New Business

34 Advertising Agency Search Consultants

Peter · October 18, 2022 · 6 Comments

Advertising Agency Search Consultants – The Personal Shopper Of The Ad World — Updated 18 October 2022

I’ve updated my list of the advertising agency search consultants universe. After updating we’re at 42. But, I can not update the “34” URL – so, there. Let me know if I am missing any consultancies. Thanks.

Before I get into the subject, I want to make an important point. Whether or not your agency has the chops and appropriate expertise to get the attention of a search consultant, please try to look and act different. Be unignorable.

Yes, you might be a great social media agency or media planning and buying group. But, I bet you have at least a dozen look-alike competitors.

Get It Right – First = Ask The Tough Questions Before You Contact Advertising Agency Search Consultants

Ask how you will stand out under the scrutiny of expert agency search consultants. Ask yourself, would you be interested in your agency? Ask me to help you.

The Big World of Advertising Agency Search Consultants

Advertising agency search consultants help clients locate the perfect agency out of hundreds, even thousands, of small and large agency options. It is estimated that about 10% to 15% of all searches use the services of a consultant (I am thinking about dollar volume, not total agency searches.) I suspect that the number of consultant-led pitches is well over 50% for clients that have large budgets, complicated accounts and now, highly specialized agency requirements.

Should Your Agency Contact An Advertising Agency Search Consultant? It Depends.

Should your agency contact the search consultants on this list? Well, yes and no.

Is Your Advertising Agency Pitching Too Much?

Peter · October 10, 2022 · 1 Comment

Is Your Advertising Agency Pitching Too Much? Maybe You Need To Say No!

Here is an excerpt from my book on advertising agency pitching and presenting. This tidbit emphasizes the importance of not (allow me to repeat myself) not pitching every account that whistles. You can’t afford it. It costs too much cash, time, energy, and agency staff pain (BURNOUT!). Pitching too much causes one more problem. You will reduce your business development ROI.

There is lots more in “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book Win More Pitches.” You can buy the paperback and eBook on -> Amazon.

Yes, No, Maybe?

Before you embark on a new pitch, you should be asking yourself one extremely important question…

Should we be pitching this account?

I know what you are thinking… Levitan’s kidding right? We’ve made it through the RFI and RFP stages, and now he wants us to ask if we should even be going to the finals.

It’s still ok to say “no”, and now is the time to take a deep breath and review a go-no-go decision. You are about to spend a great deal of time and money. Are you sure that you should go through the next step? Are your colleague’s groans getting louder? Looking in any way ambivalent about the pitch will not help your pitch team feel good about charging into it. Passionless pitches don’t win.

Pitch or not is usually one of the most difficult decisions agency management has to make. There is a good chance that you think that you’ve already answered this question if you participated in an RFP that led to your selection as a shortlist candidate. I believe that even if you’ve performed a sound decision-making process, now is the time to stop to determine if this potentially expensive pitch is worth the time, effort, and human and cash costs.

Marketing Agency Influencers

Peter · September 16, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Where To Eat and Marketing Agency Influencers

This post is about amateur reviews, the power of influencers as noted by Adweek and marketing agency influencers, and reviews on websites like Agency Spotter.

Some history: I came back to Saatchi & Saatchi New York from our London office in 1994. In both offices I ran business development and ate out a lot. By the time I hit the New York office, Saatchi was on its last legs (as in a company run by Maurice and Charles Saatchi – who were soon “exited” – but founded M&C Saatchi which is arguably a savvier agency).

A thing that hit me when I returned from London in 1994 was this thing called the Internet. I ran around the agency trying to get someone to pay attention but since we were in a bit of a death spiral, I could not excite leadership about the growing digital universe.

While still at the agency I worked with our tech guru to make plans to launch a digital company funded by Digital Equipment. Around that time, I got a call from Tom Florio, the publisher of the New Yorker, who told me that the Newhouse family, the owners of Condé Nast magazines, the New Yorker, Random House and the third largest newspaper group, had this idea of launching online newspapers. I got the CEO job, a brilliant team, and said bye bye to Saatchi.

OK Now On To Reviews

Putting newspapers online in the 1990s was wild. We had carte blanche to invent the formula and the backing of billionaires. New Jersey Online was the combo of the Newark Star-Ledger (the largest paper in NJ), The Times of Trenton and The Jersey Journal. We had the news feeds from each paper, the best coverage of New York and New Jersey’s 7 professional sports teams, the first direct news feed from the Associated Press (a news first), a haiku film critic, Hoboken nightlife reviews, put zoomable cams on NJ beaches, and fab design. We also had what was one of the first set of social media forums – which drove our page views higher than The New York Times online

Ok, I Mean It. Now Onto Reviews.

A Zoom Cartoon Just For You

Peter · September 9, 2022 · Leave a Comment

A Zoom Cartoon About A Zoom Pitch Problem

To help illustrate the insanity that often accompanies the act of an advertising agency pitch for new business, I included 12 pitch mistake cartoons in my book “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.” I love the fact that cartoons are a fast way into overloaded brains, evoke emotion, and get remembered. Remembered well past fleeting podcast interviews. Here’s a zoom cartoon to help make my point.

Possibly the most memorable Internet meme is the 1993 (!) cartoon, “On the internet nobody knows you are a dog.” From Peter Steiner in the New Yorker.

My Zoom Cartoon Just For You

Here is a new Zoom cartoon I commissioned from master cartoonist, and brilliant Creative Director, Steve Klinetobe. Steve was a CD at my Portland agency Citrus. This cartoon will go into my next book on how to run a successful marketing agency and business development.

Steve’s nostril cartoon illustrates one of the worst uses of Zoom. It’s about where people put their camera in relation to their face. In this case, it is the camera that sits below a face and looks into your buddy’s nose. YUCK!

When Zooming, pay attention to camera placement + lighting + sound quality + your background. You know this right?

That said, I look up way too many nostrils.

By the way, Steve has gone freelance. So hire him. You will thank me.

4A’s On Advertising Agency Pitching

Peter · June 7, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Some Sage Words From The 4A’s On Advertising Agency Pitching

Here is an interview on advertising agency pitching I did with Tom Finneran, EVP, Agency Management Services at the 4A’s. It’s one of many expert interviews in my book on advertising agency pitching. It comes from the perspective of the 4A’s, its work with hundreds of agencies, and with the ANA – the Association of National Advertisers.

By the way, I am updating the book. Stay tuned. Oh, why update it? Well, let’s just use one newish thing that has revolutionized pitching (to put it mildly) — virtual pitching.

I thought I’d add this interview to my blog for a few reasons. Some to help you and one big one for me.

Your agency’s pitch batting average will increase if you have a solid, smart, consistent pitch system.
You will win more pitches if you put yourself in the client’s shoes.
You should be aware of the 4A’s and ANA agency search guidelines. If fact, share this with the clients you pitch. Here’s a link to an Ad Age article on the guidelines.
You’ll help me because I want you to buy the book. It’s not because I make a lot of bucks from sales (although sales are robust and it is nice to get money from Amazon.) No, I want you to buy the book because many agencies that read the book, see that I actually know what I am talking about, and turn into my consultancy’s business development clients. Duh coming: Books help make people and even agencies look and sound like experts.

On To The 4A’s Interview That Will Help You Win More Pitches

Warning. This is a long interview. Long as in over 3,000 words. Read it if you want to win more new business.

Tom Finneran: EVP, Agency Management Services – The 4A’s

Tom Finneran leads the 4A’s Agency Management Services team, which provides industry guidance, member consultation, and benchmark information in the areas of new business, agency compensation, agency management, and operations.

Tom’s career includes extensive ad agency and advertiser financial management experience. He was executive Vice president/CFO at Jordan McGrath Case & Partners and Arnold McGrath Worldwide, a unit of Havas. He was also Executive Vice President/COO at Grey’s promotional unit, J. Brown/LMC.

PL: While there’s no one-size-fits-all pitch process, do you think that clients are running more professional pitches today than in the past?

Tom: What we consistently hear is that reviews have become less professional and efficient than in the past. This is important because, to a degree clients have taken in-house some of the review practices that have traditionally been managed by industry consultants who were more adept at running professional pitches.

In terms of the efficiency of reviews, some of the things that are less efficient than they should be are cattle calls. You’ll have clients who are not experienced at doing reviews, and they’ll send information requests to far more agencies than should be included in the initial list.

Some of the other inefficient processes are what I would refer to as RFPs from hell. Here is one example. About a year and a half ago, one of our members called irate about an RFP that had 300 questions. And I said, “You’ve got to be exaggerating. It couldn’t possibly have been 300 questions.” So the person said, “Wait a minute. Let me look at this.” Then she commented, “Okay. You got me, I exaggerated. It’s 293 questions.” So this was an RFP that a client-sourcing group used. The RFP was geared to soliciting responses from ingredient suppliers, research and development firms, and contractors of all types. And woven into the 293 questions were a few marketing-related questions that were kind of like packed in there.

PL: So are you seeing these kinds of issues primarily with larger clients or also medium-sized to smaller clients?

Tom: These tended to be from marketers who did not have dedicated, knowledgeable marketing procurement folks. They were taking people who could source corrugated materials and chemical components and things of that nature.

PL: Is there an agency size factor? Is it affecting your large and small 4A’s members?

Tom: It affects members both small and large. [Read more…] about 4A’s On Advertising Agency Pitching