done work of a high standard for other law firms and have in their opinion been, “pushing the envelope” in the law firm commercial space. This has the potential to have their adverts stand out from the rest.

Media
The Senior Media buyer at BDAA has been working in legal marketing for over 25 years and started buying lawyer media in the late 1990s. This case provided a greater deal of challenge because television stations wanted to increase the prices for advertising in January. This is typically the month in which it is cheapest to advertise. The team at BDAA is skilled in negotiation and was able to convince TV stations to drop their rates which enabled the advert to be played on more dayparts and expand its reach. The advertising agency which the law firm had previously used did not utilize their media marketing buys well and ended up reducing both the number and the quality of cases the marketing would provide.

Immediate Results
The new ads which BDAA produced appeared on the air in mid March and they managed to produce these commercials without exceeding the budget which they were given. The law firm managed to increase the cases which they took on by 21 the following month and 50 the month after that. These are also cases which will produce a respectable revenue for the law firm.

Results Year to Year
As of June of 2022, the law firm is up 70 cases year to year, or 60% and up 108% compared to 2020. And momentum continues to build as the law firm generated the most phone calls in its history in June. These results are striking considering the law firm did not have to increase their spending on marketing in any way. The law firm also found that the quality of cases which they receive has improved as well as the number of leads which they are able to convert.

Final Thoughts
The Brantley Davis Ad Agency has been able to make a serious impact in the Midwest as demonstrated by the case study. They have been able to use high quality, original advertising and insightful media buys to get the potential best return on their customers’ investments. A Law Firm is an everyday example and this demonstrates the prowess which Brantley Davis displays in their field. They have demonstrated the ability to almost double a law firm’s cases for the year while simultaneously not increasing their spending on marketing.


Law Firm Marketing Agencies Beware: Streaming Metrics Alone Don’t Make the Case for OTT

Brant Rant  

As streaming proliferates and traditional television audiences decline, retail marketers like BDAA are anxious to expand reach with CTV/OTT.  The 18-29 audience seems to stream everything!  But fraudulent BOT clicks/impressions, showing ads when TVs aren’t even on and various other “kinks” are making it impossible to deliver provable results with ads on streaming services.  And no, clicks and conversions on a dashboard are not provable results.  Unfortunately, positive metrics do not necessarily translate to sales.  We know.  We’ve been testing OTT for years using unique landing pages, tracking pixels and distinct phone numbers.  As marketers responsible for prudently stewarding client’s ad dollars, we can’t continue blindly buying OTT if it’s not delivering.  The streaming industry needs to fix the system and restore confidence asap.  Or they will push marketers like us, who have to deliver bottom line results, to use other platforms and media. 

Thanks so much to WPP for conducting this study study and continuing to pressure the industry.  And to the Wall Street Journal’s, Suzanne Vrancia and Lillian Rizzo for casting light on the pervasive shadows enveloping the streaming industry.  

Subscribe to Brant Rants by sending an email to em@JBDAdAgency.com

 


Law Firm Marketing Ad Agency Hook: A 99% Win Rate

Personal injury law firms don’t take cases they can’t win.  They’d go out of business.  That’s why most PI law firm’s win rates are impressive.  So why don’t more law firms market their high win rates?  Think about it.  Who wouldn’t want to hire a law firm with a 99% win rate?  Especially since the consumer is largely unaware of other law firm’s success rates.  And 99% translates well to quick, compelling ads.  Check out this commercial and let us know what you think.

https://youtu.be/8U9vV6dBtfo

Sure, we can debate the definition of “winning,” but even if that term is eliminated, there are other snappy ways to communicate the message.  So get out there and promote your success.  There’s a 99% chance you’ll get more cases.


Law Firm Marketing Ad Agency Case Study May 16, 2022

In November of 2021, a Midwest law firm called us.  They weren’t happy....

The law firm had been with the same law firm marketing ad agency for five years and things were stale.  Their ads were cheesy, screaming cookie cutter ads that failed to leverage the law firm’s unique selling propositions.  Complicating matters, Morgan and Morgan was entering the market in January, putting even more pressure on the market.  But time was tight.  Our new law firm wanted new commercials up in first quarter.  BDAA would have to move quickly to meet the deadline while at the same time ensuring a stellar end product and successful media negotiations.

CREATIVE 

This part was relatively easy.  Since we’ve been marketing law firms for thirty years, we know what works and what doesn’t.  And over the last twenty-four months, BDAA has created several new, eye opening campaigns that complement our workhorse standards.  Campaigns that push the envelope and look completely different from the homogenous sea of lawyer commercials.

MEDIA

BDAA’s Senior Media buyer and I have been involved in lawyer media for 25+ years respectively.  We both started buying lawyer media in the late 1990s.  So we know lawyer media inside and out.  However, in this case, the media was a little more challenging as some TV stations wanted to raise rates, in January, the cheapest time of the year to advertise!  That didn’t last long.  BDAA’s seasoned team engaged a strategy that has never failed.  Stations relented, dropped rates, we expanded dayparts and reach.

The former ad agency had also neglected to use high reach dayparts, choosing instead to use Daytime exclusively.  In our opinion, that was a mistake as reach would be severely limited and so would case quality.

RESULTS TO DATE

BDAA’s new ads launched in mid March using the same media budget as the previous ad agency.  So, what happened?  April 2020 to April 2021, the new law firm was up 21 cases!  And May is on an even more impressive pace.  By the end of May, the firm is projected to be up 50 cases for the year.  And those aren’t Work Comp or Social Security cases.  We’re talking Motor Vehicle Accident cases averaging about $12,000 in revenue per case.  That’s $600,000 in additional revenue without increasing the marketing budget.  In just a few months!

UPDATE:  In May 2022, our new law firm signed 86% more cases than the previous May.  And 90% more than May 2020.  Consider those results for a moment.  Without increasing the media spend, this law firm was able to nearly DOUBLE the number of cases they usually get in a month.  As a matter of fact, May was the best month they’ve had in years!  Despite Morgan & Morgan entering the market.  That’s a ton of fun!  And case quality has improved too-more case accepted per number of calls.  


Law Firm Marketing: Get The Most Out Of Your Law Firm Marketing Ad Agency

“G******T Marty!  You’re in the communications business and you’re the worst F*****G communicator in the world!”  

It was my first week at a new ad agency in Washington D.C. twenty years ago.  And the client, founder of one of the largest auto groups in the U.S., was justifiably irate.  The account head was botching communications with the client and creatives.  The work wasn’t getting done and the brand’s momentum was stalling.  The client, a hardnose former Marine, was “raising the account team’s temperature” as he liked to put it.  And it was working.  The account head was hot, embarrassed, and humiliated. But as you probably already surmised, the next campaign presentation was flawless.  

While the client’s outbursts worked short term, the tirades were a band aid masking an ongoing client/ad agency disconnect that could have been addressed through a more deliberate, methodical approach to managing the ad agency.  After all, you shouldn’t have to berate people to coax the best work out of them.  

Over the last thirty years, I’ve been involved in countless client/ad agency relationships across a broad range of account categories.  The most successful relationships flourished with planned, regular communication and a set agenda. 

Here are some tips to keep your agency client relationship productive and enjoyable: 

Clearly Defined Objectives

Tell your ad agency exactly what you want them to accomplish.  For example, “my law firm would like to generate twenty more case per month and increase case quality, i.e. ten more million dollar plus case per year.”  Laying out specifics will set expectations for them and provide a measuring stick.  The objectives will also inform marketing strategy.

Monthly Meetings

Set a regular meeting date for each month.  These work wonders.  Develop on ongoing agenda:  

  1. Number of cases last month
  2. Number of definitive injury cases
  3. Review creative rotation
  4. Website Traffic Stats
  5. Review SEM stats
  6. SEO Changes
  7. Competitive TV Spend Analysis
  8. TV Buy Posts, Preemptions
  9. New marketing ideas, creative

Creative Brief Reviews

Review your ad agency’s creative briefs before they go to the creative team.  As a young account executive, I thought this would be a nightmare but was pleasantly surprised.  The process brought the client and account management team much closer together. 


Law Firm Marketing: How to Generate More Pedestrian Accident Cases

Tragically, pedestrian deaths caused by motor vehicles have been rising precipitously.  According to data provided by the Governors Highway Safety Association, pedestrians killed by motor vehicles rose 17% in the first half of 2021. To put the increase in perspective, here are the numbers:

Pedestrian Fatalities Caused by Motor Vehicles

  • 2011    4,457
  • 2020   6,516
  • 2021    6,882 Pace (3,441 first 6 months 2021 compared to 2,934 in 2020)

Car crash deaths have also surged.  There are a variety of factors contributing to the rise in fatalities including less police officers patrolling roads, reckless motorists driving at higher speeds, and outdated infrastructure.  Whatever the cause, the families of the deceased and injured deserve robust legal representation that will help them put their lives back together.  That’s where your law firm comes in.

So how does your law firm generate more pedestrian cases?  At risk of stating the obvious, advertise specifically for Pedestrian cases.  The old adage that “you get what you advertise for” is true.  But many firms still refuse to run pedestrian specific ads in their TV rotation rationalizing that the market is simply too small.  That’s a mistake.  Here’s a case in point.  The week we started running Pedestrian specific TV ads in a major market on the west coast, the law firm signed two Pedestrian accident cases.  Both were seven figure cases.

For questions about generating Pedestrian accident cases, email us BD@JBDAdAgency.com.

And look both ways before you cross the street!


How to Choose a Law Firm Marketing Ad Agency That Works

Choosing an ad agency to market your law firm can be overwhelming, time consuming and difficult. As an ad agency veteran, I’ve seen clients struggle through the agency search process for years and end up choosing the wrong marketing partner! The results in some cases have been disastrous. One law firm hired an ad agency that told the partners up front they had legal issues. What happened? The law firm paid the ad agency for TV media but the ad agency never paid the TV stations. That’s why it’s so important to take your ad agency search process seriously and thoroughly vet your potential marketing partner. Here’s a checklist to help make your ad agency search a success.

HIRE AN AD AGENCY WITH EXPERIENCE MARKETING LAW FIRMS
This sounds like a no brainer but we frequently get calls from personal injury law firms that purposely hired ad agencies with no experience marketing law firms. They rationalized that an ad agency with no law firm marketing experience would be able to deliver a fresh take on law firm marketing. The results are typically dreadful from creative to paid media. Ad agencies new to personal injury law firm marketing simply don’t know what messages and hooks drive calls. And they have no idea how to buy the high frequency media required to stand out from the competition and make phones ring.

Hire an ad agency that’s been marketing multiple personal injury law firms for five years or more. Veterans of law firm marketing will already know what works and what doesn’t so there’s less experimentation with your law firm’s ad dollars.

SPEAK WITH CLIENTS THAT HAVE BEEN WITH THE AD AGENCY FOR 5 YEARS MINIMUM
If the ad agency you’re considering is highly effective, they will have at least three law firm clients that have been with the agency for five years or more. Ask for their phone numbers. Clients with tenure will have valuable insight into the ad agency you’re considering hiring: Ask about the following:

  1. Has the agency been able to grow calls and cases?
  2. How’s case quality? Getting some large cases too?
  3. What’s the average cost per case? (Should be $2,000 or less)
  4. How quickly does the agency react when calls and cases decrease?
  5. Is the billing process transparent? Does the agency provide TV station invoices upon request?
  6. Ask how they track cases. Some law firms still have no solid tracking metrics in place.
  7. Have there ever been any issues with the ad agency not paying TV stations?

MAKE SURE THEIR ADS ARE AS GOOD AS YOU ARE
There’s a ton of cheesy law firm advertising on TV these days. And that has implications for your firm’s reputation as well as the profession. Judges, juries and even steering committee selections can be impacted. The last thing you want to do is hire an ad agency with a creative product that dumbs down your firm and its partners. And contrary to what some say, lawyer ads do not have to be cheesy to work effectively. Here’s a list of questions to ask your potential agency:

  1. Where can I view your ad portfolio?
  2. Who directs the attorneys on camera? Most people are not good on camera as they haven’t got much experience. It takes a solid director to make an amateur look comfortable.
  3. Who writes the ads?
  4. Where are the ads shot? Is it possible to see the studio and talent of the typical crew?
  5. Who picks the attorney takes after the shoot? (Editors should not be picking takes.)
  6. Who edits the ads? How long have they been editing law firms ads?

HIRE AN AD AGENCY THAT KNOWS LAW FIRM MEDIA
Media is often an afterthought for law firms. But it’s extremely important. After all, if nobody sees your gorgeous ads, nobody is going to call. Additionally, if your law firm’s ads don’t hit the frequency tipping point, you could be throwing your money away. That’s why it’s important to rely on media pros that have been planning and negotiating law firm media for multiple firms for at least five years. That level of experience will deliver a much better chance at success. To get a better feel for your potential ad agency’s media acumen, ask a few questions:

  1. What demographic do you buy?
  2. Are they buying DR rates?
  3. How do you determine the necessary frequency to break through with ads?
  4. Do you post your buys? Do you buy ratings books? When do you reconcile invoices each month?
  5. Do you have Kantar or MMP in house?
  6. What percentage of your buys are dedicated to OTT?

If you follow the steps above, your agency search should result in hiring a fabulous marketing partner that can help your law firm increase its calls, cases and profitability. If you have any questions, just write me at BD@JBDAdAgency.com. Now, let’s get out there and kick some ads!


Saturday Night Live Parodied Our Cellino & Barnes TV Ads. Business Boomed.

“Say Anything You Like About Me, But Spell My Name Right.” P.T. Barnum

Some law firms are terrified of publicity.  And understandably so.  They’re concerned about being portrayed in a manner that does not reflect well on the profession, their firm and their skills.  But the fact is, even less than favorable “Publicity” can increase awareness of brands, and drive revenue.  That was certainly the case when Saturday Night Live parodied the TV ads we produced for Cellino & Barnes.  Viewers had a good laugh at our expense.  But after an accident, they called Cellino & Barnes.  Business boomed!  Then, Tariq from Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show did a hilarious two minute segment about the Cellino & Barnes jingle.  He even sang it!  And again business boomed.

Take a look at the videos and laugh.  Then scroll down to see the original Cellino & Barnes ad along with the jingle.  And remember, as the renowned showman P.T. Barnum noted, all publicity isn’t bad.