Creative Manager Pro Gets All Whatchamacallit Whosiwhatsit Workamajig-y
This has to be a joke. Seriously. Creative Manger Pro, the agency software package that helps manage the creative and billing process, has changed its name to - um yea...this makes a hell of a lot of sense - Workamajig. Why? Because...um...as VP Ron Ause says, "The old brand did not properly reflect the product and organization behind it. Our old brand was too straight laced and did not properly convey what we are all about."
So...it's a product to help creative professionals manage the creative process and Creative Manager Pro doesn't properly convey that?
In an effort to support the name change yet displaying a disconnect akin to Paula Abdul critiquing a song that hasn't yet been sung, Push New Media Creative Director Mark Unger uttered, "Simply stated, Creative Manager Pro was not a brand that looked like it was meant for creative agencies." WTF? Seriously? Someone's been drinking way too much brand positioning conference room Kool Aid.
The product manages the creative process for creative organization and there are actually people out there who think Workamajig does a better job reflecting the product offering. WTF? Even the company website doesn't know what it is, asking, "Worka-ma-what? No, Workamajig."
This name change will do nothing more than affix the dreaded "we do fucking everything for everyone" positioning which will set it apart from no one. Creative Manager Pro needs no tagline, no explanation, no lengthy prose to describe what it does. Workamajig? Without a lot of surrounding brand support baggage, all this will elicit is a collective "what the fuck did you just say?" along with a bunch of blank stares, incredulous looks and the query, "you want us to spend hard-earned money on something called Workamajig? Are you insane?"
Oh wait. This is the advertising business. Logic is irrelevant. Workamajig? Pure Cannes-worthy genius!
Comments
Process + Creative Thinking = Shit Creative Thinking.
I have to admit I have a bias here as a member of the Push team, but your logic doesn't flow. Should Google have been called "Amazingly Fast Analytical Search Engine"? Or maybe Apple should have been called, "Fantastically Designed Computer With Simple Operating System". Or maybe Target should be called "Great Discount Store with Style".
Only a part of the brand has been revealed, yet all sorts of judgements are being made. Let it roll out and then judge. FYI, when running an analytics of the launch on AdAge yesterday, they had 3X the click through of the average click through on AdAge.com. We're pretty happy with that.
And by the way, thanks for the exposure. Workamajig is getting its name out there and people are paying attention to it.
Well then it's a win-win for all:-)
Just please don't call it late for dinner.
:^) -- Roger D.
Amen. Workamajig? Smells kind of like CM agreed to trade out services with one of its subscribing agencies only to be pushed to the bottom of a very long list of clients who were actually paying for good strategy. "Workamajig" was all they could come up with 12 hours before the presentation after using all their juice on real clients. Someone had too much coffee and thought this was a good idea.
P.S. to the member of the "Push Team" that responded... I see what you are saying, but please note that the brands you mentioned are just so much smarter. Apple? = the solution to every problem. Remember one a day sends the doctor away? Target? = exactly what you were looking/hoping for all in one place.
Don't compare your laziness to great branding, please.
The new brand id system looks like an AGENCY.COM rip off. Check out the work at Pushhere.com and then go to AGENCY.COM
Further, Workamajig has to market itself by squatting on others search terms. If you type in OfficeZilla into Google you come up two ads ProjectApps.com and Workamajig.com, both are promoting Workamajig.
I figured if this works for Workamajig then it should work for me too. So I put an ad on the search term Workamajig in the spirit of fair play.
So Workamajig gets all worked up and has a lawyer call me. Great Workamajig, advertise two ads on the search term officezilla (had to be from two adwords accounts because you are not allowed to double serve) and then have a lawyer call me and tell me that I can't have an ad on your search term?
Not sure what your smoken Workamajig but email me at gscott@officezilla.com when you have removed your advertisments from the search term officezilla so I can take off my advertisement from the search term Workamajig.
We're Silent Partner and we have been for over 20 years. Thankfully our reputation precedes us and have no need for a name change to divert our potential customers attention . When in doubt, do business with a company that has a solid reputation, great customer service and a product that is second to none. www.esilentpartner.com
Thanks Jason,
Good Point. But when you use SilentPartner in a sentence close the space between Silent and Partner as that is our official trademarked name.
- The Brand Police (LOL)
www.esilentpartner.com
Thank you "Brand Police", that is true we are SilentPartner...and as we all know from the letter received from the Workamajig lawyer(s) (yes, we received one too) a brand name is very important! My question is why are they so worried about protecting workamajig on Google but not their parent name Creative Manager...very interesting
Who are some of workamajig's competitors? Seems like they pretty much own the space from what I can tell...
they don't even remotely own the space, we are one of their biggest competitors. They have been around for about 5 years we have been in business for over 20 as have most of their competition. www.esilentpartner.com
Oh okay. My mistake. I agree the search term thing is annoying. We've been looking for an "all-in-one" solution to project management/timekeeping/DAM/CSV and until recently, haven't had success. I will definitely give esilentpartner a try. We had the workamajig folks give us a demo and the entire creative team seemed thrilled with the feature set. In fact, we've had a hard time convincing folks of anything BUT workamajig lately. Unfortunately, many of the demo's offered by other companies fall flat (Workgroups 2007 in particular seemed unimpressive comparatively speaking). THe workamajig folks were able to address all our issues and seemed to come at the solution from our perspective, which was refreshing. We started here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_project_management_software and found some additional resources that people recommended. Granted, they had asked many questions up front and had a sales representative tailor the presentation to what we were asking, but having that personal attention goes a long way. We'll be looking at a few others, hopefully maintaining an objective eye. Thanks for the info adn we'll definitely give esilentpartner a looksee.
I'm with a company called Function Point and we're a direct competitor. Creative Manager Pro is an awesome solution. The functionality and feature set is very extensive (I was shocked when I heard about the name change). That being said, no creative industry specific solution can come even close to Function Point. Of course I am bias. However, I have spent close to 100 hours exploring demos of systems including CMP and nothing even comes close. I liked SilentPartner better than CMP because it's a lot easier to use(Jason I think we met at a conference in Tucson) but it just doesn't measure up to Function Point.
We bought this service when it was called Creative Manager Pro and when we had our first training session it is now Workamajig. I'm cringing in fear that when I speak to our clients about our new Project Management software solution I'll have to refer to something that sounds like a college kid invented in his/her dorm room.
This is completely unprofessional! The blog states their previous name didn't speak to their organization's culture. Who the hell cares!!! Their brand is going to be tied to MY company. I just hope we don't sink like a stone to the bottom with these jack-asses!
Grr.
Damian
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