Podcast

How To Sell Your Business

Peter · September 25, 2020 · Leave a Comment

So You Want To Sell Your Business? Start The Process Early.

I have bought and sold a few advertising, digital, and design businesses. The process is stressful and rewarding. The keys to success are knowing why you are selling (and buying), spending time to build value, building a compelling, market-leading positioning, getting your financials in order, and hiring the right experts that will help you sell your business.

That’s why I interviewed Mark Holdreith of Media Advisory Partners. Mark and his team specialize in delivering M&A services for small and mid-sized marketing services and media companies.

From Media Advisory Partners:

MAP was founded in 2010 to provide financial advisory services to small and mid-size marketing services, media, and related companies. From the beginning, we have been committed to Advisory…providing the in-depth, end-to-end support and services required to meet your specific M&A needs.

I have two big pieces of advice; Start the process early. Read my free book, “How To Sell An Advertising Agency. And, How To Buy One.” There are a couple of links on this page to make that real easy.

Media Advisory Partners

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How To Build An In House Agency

Peter · September 18, 2020 · Leave a Comment

The market vibration is that there is a growing use of the in house agency. To be more specific, this is an in house “advertising agency” since what is brought inside are one or more of what I’ll call “advertising services” that include strategy development; digital marketing; PR; ‘traditional advertising”; media planning, and buying and, most common, high-volume and fast-paced content development.

There are many reasons for a company to bring some or all marketing services inside by creating an in house agency. That said, there is no one size fits all and it ain’t easy folks.

The rather experienced Steven Morvay, he’s held senior positions as both an agency president at Saatchi & Saatchi Direct and senior marketing positions at Borders and HBO, gets both sides of the in house agency equation. Take a listen. This is a smart discussion. Yes, I said that.

The In House Agency – The Why Do It?

I am going to go deeper into the growth of the in house agency and its efficacy and issues. But for now, here is a revealing chart from the Association Of National Advertisers and eMarketer about the primary benefits of creating the in house agency. Yes, it is often mucho about saving some bucks.

…..

Show Notes.

Steven Morvay on LinkedIn.

YO – Hypnotism coming.

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A Bit Of Executive Creative Director History

Peter · September 13, 2020 · 2 Comments

If there is anything that I find a bit off-putting about the dynamic move to digital marketing it is the loss of the BIG IDEA. The love of the big ideas that have been generated by the “traditional” Executive Creative Director….. (“traditional” – yikes, what a shitty & pejorative descriptor).

Worse, that for some digi-geeks, the big idea has gone by way of the dinosaurs. Today we spend much of our time thinking about KPIs, PPC, SEO, SEM, DA, CTR, programmatic, Facebook drek, driving YouTube views, how to hype Instagram posts, and now TikTok (which is still thankfully mostly still about individual creator ideas and productions). OK, I am not going to go too far over the top here. In many cases, ideas still rule, well, some of the time. But, let’s face it, it all got a bit geekyly vs creativityly in the past 20 years.

When A Executive Creative Director Walked The Earth

Pat Peduto and I worked at Saatchi. He was an Executive Creative Director (and member of the Director’s Guild) and I was the senior account guy. We won creative and a few Gold EFFIES. That is the type of collaboration y’all want. We even discussed it right here at this podcast heard around the world: “A Lost $80 Million Advertising Agency Account That Rocked The Ad World.”

Side note, if you are thinking that I am also a dino, I invented Internet marketing in 1995.

So, finally, if you are wondering who this Pat guy is, imagine a rather successful Executive Creative Director. Here is his history – yes, he came after the dinosaurs. He was ECD on accounts like Burger King, Toyota, AT&T, Nabisco.

I will put his master list of accounts Pat has worked on a bit below.

Show Notes.

Pat’s book… Author of “I Wrote The Book On Advertising”

Member of the Directors Guild & commercial director.

Owner of the agency RocketScience Creative.

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Ok, The List.

Pat’s clients… ABC Entertainment, Access Fund, A-Cute Derm, Act!vate, Adatom.com, agencyfinder.com, Alaska Distillery, ASM Fund, AT&T, Alka-Seltzer, Almond Joy, AVIS, Bayer Aspirin, Bally Total Fitness, BellSouth, Beneficial, Birds Eye, Burger King, Camel Filters, Canon, Century21, Chelsea Market, Ciroc, Citibank, Clairol Ultress, Club Med, Coca-Cola, Con Edison, Cox Interactive Media, Creative Artisan Brands, Crunch, Cuervo 1800, Delta, Diet Coke, Don Q Rum, Donnelley Directory, E-Z Wider, EasyLink–AT&T, EliasArts, Exxon, Florida Citrus, Frontier Brands, GE Rechargable Batteries, GM Credit Card, Gold Medal Flour, Grand Marnier, IBM–Latin America, Hamm’s Beer, Hanes Hoisery, Hardee’s, Healthy Home Environmental, Hellmann’s, Holiday Inn, homedelivery.com, Honey Graham Bears, ICI Americas, Interview Magazine, Investment Expo, JAL, JetUSA, Joker, Kellogg’s, Kodak films, Kodak Photo CD, Kodak 35mm Cameras, Krystal, Lamaze Publishing, LaMotta’s Tomatta Sauce, Lexus, L’Eggs Sheer Energy, Lipton, L’OREAL, Lucent, IRS, Life Savers, Lufthansa, Luxe Hotels, Manhattan Mortgage, Marriott, McDonald’s, MGD, Miller Beer, Mistic, Molson, Nabisco Cookies, National Car Rental, National Council for Adoption, Navan, New Jersey Online, New York Life, NewsWorks, Nomad Networks, Northcoast Consulting Group, NYC Office for Economic Development, Nikon Cameras, Northwest Airlines, Nucoa Margarine, Olympia Beer, PT-1, Palm Springs International Raceplex, PaineWebber, Parker Brothers, PheasantRun, Pizza Hut, Pleasant Company, Ponds, Portfolio School, Prodigy, Nuprin, Ragu, React.com, Ruffino, Rums of Puerto Rico, Rival Dog Food, SFATA, Sandella’s Cafe, Schick Electric, Skippy, Smirnoff, STP Motor Oil, Stella Show Mangement, Stockgroup.com, T42, TailWinds Distillery, Tampax, TIME, Talbot Hotel, Tommy Hilfiger, Toyota, US Army, US Postal Service, Unisys, United Craft Distillers, UrbanGlass, Virgin Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, Winston, Wrangler, Wendy’s, Wheaties, Woolmark Co, Yoplait.

An Expert On How To Do M&A

Peter · August 31, 2020 · Leave a Comment

I’ve got to tell you… you do not just wake up one morning and know how to do M&A. There is a fine art and science (both) to getting the smartest, best and happiest deals done.

Dominic Rinaldi is Managing Director of Chicago’s Sun Acquisitions. He is an expert at crafting the best deals for buyers and sellers. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what you can learn directly from a leading M&A advisor.

I’m into the universe of M&A these days because I wrote “How To Sell An Advertising Agency. And, How To Buy One.” I wrote the book for my advertising agency world because I think, well I know from my agency leadership conversations, that many advertising agency owners and potential buyers are looking at the M&A market. It is a time for some ad folks to either sell out or use the market to acquire some well-priced assets.

There is a lot of information in the interview. That said, here is a bit on getting bank financing. It sure looks like a good time to borrow.

Peter: I’ve, I’ve bought and sold three agencies. I never borrowed money. I never went to a bank, never lived through the banking experience. What percentage of sales of your middle and lower market clients require borrowing from a bank?

Dominic: The largest, most sophisticated buyers want to borrow money because they want to put leverage on that deal. So let’s talk in the terms of a sophisticated private equity group that’s looking to make acquisitions. If they have $200 million in a fund and they’re looking to go out and make acquisitions, they don’t want to do 10 transactions with the 200 million. They want to do a hundred transactions. So they’re spreading their risk. The chances are that they are going to hit a couple of home runs and also hit a couple of doubles and triples. Whereas if they do 10 deals the odds of success really shrink. So using the money to do as many deals as possible putting bank lending on it gives them leverage to do that. And it’s today’s very low-interest rates. It makes a lot of sense.

My “How To Sell…” book is free. All you have to do is use the handy get the free book link on this page to ask for a copy.

Show Notes Links To Get You To… More How To Do M&A.

Sun Acquisitions

Dominic Rinaldi’s M&A Unplugged Podcast

K2Advisor – On setting up and positioning a business for a sale

The Beatles Taxman

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A nice thing for me… Feedspot has recognized Advertising Stories as being a top 15 advertising podcast.

The Smartest Advertising Executive and Business Development Consultant

Peter · August 26, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Michael Keeshan was the smartest advertising executive in the room. I know, I worked with him when he was President and COO of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising New York and the Chief Strategic Officer of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide. If you are wondering, he was smart like an Einstein.

He also counseled major advertisers including AT&T and Novartis to pick their advertising agencies. His MagikBox search consultancy rocked.

Here is my interview with Michael about advertising agency business development and advertising agency search consultants and the pitch experience. Over his years in advertising, Michel worked on both sides of the agency/client table. As you will see, Michael was one of the smartest advertising executive dudes.

This entertaining and informative interview covers how advertising, digital, PR agencies, you name it, should manage their business development process and pitches and presentations. I did this interview in 2006. Believe me… Michael’s cogent advice is even more relevant in today’s highly competitive advertising universe.

I have many other interviews with advertising agency search consultants in my book on presenting and pitching for new ad accounts. Just go here to win more pitches… There have been thousands of happy, richer readers.

Links To Other Super Smart Past Advertising and Marketing Interviews.

Cathy Taylor of ADWEEK. Hear about one of the great social media fails… C/O Chevrolet Tahoe. It was an early screw up that was very prophetic as we all moved on into more social media.

Rob Walch of Libsyn.

Hypnotism coming: Remember to subscribe to Advertising Stories. Remember to subscribe to Advertising Stories. Remember to subscribe.

A nice thing for me… Feedspot has recognized Advertising Stories as being a top 15 advertising podcast.