Agency Websites

An Above+Beyond Advertising Agency

June 10, 2022 By Peter Leave a Comment

London’s Above+Beyond Advertising Agency And…

I woke up, I admit it with a bit of a hangover, and saw that London’s Above+Beyond advertising agency hired Shez Lord has joined as creative director to work on the Subway account. Not big news for me but always good for an advertising agency to get press even if just a typical Media Post News type of article.

I used the article as a spark to wake up my brain and to get me to look at the Above+Beyond website.

Things I Like About The Above+Beyond Website. A couple of quick takeaways:

Good Above+Beyond:

I dig the agency’s name. Above+Beyond works on a few levels. Not the least of which is that the name makes me think that these guys will run through walls for a client. Serice, good agency service, is what keeps clients in-house and offers a good angle for pitching and sales. It would be interesting to see how the agency leverages this promise.

I dig the opening statement: Audience Age Creativity For Ambitious Brands. I admit that it took me a couple of seconds to process the term “Audience Age”. However, once I got my fuzzy brain to think, I liked that Above+Beyond recognizes the power of the audience these days and positions the agency dead center in this evolving universe… Oh, and I’ve had personal experience with “ambitious”. I started in the agency business at New York’s largest ad agency — Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (later bought by Saatchi) which had Ambitious Advertising as its ‘motto’.

I like that the agency defines its clients as being ambitious. Most agencies do not define the clients that they want.

The ‘work’ is smart. The Sh*t Just Got Serious client has a nice story about connecting your bum to trees.

A new brand to fight deforestation, one 100% recycled loo-roll at a time.

Serious Tissues was named to insinuate the serious issues our world faces with the devastating effects of climate change. A world where we’re chopping down 27,000 trees a day just to wipe our arses. Literally flushing away 10m trees each year. The proposition was simple and distinct; for every one recycled toilet roll bought from Serious Tissues – one tree is planted.

Nice client list.

A Better Above+Beyond:

I don’t dig that the agency only uses video for its cases. I’d like to get to know the agency leaders… why not a video with them in it? A short but sweet chemistry-building video? Like… tell me who you are. And, why I should hire you vs the other ‘creative’ shop down the street.

I really could use some explanation surrounding the idea of “Audience Age”. Help me want to use the agency in this new world where the consumer rules (even more everyday). Audience-related strategic insights please. Even short and very sweet audience as in consumer interviews. I said short.

Ok, one more. These guys could do a better job of enticing me to make contact. Most agencies do a sh*ty job when it comes to their contact page. Above+Beyond, how about some love? And a hug.

Look at my Contact page.

I have an offer (as in Don Corleone); make contacting me easy and even have a testimonial from a couple of my clients and even even a video testimonial from my boy Mahatma Gandhi. Yes, Gandhi. I got my friend Gandhi to do the video because I am ambitious – like Above+Beyond’s favorite clients.

OOO The Critical Facebook and Instagram Mistake

October 17, 2021 By Peter Leave a Comment

AH. The Big & Critical Facebook and Instagram Mistake.

I’ve been writing for PetaPixel, a leading photography website with over 7,000,000 page views per month. Here is an article I wrote that I think should be of value, as a thought-starter, for people in the advertising business. Frankly, I see advertising agencies and their clients relying way too much on Facebook and Instagram. That’s why I wrote Don’t Make the Critical Facebook and Instagram Mistake. You can see my PetaPixel work here.

OK, Stop The Mistakes

I have a good friend that uses Facebook as his photography business’s digital platform. I have multiple friends that use Instagram as their portfolio. This also goes for, yes to a lesser degree, using Behance, Tumbler, Model Mayhem, Imgur, and Flickr as a portfolio destination.

The primary issue for all these websites is that you do not own or control them. You are loaning your work to them and must abide by their rules and regulations. And future business model.

Oops

Both Instagram and Facebook recently went down for hours. This meant that beyond not being able to look at photos of your friends’ kids, if your photography world counted on either of these sites, your business and portfolio went down too. It’s like you did not exist. This was painful for millions of businesses, many of which only use Facebook as their business information website. I’d imagine that millions of dollars of sales were lost that day.

While this event was a Facebook server issue, are you sure that Facebook and Instagram, as we know them today, will be here in their current formats forever?

Forever, as in the place that you want to show your work – forever?

Remember Myspace?

For a few years, Myspace was the ultimate destination for musicians to share their work and build reputations. From 2005 to 2008 it was the largest social media site.

Popular musicians like Arctic Monkeys and Calvin Harris made their names on Myspace. Unfortunately trusting Myspace turned out to be a rather bad idea. From a Myspace press release:

As a result of a server migration project, any photos, videos and audio files you uploaded more than three years ago may no longer be available on or from Myspace. We apologize for the inconvenience.

“Inconvenience.” Really?

At that time, CNN reported that “Andy Baio, a tech expert and former chief technology officer of crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, warned that the music of up to up 14 million artists may have been lost.”

Own Your Work

Other than morality issues, I am sure that having your work on Facebook and Instagram is a good idea. Each platform reaches zillions and, in the case of Instagram, is known as a photography destination. Plus, you get the dopamine hit from all those cherished ‘likes.’

However, trusting these third-party platforms as your primary and forever marketing resource is a BAD idea.

I’ll state the obvious. Add your own website to your marketing mix. Yes, I know that this is obvious. However, in the case of Instagram, too many photographers trust it as their little photo universe. They may have a real website, but because they view updating as a pain in the rear, they do not keep it updated. Updating is in the eye of the beholder. Do you really have to show every photograph you take? Editing is a good thing.

A side note related to marketing: both of these sites are trending older. If reaching the under-35 crowd is important, you might be missing a sizable audience.

Your Partners Include Mark Zuckerberg

The Ultimate Advertising Agency List

March 23, 2021 By Peter 4 Comments

How Do Clients Find Your Advertising Agency? Think List.

I just reread this post about the advertising agency list world and I laughed when I realized that I had left out a couple of ways that clients find advertising agencies. First, leverage your network. That means tell your friends, clients, aunt Helen and etc. that you are great and want new clients that are into growing their business.

Beyond just lists (see below) both of these highly-searched websites require that you have a master plan for how to leverage their unique platforms. The platforms? Google and LinkedIn. Passive marketing does not work for either.

OK, back to the original post. There are multiple ways that a prospective client will find an advertising agency. These range from very aggressive agency outreach to highly intelligent outreach (yup, two different approaches) to your inbound program to your agency reputation to being on the radar of search consultants to simply getting found on the day that new client wakes up and says, “How can I find my new advertising agency” and locates an advertising agency list.

While you should have a very intelligent account-based marketing business development program, you must be available when a client searches via an advertising agency list.

There is an extra benefit of my list. Use the list to find your competitors and their best marketing practices. These lists will help you find the winners.

The List Of Advertising Agency Lists

Here is a quick look at the advertising lists you should be on. Some will be easy, some will require a bit of work. But, you need to be able to be found.

Wikipedia’s List of Advertising Agencies. This list is not just the big boys. An example, Tombras group from Knoxville is on the list.

AdAge’s A-List. Look, there must be some way that AdAge finds these agencies. Maybe you should think about letting the editors know that you are alive.

AdForum. Hey, this is what they say and I’d imagine that clients pay attention… “AdForum’s Global Directory of Advertising Agencies is the advertising industry’s premier resource for learning about agencies in the USA, Europe, Asia, Oceana, and MENA. Our interactive map identifies agencies according to region and core competencies – ranging from digital marketing and social media
strategies to mobile app development, brand engagement, and product design.”

AgencyList. Why not be here? You have to dig this fact… “Agency List has 1st page Google exposure in over 45 major cities.” [Read more…] about The Ultimate Advertising Agency List

The Advertising Agency Website Walrus Style

December 3, 2020 By Peter Leave a Comment

An EY Podcast Just Asked Me “What Is Missing From The Advertising Industry Today.” I Said Creativity. Ya Know, Ideas That Grab Attention And Move People. I See This Missing Link Also Running Rampant In The Advertising Agency Website Ocean. Then I Found Walrus.

I am feeling ranty these days. And, have this particular rant that I often repeat to my agency clients… GET UNIGNORABLE. The amount of sameness in the world of the advertising agency website world is numbing. This is a bad thing since prospective clients do most of their agency selection before they ever pick up the phone.

Welcome To The Walrus Advertising Agency Website.

Since New York’s award-winning agency (important awards) walks the creative talk and is in fact unignorable… I’ll just go fast here.

So, what works for Walrus?

What you first read when you look them up – as in their Google snippet = “World famous creative shop located in Union Square New York City. Where clients go to get rich, ideas go to get famous, and bivalves go to get devoured.” Different + benefit-driven and what other agency mentions clams?
The Home Page has a talking Walrus. Cute. It works as a branding element and a very fast way to get you to ask, WTF?
Need more info? The social-style information links on the bottom of the page take you to the Walrus Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Medium accounts, and an email thingy. Walrus does not need the endless number of website pages to tell you who they are.
Walrus is all about the work. Human, funny and, oh so not data-crazed, yadda yadda sameness… the advertising you see for brands that most other agencies world kill for is smart. Did I say funny? Like Walrus’ ads get a viewer to stop and watch, listen absorb. These ‘ads’ will also get the attention of the right clients. It’s kinda good for agencies to know what type of clients they want.

The Unignorable Walrus Thing.

The Walrus vibe is cool and interesting and, repeating myself, gets the attention of the right client. I am thinking that this means a client looking for strategic / creative brains.

I am not alone in preaching that advertising, digital PR, you name it agencies, need to get a bit specialist to make it in 2021. I talk about ad agency positionings here. I also say that trying to be known as a ‘creative’ agency isn’t easy. Creativity is very subjective. That said, the right client for Walrus will find them and will dig the creativity and want some of that. It is called mating. Mating requires a bit of unignorability.

OK, OK, I Know You Want To Know How Walrus’ Mate.

I had to find out. So, I went to How Stuff Works. Here you go…

The remaining females congregate on the ice pack and prepare to be entertained by the males in the water. One or two males generally perform for each congregation of roughly 23 females — presenting a series of vocalizations both above and below water. Here, the males’ pharyngeal muscles (near the throat) come in handy both as flotation devices and as amplifiers. The males simply inflate the pouches to remain upright in the water and begin to serenade.

If you woulld like to see another unignorable advertising agency website (from 2011), check out how BooneOakly used YouTube.

Oh, did this work? 1,372,449 views so far.

I Stole From Gary Vaynerchuk And Mahatma Gandhi

June 7, 2020 By Peter 2 Comments

I stole from Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Burden, Derek Sivers, and Mahatma Gandhi.

Let me explain. I “stole” a few of the design elements of this new Peter Levitan website. Some of the core elements are from the Gary Vaynerchuk home page. Stealing, art that is, is OK. Picasso said I could do it.

And, don’t tell the Judges at award ceremonies that most of the great advertising ideas were “borrowed”. No, I am not being pissy. Ideas regenerate. Keep reading.

What I Stole From Gary Vaynerchuk. Go To My Home Page.

If you look at the Gary Vaynerchuk website next to mine, you will see similarities. Each website leads with a chest-beating video (always a good thing) and then a clear benefit statement (even better). Both websites are very clean and direct. Thank you, Gary.

Why steal from Gary Vaynerchuk? He is a dude that gets personal brand marketing right. Need more?

What I Stole From Chris Burden? Go To My Home Page.

Chris Burden was a genius performance, sculpture, and installation artist. He is very well known in the art world for instillations like the rows of lampposts outside of L.A.’s LACMA museum and got his first taste of major-league art fame when he was shot in the arm in his “Shoot” performance video. Shot by accident by the way.

I stole the idea for my lead video from Chris’s 1970s TV commercial. Just so you know, I am not the only person to have stolen Burden’s idea. To state the obvious, the video is all about name association: Van Gogh and Burden. Droga and Levitan. Look at Chris’s video interview – the idea I stole is at the 4:50 mark. How did I do?

What I Stole From Derek Sivers. See My About Page.

I have been wrestling with how to tell the story of my 30-year advertising; digital; internet startup; and advertising agency business consultation career. It could take a long time. Too long.

I finally figured out how to do it from Derek Siver’s website. Derek is the founder of CD Baby. This is what Esquire said:

“Derek Sivers is changing the way music is bought and sold. A musicians’ savior. One of the last music-business folk heroes.”

Derek covers his extensive and very cool career with his home page help-the-reader bio subheads: Me In Ten Seconds?; Me in Ten Minutes? What I Am Doing Now? Concise, fast, easy to absorb. I needed this degree of simplicity, so I stole his idea.

What I Stole From Mahatma Gandhi. See My Contact Page.

Do I have to say this? Sure, why not.

“Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who became the leader of the nationalist movement against the British rule of India. As such, he came to be considered the father of his country. Gandhi is internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest to achieve political and social progress.”

I spent the month of January 2020 in India. I visited Gandhi’s home in Mumbai. I picked up on his vibe and wanted to have him do a testimonial. Of course, it has been over 40 years since his assassination. So, I found a modern-day Gandhi to deliver the testimonial.

You can see what I mean when you scroll down my Contact page.

By the way, I also stole from Donald Trump – he is at the bottom of my home page. I admit it, I am a bit less proud of that theft.

Ok, OK… I Also Stole From Austin Kleon.

In this case, Austin’s best-selling book “Steal Like An Artist” – buy it at the great Powell’s Books. He told me to steal. As Austin points out…

Picasso said, “Art Is Theft.”

I hope you enjoy your own art of stealing.