Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

Marketing

Why Don’t Advertising & Digital Agencies Have A Business Plan?

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Today’s marketing advertising and digital agencies need a well-considered marketing plan to plan and build a profitable marketing communications agency for the future. The problem: most agencies don’t have a plan.

Through my experience as a board member of the Portland Advertising Federation, a business development director working across the global Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide network, President of the Newspaper Association of America’s Digital Federation and an Internet entrepreneur, I have been continually amazed that most agencies, media and tech companies don’t have a master plan. Considering the rapid changes happening in the advertising and technology industries, I can’t imagine navigating the marketplace without one. [Read more…] about Why Don’t Advertising & Digital Agencies Have A Business Plan?

Me-Too Boring Ad Agencies and The Harlem Shake

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AdAge writes,

A staggering 60 agencies –and counting– have already put their own spin on the Internet phenomenon, according to a Tumblr that’s been set up just to collect examples, called “Harlem Shake Agency.”  So far there have been videos by shops including TBWA Paris, Grey Moscow, DDBBarcelona and M&C Saatchi Johannesburg — evidence, clearly, that the meme has gone international.

No, sorry… its about the paucity of advertising originality. OK, its fun. But, this is an industry where agencies should be talking up real creativity not me-too creativity. 60 agencies doing the same thing… and promoting it???

From the ever entertaining Ad Contrarian,

Slaves To Trendiness

Take a look through any agency website and you’re sure to read about how innovative they are. They do things differently. They have a unique perspective.Spend time at these agencies, on the other hand, and you’re sure to find out how absurdly derivative and slavishly trendy they are.According to AdAge no fewer than 60 agencies have so far posted videos of their staff doing the Harlem Shake.Not only are agency cretins posting Harlem Shake videos, but so are advertising “educational” institutions like the Miami Ad School and the VCU Brandcenter. If that’s not enough for you, so have Pepsi, A&W, Chili’s, Google, and Facebook.

I guess one of the positive things about the web is that the life cycle of these memes is so short that by the time these dimwits have posted these monstrosities they are already past their sell-by.

 

Smart Email Marketing For Ad Agency New Business

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Two emails hit my desk this morning and they both “sell” the idea that good old-fashioned email marketing still works.

The first was an email from MarketingSherpa promoting their new “2013 Email Marketing Benchmark Report.” My key takeaway is that email marketing continues to have a high ROI for both business and consumer marketing when used to reach and convert a business’s house list. As we all get lost in the social media weeds, we need to remember that email not only works but also can be easily tracked and analyzed. I love reading the real-time stats from an effective email campaign. Who opened the email, who read it, who clicked on and so forth. Here is one of the core charts from the report showing the relative strength of email. Frankly, this isn’t surprising but it should reinforce our decision to use email.

Email Marketing Rates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other email I received was from Portland’s HMH Advertising (with an east coast office in Charlotte, NC.) The email promotes a new campaign for its Montana Lottery client.

HMH deftly uses email marketing to promote one big agency idea. It is a great example of Keep It Simple Stupid. In fact, they call the email series One Idea. It is a simple, direct, informative monthly sales tool sent to the agency’s existing and prospective clients.

HMH Email One Idea

This email acts as an announcement of new work, strategic thinking and acts as an example of how the agency knows how to leverage the power of email.

The email clicks through to a dedicated campaign website that shows the TV commercial and the integration of other media including digital, radio, outdoor and a promotional video of the $1 million winner. A man of many words.

 

The Lunacy Of Advertising Agency Positioning

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images (1) aaaEver looked for a new positioning for your advertising agency?

If the answer is yes, you are not alone. There are thousands of advertising agencies that wake up everyday and wonder if their agency brand position is going to help them get the attention of a desirable account. Unfortunately, they go to sleep knowing that they haven’t found that super special secret sauce.

What makes this daily exercise worrisome is that these agencies clearly know that they won’t differentiate their brand by having a positioning that sounds like the agency down the street, in the next state or across the world. [Read more…] about The Lunacy Of Advertising Agency Positioning