Agency of the Future

Advertising Agencies: Follow The Money: Social, Mobile, Video

Peter · August 19, 2013 · Leave a Comment

From the land of “you know” this, comes a reinforcing eMarketer article and graphic showing you where the marketing / advertising budgets are going and you know what’s coming… I say follow the money.

Wow, so many opportunities for your agency to: build out social media, mobile and video expertise; so many opportunities to recalibrate your brand positioning and sales proposition. So, are you? I got to go WTF if you aren’t.

Is Anyone Interested in Investing In Your Advertising Agency?

Peter · August 14, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Is Anyone Interested in Investing In Your Advertising Agency?

Sorry. Probably Not.

But, D on’t Shoot Me. Rethink Your Agency.

Way back in 2013, I wrote about Bend, Oregon’s specialist ‘advertising agency’ G5. I wanted to show you, Ms. Agency CEO, that there are advertising agency business models that actually:

Attract high-margin clients

Are more efficient than your project-based approach

Are category specific. This is their pitch: “G5 simplifies digital marketing by delivering best-in-class sites, search, and social for Apartments, Self Storage, and Senior Living properties.”

Are unique in a world of me-too agencies

Leverage the power of marketing tech to help clients and grow your bottom line

And… increase agency valuations. You do wnat to sell someday, right?

Way back in 2013 you had to take my word for it. Not anymore. I was right.

G5 Raises $76 Million Investment Led by Peak Equity Partners

From the Portland Business Journal:

Digital marketing firm G5 has raised $76 million from a private equity firm.

The figure is the largest Oregon investment round this year. According to investment research firm PitchBook, the next highest round was $22 million for the New York and Portland-based biotech firm Schrödinger. Urban Airship raised $21 million and Jama Software raised $20 million.

The Bend-based company offers a digital marketing platform for the apartment, self storage and senior living market segments. Peak Equity Partners, which is taking a majority stake in the company, led the round. CEO Dan Hobin declined to name other investors in the deal.

Portland Business Journal.

Here is a bit from the press release:

BEND, Ore. (August 12, 2015) – G5, the leader in maximizing digital marketing effectiveness for the property management sector, today announced the closing of a $76 million investment led by Radnor, Pa. based Peak Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on the enterprise software market. The investment enables G5 to build on its ten year history of growth and innovation by accelerating feature development of the G5 Marketing Cloud – the most innovative, scalable, and up-to-date digital marketing platform in the property management sector.

From my 2013 blog post:

G5. A Little Digital Agency That Kicks Butt

When the digital agency G5 was launched in Bend Oregon in 2005 (my agency Citrus had offices in Bend and Portland), I wondered if their SEO oriented business model was going to succeed. As you can see, it did.

G5 is, if anything, a highly focused agency. They chose not to be one of the thousands of “full-service” agencies that are designed to meet virtually any client’s needs and ultimately wind up with a somewhat mushy sales proposition and inefficient business model.

G5 provides software and services directly to the large national property management sector which includes multifamily, senior living, self-storage and student housing. They call their service Digital Experience Management (DXM) and they offer an audacious promise: they promise that they will deliver client properties “within the first five organic SERP listings on Google.” In the active property management category, having a high SERP is a promise that can’t be refused.

G5 works it. In addition to their original SEO service, G5 now offers suites of services that include a Discovery Suite (SEO / SEM): Reputation Suite, Conversion Suite (websites, lead tracking, applicant screening), Retention Suite (CRM) and the Insight Suite (analytics.)

These targeted services allow G5 to pitch a compelling benefit story to prospective clients. Take a look at G5’s Solutions page to see how a set of services can be applied to multiple clients in each of their target categories. Like efficiency? This pitch can be repeated over and over.

What Works?

Category specificity and expertise.
A focussed and efficient new business pitch.
An audacious promise and an unequivocal value story.
A set of core services that can be resold across an entire category.

Add Central Oregon’s outdoor lifestyle and you have a profitable, smart, narrowly focused agency staffed with national talent that gets to live 25 minutes from great skiing. That’s Mt. Bachelor in the background.

Why Bezos Is Good For Advertising

Peter · August 7, 2013 · Leave a Comment

I worked in the newspaper industry for five years from 1995 to 2000. I started the online newspaper New Jersey Online for Advance Internet which went on to use our blueprint to build an additional 10 online entities across the U.S. (Note, I am not responsible for the design of the current website.)

I was hired by Jeff Jarvis who knows more about the business of newspapers and online newspapers that anyone in the industry. So, when I heard about Jeff Bezos buying the Washington Post, I immediately headed over to Jeff’s well-read blog, “Buzz Machine.” While Jeff hasn’t really weighed in in-depth yet, he will and I am going to follow his evolving views on this purchase. As you can see from his “Hot Off The Presses” blog post, he is “hopeful.” I am too. As an early internet publisher, I watched Bezos build Amazon starting in 1995. It was a very exciting time to watch this visionary.

I think that newspapers which have been run by ossified old white men who couldn’t get out of the way of Craigslist and all the other revenue killers, can now sit on the sidelines and watch a real leader move paper-based and online newspapers to the next level.

This will be good for the advertising industry as well.

I think that paper newspapers will be around for the next few years (my bet not much more than an additional ten.) They will continue to play a big role in our local news ecosystem as they have always provided a powerful daily platform for local advertising which online advertising hasn’t yet replaced. Many have pointed out that the Amazon machine has hastened the demise of the local retailer. That may be true. But, local retail has also been hurt by the slow death of local advertising options. Bezos may just be the guy to reverse that trend.

For another take on the Post, head over to Jason Calacanis’ piece, “Why Jeff Bezos Bought The Washing Post Six-Theories.” .

Agency Post: What Is the Publicis-Omnicom Merger Really About?

Peter · August 1, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Agency Post asked me about my opinion of the Omnicom-Publicis merger (well, me and others.)

Below is what I said and here is a link to the article…

I woke up yesterday to Omnicom’s CEO John Wren telling CNBC that the merger will result in a more ‘nimble’ agency. Really? As an advertising man who worked at Saatchi & Saatchi when it was the world’s largest agency, I can tell you that bigger is the enemy of nimble.

While the issues facing huge-to-small advertising agencies are complex, the most painful issue is the reduction in profitability that started in the 1980s. The only advantage I can see from this merger is a reduction in the new agency’s cost structure, which of course means fewer employees. Will this make them stronger in the face of evolving competition? Only if they use some of that cash to be one of the companies that is involved in the evolution itself.