Smart Agencies

An Above+Beyond Advertising Agency

June 10, 2022 By Peter Leave a Comment

London’s Above+Beyond Advertising Agency And…

I woke up, I admit it with a bit of a hangover, and saw that London’s Above+Beyond advertising agency hired Shez Lord has joined as creative director to work on the Subway account. Not big news for me but always good for an advertising agency to get press even if just a typical Media Post News type of article.

I used the article as a spark to wake up my brain and to get me to look at the Above+Beyond website.

Things I Like About The Above+Beyond Website. A couple of quick takeaways:

Good Above+Beyond:

I dig the agency’s name. Above+Beyond works on a few levels. Not the least of which is that the name makes me think that these guys will run through walls for a client. Serice, good agency service, is what keeps clients in-house and offers a good angle for pitching and sales. It would be interesting to see how the agency leverages this promise.

I dig the opening statement: Audience Age Creativity For Ambitious Brands. I admit that it took me a couple of seconds to process the term “Audience Age”. However, once I got my fuzzy brain to think, I liked that Above+Beyond recognizes the power of the audience these days and positions the agency dead center in this evolving universe… Oh, and I’ve had personal experience with “ambitious”. I started in the agency business at New York’s largest ad agency — Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (later bought by Saatchi) which had Ambitious Advertising as its ‘motto’.

I like that the agency defines its clients as being ambitious. Most agencies do not define the clients that they want.

The ‘work’ is smart. The Sh*t Just Got Serious client has a nice story about connecting your bum to trees.

A new brand to fight deforestation, one 100% recycled loo-roll at a time.

Serious Tissues was named to insinuate the serious issues our world faces with the devastating effects of climate change. A world where we’re chopping down 27,000 trees a day just to wipe our arses. Literally flushing away 10m trees each year. The proposition was simple and distinct; for every one recycled toilet roll bought from Serious Tissues – one tree is planted.

Nice client list.

A Better Above+Beyond:

I don’t dig that the agency only uses video for its cases. I’d like to get to know the agency leaders… why not a video with them in it? A short but sweet chemistry-building video? Like… tell me who you are. And, why I should hire you vs the other ‘creative’ shop down the street.

I really could use some explanation surrounding the idea of “Audience Age”. Help me want to use the agency in this new world where the consumer rules (even more everyday). Audience-related strategic insights please. Even short and very sweet audience as in consumer interviews. I said short.

Ok, one more. These guys could do a better job of enticing me to make contact. Most agencies do a sh*ty job when it comes to their contact page. Above+Beyond, how about some love? And a hug.

Look at my Contact page.

I have an offer (as in Don Corleone); make contacting me easy and even have a testimonial from a couple of my clients and even even a video testimonial from my boy Mahatma Gandhi. Yes, Gandhi. I got my friend Gandhi to do the video because I am ambitious – like Above+Beyond’s favorite clients.

4A’s On Advertising Agency Pitching

June 7, 2022 By Peter Leave a Comment

Some Sage Words From The 4A’s On Advertising Agency Pitching

Here is an interview on advertising agency pitching I did with Tom Finneran, EVP, Agency Management Services at the 4A’s. It’s one of many expert interviews in my book on advertising agency pitching. It comes from the perspective of the 4A’s, its work with hundreds of agencies, and with the ANA – the Association of National Advertisers.

By the way, I am updating the book. Stay tuned. Oh, why update it? Well, let’s just use one newish thing that has revolutionized pitching (to put it mildly) — virtual pitching.

I thought I’d add this interview to my blog for a few reasons. Some to help you and one big one for me.

Your agency’s pitch batting average will increase if you have a solid, smart, consistent pitch system.
You will win more pitches if you put yourself in the client’s shoes.
You should be aware of the 4A’s and ANA agency search guidelines. If fact, share this with the clients you pitch. Here’s a link to an Ad Age article on the guidelines.
You’ll help me because I want you to buy the book. It’s not because I make a lot of bucks from sales (although sales are robust and it is nice to get money from Amazon.) No, I want you to buy the book because many agencies that read the book, see that I actually know what I am talking about, and turn into my consultancy’s business development clients. Duh coming: Books help make people and even agencies look and sound like experts.

On To The 4A’s Interview That Will Help You Win More Pitches

Warning. This is a long interview. Long as in over 3,000 words. Read it if you want to win more new business.

Tom Finneran: EVP, Agency Management Services – The 4A’s

Tom Finneran leads the 4A’s Agency Management Services team, which provides industry guidance, member consultation, and benchmark information in the areas of new business, agency compensation, agency management, and operations.

Tom’s career includes extensive ad agency and advertiser financial management experience. He was executive Vice president/CFO at Jordan McGrath Case & Partners and Arnold McGrath Worldwide, a unit of Havas. He was also Executive Vice President/COO at Grey’s promotional unit, J. Brown/LMC.

PL: While there’s no one-size-fits-all pitch process, do you think that clients are running more professional pitches today than in the past?

Tom: What we consistently hear is that reviews have become less professional and efficient than in the past. This is important because, to a degree clients have taken in-house some of the review practices that have traditionally been managed by industry consultants who were more adept at running professional pitches.

In terms of the efficiency of reviews, some of the things that are less efficient than they should be are cattle calls. You’ll have clients who are not experienced at doing reviews, and they’ll send information requests to far more agencies than should be included in the initial list.

Some of the other inefficient processes are what I would refer to as RFPs from hell. Here is one example. About a year and a half ago, one of our members called irate about an RFP that had 300 questions. And I said, “You’ve got to be exaggerating. It couldn’t possibly have been 300 questions.” So the person said, “Wait a minute. Let me look at this.” Then she commented, “Okay. You got me, I exaggerated. It’s 293 questions.” So this was an RFP that a client-sourcing group used. The RFP was geared to soliciting responses from ingredient suppliers, research and development firms, and contractors of all types. And woven into the 293 questions were a few marketing-related questions that were kind of like packed in there.

PL: So are you seeing these kinds of issues primarily with larger clients or also medium-sized to smaller clients?

Tom: These tended to be from marketers who did not have dedicated, knowledgeable marketing procurement folks. They were taking people who could source corrugated materials and chemical components and things of that nature.

PL: Is there an agency size factor? Is it affecting your large and small 4A’s members?

Tom: It affects members both small and large. [Read more…] about 4A’s On Advertising Agency Pitching

The Big Advertising Agency Resource List

May 31, 2022 By Peter 36 Comments

Advertising Agency Resource List – Updated Often

My Advertising Agency Resource List is curated often to help advertising, digital, design, and PR agencies easily find the inspiration and industry resources that will help y’all build killer agencies and careers.

If I were you, I’d grab a glass of Larkmead Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 (LOL only $150 or a nice craft beer – a bit less expensive) and check out all of these links. I guarantee that at least one of these websites and/or tools will help you or your team grow your agency.

Dig growth and sharing? Therefore my friends, go ahead and share this page with your friends, family, and staff.

A kudo from David Ogilvy: “I wish I had this advertising resource list when I was in the ad biz. All I had was my brain.”

OK, one more. This here Peter Levitan blog has over 800 posts dedicated to helping your marketing communications company grow. I hope that my insights on the art and science of agency business development, growth, and management help you to make more bucks. Speaking of resources and advice, take me up on my Corleone offer.

A Couple Of Quickies:

Website Speed Is Good. A slow website drives down SEO. Check out your website.

Google PageSpeed Insights. Do you know how fast your website download speed is and how its performance ranks against your competitive agencies? Here’s the drill. If your site takes too long to download, it will lose some traffic.

Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. Here’s another very important test. If you are like me, over 20% of your website visitors are looking at you on a mobile device then you better make sure that they are digging how fast your website loads.

BROWSEO.We might be getting a bit geeky here. That said, BROWSEO helps you view any web page like search engines see it. The tool helps you to identify issues with your site and with your current and future clients’ websites.

And, To help Your Thought Leadership Program: What Are People Searching For?

AnswerThePublic. This is a free visual tool that shows you what questions and queries your consumers have by getting a free report of what they’re searching for at Google.

Exploding Topics. Yes, just like it sounds.

Google Trends. Chances are good that you are aware of Google Trends. This a powerful tool to help you know what is hot and what is not on Google’s search universe. A look at the top 2019 Google searches may or may not make you a fan of humanity.

Social Mention. Ever wonder what the world is saying about you or your company? Here you go.

OK – The Advertising Agency Resource List…

Here are the topics covered:

Advertising Agency News Sites
Ad Agency Directories
Top Advertising Blogs
Favorite Social Media Tools
Video Marketing Tools & Information
Creative Inspiration & Idea Generation
Creative Space & Time
Online Advertising Education
Online Legal Resources
Life After Advertising & How To Make $$$
Top Twitter Tools
Top Advertising And Design Awards
Marketing & Advertising Podcast
Marketing Tool Generators

Advertising Agency News Resources

The Ratti Report. Your agency needs fresh business development leads, right? So check out this website for a daily list of business development opportunities. News you can use to buy that new Tesla Roadster.
Advertising Age. Ad Age delivers the latest news from the world of advertising and marketing agencies.
Ad Asia Online. AdAsia Online focuses on automation, advertising technology, and creative technology,
AdNews. Australia’s advertising, marketing, and media industries news resource.
Adweek. Adweek covers media news, including print, technology, plus.
branding in asia. Need to know what’s up in the Asian marketing and advertising world? Sure you do. Check out this comprehensive resource for creative work, news, interviews, and insights. Read it and you just might take the next non-stop to Singapore.
Business Insider. Business Insider’s daily take on the ad industry.
Campaign Asia. Campaign Asia reports on advertising and emerging media in the Asia Pacific region.
Campaign Magazine. Ad industry news from the UK’s advertising industry “bible”.
Communication Arts. Print publication offering competitions, forums, feature articles, job bank, graphic design resources and online shopping.
Creative. The magazine of promotion and marketing.
Digiday. Digiday creates content, services, and community that foster change in media and marketing.
Direct Marketing News. Provides news, feature articles, columns, and special reports on direct marketing.
The Drum. The alternative to Campaign. Delivers lots of news and views.
MediaPost. Comprehensive advertising and media industry coverage.
TechCrunch. Keep up (or try to keep up) with the fast-paced world of startups and VCs.

Ad Agency Directories

Inbound Backlinks – How To Track (2022)

April 27, 2022 By Peter Leave a Comment

Inbound Backlinks: How To Track – 2022 Version

You want inbound backlinks to jive your SEO power – like get that higher position on Google. Push your competitor’s down. Right? You know that – but just to be clear, before I tell you how to easily track your inbound backlinks (mind-blowingly easy), here is what super SEO expert MOZ says…

Backlinks are especially valuable for SEO because they represent a “vote of confidence” from one site to another.

In essence, backlinks to your website are a signal to search engines that others vouch for your content. If many sites link to the same webpage or website, search engines can infer that content is worth linking to, and therefore also worth surfacing on a SERP.

So, earning these backlinks can have a positive effect on a site’s ranking position or search visibility.

Here Is How To Track Those Super Sweet Inbound Backlinks

Help Google love you…

Use the incognito Google search
Type in links:WEBSITE URL

It’s that easy. By the way, A discussion on HOW you get the backlinks in the first place is for another day.

See it work… Try your advertising agency, your competitors, do this for your clients (they don’t know how to do this) and on. Here is what I get for Gooby Silverstein & Partners… Not too shabby. Unless you compare them to other very large agecies. Why is that?

Advertising Agency Process and Profitability

February 27, 2022 By Peter Leave a Comment

Get This Right – Your Advertising Agency Process

Warning: While not as sexy as a new TikTok marketing plan, this in-depth 3,500-word post is all about creating and running a killer advertising agency process that will help your agency make, here it comes, more money. Process, as in managing and controlling your time, costs, and being efficient will deliver greater profits — and much happier clients and staff.

Process, having a process, is one of the key elements of my business development and client management consultancy. I get into the weeds on this every day with my clients. You cannot be efficient and a money-making machine if you do not have a clear path – a plan that you repeat for each client and every element of your agency sales plan.

By the way, if this post is too long for your online perusal, I’ll send you a PDF version. Just email me at peter@peterlevitan.com

Process = Big $$$$

A bit of background. When I worked at Saatchi & Saatchi one of the accounts I ran was Northwest Airlines. At that time, a time when airlines spent big bucks, their media budget was $60 million per year. At the standard 15% commission, we generated $9 million in agency revenues. $9 million! Ah, the good old days. Days when an agency minted bucks even if some of our processes were a bit wanky.

This isn’t the case anymore.

Today, process: the art and science of managing client relations, agency staff, expenditures, and time, is critical to profitability.

A Wonderful Advertising Agency Process Plan = $$$$$

I have a Texas advertising agency client that isn’t anywhere near as profitable as it should be. Their problem isn’t having the right clients or clients that want great work, or clients that spend money. Their problem is not having the right workflow process to ensure that these clients are profitable.

And, worse, because the agency appears to be always overworked, they don’t have the time or energy to run a smart and consistent new business program. A 24/7 program.

I built this client process plan for them and thought, why not share it? To protect the innocent, this full-service ad agency has been renamed… Wonderful Advertising. I think that these general principles and actions can be applied to any communications agency type.

The Wonderful Agency: Background

Wonderful is an integrated marketing communications agency based in Dallas. Wonderful describes itself as (from Wonderful’s Twitter profile):

“A full-service advertising and marketing agency blending traditional and non-traditional media with digital services, graphic design, and social media.”

A bit boring, but at least they’ve made a statement.

Wonderful: Management Issues

Wonderful is entering a next-stage business phase where it would like to add larger national clients to its roster. In order to do so, it would like to set up client management systems to improve its workflow efficiency and improve and manage its client relationships, and most importantly… increase agency profitability. The agency must also build a business development system that will help them entice and land the type of clients that they need for agency growth. [Read more…] about Advertising Agency Process and Profitability