Launching E$-$Collar

Pet Technologies Inc. has completed the development of a

revolutionary pet collar code named e$-$collar. E$-$collar is

designed for dogs and allows pet owners to identify the

location of their dog using their smartphones. In addition

to purchasing the e$-$collar, the pet owners must download

a free app for their smartphone and pay a small monthly

fee that is yet to be determined in order to connect the e$-$

collar to a cellular network.

In the past, Pet Technologies has used the services of

Ad Jungle to develop its advertising campaigns. Ad Jungle

is located in the same city as Pet Technologies and is a

boutique advertising agency with $25$ full$-$time employees

and a similar number of people it contracts with on an ad

hoc basis. Pet Technologies has reached out to Ad Jungle

and has requested an estimate for the cost of developing an

advertising campaign for the e$-$collar.

Ad Jungle begins the process of developing an ad cam$-$

paign by first meeting with the client to learn about the

product to be advertised. Based on what is learned, Ad

Jungle works with the client to define the target audience

for the advertising campaign. Because the target audience

may be different than its current customer base, market

research is often required. Historical data suggests that

defining the target market typically takes $80$ hours $(2$ weeks$).$

In some cases, determining the target audience is fairly

routine and can be done in as little as a day and a half

$(12$ hours in total$)$ while in other cases much less is known

about who will use the product and defining the target

market can take as long as $4$ weeks $(160$ hours$).$ Also, the

number of people working on the task at any one time var$-$

ies as does their hourly bill rate. Given this, the average

amount the customer is billed for the work to determine

the target audience typically averages $$170$ per hour. In

some cases, however, the hourly rate was as low as $$100$ per

hour and in other cases as high as $$450$ per hour.

Once the target audience has been defined, alternative

concepts for the advertising campaign are developed. A

key aspect of developing the concept is deciding on the

tone the campaign will use such as humorous, dramatic, or

informative. Concept development is a highly creative

process and often requires several iterations between Ad

Jungle and its clients. On average, concept development

takes $2$ weeks $(80$ hours$)$ but has been completed in as lit$-$

tle as $1$ week $(40$ hours$)$ or as long as $5$ weeks $(200$ hours$).$

Only one person from Ad$.$ Jungle works on concept devel$-$

opment, and typically these employees are billed out at

$$125$ per hour. However, the least experienced employee is

billed out at $$75$ per hour and the most experienced per$-$

son is billed out at $$200$ per hour.

Once the client signs off on the concept, the develop$-$

ment of the creative collateral $($brochures$,$ print ads,

scripts for TV commercials, and so on$)$ and determining

the mix of media are done concurrently. The amount of

time it takes to develop the creative collateral depends on

how many media channels will be used $($e$.$g$.,$ print, TV$,$

online$),$ how many people are assigned to work on devel$-$

oping the creative collateral, and how much involvement

the client wants to have in the process. Typically, develop.

ing the creative collateral requires $3$ weeks $(120$ hours$)$ but

has been done in as little as $1$ week $(40$ hours$)$ and on

other occasions required $6$ weeks $(240$ hours$).$ Furthermore,

the number of people and their bill rates varies from pro$-$

ject to project. On average, the hourly bill rate for devel$-$

oping the collateral is $$275$ but has been as low as $$145$

and as high as $$425.$

Determining the mix of media is almost always done by

the same person at Ad Jungle. This person is currently

billed out at $$150$ per hour. The amount of time it takes to

determine the mix of media that will be used ranges from

half a day $(4$ hours$)$ to $2$ days $(16$ hours$),$ but it typically

takes $1$ day $(8$ hours$).$

Once the collateral has been developed and the mix of

media determined, the final step is production where the

advertising materials are developed. The production of

the advertising materials is outsourced to firms, and Ad

Jungle assigns one account manager to oversee the work.

The account managers are billed out at an hourly rate of

$$200.$ On average, $80$ hours of the account manager's time

is needed to oversee production. In some cases, as little as

$30$ hours of the account manager's time was required,

while in other cases as many as $160$ hours were needed.Project Sponsor organization Background

Project background

Benefits to the sponsor organization

Project objectives $($Learn how to create SMART