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How I Discovered The Internet After Saatchi

September 9, 2021 By Peter 1 Comment

I Discovered The Internet – Kinda True

This is my 800th blog post. So why not get personal? Here is my story about how I discovered the Internet and left advertising in 1995 to become an Internet start-up CEO. I think that it might be instructive to the people leaving the advertising industry today. Don’t take my word for it, people are leaving – read Avi Dan’s Forbes article, “People Are Fleeing The Ad Industry Because Of Burnout And Wanting To Work From Home.”

By the way, that is a picture of the explorer Robert Peary.

When I Discovered The Internet and The End Of My Advertising Agency Career

After my three years working at the Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide London office as European Director running business development and the J&J and Sara Lee Europe accounts, my family and I returned to Summit, New Jersey in the winter of 1994. Our welcome was a brutally iced in house. So iced that we had to hire some off-duty firemen to chop out the ice so we could use the front and back doors.

After leaving Charlotte Street, I now worked at the big black iconic (Darth Vader) Saatchi & Saatchi building on NYC’s Hudson Street. My large 18th-floor office had a wide-angle view and very cool furniture inherited from a recently exited executive creative director. Due to a failed New York office culture, talented colleagues were starting to exit the building.

My job was running Saatchi’s North American business development group. The job was nearly impossible as poor management had trashed Saatchi’s New York reputation and the global brand itself was in decline. The Saatchi brothers had finally overreached when they tried to buy a UK bank. These advertising guys’ “want to buy a bank” hubris was not warmly received by the public markets. Saatchi’s had gone from being the “world’s favorite” advertising agency to a company that no longer got the type of new business incoming and responses I had become accustomed to. Like, I wasn’t getting returned calls from prospective clients. This was a new experience. However, I was getting weekly calls from the trade press asking me for comments about people fleeing the New York office. Not the kind of trade media calls a business development director wants to receive.

I Discovered The Internet

While all of this office and career shit was going down, I had discovered the Internet and its insane growth curve. Yes, I discovered the Internet. Well, this happened because I returned to the USA from the Luddite UK and got the wake-up call.

I immediately fell in love with digital platforms like CD-ROMs, Netscape Navigator (the first commercial graphical browser launched in October 1994), and, of course, America Online and CompuServe. I was also seeing the exponential growth of Internet usage – as shown in the chart. How could this not be a gold rush? This was around the time that Jeff Bezos became enamored with the dramatic hockey puck growth of Internet uptake and you see where that got him. Side note, I had had my first early taste of digital when I briefly ran the Western Union Easylink email account a long time before I moved to the UK. Easylink was the first commercial email service – or as we called it, Instant Mail. Um, yes, a good idea but a bit early. Understatement.

In 1995, one did not have to be a genius to see that the digital universe would become a serious advertising platform. I tried to get Saatchi management interested but they were so consumed by the Saatchi death spiral that, like small children, I could not get them to focus on the new opportunity that was right in front of them. We could have been a contenda.

A Life Switch – “Get The Fuck Out Of Advertising”

Two things soon happened that would change my life.

First, thanks to my prescient friend Mike Donahue, who was the digital lead at the American Association of Advertising Agencies, I found out about Redgate Communications. The leading, and one of the few, digital ad agencies. [Read more…] about How I Discovered The Internet After Saatchi

Quit Advertising Today

August 9, 2021 By Peter 4 Comments

OK, I Do Not Want You To Quit Advertising. I Just Want You To Move To Mexico.

I quit advertising twice. First when I left my global job at Saatchi & Saatchi to do the Internet startup CEO thing. Then again a few years later when I sold my Portland advertising agency Citrus to become an advertising agency consultant. I did the digital nomad thing for a year and then moved to Mexico. I can work from anywhere but like living in Mexico.

And you? Now that you to can move around, it just might be time to move your gig to a groovier place than Boise.

Hola Gringos.

Every week gringos (the definition: “in Spanish-speaking countries and contexts, chiefly in the Americas – a person, especially an American, who is not Hispanic or Latino”), ask me “How did you move to Mexico? Why Mexico? What is life like in Mexico?” Recent travel to New York and Naples, FL. have coalesced my thoughts on the right answers.

Plus, one of my very own USA ad agency clients has decided to move to my town San Miguel de Allende (SMA). Why choose San Miguel? Other than my piquing his interest over time, he knows that SMA is one of the most beautiful towns in the world. Just ask Travel & Leisure. Plus, he can now work from anywhere. Just like you.

OK, why move to Mexico? Or, better yet, my town, San Miguel de Allende.

Big reason #1: You can actually live and work from Mexico. We have the Internet.

#2. You can actually make it happen. Most Americans, ya know the ones that think the world loves us, are surprised to find that very few countries will accept their full-time residence. Mexico does and getting an official residence is easy. This is a rather critical point as, I am sorry, but Italy and New Zealand do not want you. I am not even sure that Canada wants you.

Mexico is in the middle of the USA times zones. Plus it is close. I can get to Dallas or California in 2 hours. Your clients don’t care where you are and if you need to be in the HQ ‘office’ tomorrow you can make that happen.

Mexico has mucho international flights. There are two International airports within a short drive from SMA and Mexico City’s mega airport is about four hours away by a lux bus or private vans. I have a car but I don’t drive to crazy Mexico City. It would be like my Bozeman Montana relatives trying to cross from Manhattan to Brooklyn in their Ford-150 during rush hour.

Mexican cost of living is rather groovy. According to the cost-of-living website NUMBEO,…

“Consumer Prices in United States are 92.73% higher than in Mexico (without rent)” and “Consumer Prices Including Rent in the United States are 120.51% higher than in Mexico”.

Back to Boise: “Local Purchasing Power in Boise, ID is 155.92% higher than in Mexico City”

My house in SMA is easily 30% of what it would go for in Portland, OR, or Denver or Dallas. New York? Forgetaboudit. My daily croissant and coffee in New York’s East Village cost me $11.00 in May. Here – $4.00. I was just in Naples (a city they tell me has more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the USA) and the cost of every meal was mind-blowing. A trip to Whole Foods or Publix to feed my 5-person family seemed to always come in at around $300. OK, I do like wine.

Note: Living costs vary greatly. San Miguel is on the high side compared to other towns. Living by the beach in Puerto Vallarta is on the high side. However, if you do your homework and pick the right neighborhood, Mexico makes the inflationary USA housing market look like 1984.

The USA, OK except for my home town NYC, is BLAND. Lots of nice roads leading to the next mall or strip mall leading to the next strip mall, gas station, and fast food Meca. If you think driving by Midas Muffler stores is cool, then, yup good luck. Mexico has texture.

Mexico has real soul. Cool nice people. Music in the streets. Grandmas. Passionate. Sweet kids. OK, it is occasionally loud. And, yes, it can get funky vs. your Louis Vuitton store. But, it is a special funk – like a mellow funk based on life, not commerce. By the way, did I mention that SMA is one of the most beautiful towns in the world? (While I write this, I am sitting in the main square listening to the bells from the world-famous Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel and watching young girls in white dresses heading inside for their rite of First Communion.)

Mexicans. Mexico just simply feels much more friendly. Everyone says buenos dias, bueos tardes and buenos noches. It is a polite acknowledgment that we are all in this together. Family life rules here. Large families hang out. Advice: do not wear your MAGA hat.

Here is what my neighbors look like… La Gente photographs.

Mexico is a large country. There isn’t one Mexico. Do you want beach towns? We got it. World-class cities, we got it. Places for Gen Xers to get drunk? Sure. Mountains? Yes. Places for you to eat up culture, yup. Big regional differences? Yes. Street tacos at 3 AM? Si.

San Miguel, in particular, is known for its art center, dozens of art galleries, and culture. Outdoor art movies; world-class musicians; theater and roof bars.

Want to party? We’ve got lots of roof bars and late-night clubs. But if you want to be hammered 24/7, head to Tulum.

An advantage of having a large number of expats in Mexico is that you have been preceded by decades of USA expat experts – many like me quit advertising in the states. One of my Saatchi ECDs enticed me to move here four years ago. Note that one does not have to only hang with expats. But the local information and advice is a big benefit.

Do you like eating? SMA is known as being a ‘gourmet’ foodie town. Same for Mexico City and… Oaxaca. Otherwise, you know what good Mexican food tastes like (it is better here). Wine? Head to Baja’s Napa quality wines. Beer? Head to the local cantina or corner store. Plus, in a town like SMA where gringos like to eat and cook we have large local food markets and new places like the somewhat insane City Market.

SMA sits at 6,000 feet. As I watch the USA melting in summer 2021, my weather today (in August, is a high of 76 to a low of 58). From the Internet… “The best time to visit San Miguel de Allende is November through April. Though San Miguel’s climate doesn’t vary too much throughout the year (average high temperatures hover between 73 and 88 degrees Fahrenheit no matter the season), November through April experiences less rainfall than the summer months.” Every day is generally clear with no humidity. Yes, it is very different from coastal, occasionally humid, Puerto Vallarta, Cabo, or Tulum. Which are also good places to hang out and settle. I suggest that you explore YouTube and Instagram and check out these towns plus Mexico City, Oaxaca, Queretaro, Chipas, and Guadalajara. There is much more to Mexico than the been-there-done-it Cancun & Cabo scenes.

OK. The crime thing. “Is it safe?” is one of the usual-suspect questions. Answer = most of Mexico is as safe as anywhere in the USA. I never worry here. Yes, I do pay attention and do not hang in the wrong places at the wrong time. Just as I would in New Orleans. However, there is a major cartel/narco problem that deserves the news.

It is very important to realize that these very crazy guys kill each other. Each other. Just like the Corleones and the Barzinis. Not you gringo. Why is this happening? Well, American’s have an insatiable hunger for illegal drugs, the ‘War on Drugs’, a massive billion-dollar and societal failure, only made drug dealing (illegal drugs, not your legal Zanax) rather lucrative. And yup, you know this was coming, our gun manufacturers will sell anyone guns and love doing it. As of this week, the Mexican government sued USA gun manufacturers for dumping weapons into Mexico. Mucho gracias.

Back to my statement – quit advertising.

The Best Advertising Agency Creative Brief

June 12, 2021 By Peter Leave a Comment

The Best Advertising Agency Creative Brief – I Think (Well, I Know)

I started my advertising agency career at New York’s Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, one of the original Mad Men agencies. Other than having an absurdly rich AOR client list (Toyota, P&G, General Mills, Nabisco, Wrangler, HP, and on) we were known for our ‘best’ advertising agency Creative Brief. This brief worked so well that it was adopted by the 4A’s as the gold standard.

That was then. Does this agency Creative Brief still work to guide brilliant advertising? I think so.

The Best Advertising Agency Creative Brief For A B2B Podcast

I applied the Creative Brief format to one way I think that an advertising agency or any B2B marketing org could build and run a standout podcast. By the way, think that it is easy to stand out in the world of podcasts? Check out these numbers from PodcastInsights.

Also, a common question is “how many podcasts are there?” and most of the data out there is outdated, but we have an accurate method for determining the number of shows – and it’s currently over 2,000,000.

There are also over 48 million episodes as of April 2021.

I wrote this Creative brief for one of my agency clients a few months ago. Therefore, it might seem a bit outdated, or better yet, prescient. Go ahead and use the idea. The idea will work for many industries.

I highlighted the core CB sections / questions in red.

A Sample Podcast Creative Brief

CREATIVE BRIEF: Giant Gorilla Agency Product/Service: The Marketing Journey Podcast

January _1_2021

Background

London’s Giant Gorilla agency specializes in hospitality industry marketing.

It has been successful in building a large client base across a range of industry subcategories. Giant Gorilla is known for its strategic approach, data expertise, high ROI programs, and for its business insights and social media channels.

It is time to move this energy into podcasting.

What is the objective of the project?

Create and produce a daily, unignorable podcast for the hospitality industry.

The Marketing School podcast from Neil Patel and Eric Siu, is an example of a daily listen. Each show averages 5 minutes and includes a commercial.

Who are we talking to?

Listenership will include food and beverages, lodging and recreation industry corporate marketers, business owners, and related press.

What do they currently think?

The hospitality industry took a major hit in 2020. We expect a slow but steady revival in 2021. Current trends point to growing domestic travel and then a resumption of international air travel by the third quarter of 2021.

The industry is ripe for the consumption of marketing information related to category growth.

What do we want them to think and what action do we want them to take?

We want the industry to view Giant Gorilla as the leading advertising and digital marketing voice and marketing communications agency in the hospitality industry. The essence of hospitality has changed, and Giant Gorilla is uniquely positioned to be a leading voice in industry marketing.

What is the message that will move this target audience to action?

Giant Gorilla’s The Marketing Journey hospitality podcast delivers business-building information, insights, and brief interviews – every day.

“Give us eight minutes every morning and we will help you accelerate your growth.”

Program Elements – The Show

The five-minute The Marketing Journey Show will be published every weekday at 8 AM EST.

Giant Gorilla’s COO Nancy Greene and Creative Director Jill Davis will host The Marketing Journey. Nancy will use her past broadcast experience to lead the discussions. Friendly, intelligent banter will rule.

From time to time, the show will bring in Giant Gorilla’s leading thinkers (like CTO Sandy Goddof on TikTok and travel), current clients and guests from the industry.

For production efficiency will gang record five shows every Tuesday afternoon unless there is late-breaking industry news.

The production team is TBD.

What are the support points?

Timely topics will include news about the business of hospitality: industry trends, Covid related issues, what’s hot in marketing, new business models, and a range of discussions on the constant evolution of hospitality marketing, with a concentration on digital marketing.

Great Guests = Traction & Unignorability.

We have already booked interviews with the CMO of InterContinental Hotels; Shake Shack owner Danny Meyer, a very successful Airbnb host, and the CTO of Hotels.com.

What is the brand’s character?

The Marketing Journey is super smart, knowledgeable, and curious – all with a touch of humor.

What is mandatory?

Each show will be broadcast on all of the major podcast platforms and will be supported by individual show landing pages.

Each show will promote Giant Gorilla’s hospitality industry expertise. See The Marketing Journey marketing plan for detailed information.

Oh, Oh… Does Your Agency Need An Action Plan To Get To Being UNIGNORABLE?

Give me a shout to get you there faster. Bottom line? I am like every other advertising agency business development consultant. OK, not. Name one that ran biz dev at Saatchi, owned his own agency, and started two Internet companies? I am more strategic, smarter, and more action-oriented. Also, funnier.

The Big Advertising Agency Resource List

January 30, 2021 By Peter 29 Comments

Advertising Agency Resource List – Updated Often

My advertising agency resource list is curated to help advertising, digital, design, and PR agencies easily find the inspiration and industry resources that will help y’all build killer agencies and careers.

If I were you, I’d grab a glass of Larkmead Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 and check out all of these links. I guarantee that at least one of these websites will help you or your team grow your agency. Therefore my friends, share this page with your friends, family, and staff.

I wish I had this advertising resource when I was in the ad biz. All I had was my brain. – David Ogilvy

OK, one more. This here Peter Levitan blog has over 800 posts dedicated to helping your marketing communications company grow. I hope that my insights on the art and science of agency business development, growth and management help you to make more bucks. Speaking of resources, take me up on my Corleone offer.

A Couple Of Quickies:

Need A Headline That Grabs?

The Portent Content Idea Generator. Yes, it is a bit crazy. But, it does stimulate the mind looking for a click-bait headline for your blog, Instagram thing, or whatever. Put in “advertising“. Then laugh.

Website Speed Is Good.

Google PageSpeed Insights. Do you know how fast your website download speed is and how its performance ranks against your competitive agencies? Here’s the drill. If your site takes too long to download, it will lose some traffic.

Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. Here’s another very important test. If you are like me, over 20% of your website visitors are looking at you on a mobile device then you better make sure that they are digging how fast your website loads.

BROWSEO.We might be getting a bit geeky here. That said, BROWSEO helps you view any web page like search engines see it. The tool helps you to identify issues with your site and with your current and future clients’ websites.

And, To help Your Thought Leadership Program: What Are People Searching For?

AnswerThePublic. This is a free visual tool that shows you what questions and queries your consumers have by getting a free report of what they’re searching for at Google.

Exploding Topics. Yes, just like it sounds.

Google Trends. Chances are good that you are aware of Google Trends. This a powerful tool to help you know what is hot and what is not on Google’s search universe. A look at the top 2019 Google searches may or may not make you a fan of humanity.

Social Mention. Ever wonder what the world is saying about you or your company? Here you go.

The Advertising Agency Resource List…

Advertising Agency News Sites

Ad Agency Directories

Top Advertising Blogs

Favorite Social Media Tools

Video Marketing Tools & Information

Creative Inspiration & Idea Generation

Creative Space & Time

Online Advertising Education

Online Legal Resources

Life After Advertising & How To Make $$$

Top Ten Twitter Tools

Top Advertising And Design Awards

Marketing & Advertising Podcast

Marketing Tool Generators

Advertising Agency News Resources

The Ratti Report. Your agency needs fresh business development leads, right? So check out this website for a daily list of business development opportunities. News you can use to buy that new Tesla Roadster.
Advertising Age. Ad Age delivers the latest news from the world of advertising and marketing agencies.
Ad Asia Online. AdAsia Online focuses on automation, advertising technology, and creative technology,
AdNews. Australia’s advertising, marketing, and media industries news resource.
Adweek. Adweek covers media news, including print, technology, plus.
branding in asia. Need to know what’s up in the Asian marketing and advertising world? Sure you do. Check out this comprehensive resource for creative work, news, interviews, and insights. Read it and you just might take the next non-stop to Singapore.
Business Insider. Business Insider’s daily take on the ad industry.
Campaign Asia. Campaign Asia reports on advertising and emerging media in the Asia Pacific region.
Campaign Magazine. Ad industry news from the UK’s advertising industry “bible”.
Communication Arts. Print publication offering competitions, forums, feature articles, job bank, graphic design resources and online shopping.
Creative. The magazine of promotion and marketing.
Digiday. Digiday creates content, services, and community that foster change in media and marketing.
Direct Marketing News. Provides news, feature articles, columns, and special reports on direct marketing.
The Drum. The alternative to Campaign. Delivers lots of news and views.
MediaPost. Comprehensive advertising and media industry coverage.
TechCrunch. Keep up (or try to keep up) with the fast-paced world of startups and VC’s.

Ad Agency Directories

Which Social Media Strategy Is Best For Advertising Agency New Business?

November 10, 2020 By Peter 9 Comments

You Have A Social Media Strategy For Your Advertising Agency. Right?

Let’s start with what B2B social media strategy works – in general, that is. I was looking for a universal social media image for this blog on a search for advertising agency social media. I found this blog post’s lead image by searching Google. They took me to Anchor Media’s long-ago “Starting Out On Social” blog post. A decent post. Anchor’s blog post and tagged image delivered awareness of them. So… social + SEO = works – some of the time. But, you already know that.

NOTE: I am about to build on the blog post I originally wrote in 2014. Much of what I wrote then still works. The key difference is that we are now all much more bombarded with incoming info and thought leadership material. Barraged, baby. So, before I go back to 2014…

It Is 2020 – Does Social Media Even Work Anymore (As In Drive Incoming) For Advertising Agency Business Development?

Back to my main question: “Which Social Media Strategy Is Best For Advertising Agency New Business?” I am not going to bullshit you. There is no perfect social media platform for advertising agency new business. Why? Cause ya know… the devil is in the details (and, your very own objectives and desire to keep at it.)

2020.

As mentioned above, I originally wrote this very viewed blog post back in 2014. So, I am not going to change much. But, I will update it.

When I wrote this back in the good old days, blog posts by ad agencies had not yet exploded; Twitter posts had not exploded; Instagram was not yet a smash… and on. Here are some of those “we are now bombarded” stats.

How many blog posts are there today? Here is just one-directional figure: there are “like” over 2 million blog posts daily – out of 1.7 billion websites. You think your ad agency can stand out?
There are over 500 million tweets per day.
There are over 5 million businesses on Instagram every day.
There seem to a billion LinkedIn posts a day. I have close to 4,000 “advertising people” connections. Yet when i post on LinkedIn I get maybe 80 individual post views. Pay per play baby. Not so organic these days.
I made this number up. But, hey, it makes a point regardless — There are 4,200 new advertising and digital agency blog posts every day.

Do you get the idea here? You are kinda fucked if you think that your blogs, tweets, etc are gonna get noticed. You are competing with other, probably good at SEO agencies.

The best I can do is to tell you what my personal experience has been. First, here are my social media objectives.