Marketing

What I Learned At Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising

Peter · March 27, 2020 · 3 Comments

What I Learned At Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising – It Is Relevant Today

I got educated at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising. I applied my learning to a career that spanned GM of the Minneapolis office, to London and Europe, to two Internet startups, my own agency, and now my advertising agency consultancy.

I learned about the power of strategy, kick-ass creative, being ballsy and going for it. This is what an agency principal and her agency must use today.

First A Bit On Dancer Fitzgerald Sample

I started my advertising career at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample as an AAE on the large General Mills account. Dancer was known as DFS. It was New York’s largest advertising agency and lived in the glorious Chrysler Building. Its clients also included P&G, Toyota, HP, Wrangler, RJR, Nabisco and other biggies.

During my tenure, it was named Agency Of The Year and had a new business pitch winning streak that hit baseball Hall of Fame numbers… .900+. The agency was also known for delivering highly effective advertising including Wendy’s “Where’s The Beef?” and the advertising that launched Toyota and sustained its growth.

The agency spent a great deal of time and money nurturing its account executives with a weekly training program that pumped out the best AE’s in the industry. DFS taught me how to write brand-building strategies, run a profitable account and how to deliver exceptional account service. It also taught me how to work within an empowering, yet nurturing a culture where everyone loved their job. This last point was driven home every month when we celebrated employees who had worked at the agency for 10, 20 and even 30 years.

I was about to learn even more. [Read more…] about What I Learned At Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising

How Clients Find An Advertising Agency

Peter · February 8, 2020 · Leave a Comment

How Do Clients Find Their Next Advertising Agency?

One of the more challenging questions I ask my advertising agency business development clients is, “How do your prospective advertising, design, digital or PR clients find your advertising agency?”

In most cases, the number one answer is referrals or WOM. Of course, of course, this is a wonderful way to gain future client interest. However, the referral route is rather passive unless an agency has a highly active referral program. Even with a proactive in-house referral program, counting on referrals is not a high numbers game and is a bit too passive.

I am not a fan of passivity and think that an advertising agency needs to be everywhere a prospective client might look for them.

Everywhere.

In the old days, that even included having a Yellow Pages ad. Call me if you do not know what the Yellow Pages were.

Back to the question… “How do your prospective advertising, design, digital or PR clients find your advertising agency?”

The general list of responses goes like this. I’ve included links to some previous thoughts on some of these front doors:

Through direct referrals from clients, friends, and family. General word of mouth. Read: Six Business Development Referral Strategies.
Clients find us using a Google search. Read: Google Will Screw Your Ad Agency.
We run ads on Google.
We are on third-party advertising agency lists. Read: The Ultimate Advertising Agency List
We have won creative and marketing awards that increase our brand awareness. Clios help.
We get press from advertising industry publications.
We get press from client category/industry publications.
A future client saw one of our ‘great’ existing client ads or programs and contacted us.
Our social media programs attract new client interest. Read: Does B2B Social Media Still Work?
Our account-based marketing sales program directly targets the clients we want.
We get RFI and RFP requests advertising agency consultants. Read: 34 Advertising Agency Search Consultants.
We are listed on the local advertising club website.

So, How Do Clients Find Their Next Advertising Agency? As in, like yours?

First, let’s agree that you want to be found (maybe not by every potential client. But, you still want to out there.)

The only way to do that is to be everywhere a potential client will look for you. If this sounds simple and you are already doing this, Great. If not and you need an actionable strategy and tactics to solve this formable problem/opportunity…

Let’s talk about how to grow your business. You are in a hurry, right?

**Contact me and take me up on my free Vito Corleone offer.**

Gary Vaynerchuk Loves You And Your Ad Agency

Peter · December 2, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Contrary to (some) popular belief, Gary Vaynerchuk actually loves you and your advertising agency. He wants to help you grow. Here is my take on today’s Gary Vaynerchuk plus a rather inspiring B2B marketing video.

FYI: One of my best-read blog posts is “Gary Vaynerchuk Is Full Of Shit.” It is a response to his early damning of the advertising industry. Take a read. By the way, it has been read over 5,000 times. Why? Well, putting “Gary Vaynerchuk’ and “Full Of Shit” in your headline gets Google’s attention and speaks to my audience.

My original sense of Gary being full of shit stemmed from Gary’s 2015’s “Do you know the problem with Marketing?” episode of the Ad Age Digital Crash Course:

Here’s the ‘shit’ part. In the video, GaryVee pontificates in ‘Gary Speak’ about how advertising agencies don’t care about selling products (only about winning awards); that emotion does not sell (tell that to Apple’s “Think Different”); that ‘traditional’ advertising is inefficient (like much of digital isn’t); that creatives might want to consider shooting 10 spots for $300K each vs. one for $3 million (this is a new idea??? what world is he living in?) and that maybe we should think about testing advertising before we run it (hmm… that’s a new one).

I love self-promotion. And I get railing at the old ways of doing business to further one’s cause. But, please, cut the way too obvious crap and don’t be insulting.

Gary Vaynerchuk Is Not Full Of Shit – He Wants To Love You (And Your Ad Agency)

OK, that was Gary in 2015 when he was building Vaynermedia and needed some service differentiation. Let’s cut to 2019. He recently spoke to a meeting of the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts. Watch the speech and Q&A below. Gary has both mellowed and has a lot of insight to deliver – to any B2B marketer. Just like your advertising agency.

A couple of Gary’s key points:

Buy underpriced attention for your agency marketing. This includes hammering underutilized LinkedIn. Hammer. Post like 40X a day.

Create longer content, like Gary’s videos, and cut them up for distribution. Amplify everything.

Don’t go out and hire a “social media expert” to run your program. YOU spend the 50 hours to learn it before you can ever judge the value of the freelancer/expert. I remember asking advertising agency CEO’s at Advertising Week if they ever placed a Google ad. The answer was no. I was like, are you kidding me? Do you even know WTF is going on?

Gary was asked how he finds the time to get things done. His answer – you probably waste three hours a day on really stupid shit. That 1-hour meeting should be 15 minutes.

If you run a local advertising agency, let’s say in Raleigh Durham, create a local show. Do a podcast, a local newsletter, a blog… just become known locally for your agency voice.

Big One: Romance your clients. Ever say thank you? Call up a client one year later to discuss that great project you did 12 months earlier? Send an unexpected gift? Call back a prospect that has fallen off your A-List? Find a good reason to say, Howdy.

The GaryVee Video…

A New Advertising Book?

Peter · September 12, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Should I Write Another Advertising Book?

Should you write your advertising (agency) book?

I’ve written and produced four books since I sold my Portland advertising agency in 2012. I am now thinking of “writing” a new advertising book based on a tight edit of the best thinking I’ve delivered on this blog. I currently have well over 300,000 words here. The blog posts have been viewed over 340,000 times.

I’ll discuss why to bother turning the blog into an advertising book a bit later in this post.

Some History. Books I’ve Written.

These include:

Boomercide: From Woodstock to Suicide. This was my training wheels book on the, dare I say it, interesting subject of using suicide as a financial planning tool. When I sold my agency, my accountant said there are two things we can control: how much money you have and how much you spend. However, there is another major factor we cannot control: how long your money has to last. I went, um, why can’t I control the length of my life. Buy Boomercide here.

The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. I have read every book on pitching and presenting. This is without question the best book on this subject. Join thousands of other agency leaders and buy this book here. Or, pitch against the agencies that read my tome, and, dare I say it, possibly lose.

Potlandia and Jointlandia are two photo books I researched and shot about the early days of the burgeoning legal cannabis market. I shot these because I am an in investor in Portland’s cannabis industry and was fascinated by the early attempts (almost hippie-like attempts) at product and retail branding in what is now a billion-dollar marketplace. You can see these books right here. While you are at it, take a look at my other photographs. I am currently traveling around the world to photograph people on every continent.

Why Write A Business Book?

I think that there are four reasons to write a business book – an advertising book by me, a consultant, or your agency. [Read more…] about A New Advertising Book?