Pitching

How To Predict An Advertising Agency Search

Peter · January 28, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Can You Predict When A Client Will Search For A New Advertising Agency?

A friend who ran an advertising agency in L.A. once told me that he made at least five ‘warm calls’ every week to prospective clients. This agency CEO was gregarious, had a great rap about advertising trends that clients liked to hear and he was very smart. He knew that on any given day, a few clients woke up thinking that they needed a new agency to replace their AOR or to hand out a project. He just wanted to be on the client’s radar when that day happened.

Clearly, not all agency CEO’s can or will make these calls. Though, sales pressure applied with TLC does work for some.

Another way to get ahead of the search process is to use a business development database and news tool like Access Confidential. To get a better understanding of Access Confidential and their pitch that they can help agencies know about a new business pitch before the other agencies, I interviewed Lisa Colantuono, a partner at the highly successful agency search consultancy AAR and a contributor to my book on pitching. I posted this interview on HubSpot’s Agency Post. Here is my lead-in.

Another Holy Grail (can there be more than one?) is being able to predict when a client is unhappy with their current agency and is getting ready to begin the search process. This is a tough one, so I searched to see if there was any existing advice on being able to predict when a client is about to search for a new agency. My quest led me to Access Confidential.

Access Confidential is an online new business tool from AAR Partners, a leading agency search consultancy with a history of conducting more than 1,500 searches. Access Confidential includes an up-to-date client database, business news, and a research hotline, and it is used to forecast when clients will look for a new agency.

I also asked Lisa about the current new business landscape. Here is the Q&A.

What do you think is the biggest or fastest-growing client need as we move into 2015?

Innovation with an eye toward creating purposed-based brands.

Successful agencies will help identify emotional values in their client’s brands and use them for real-time engagement and meaningful positioning. Consumers are going to continue to have influence over brands. Agencies that help marketers to embrace it will succeed. You can boil this down to the need to turn big data (and the overwhelming amount of data) into core brand insights for marketers, which will remain as an asset. Analytics and programmatic and real-time buying, as well as social command centers to keep an ear to the ground on what’s trending, are all important tools to offer a client. But the greatest tool will be the interpretation of the data.

Ah, innovation.

Blogging + Interpersonal Chemistry Drives Ad Agency New Business

Peter · January 13, 2015 · 1 Comment

This is my 400^th blog post. Why 400? I Am Driving Interpersonal Chemistry.

First of all, I enjoy writing. I started this blog when I published my first book, “Boomercide: From Woodstock To Suicide”. The blog also supports the marketing of my agency consultation business and my second book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This book. Win More Pitches”.

Beyond the fun of writing and expressing my views on the advertising industry, the blog’s primary purpose is to act as my main marketing vehicle for my ad agency new business consultancy (and marketing ‘guinea pig’ to learn more to help my clients).

Last year, 32,111 people visited the blog and viewed 70,202 pages. My blog posts were marketed across LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and in guest blog posts on websites like AdPulp, Agency Post (now HubSpot) and Advertising Week.

The blog, guest posts and my book on pitching have also made me new friends that have helped expand the reach of my marketing program. Guest blogging got me a speaking gigs at conferences like HubSpot’s Inbound conference and the publication of my book made friends like Mitch Joel who invited me to be a guest on his 9-year-old “6 Pixels of Separation” podcast. Mitch has over 64,000 Twitter followers.

Michael Gass of Fuel Lines advertising agency new business fame gave me this great review (which he promoted onto his 71,000 followers)

I possibly have read every book about agency pitches and none come close to the rich, detailed information and guidance that you will find in this book, The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches, written by Peter Levitan. The book lives up to its title. I highly recommend that every advertising, digital, media and PR agency principal read it. (Yes, go ahead, you can Tweet this.)

All of this activity resulted in my working with advertising agency clients on three continents. As you can see, the blog has been read in virtually every country. I even had 5 views in Syria. [Read more…] about Blogging + Interpersonal Chemistry Drives Ad Agency New Business

Steve Jobs & The Macintosh Were, Um, Cool

Peter · December 30, 2014 · Leave a Comment

I bought my first Macintosh computer from Steve Jobs in 1984. It was um, cool.

I just found this video of Steve Jobs introducing the Mac. He was, um, cool too. But, you know that. So, this is just a reminder.

Here is what the Smithsonian had to say about the introduction:

Nearly thirty years ago, on January 24, 1984, a 28-year-old Steve Jobs appeared onstage in a tuxedo to introduce a new Apple computer that had been in the works for years: the Macintosh.

Two days earlier, during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, Apple aired a commercial that brought already-high expectations for the Mac to a fever pitch. In the ad, a nameless heroine runs through a dystopian setting, where a face projected onto an enormous screen commands a room full of conformists to obey. Evading police in riot gear, the heroine smashes the screen with a giant hammer, freeing the audience. The message: IBM was 1984’s Big Brother, and Mac was the audacious liberator.

Up on stage, after unzipping the 17-pound computer from a carrying case, plugging it in and turning it on, Jobs showed a feverishly cheering audience screenshots of killer applications like MacWrite and MacPaint. The device—designed around a user-friendly graphical user interface and mouse that debuted in the previous Lisa computer—was remarkably intuitive for non-experts, allowing them to use the mouse to select programs they wanted to run, rather than type in code.

I want to be, um, cool(er) too. I’ll be working on it in 2015.

Happy New Year!!

The Very Merry Advertising Christmas Gift

Peter · December 22, 2014 · Leave a Comment

The Very Merry Advertising Book Christmas Gift

I recently had one of the best known people in the advertising industry tell me that I might just be over promoting my book on pitching. I went, um, really? But, I did take note because he does know his advertising stuff. So, that said….

Buy My Book Right Now As A Christmas Gift For Your Advertising Friends

Buy it here on Amazon

Need are some cheery reasons to help you make this decision…

It is a good book that is written to help advertising agencies win more pitches. A few bucks to win more pitches – why wouldn’t you buy it?

The reviews from experts have been very positive. Like this one…

“I possibly have read every book about agency pitches and none come close to the rich, detailed information and guidance that you will find in this book. It lives up to its title. I highly recommend that every advertising, digital, media and PR agency principal read it.” – Michael Gass

Hear me discuss the book and some of my thoughts on pitching care of an interview on the nature of the advertising agency pitch on Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast.

Last but not least…

Advertising People Are Procrastinators

Good News: Amazon will get the book to your special loved one very quickly.

Oh, and a Very Merry Christmas!

The Video: How To Write An Advertising Agency Book

Peter · December 8, 2014 · Leave a Comment

My HubSpot Inbound Conference Video: “The Advertising Agency Book – From Idea To Publication in 6 Months”

Here is a video of the talk I gave at HubSpot’s Inbound 2014 conference. Watch my presentation to find out how to write an advertising agency book by mid 2015. Yes, you can do it.

The video will show you how to get a good head start on adding this special arrow to your new business quiver. I discuss the multiple benefits of writing a book; that it can be done relatively quickly (I wrote my 65,000 word The Levitan Pitch, Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. in less than 6 months); how the book will drive your thought-leadership program and how your agency is particularly well set up and well endowed to get a great business-building book out the door.

Writing is a good thing

As I’ve written before: I got the speaking gig at Inbound 2014 because I write for HubSpot’s Agency Post. Using thought leadership to gain broad awareness of your agency is, well, its a very good thing. Here’s my earlier post on the value of guest posting: “Why I Guest post On Agency Post.”

Here is my dedicated post on writing an advertising agency book and how it can be used for new business outreach. The post includes the PowerPoint presentation I used in the following video.

To help you find the gems in the 30 minute talk, I’ve put some highlights below.

Video Timelines

This are approximate…

Intro: :00 to 1:30
6 Months, Really?: 1:30 to 3:00
The how to: 3:00 to 7:00
Mistakes: 7:00 to 10:50
Objectives and Strategies: 10:50 to 25:00
Recap: 25:00 to 30:00

OK, Buy The Book – I wrote my book for you. I want you to win more pitches.

If you read the book you will pitch better than your competition.

Here’s more:

You will mange your agency’s pitch process much better.
You won’t burn out your employees.
You will plan better.
You will reduce your pitch budget.
You will strategize better.
You will arrive better prepared.
You will present better.
You will win more pitches.
You will retire earlier.

Buy multiple copies of the book as Christmas / Hanukah gifts right here: Amazon

Buy the “How Not To Win A Pitch” poster here: Society6