Podcasting

Advertising Agency Podcast Strategy That Cannot Be Ignored

February 14, 2021 By Peter Leave a Comment

You Will Need An Unignorable Advertising Agency Podcast Strategy

I recently wrote a white paper on how to create a successful advertising agency podcast. “9 Unignorable Reasons Why Your Advertising Agency Should Not Podcast” covers learning from my 15-year podcast marketing journey and provides the pros and cons of podcasting. Even better, the doc is designed to guide you through an advertising agency podcast strategy that will deliver a must-listen-to podcast show. Here is how I start the 3,000-word white paper:

What’s Up With Podcasting?

I recorded my first podcast in 2007 when I owned the Portland advertising agency Citrus. After recording 18 shows, I gave up.

Why did I give up? It was just too early in the podcasting wilderness to put the time and effort into the show. I had great conversations with an editor of ADWEEK Magazine about the future of digital marketing and the growing power of Google as an ad platform (she was right); a business development guru that grew Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide, and two with the father of podcasting itself. You can hear a couple of those early interviews in my current podcast series “Advertising Stories”.

I recently gave up again.

I just ended my latest podcasting series. Why? Last June I had a plan to test a series of podcasts to see if this audio platform, which has grown exponentially since 2007, could drive my awareness and leads to my advertising agency business development consultancy. My plan was to record 40 shows between May and December 2020. These are really good interviews with cool, smart advertising people from New York to New Delhi… and I am a good interviewer. But, despite doing lots of things right, I have seen no appreciable business gain from all of this work. Some pain, no gain.

Which brings me to this instructive missive.

OK, that was the intro. You can get the white paper by subscribing to my occasional email newsletter (see the links on this page) or by contacting me at peter@peterlevitan.com

A Winning Advertising Agency Podcast Strategy – How To Be Unignorable

In the last section of my advertising agency podcast recommendations doc, after my take on some “how-tos”, I discuss how to create a podcast that is well-targeted and will be hard to ignore. I stress hard to ignore (by your cherished target market) because the list below covers the things that you will undoubtedly compete with for your future client’s work-life attention and time:

The client’s actual 8 to 7 management and marketing job.
72 daily emails.
All the incoming biz dev messaging coming in from your advertising agency competitors that are vying for the same client’s attention.
Facebook.
LinkedIn.
Instagram.
YouTube.
TikTok.
SMS text messages from Gary Vaynerchuk.
Clubhouse. Yikes, now Clubhouse.
And, a world of a zillion general podcasts from small players like The New York Times, Campaign Magazine, and NPR. Even worse, you will not be alone in the growing world of 30 to 60-minute marketing and advertising agency podcasts.

How To Get Loved? Here Is A Sample Advertising Agency Podcast Creative Brief

Borat Did A Video Just For For ME

December 3, 2020 By Peter Leave a Comment

A Few Words From My Best Buddy Borat About My “Advertising Stories” Podcast

Borat helps me by asking… “What is make beautiful Advertising Stories podcast? People should listen.”

He also asked, “What you mean by telling your agency clients that they need to be unignorable? Yo want unignorable? You got me! A special gift for you, my American puppy.” Or… “Агенттик кардарларыңызга алар жагымсыз болуш керек деп айткыңыз келгендиктен, сиз жагымсыз болуп калгыңыз келеби? Мени алдыңыз!”

So… I obviously had to go to Almaty, Kazakhstan last week to find Borat to have him make a video for me and Advertising Stories. This was not an easy get. First, I asked my friend Quentin Tarantino to find and then ask Borat’s daughter Tutar Sagdiyev to see if Borat would be in town. Tutar then asked Borat if he would do me the favor of making a video promotion for my advertising podcast for the wonderful, podcast loving, people of Kazakhstan. He was interested in doing almost anything for the great United States – if I promised to arrange a lunch with him and Rudy. Mayor Rudy said, sure what the hell. I’ll do anything these days.

I flew for 42 hours from Mexico City to Frankfurt to Istanbul to Almaty. Borat and I shot the video in my hotel room at the luxurious Ritz-Carlton Almaty. I had a tub in my room – I mean in the bedroom itself – and he insisted that he bathe and eat blinis and caviar while I played Beatles songs before the shoot. A bit weird all around – but strangely refreshing. Subscribe to my newsletter and I will send you the picture of me and Borat in the tub.

You might ask “why did Borat do this for you?” My Kazak friend is thanking me for introducing him to Rudy Giuliani. And to prove to you, that even an advertising agency business development consultant can walk to unignorable talk.

Best Advertising Podcast List

December 2, 2020 By Peter 1 Comment

The Advertising Stories podcast program publishes smart, funny, and useful interviews with advertising and marketing leaders. There are a LOT of podcasts out there. So, to make life a bit easier, here is my very own best advertising podcast list.

I have produced 40 episodes since June. And, As you know WOM rocks, so tell your friends all about Advertising Stories. Thank you.

Oh, and please subscribe via Apple Podcasts or use the subscribe links on this page.

Here Is The Best Advertising Podcast List – Handy Dandy.

A Neuroscientist On How Zoom Brains Work. If you want to sell anything using a Zoom call, listen to this. Part 4 in my virtual meeting series.
Yes, You Can Run A Powerful Zoom Meeting. Can you run a group meeting? An off-site? Yes, here you go. Part 3 in my virtual meeting series.
The Perfect Zoom New Client Pitch. Hear how a Miami agency won a new dating app client by wowing the client in a sexy (um, loving) Zoom room. Part 2 in my virtual meeting series.
How To Win A Virtual Advertising Agency Presentation. AAR Partners’ expert advertising agency search consultant Lisa Colontuano on how to win that virtual, Zoom-like, advertising agency presentation, and pitch. Lots of stories. Part 1 in my virtual meeting series.
The Smartest Person In Advertising. Michael Mosynski is the CEO of London Advertising – the most awarded agency in the UK. Multiple teachable moments in this interview y’all.
Hi. This Is Your Bank. Give Me Your Account Number and Password. clean.io CEO Matt Gillis on how and why really smart people do malvertising. You know, how they get even really smart people – like, um, you – to give up very personal information.
How To Build A Profitable Advertising Agency. An interview with the advertising agency profitability expert Michael Farmer, author of, “Madison Avenue Manslaughter: An inside view of fee-cutting clients, profit-hungry owners and declining ad agencies.”
How To Sell Your Business. An expert interview with the advertising and media services M&A uber-guide and advisor Mark Holdreith.
How To Build An In House Agency. Is running an in house agency, an in house ad + media + social + PR agency a good idea? Some answers.
A Bit Of Executive Creative Director History. – September 13, 2020 – An Executive Creative Director Spills.
An Expert On How To Do M&A. – August 31, 2020 – A M&A specialist on how to sell or buy an advertising agency.
The Smartest Advertising Executive and Business Development Consultant. – August 26, 2020 – How to win new accounts.
The Smartest African American Advertising Agency. – August 20, 2020 – Wil Shelton runs a very unique advertising agency in L.A. He discovered the huge potential of salons and barbershops as marketing tools.
Kamala Harris and Advertising. Not. – August 13, 2020 – Even Kamala could not get a job in advertising or marketing. Black might not be beautiful in the marketing universe.
How To Grow Your Advertising Agency. – August 10, 2020 – A few expert biz dev ideas to help you grow your new advertising agency’s new business pipeline.
Podcast Statistics From Podnews. – August 9, 2020 – Just the facts. Podcast activity is growing like pods.
Conversion Rate Optimization Advice. – August 5, 2020 – Yikes, 98% of your website visitors will not buy today. Here is some smart CTR advice to sell more stuff — sooner.
Life After Advertising Podcast Series. – August 3, 2020 – What will you do after advertising? Here are some ideas. I moved to Mexico
How Michaela Alexis Rocks Linkedin Learning. – July 31, 2020 – Michaela has over 170,000 Linkedin Followers. Find out why.
How To Grow A Podcast. – July 27, 2020 – A podcast marketing expert, expert, expert wants to help you grow your podcast – now.
Advertising And Marketing School Website Speed. – July 26, 2020 – Your website could be failing because it is too slow. Do the test and make it load faster.
Chevrolet Tahoe Consumer Generated Media Fail. – July 24, 2020 – ADWEEK editor on a huge social media failure.
ADWEEK editor on Google Advertising. – July 21, 2020 – A serious blast from the past. You bought 10,000 shares of Google in 2016, right?
A Scientific Approach To How To Name Your Advertising Agency. – July 17, 2020 – Everything you need to know about how to name YOU.
Purpose Driven Advertising Agency Podcast. – July 14, 2020 – How doing good became a new business driver. Like how a Boise ad agency went from Idaho to global.
How Not To Make Multicultural Marketing Mistakes. – July 9, 2020 – The master of Hispanic marketing delivers advice and points ou how companies like Kmart completely fail.
Japanese Advertising, Marketing And Sushi. – July 6, 2020 – Robert Peterson / Bob-san grew Toyota, Saatchi & Saatchi, and now his own Japanese skincare brand
A Lost $80 Million Advertising Agency Account. – July 1, 2020 – See how a huge advertising agency lost an $80 million account and get on the front page of the New York Times.
Ad Contrarian On Advertising Agency Presentations and Pitching. – June 28, 2020 – Bob Hoffman tells you what to do to win.
India’s leading Advertising and Brand Strategist. – June 25, 2020 – A great story about how Satish Krishnamurthy kicks strategic butt in India.
How to Win More Webby Awards. – June 22, 2020 – Matt Faulk, CEO of San Diego’s Basic on how to be very cool. And, have Webbys and Google love you.
How A Small Digital Agency Beats The Big Agencies. – June 17, 2020 – Portland’s Anvil Media has a secret sauce.
A Deep Dive Into The Birth Of Podcasting With Rob Walch of Libsyn. – June 15, 2020 – A podcasting history lesson.
Does Your Agency Fear Fear? – June 14, 2020 – The feeling of “fear” can be a part of everyday life at many advertising agencies.
The Birth, Life, And Death Of L’eggs Pantyhose. – June 12, 2020. – The ANA’s Mike Donahue on a brand’s lie expectancy.
From Advertising Agency Copywriter To Fiction Book Author. – June 10, 2020 – From ad copy to becoming a fiction book star.
Podcasting Growth Predictions From Rob Walch Of Libsyn. – June 8, 2020 – 2016 right on podcasting predictions.
The Disrupted History Of fashion And Luxury Marketing. – June 4, 2020 – A fashion marketing master asks … Has any category been as disrupted as much as fashion and luxury marketing? Nope.
Adidas And Saatchi – The Worst New Business Presentation Ever Podcast. – June 4, 2020 – It does not get worse than this. Plus, some baby seals.
Introduction To Advertising Stories. June 4, 2020. – Go for it.

The Best Advertising Agency Podcast Ever

November 30, 2020 By Peter Leave a Comment

I am so unbiased. Therefore, I can say without any hesitation that this is the best advertising agency podcast interview. How do I know this? I was recently interviewed by what I consider the best (well in addition to Advertising Stories) advertising agency podcast and host. Full stop. Great interviewer and I was, on that day, a brilliant speed-talking guest.

I discuss my loooong New York, London even Oregon advertising career, how to pitch (I wrote THE pitch book – see the top portion of this page), and how to buy and sell an advertising agency (get this 57-page freebie by subscribing to my occasional newsletter).

The Best Advertising Agency Podcast? It’s Aqui: The Businessology Show

The Businessology Show is a podcast about the business of design and the design of business It is hosted by CPA/coach Jason Blumer. Jason is a leading financial and accounting consultant for the advertising and marketing communications industry. I said expert, right? Also, a really cool interviewer.

Here is the show – go here: “Pitch It.”

About this show… from Mr. Blumer

Businessology is a platform to help designers, developers, and agencies run more successful businesses. One of the greatest things about the web industry is that we have the desire to share the most valuable tips and tricks of our trade with our “competitors.” When it comes to business, however, that knowledge seems to be kept behind closed doors.

This podcast was started because we want that information to exist in the open. We talk about what to charge for your work. We talk about how to do great work that your clients value. We talk about business models. We talk about managing projects. We talk about growing. We talk about the business side of design and how you can most effectively design your business. We coach real owners of real agencies working through their own growth complexities.

Guests have included Tim Williams; Matt Faulk (here is my interview on winning Webby Awards with Basic’s Matt); and, Drew McClellan of The Agency Management Institute (AMI).

Go listen…

Yikes. Donald Trump Loves Me. The Videos.

October 19, 2020 By Peter Leave a Comment

I Admit It. I Am Not Sure That My Donald Trump ‘Loves Me’ Endorsements Are Good For Me. Ever. However.

Months ago The Donald made a couple of video endorsements for me. One about my business development consultancy… “Levitan’s The Best”. And, one about my Advertising Stories podcast. Here is the podcast list.

To put it mildly, The Donald is a bit divisive. However, he cannot be ignored, and therefore at the time, I thought what the heck, if he is going to do a couple of personal non-political videos, why not let him. I won’t get political either (plus I am an Independent). My goal was and is to be Unignorable. So, here is a bit of borrowed interest just for you.

Oh, Mahatma Gandhi also endorsed me as well. I had visited one of his homes in Mumbai last January. Does Mr. Gandhi help me find the center – for you? I mean, who was EVER liked by both Gandhi and Trump? You can see Gandhi’s pitch for me here on my Contact page.