Peter Levitan & Co.
The New Business of Advertising
I haven’t looked at my book’s Amazon page for awhile. I’m happier looking at the Amazon Createspace page that shows my sales. However, I did take a look yesterday after a friend alerted me to a 1-star review and found this beat-down. Looks like I suck.
Me thinks that EverybodylovesKittens needs a good hug.
OK, next step… for you. Buy the book, hopefully enjoy it (and win more new agency accounts) and then leave me a happy-puppy review. Thanks.
Some things on my plate. Just thought I’d share them to get out a quick personal update.
I am now into my 8th month of living in Mexico. This was a great decision and great timing!
I am in the process of writing a long(ish) blog post on lead generation -> lead nurturing -> pitching -> closing. All tailored to my advertising, digital, design, etc. agency readers.
I am writing my presentation on agency business development for my talk at the huge (fabulous, great, incredible — Thank You Donald) PPC Hero Conference in L.A. in April. This link, go to this conference, it is the largest PPC conference, gets you a nice discount.
I am getting ready to interview Peter Shankman on the gift of ADD / ADHD and its relationship to working in an advertising agency and knowing how to get the attention of B2C and B2B ‘consumers.’ This will become a guest post on HubSpot and then amplified across my social networks.
I was just interviewed by Paul Wicker for the AdStage podcast. I’ll let you know when it gets published.
I am toying with the idea of writing a new book. This one on why you will NEVER get to, or want to retire. It would be an update to my ‘traing wheels’ book Boomercide: From Woodstock To Suicide. Boomercide was my first book. It about how you can use suicide as a financial planning tool. I’m serious.
I am working on my 3-year Mexican photo project GENTE.MX I am in the process of photographing my town, San Miguel de Allende. Website up soon. Two images from the 300 – 500+ series are above and below.
A funny thing happens when you run a blog. You find out that you have to feed it as if it was a pet. No food, no life. In the blog’s case, no content (copy, videos, photographs), no Google love.
Google love is my primary business development tool. Most of my ad agency clients tell me that they found me on Google (usually on page one for a related search.) So, in honor of my need to feed the Google beast and the fact that my weekly round-up newsletter will go out tomorrow and… the fact that I have not written a new blog post this week (too busy with client work – a very lame excuse), I am starting a new series called My Wednesday Photograph to ensure that I have at least one post per week. By the way, that’s me on the left in the mining town Minerale de Pozos.
I’ll get into my photography in greater detail in the future. But, as a fast start… I started shooting when I was a teen in New York. Got my BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Ran Levitan & Feinstein Photography in SF for 4 years and then moved to New York where I decidedIi did not want to shoot commercial work. I then started my advertising career. That said, I’ve been shooting for myself since then. For gear heads… I shoot a Widelux, a 1960’s wide angle film camera made famous by Jeff Bridges, and Fuji’s X-T1 and X100T.
I moved to Mexico last July. You can read about the move here. In the past few weeks, I’ve been going out in the streets of San Miguel de Allende and nearby small towns with two assistants and a large white background to photograph Mexicans. One of my goals is to show Americans how wonderful these folks are in a time when many Mexican are demonized by xenophobic Americans. So, here you go with the portrait on the left and two Apache dancers I shot last week in San Miguel Viejo – a town of 336.
More to come.
I have written about Gary Vaynerchuck and his take on advertising and the industry twice before. Both positive and negative.
Gary Vaynerchuck Is Full Of Shit
Gary Vaynerchuck: Old School Advertising Agency CEO
Today, I’d like to respond to his ‘rant’ (according to Advertising Age) on the advertising industry that he delivered at the Association of National Advertisers Masters of Marketing conference.
Gary’s comments and my perspective follow. Before you start, I’d like to say again that I admire Gary and his brilliant job of building Vayner Media, one of the fastest growing agencies in the business. His built-for-today agency is an example of how to do it right that many agency CEO’s should study.
On improving creative: “Everyone likes to talk about the media inefficiencies and transparencies, but what about the creative? We have to understand our brands mean different things to different people and the attention of the consumer is shifting at scale. Creative gets elevated when we accept an ecosystem that gives us more creative at bats.”
My Take… Creative at bats. Hmm. OK, I get it. Spread your creativity around the world of media platforms. But, a big but, creativity is not about volume. It is about ideas that arrest and tell brand stories and tidbits that capture attention and excite. Big compelling ideas that drive interest and, yes folks, sell something. Go here to read about the history of the early days of Volkswagen advertising – The best Advertising Ever. It will prove my point.
On the potency of the Super Bowl: “When I buy my first brand, the first thing I’m going to do is run multiple Super Bowl ads,” he said. “The No. 1 underpriced value of attention is the Super Bowl. Every single person watches it, but the problem with the current execution of the Super Bowl is the creative has so much vested interest in being a showcase for agencies … we’re not making the kind of work that takes advantage.”
Another OK. Please, we all get that agencies try to flex their creative muscle when they get a chance to create advertising for the Super Bowl. Guess what, some not so great Executive Creative Directors think first about their reel. Do we really need to here again? OK again… yes, there are lame agencies (occasionally abetted by immature Internet brands) that do this. But, I know that as clients have gotten more focused on selling, the run of silly TV commercials has diminished.
OK again… yes, there are lame agencies (occasionally abetted by immature Internet brands and super nervous marketing directors who might also be building their reels) that do this. But, I know that as clients have gotten more focused on selling, the run of silly Super Bowl TV commercials has diminished.
On measuring marketing: “You’re scoring the wrong shit,” he said. “There’s a new world and attention is in different places. I could care less if Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat exist tomorrow — I just care about where your attention is.”
HUH? Why is Gary talking down to experienced agency leaders and how they measure effectiveness? Oh, this speech is all about selling his agency’s expertise. Bravo to Gary’s salesmanship.
On targeting your audience: “If you are running [TV] commercials for a brand that targets consumers 22 and under, you’re a fuckface.”
Well, why rule out TV? The under 22-year-old crowd does, in fact, watch TV. Not all of it and not clearly (of course, we all know this right?) as much as their dads. But they watch it. Is Gary suggesting that brands should avoid TV – ever? Never consider it a part of the traditional – social – video – outdoor (still going strong) media mix? Not recognize that a bunch of TV is not viewed on the old-fashioned TV set but on the phone? Really, is he saying this? Or just saying that advertisers should talk to him about how fucked up the big agencies are? Again. Remember, Gary is on a sales call to the ANA and Advertising Age has graciously abetted his cause.
On final takeaways: “You’re going to die,” Mr. Vaynerchuk said. “It’s an amazing time to be in this industry if you’re on the offense, it’s the worst time if you’re on the defense and 95% of you are on the defense.”
Duh! This sounds like career advice you give to your 18-about-to-go to college neighbor.
Yes, that’s Seth Godin to your left. He has been a master thought leader since the mid-1990’s. He has made a lot of money doing that by being opinionated, smart, a prolific writer and global speaker. A serious thought leader. You can do it (well a form of it) too. Here’s a how-to to get this important job done faster.
Let’s start with a definition for thought leadership from Wikipedia (of course.)
A thought leader can refer to an individual or firm that is recognized as an authority in a specialized field and whose expertise is sought and often rewarded.
Let’s unpack this:
“A thought leader can refer to an individual or firm that is recognized as an authority in a specialized field…” Two obvious points; It is good to be 1) recognized as an authority (as in known for your gray matter and insights vs. being invisible) and 2) it is good for your personal or company brand to be specialized vs. a generalist in today’s fragmented marketing environment.
“…and whose expertise is sought and often rewarded.” Another obvious point, it is good to be sought after and rewarded.
If thought leadership can actually deliver “recognition” and “rewards” for you and your agency… then do it.
This is about getting your unignorable on (read this post about how to do that.)
But, the hard part is getting thought leadership done at your very busy company. I’ve seen this up close at many agencies. Too many, given how y’all can get the job done without too much pain, time and money. Read on. [Read more…] about How To Make Thought Leadership Easy