New Business

Giving to win: Strategic Philanthropy and Advertising Agency Smiles

Peter · November 30, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Strategic Philanthropy

Way back in 2013, I wrote about advertising agencies and philanthropy. I haven’t changed my mind… Intelligent giving, or better, strategic philanthropy, is a smart move for you and your clients. I urge you to read my earlier post.

Since its the holiday season, I thought that your agency might want to consider giving to one or more charities rather than spend on gifts that, frankly, your client does not want or need.

I am sending you to an L2 video conversation with Scott Harrison, the brilliant CEO of Charity: Water. Charity: Water (great branding by the way) has raised over $27,000,000 over the last 11 years to fund water projects in 24 countries. But… before I get to the video, here is what I said to you in 2013 (bottom line: giving is good for business (!!!) as well as one’s soul):

The great majority of advertising agencies have one or more nonprofit clients. It is a wonderfully symbiotic relationship. The nonprofits get high-level creative and the agencies get to feel good, look good to their communities and, most importantly, provide important services to charities.

This charitable work is also good for the agency’s new business program. If done correctly, the nonprofit relationship is strategic. One agency that gets it is Portland’s Grady Britton. You can read about their multi-year program in my article, “An Agency That Does Good” on the Agency Post.

I’ve felt so strongly about the symbiotic aspect of charitable work that I’ve always recommended a strategic approach to my clients. Below is how I’ve represented this concept. If you agree with me, please pass this on to your clients. At a time of reduced government spending, it is important that agencies play a more assertive role in selling the benefits of Strategic Philanthropy.

OK, The L2 Charity: Water Video:

Big thanks to Scott Galloway, too. One more point, there is no reason your agency can’t make videos as compelling as L2’s.

https://www.l2inc.com/daily-insights/winners-and-losers/innovation-that-matters-charity-water?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=winners-losers-img&utm_campaign=email

How To Win Advertising Awards Like LONDON Advertising @ The Drum Awards

Peter · November 29, 2017 · 1 Comment

LONDON Advertising Kills The Drum Awards Plus An Interview With LONDON’s CEO To Help Your Agency Win Too

Imagine an advertising agency that has a stand out, highly competitive brand positioning (“One Brilliant Idea”); owns the name of its home city; beats much larger international agencies in pitches for global accounts; makes lovely and impossible to ignore brand-building advertising; and wins buckets of major advertising awards — year after year. In this case, this week’s mega kudos and wet kisses from The Drum Awards.

The agency is London Advertising and after you hear about all that they just won, I’ll share an interview with LONDON Advertising’s CEO Michael Mosynski. By the way, the interview is one of many in my book, The Levitan Pitch. Read This Book. Win More Pitches. [Which is an excellent holiday gift for all your favorite agency leaders or yourself, for that matter.]

This should become one of my best read posts. Please pass it on. Use my cute social media logos.

Some Nights It Is All About Winning

From The Drum – London Advertising was named International Advertising Business of the Year at last night’s Drum Network Awards held in London.

Here is the copy from the agency’s email announcing this year’s Drum Awards. FYI: LONDON is a repeat repeat repeat winner.

A SUCCESSFUL NIGHT AT THE DRUM NETWORK AWARDS

We had an amazing evening at The Drum Network Awards last night. Proud to say we were the most awarded agency, receiving the Agency Grand Prix, as well as winning Agency of the Year for a fourth time.

Our He’s/She’s a fan campaign, for Mandarin Oriental Hotels, won the International Advertising Campaign/Strategy of the Year, as well as International Digital Campaign/Strategy of the Year.

Our work for Mandarin Oriental London, on which we collaborated with Sir Peter Blake, won Leisure & Tourism Campaign/Strategy of the Year.

We were delighted Sir Peter was able to join us on the night.

In a speech to the audience, he said, “seeing my artwork towering over Knightsbridge made me very proud”.

Here is the full list of awards won:

The Agency Grand Prix – Winner

International Agency Business of the Year – Winner

International Advertising Campaign/Strategy of the Year – Winner for He’s/She’s a fan – Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group

International Digital Campaign/Strategy of the Year – Winner

Leisure & Tourism Campaign/Strategy of the Year – Winner for Our fans by Sir Peter Blake – Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London

International Integrated Campaign/Strategy of the Year – Highly Commended – Our fans by Sir Peter Blake – Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London

Agency of the Year for Advertising – Highly Commended

My Interview

Michael Mosynski is CEO of LONDON Advertising. He launched the agency eight years ago as a global agency built for today’s marketplace. The agency’s clients include Boots No7, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Ketel One, W&O Travel, and Wegwood.

Prior to starting LONDON, Michael was the CEO of M&C Saatchi Hong Kong, Middle East, and London’s IS. Prior to joining M&C Saatchi, he held a range of senior positions at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide (I was a lucky boy to have worked with him during Saatchi’s golden years).

PL: LONDON Advertising is positioned as an international, yet very nimble one-office agency that that delivers “One Brilliant Idea that can work in any media, anywhere in the world.” Why does this positioning generate interest from multinational clients?

Updated Big Advertising Resources List

Peter · November 8, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Here’s An Updated Big Advertising Resources List

Hi, just wanted you to see that I added a few new links to my Big Advertising Resources List. You’ve used the list before, correcto?

The Updates

13 Creative Ways To Find Blog Post Ideas. Super smart list from Authority Hacker. This will help you find new and exciting blog ideas. Frankly, it isn’t that easy to keep being super fresh, interesting and high value when you have zillions of earlier blog posts. Authority Hacker will help make that job a lot easier.
Canva. A free tool that makes it easy to create custom graphics to go with your social media posts. I love this.
Engagio. Want to grow your advertising agency? Engagio’s Account Based marketing will tell you how to do that. OK, here’s the drill. if you know what clients you want for your advertising agency then go get them. Engagio will tell you how to do that. I call it Super Smart Sales Pressure or SSSP.
An in-depth Entrepreneurship and Small Business Resource Guide from Job Hero. A BIG list.

Hope you enjoy the big list and get smarter, better, more good looking.

An “Advertising” Cure For CPG’s Ills

Peter · October 12, 2017 · Leave a Comment

An “Advertising” Cure For CPG’s Ills

Imagine creating a new marketing company that directly goes after a huge industry’s Pain Points. I mean, directly.

I just read, “2 Saatchi Alums Vow To ‘Clean Up’ CPG” in MediaPost. These ex-Saatchi guys vow to help clean up CPG’s big needs per the article …

“As the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry continues to experience sharp declines in sales, two former Saatchi & Saatchi senior global executives, Vaughan Emsley and Cliff Francis, are launching Clean Up On Aisle 7, a new consulting firm to help CPG brands be more effective, responsive and agile in today’s changing landscape.”

Why Is The Idea Of This New “Consulting Agency” So Smart?

5 Big Reasons.

CPG is in bad shape. Overall purchases of consumer-packaged goods in the U.S. declined 2.5% in unit terms in the first quarter, according to Nielsen.
Volatility sucks. There are “probably more sources of volatility today than at any other time in history,” P&G Chief Financial Officer Jon Moeller said Wednesday in a call with reporters.
CPG companies have been rather slow to adapt to the new world of digital marketing and consumer shifts. They need some speed.
Clean Up On Aisle 7 (a cute name but a bit lengthy) aims to go directly at these major client pain points.
Clean Up On Aisle 7’s management has the history and ecperience to deliver smart thinking. “Previously, Emsley served as the global client leader for all Publicis Groupe agencies working on P&G brands, while Francis worked as the former worldwide creative director for P&G brands at Saatchi & Saatchi.”

OK, One More Smart Point – For Your Agency.

Clean Up (a shorter version as I am sure they will be known) stands out from the huge pack of advertising agencies and consultants that do not have a well-defined positioning, a bold reason for being and a hard to ignore sales proposition.

A new company dedicated to curing the ills of CPG meets a clear need and… stands out.

They are unignorable.

Does Your Thought Leadership Kick Ass?

Peter · September 28, 2017 · 3 Comments

To Be Unignorable, Kick Some Thought Leadership Ass

If you are one of my clients, you have heard me talk about how to be unignorable. That means, do not be ignorable. Which means, do not put forth me-to thought leadership content (copy, videos, podcasts, white papers, books and on and on) that can be easily dismissed by your target market.

How To Stand Out?

Want to get heard and talked about? Be bold. Tell it like it is. Say something that resonates. Have an opinion. Be bold and be quick. Act like Mario Andretti (you know who he is, right?) A quote:

If everything is under control, you are not going fast enough.

Well, L2’s Scott Galloway is not under control. He lets it hang out and… he is NOT ignorable. A sample… his opinion about Amazon, Apple (love this one!), Facebook and Google.