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How To Name Your Advertising Agency: Part One

Peter · May 17, 2019 · Leave a Comment

A Strategic Guide To How To Find Your New Advertising Agency Name

This is Part One of a two-part series on how to name your advertising agency (or, most businesses for that matter).

Other than the gyrations that agencies constantly go through with how to position their agency (go here to see my advice on agency positioning); design and redesign their website… how they name themselves is one of their most important branding decisions.

I worked for three advertising agencies. Two were “founder” agencies: Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (remember “Where’s the beef?”) and Saatchi & Saatchi (which bought Dancer) and the other was my very own Portland agency and its “current usage” name: Citrus. Or, as one of our creative directors thought was critical to our success, citrus, with a lower case “c.’

A Question…

Do advertising names matter? Wow, this is a tough one to answer. As you will see from the different naming conventions listed below, how one chooses a name is a broad journey. However, just for the hell of it, here are some of the names for AdAge’s 2018 Small Agency Awards. Do any of these agency names instill immediate confidence? A must call reaction? Are memorable?

Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners
Mistress
Johnxhannes
The Chopping Block
Funworks
Oberland
Walrus (cool website)
Phenomenon
Brownstein Group
Steak
Yard
G&M Plumbing
Spawn ideas
Next/Now

My favorite (at least for this one second) is Next/Now. This name kind of meets a client pain point.

Part One: The Wonderful World of the Advertising Agency Name

I recently asked one of my advertising agency clients how they selected their name (note, it’s a word you use every day in your kitchen.) They said that they went through a fairly random process with the goal of finding a name that was easy to remember and not taken. Well, that’s one way to do it. Another is to apply process. [Read more…] about How To Name Your Advertising Agency: Part One

How John Oliver Became One Of The Few Fantasy Sports Winners

Peter · November 16, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Fantasy Sports and John Oliver’s Daily Fantasy Sports Commercial: Yes You Can Be A Winner

You know fantasy sports is gambling and that’s why it’s actually illegal, for really stupid bored people who like to lose (and gamble), is addictive and has gotten virtually every major media and sports company to invest. I’d say ,”go figure” but, ya know, it’s just capitalism, baby.

Oh, it also makes a bit of cash – but not, apparently for 90+% of the players. But, you knew that.

That said. watch this John Oliver TV commercial and LAUGH.

Fame and Advertising Agency Business Development

Peter · March 31, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Fame For Advertising Agency Business Development

I have an objective that I give to all of my advertising agency clients. I tell them that they need to include FAME as an agency marketing objective. My primary point is that in a universe of 4,000 agency brands in the USA and possibly dozens in their home town, standing out from the clutter is an essential goal. Sounds obvious, right? However, most agencies do not actually have FAME as an objective. Or, maybe more to the point, they don’t actually work hard to be famous.

I put David Ogilvy’s’s photo on the left because he just might be the most famous man in the history of advertising. He worked it. In addition to founding one of the world’s most well-known agencies, he wrote three seminal advertising books that propelled his FAME: “Confessions of an Advertising Man” (1963), “Blood, Brains and Beer” (1978), and “Ogilvy on Advertising” (1983). These books formed the platform for his agency’s thinking and awareness. This is an important point. I’ll come back to it.

What is Fame?

Google defines fame as, “the condition of being known or talked about by many people, especially on account of notable achievements.”

Known and talked about. Interesting, right? One of those easier said than done things. But, I can virtually guarantee you that if you do not make fame an agency objective, chances are you will not get there. [Read more…] about Fame and Advertising Agency Business Development

The Video: How To Write An Advertising Agency Book

Peter · December 8, 2014 · Leave a Comment

My HubSpot Inbound Conference Video: “The Advertising Agency Book – From Idea To Publication in 6 Months”

Here is a video of the talk I gave at HubSpot’s Inbound 2014 conference. Watch my presentation to find out how to write an advertising agency book by mid 2015. Yes, you can do it.

The video will show you how to get a good head start on adding this special arrow to your new business quiver. I discuss the multiple benefits of writing a book; that it can be done relatively quickly (I wrote my 65,000 word The Levitan Pitch, Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. in less than 6 months); how the book will drive your thought-leadership program and how your agency is particularly well set up and well endowed to get a great business-building book out the door.

Writing is a good thing

As I’ve written before: I got the speaking gig at Inbound 2014 because I write for HubSpot’s Agency Post. Using thought leadership to gain broad awareness of your agency is, well, its a very good thing. Here’s my earlier post on the value of guest posting: “Why I Guest post On Agency Post.”

Here is my dedicated post on writing an advertising agency book and how it can be used for new business outreach. The post includes the PowerPoint presentation I used in the following video.

To help you find the gems in the 30 minute talk, I’ve put some highlights below.

Video Timelines

This are approximate…

Intro: :00 to 1:30
6 Months, Really?: 1:30 to 3:00
The how to: 3:00 to 7:00
Mistakes: 7:00 to 10:50
Objectives and Strategies: 10:50 to 25:00
Recap: 25:00 to 30:00

OK, Buy The Book – I wrote my book for you. I want you to win more pitches.

If you read the book you will pitch better than your competition.

Here’s more:

You will mange your agency’s pitch process much better.
You won’t burn out your employees.
You will plan better.
You will reduce your pitch budget.
You will strategize better.
You will arrive better prepared.
You will present better.
You will win more pitches.
You will retire earlier.

Buy multiple copies of the book as Christmas / Hanukah gifts right here: Amazon

Buy the “How Not To Win A Pitch” poster here: Society6

Pitch Pain (As In Ad Agency Screw Ups)

Peter · October 2, 2014 · Leave a Comment

The advertising pitch column Pitch Pain launched today on the Agency Post blog. Pitch Pain provides a platform for the advertising industry, clients and search consults to tell their favorite good and bad pitch stories. The goal is to help all of us advance the efficiency of the pitch process while being entertained by our often crazy stories.

Each revealing and occasionally humorous story (just think of the schadenfreude) will be accompanied by a brief review of any home runs or mistakes made plus how-to insights to help us all learn form our dear industry colleague’s experiences.

You can read the first post right here on Agency Post.

Here’s Some Background

I wrote The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. to help advertising, design, digital and PR agencies improve their pitch development processes and, rather importantly, win more business. I got the idea for the book from a December 2013 research study of advertising professionals by Provoke Insights that supports the idea that agency employees are dissatisfied with their agency’s pitch process.

“Approximately half (47% of respondents) of advertising professionals surveyed by Provoke Insights say they are dissatisfied with the current internal approach to pitching.”

Other issues include:

“unrealistic timelines” (66%) and “long work hours” (65%.)

Clearly, trying to craft account winning pitches with disgruntled staff is not a great way to kick off the pitch development process.

In writing the book, I interviewed a range of agency executives, clients, presentation experts and search consultants who have sat through thousands of pitches. Most shared very entertaining pitch experiences. These experiences form the basis of many of the book’s ideas and tips for how to build account-winning small and large agency presentations and pitches.

Pitch Pain And You

My friend Jami Oetting, Agency Post’s Editor, and I quickly realized that we all have our favorite pitch stories. That’s why to air these out and provide industry learning, we teamed up to provide agencies, clients and agency pitch consultants with a platform to tell their own pitch stories.

We want to hear your stories. The good, bad and even ugly. To help, there is a simple form on the website that you can fill out. Form shy? Just send your stories directly to me and i will post them for you. These don’t have to be long. I’m at peter@peterlevitan.com

So, agencies, clients and search consultants… don’t be shy.

Send us your favorite pitch stories. You can name names or exclude some of them if you think anonymity is a wise move.

I didn’t go anonymous in my lead Pitch Pain story about the time that Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising blew a pitch for the global Adidas account by showing videos of bloody baby seals.

Our goals are to entertain and enlighten. Improving the pitch process for all of us is a very good thing.