Eli should hire an external advertising agency to handle the Dinty Moore advertising campaign for several reasons. First, an external agency can reduce costs due to economies of scale and provide greater expertise in areas like developing target markets. The agency should have experience in the food industry and marketing food products to both consumers and retailers. When choosing an agency, Eli should consider the agency's size, creative reputation, production capabilities, and client retention rates. He should have finalists do a creative pitch before selecting the best agency for the campaign.

1. Dinty Moore Advertising
Campaign
Unit 3 Case Study

2. Why hire an external advertising agency?
• First of all, Eli should choose an external advertising agency for the Dinty
Moore advertising campaign in order to “reduce costs” (Clow & Baack,
2012, p. 117) because this is a sizeable account. Besides the Dinty Moore
stew beef, Eli wants to advertise the entire line of Dinty Moore products
which includes “Chicken & Dumplings, Chicken Noodle, Chicken Stew,
Meatball Stew, and Turkey Stew” (Advertising Syllabus, n.d., p.2)
• Secondly, “greater expertise” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 117) can be
obtained through an external advertising agency. For example, an external
advertising agency can advise “about how to develop target markets”
(Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 118). They can also offer “specialized services for
business markets” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 118). This is a good idea
because the Dinty Moore line can also be marketed to retailers who sell
these products.
• It is also important that an external advertising agency is hired to tap into
an “outsider’s perspective [and have] access to top talent” (Clow & Baack,
2012, p.117)

3. “In-house versus external advertising
agencies” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 117)
In-house
• Lower costs
• Consistent brand message
• Better understanding of
product and mission
• Faster ad production
• Works closer with CEO
• Lower turnover rate in the
creative team
External
• Reduce costs
• Greater expertise
• Outsider’s perspective
• Access to top talent

4. How to choose an agency
• First of all, Eli should “set goals” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 119) together
with his team. According to Clow & Baack (2012), “goals provide a sense of
direction designed to prevent personal biases from affecting decisions”.
• When selecting an agency, certain criteria should be determined such as
the agency’s size, relevant experience, creative reputation and
capabilities, production and media purchasing capabilities and other
criteria (Clow & Baack, 2012).
• The agency’s size is important because “if a large firm hires a small agency,
the small agency may be overwhelmed”(Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 119). On
the other hand side “a small firm hiring a large agency may find that the
company’s account could be lost or could be treated as being
insignificant” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 119).
• Eli should look for an agency that “has experience” (Clow & Baack, 2012,
p. 119) in the food industry. This will allow the “agency’s employees …
better able to understand the client firm, its customers, and the structure
of the marketing channel” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p.119).

5. How to choose an agency cont’d
• It is also important to note that “an advertising agency [should] have
relevant experience without representing a competitor” (Clow & Baack,
2012, p. 120).
• Another relevant criteria is that “the agency should also have experience
with the business-to-business side of the market, so that retailers,
wholesalers, and any other channel part are considered in the marketing
and advertising” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 120) of the Dinty Moore line of
products.
• Eli should ask “for a list of awards the company has received”(Clow &
Baack, 2012, p.120). This will allow him to assess the “agency’s creativity”
(Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 120). According to Clow & Baack (2012) “in most
cases there is a positive relationship between winning awards and writing
effective ads” (p.120).
• “Production and media purchasing capabilities” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p.
120) is another important element of whether or not Eli will want to
choose a particular ad agency.

6. How to choose an agency cont’d
• According to Clow & Baack (2012), “ a firm that needs an agency to
produce a television commercial and also buy media time should check on
these activities as part of the initial screening process” (p. 120).
• Finally, as part of the selection criteria to choose an agency, other criteria
to be looked at would be “other services available, client retention rates
and personal chemistry” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p.120).
• The next step in choosing an agency, would be requesting “references
from the agencies still in the running” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 121). You
can obtain information like this from the ad agencies’ websites. (Clow &
Baack, 2012).
• Eli will want to discover the agency’s “client retention rate [as this] reveals
how effective the firm has been working with various clients” (Clow &
Baack, 2012, p. 121).
• Lastly, and most importantly, comes the “creative pitch” (Clow & Baack,
2012, p. 121) also known as a shootout.

7. How to choose an agency cont’d
• According to Clow & Baack (2012), “when the list has been reduced to two
or three finalists, the company’s selection team asks each [ad agency] for
a creative pitch” (p.121).
• A creative pitch is when “ the advertising agencies chosen to compete
provide a formal presentation that addresses a specific problem, situation,
or set of questions” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 121).
• Finally, it is important that members of both the client firm and the ad
agency get along, therefore, “chemistry between employees of the two
different firms becomes critical” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 122). This could
“break or make the final decision” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 122).

8. Advertising Planning and Research
• There are two types of research that can be conducted to “identify Dinty
Moore’s most loyal customers and potential new customers” (Advertising
syllabus, n.d., p.3)
• “Product-specific research involves identifying key product characteristics
that become selling points” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 124) In the case of
Dint Moore’s beef stew, this would be the fact that “it has no preservatives
and only 240 calories per 8-ounce serving” (Advertising syllabus, n.d., p.2)
• “Consumer-oriented research will be used to understand the context of a
product’s use” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 124) For example, there is a “a
second set of current products [that are] microwaveable so therefore one
can assume that these products are used when consumers are in a hurry
to prepare lunch or dinner.
• There are three subtypes of consumer-oriented research which are: the
“anthropological approach [which] involves direct observation of
consumers using the good or service” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 124), “
sociological analysis of social class issues, trends, and family life cycle
changes” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 124) and “psychological motives for
product purchases, such as feeling sexy, powerful, or intelligent.” (Clow &
Baack, 2012, p. 124).

9. Advertising Planning & Research
cont’d
• Eli might do advertising planning & research by offering free samples in
retail stores or he might conduct research of Dinty Moore’s potential new
customers by examining why customer’s buy products from its
competitors like “Castleberry’s and Armour”( Advertising syllabus, n.d., p.
3).
• He might also conduct surveys to find out about the “consumer’s
perceptions of the quality of the Dinty Moore line as compared to Armour
and Castleberry’s” (Advertising syllabus, n.d., p. 3).

10. Creative Brief
• The objective of this campaign is to increase “brand awareness” (Clow &
Baack, 2012, p. 129), build “brand image” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 129),
increase “customer traffic” ( Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 129) , increase “retailer or
wholesaler orders” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 129), and provide “information”
(Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 129).
• Brand awareness will be built by displaying “the name of the product … in the
advertisement” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 129). This is so that when consumers
go to choose a beef stew they will want to choose Dinty Moore over the
competition.
• “The target audience” (Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 130) will be mothers or fathers
who are in a hurry to make a meal for their families, so this includes females
and males in the age range from 20 to 45. A highlight of the campaign will also
be that Dinty Moore’s beef stew only has “240 calories per 8-ounce serving”
(Advertising syllabus, n.d., p. 2), highlighting the fact that it can be a low-
calorie meal option.
• The message theme for Dinty Moore’s line of products is: “Synonymous not
only with beef stew, but with a convenient and satisfying meal” (as cited in
Advertising syllabus, n.d., p. 2).

11. Creative Brief cont’d
• According to Clow & Baack (2012), “support takes the form of facts that
substantiate the message theme” (p. 131). For example, the fact that
some of the current products that Dinty Moore offers are now
microwaveable, ties in to the message theme of convenience.
• The “constraints are any legal and mandatory restrictions placed on
advertisements”(Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 131). A constraint could be
“claims [that] identify the exact nature of the statement made in the
advertisement”(Clow & Baack, 2012, p. 131) like the fact that “it has no
preservatives”( Advertising syllabus, n.d., p.2). According to Clow & Baack
(2012), this includes nutritional claims as well as statements about serving
sizes and other information describing the product” (p.131). For example,
the statement about “only [having] 240 calories per 8-ounce serving”
(Advertising syllabus, n.d., p.2) is a constraint.

12. References
Advertising syllabus. (n.d). Retrieved from Blackboard.
Clow, K., Baack, D. (2012). Integrated advertising, promotion, and marketing
communications (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
www.hormelfoods.com.