Jambo, (Hello in Swahili). I’m just back from Africa – Kenya (www.Kenya.com) to be exact. So how does this relate to advertising you ask? First off, I have never seen so many billboards in my life. It seems as if word has not spread to all of the environmentalists (are you listening Mr. Gore?) and billboards are a major advertising medium in this third-world country.

At the country club I played golf at, yes they have golf (about seven courses in the country most in Nairobi), they had a fully stocked golf pro shop with mostly American products all stamped with PGA. The club, Windsor Golf and Country Club, was full of video monitors showing products and scenic vistas of the country. While we only found Internet access in Nairobi, the websites all included banners, pop-ups, spam and the like. Apparently the digital revolution has made its way to parts of Africa.

We drove through cities of 100,000+ people and the best looking things in each town were the billboards – mostly for cell phone cards I might add. Oh, and about the cell phone towers, the environmental kooks missed out on these also. In Africa, they are not decorated to look like trees. They let them be what they are – a means to communicate in a country that has very little communication infrastructure at all. In fact as I spoke with a driver of one of the vans that took us through the country I asked about TV and he explained that most of the shows were either British (Kenya was a former British Colony until December 1963) or American. He said his favorite program was Boston Legal…but he hated all the “damn commercials.” Hmmmm, I guess some things about advertising don’t change no matter where you are in the world.

How about advertising agencies? Well it amazed me to discover that there were well over 200 agencies listed in the Kenya phone book. Most were located in the capitol of Nairobi, a city with well over a million people. But it just goes to show you that our profession works all over the globe. People have a need to learn about products and services everywhere – even in third-world countries. I have attached a few pictures of my trip to hopefully give you the flavor of how different it is from what we know here in the good ol’ US of A.

Ahsante Sana, (thank you in Swahili).

[Show as slideshow]

I hear more stories from my peers about how hard it is to collect what they are owed. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why. I guess my background as a bill collector may have influenced my ideas about people who owe me money.

You cannot wait longer than 30 days to collect what is lawfully yours…if you do, you become a bank and that takes away from what we actually do. When clients go 31 days in my receivables I call them, I don’t care how big they are or how long the have been a client – none of that matters. Most of the people who I purchase services and products from want to be paid in 30 days. It’s actually 45-60 days for media and media firms have often told me that we are the best paying agency around. Don’t you think that helps when a sales rep is asked to recommend an agency? Who are they going to suggest: an agency that runs 90-120 or an agency that pays media bills in 45 days?

In order to pay your bills on time you must collect on time. Money owed to you that has gone beyond 30 days is a sign of disrespect. Don’t be afraid to call clients that owe you money. You further need to be willing to take them to court if they don’t pay – even if it’s a small amount. In most states small claims court will take cases of up to $3,000. The process is relatively easy and you don’t need a lawyer.

Okay, I understand when a client has a cash flow issue, we cannot be unsympathetic in those cases. When a client calls me in advance to tell me they have a cash flow issue I am more than willing to help them.

But my agency collects 98.7% of our payables on average, every month in 30 days. I know people think creativity is all that is important in this industry…but I will tell you I have seen some great creative agencies go out of business because they didn’t have the business sense to collect what was owed to them.