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LONDON Advertising Kicks Ass

Peter · September 26, 2020 · Leave a Comment

The LONDON Advertising Case Study

I’ve written a couple of blog posts about the LONDON Advertising self-run and crafted advertising campaign. I’ll put those links below.

My bottom line is that in the cutthroat world of advertising and digital agency business development, a critical goal should be to want to stand out. To be what I call Unignorable. These guys are Unignorable. And famous.

But, before looking at my prior posts, here is the video case study. Yes, that is me inside.

Strange, But True. An Advertising Agency Actually Likes Advertising

The LONDON program is an “interesting” story because, well, most advertising agencies do not advertise themselves. Why? Well, first many advertising and digital agencies do not have a well-crafted business development program (beyond WOM and referrals). Second, I’ll guess here, they might not actually think that “traditional” advertising works. Hey, I’m just guessing here.

Here is what I do know… advertising does work; even after 30 years of the growth of digital marketing, The good old fashioned TV commercial and out-of-home ad/poster/now digital still grab attention and sell. I can say this because I have done it all. And, I admit it. I started to invent digital advertising in 1995.

Earlier LONDON Advertising Blog Posts

Is Your Advertising Agency Famous And Unignorable

Does Your Advertising Agency Advertise Itself?

Want A List of The best Advertising Podcasts? Sure You Do.

Do You Remember Creative Ideas?

Peter · August 13, 2019 · 1 Comment

Ah, Creative Ideas…

I grew up in advertising’s heyday. We were very much about ideas. Words. Images. Big ideas.

I am not going to babble on like so many babyboomers. I’ll just show you a fucking great idea. A brilliant use of words. Images. Timing. Emotion.

So, the next time you obsess about your Google ad, ask yourself, if there is an idea there. Algorithms are not ideas. Algorithms are not human.

Apple or British Airways?

Peter · December 31, 2018 · 1 Comment

Does Apple Know Its Advertising History?

Is Apple’s derivative “Color Flood” Parkour TV ad OK?

It might be if it was actually better strategically or creatively than Saatchi’s famous 1989 face TV commercial for British Airways.

I see things like this look-alike ad and I wonder if the director knows ad history… Or?

Regardless, look at the Apple ad and then the Face commercial. It was produced at the height of Saatchi’s excellence and fame. I opened every new business pitch with it.

After you look at the ads, check out some advertising history from Revolvy.

Expedia And Sales Chutzpah

Peter · May 22, 2017 · Leave a Comment

A Lesson From Expedia On Sales Chutzpah

OK, we all have bad customer service experiences. I get it. But when the bad experiences go across four Expedia service phone conversations (that lasted about three plus hours over two days) and another six back and forth Twitter direct tweets and the customer who is spending over $5,000 on the trip is still unsatisfied (that’s me), there must be something wrong with how Expedia runs the humanbeing (vs. digital) sales service side of its business.

No, This Post Is Not About Expedia. It Is About Your Ad, PR, Digital, etc. Agency

Stick with me because this blog post is actually about a way to grow your agency – a way that requires a bit of chutzpah. However, before I get to your agency and an unignorable sales tactic, I have to share a tiny bit of customer service related background to set up the chutzpah recommendation.

A few weeks ago, I used Expedia to book two tickets from Mexico City to Budapest for a summer trip to see the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix race. This week, I called Expedia to change the trip by adding a few days up front and move the original first destination from Budapest to Vienna. I knew about and was willing to spend the extra $500 flight change charge and, before I called, I had also looked at all of the available flight options. I was prepared for the service rep call. But, I was not prepared for the following:

Expedia’s phone system could never recognize my itinerary number or phone number (the ones that are listed on Expedia’s original flight plan document). I knew I was in the system because when I finally got to a rep, she recognized the numbers. What’s up with Expedia’s automated phone system and the interface with its database?

While it took me about 30 seconds to get to the Iberia Airlines and Expedia sites to find my reservation detail, it took the multiple Expedia reps I talked to at around two minutes.

I was repeatedly asked if Mexico City was my origination airport (I live in Mexico) and if I was to change flights in Madrid as stated on my reservation. Um, yes.

The reps took forever to find alternative flights although I was helping them find the alternatives. And on. I won’t bore you with more including the third rep who apologized for how sloooooow Expedia’s computer was working.

Taken individually, these don’t appear to be too onerous. However, in aggregate, they were and I gave up without making the flight change.

OK, two more points.

I was so pissed off that I sent LinkedIn InMails to three Expedia marketing execs gently complaining about the service and asking them if they ever sat in on customer calls – consider this action an internal “Store-Check”. It’s been four days since I sent the emails. Any response? No. Sure these folks get lots of emails. But, I used attention-getting customer-centric subject lines.

How To Win An Advertising Award

Peter · October 26, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Go Win An Advertising Award

It took me awhile to fully understand the value of winning an advertising agency award in the in the context of business development. Yes, I know, I should have figured this out a lot earlier. Especially, when you consider that I ran business development at Saatchi & Saatchi in the days when they won everything and later, when I ran my own agency.

While it is fun for the agency staff to win awards (well, the right awards), the true value in winning those shiny objects is in helping clients recognize your brilliance. To put it mildly, clients – as in your prospective clients – are not experts at selecting agencies and this fact is exacerbated by the fact that many agencies, once they make the final cut, kinda look and sound alike. In this environment, awards represent extremely valuable third-party endorsement.

EFFIES prove your strategic chops. Clios and ADDY’s prove creativity. In the media space, MediaPost just announced their Agency of the Year awards. Considering how critical media planning is in today’s fractured media environment, media awards can be leveraged to prove your agency’s media prowess.

Strategic Award Planning

Ok, so you want to incorporate award-winning into your business development plan. Good idea. I know that some of the major agencies approach awards with a very strategic business development perspective. This is a big subject. For now, here are the basics that should help you enter the right award categories.

The Who: What clients do you want to excite? What are their interests, needs, and fears? What do they value – pure creativity, strategy, agency fame (as in hiring an agency because they look real cool)?

The What: There is a big difference between winning a creative award (subjective) and a strategy award (ROI). Some clients need proof that you are creative and some need to know that you know how to deliver on the client’s objectives.

The Where: Sure, winning a Clio is nice. But, most agencies are simply not going to win the big ones. This isn’t because they don’t deserve to. It is because these awards are really set up to honor the bigger agencies – with big award budgets. That’s just how it is – award shows are not about the awards, they are profit centers for the award entities. So, I suggest that some of the better local awards can make a great deal of sense. In this case, base these on where you clients are going to come from. A great example of a powerful local award program is The Rosey Awards from the Portland Ad Fed. In this case, your agency has a good chance to beat Portland’s Wieden & Kennedy powerhouse.

Last point. Be very strategic about how you enter. Study past award shows to see if you can figure out how and why other agencies have won. Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, my first agency, figured out a smart system for EFFIE entries. We studied winning agency applications. Our system helped us become a major winner.

Start Today: Media Post’s ‘Agency of the Year’ Open For Submissions

MediaPost is accepting submissions for its annual ‘Agency of the Year’ awards. If you would like to nominate an organization, please contact joe@mediapost.com by the end of October. We recognize the following categories:

Media Agency, Digital Agency, Social Agency, Search Agency, Programmatic Agency, Mobile Agency, Creative Agency, Holding Company, Client, Supplier, Executive.