New Business

Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch: Part One

Peter · June 14, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch

This interview with Tony Mikes, Founder of the Second Wind Network, is a first-person perspective by an advertising agency management and business development leader who sat on the client side of an important ad agency pitch. It is an enlightening review of how advertising agencies performed, or didn’t, in a new business pitch for the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

Frankly, A Must Read

The interview and perspective on agency new business pitching will be highly instructive for small, medium and large agencies… to say the least.

The interview first appeared in my book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.”

It is very rare to have an advertising agency veteran sit on the client side of a pitch and give his impressions of the process and how the agencies performed. You will hear about what the winning agency did and what the losers failed to do.

The interview is over three thousand words so I broke it into two parts. I urge you to read both.

At the end of part two, I will give you my impressions on the lessons that every agency can learn from Tony’s experience and insights.

Tony Mikes

Tony Mikes was the Founder and Managing Director of the Second Wind Network, which today has over 800 small to mid-sized agency members.

Tony consulted with and advised advertising agencies and their leadership on best practices for almost 20 years. He provided members and clients with ‘old school’ agency wisdom and combined it with cutting-edge strategies. Before starting Second Wind, he was President of Pennsylvania’s Mikes & Reese Advertising from 1972 to 1988.

My Portland agency Citrus had been a member of Second Wind, and Tony was one of our advisors. Tony was an experienced mentor that could always help me resolve an agency-related issue or grab an opportunity and turn it into success. Sadly, Tony passed away in 2015.

The Anatomy Of An Advertising Pitch Interview

PL: You were on the client side of the agency selection table recently. How did that go? [Read more…] about Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch: Part One

11 Must Have Ad Agency Business Development Tools

Peter · June 8, 2019 · 1 Comment

11 Must-Have Ad Agency Business Development Tools (Updated From 2014).

NOTE: I first wrote this 11 Must-Have Ad Agency Business Development Tools blog post at the very end of 2014 and a few minutes ago the website checker app Checkbot pointed out that this post has a couple of dead links. (4.5 years later and it is interesting to see what tools have survivied). So, I thought that I’d repost and make things work. I suspect a reason for the broken links is that some of these tools are history. Here is what I found.

Back to 2014 – it is still worth the read… Blog post Consistency, actually the lack of it, is one of the most pressing issues that reduces the effectiveness of most advertising agency new business programs. So… Here are some ad agency business development tools that I recommend to keep your agency’s new business and content development program on track. (Tweet this.)

These tools (and there is a big world of tools out there these days) will help your efficiency and, more importantly, make you look like a subject matter expert because you are on that ball. Even better, as you use these tools for your own business development efforts, you will be gaining social media expertise that will dazzle your client prospects.

Clients (the ones you do not have yet) need your help according to this research from Ascend2.

Almost half of the clients surveyed have significant social media obstacles to overcome. You can help them by helping yourself.

This list of 11 tools is my first set of recommended online social media management tools. There will be more coming. [Read more…] about 11 Must Have Ad Agency Business Development Tools

How To Name Your Advertising Agency: Part One

Peter · May 17, 2019 · 11 Comments

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

Where Do Advertising Agency Clients Search? Could Be Agency Spotter

Peter · April 25, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Where do advertising agency clients go to search for new agencies?

To answer this critical question, you have to think like a client. However, putting yourself in the shoes of a client looking for that new shiny advertising, digital, etc. agency is not easy. Some client prospects are sophisticated buyers, more are not. Some have selected agencies before. Most have not.

I’ve written at length about how prospective clients find advertising, digital and PR agencies. You can read a bit here… “Ten Ways To Advertise Your Advertising Agency”.

But let’s keep it simple. There are essentially two primary methods of being found that you can manage…

You work to let prospective clients know that your agency exists (direct account-based marketing; advertising; press; awards shows, ah, yes, actively managing referrals, etc.)
You are visible where and when the client is looking (Google position; inbound-directed content marketing; agency and agency key employee LinkedIn profiles; agency directories; ad club lists, etc..)

Sure, there is a bit of a Homer Simpson ‘doi’ factor here. But, believe me, many agencies do not take advantage of every awareness opportunity that avails. A side story. When I moved back from Saatchi London to run North American business development I asked a competitive NYC agency principle, his name was on the door, what worked. He said’ “I have no clue what is the most effective business development strategy, so we do everything.”

More history. Fifteen years ago, I found out that my Portland agency’s previous owner had placed ads for us in the Yellow Pages (!) by the agency getting a Yellow Pages driven-lead from the USA’s largest saltwater boat company – we won the account. Who could have predicted that the boat company’s CEO used the Yellow Pages to search for an agency? Learning = be everywhere that makes sense. OK, I’d pass on today’s Yellow Pages (I think).

Agency Spotter

The agency search website Agency Spotter is a very active agency awareness resource.

Agency Spotter was launched in 2013 to help marketers find the right marketing communications agency. Believe me, in my role as an ad agency client, 1995 to 2002, finding the right agency and making this critical engagement decision was not easy. I had run business development at the world’s largest agency but even with that personal experience, it was a tough process for me to find and select the right agency.

Here’s Agency Spotter’s mantra.

Agency Spotter is reinventing how brands find and work with creative agencies, design firms and marketing service providers.

For every business, finding marketing agencies takes significant time and is full of risk. Agency Spotter’s aim is to help change that. Our digital platform makes it much faster and free to find great agencies and design firms that fit the needs of brands and provides more information to help them make confident decisions.

Whether you are a subject matter expert looking for a small niche agency to inject some innovation in a specific area of your business or you’re a marketing leader searching for a digital agency of record, Agency Spotter makes it easy for agencies and brands to find one another and work smarter together.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Agency Spotter’s founder and leader Brian Regienczuk about the service and its 2019 Marketing Trends Report. A survey of marketers.

The 2019 Marketing Trends Report

You can download the 2019 Marketing Trends Report here. There is some very good news.

57% of CEO’s and 63% of CMO’s expect to increase their 2019 marketing budgets.
Marketers still dig advertising. “Advertising” is Agency Spotter’s most searched service.
Today’s pool of decision makers is much more diverse. I find it interesting that 42.2% are 25 to 34 in age. Clearly, a high concentration of digital natives.
If you are a woman-owned agency, you are in good shape. There were 74% more searches for ‘woman-owned’ agencies year over year.

OK, got to go here. There is some bad news for your advertising, digital and PR agency on Agency Spotter. You are in a highly competitive environment.

A search of the agencies listed on Agency Spotter turned up 2,302 advertising; 660 PR; 1,124 digital strategy and 696 social media agencies. And, there are even more sub-categories. This is bad news if your agency is not listed (a basic listing is free). As you might expect, if you pay more and you get more awareness goodies. [Read more…] about Where Do Advertising Agency Clients Search? Could Be Agency Spotter

Advertising Agency Searches and New Business Pitches: An Interview With Darren Wooley

Peter · April 15, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Australia’s Darren Woolley On The Art And Science Of Advertising Agency Searches and New Business Pitches.

With thousands of advertising, design, digital and PR agencies to choose from, prospective clients need a little help in making their selection. One way is for agencies to ‘advertise’. That means getting your agency awareness up. I discuss a how-to here: 10 Ways To Advertisinse Your Agency.

Another smart way to gain attention is to be on the radar of agency search consultants. Not all, just the right ones.

Whether or not your agency will ever be included in a search run by an agency search consultant, experienced search experts can help us all better understand elements of the search process and how clients select agencies.

To get an expert opinion on how search consultants work, I turned to international search consultant Darren Woolley of Australia’s leading search firm TrinityP3. This interview is one of 14 expert interviews from my book “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.”

Darren Woolley, Founder and Managing Director, TrinityP3

TrinityP3 is an independent strategic marketing management consultancy based in Melbourne, Australia. It works across continents and has 40 of Australia’s top 100 advertisers using its services. The company assists marketers, advertisers, and procurement with agency search & selection, agency engagement & alignment, and agency monitoring & benchmarking to ensure maximum performance in efficiency and effectiveness of their advertising and marketing budgets.

Darren started as a scientist, got into advertising as a copywriter, and ended up a creative director. After 15 years in advertising, he realized when marketers and their agencies work well together, amazing things happen. He established TrinityP3 in 2000 as an independent marketing management consulting company that provides marketers and advertisers with benchmarks, training, and advice on how to maximize the value of their marketing budgets.

PL: What are the primary benefits that you offer your clients? [Read more…] about Advertising Agency Searches and New Business Pitches: An Interview With Darren Wooley