Smart Agencies

Giving to win: Strategic Philanthropy and Advertising Agency Smiles

Peter · November 30, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Strategic Philanthropy

Way back in 2013, I wrote about advertising agencies and philanthropy. I haven’t changed my mind… Intelligent giving, or better, strategic philanthropy, is a smart move for you and your clients. I urge you to read my earlier post.

Since its the holiday season, I thought that your agency might want to consider giving to one or more charities rather than spend on gifts that, frankly, your client does not want or need.

I am sending you to an L2 video conversation with Scott Harrison, the brilliant CEO of Charity: Water. Charity: Water (great branding by the way) has raised over $27,000,000 over the last 11 years to fund water projects in 24 countries. But… before I get to the video, here is what I said to you in 2013 (bottom line: giving is good for business (!!!) as well as one’s soul):

The great majority of advertising agencies have one or more nonprofit clients. It is a wonderfully symbiotic relationship. The nonprofits get high-level creative and the agencies get to feel good, look good to their communities and, most importantly, provide important services to charities.

This charitable work is also good for the agency’s new business program. If done correctly, the nonprofit relationship is strategic. One agency that gets it is Portland’s Grady Britton. You can read about their multi-year program in my article, “An Agency That Does Good” on the Agency Post.

I’ve felt so strongly about the symbiotic aspect of charitable work that I’ve always recommended a strategic approach to my clients. Below is how I’ve represented this concept. If you agree with me, please pass this on to your clients. At a time of reduced government spending, it is important that agencies play a more assertive role in selling the benefits of Strategic Philanthropy.

OK, The L2 Charity: Water Video:

Big thanks to Scott Galloway, too. One more point, there is no reason your agency can’t make videos as compelling as L2’s.

https://www.l2inc.com/daily-insights/winners-and-losers/innovation-that-matters-charity-water?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=winners-losers-img&utm_campaign=email

How To Win Advertising Awards Like LONDON Advertising @ The Drum Awards

Peter · November 29, 2017 · 1 Comment

LONDON Advertising Kills The Drum Awards Plus An Interview With LONDON’s CEO To Help Your Agency Win Too

Imagine an advertising agency that has a stand out, highly competitive brand positioning (“One Brilliant Idea”); owns the name of its home city; beats much larger international agencies in pitches for global accounts; makes lovely and impossible to ignore brand-building advertising; and wins buckets of major advertising awards — year after year. In this case, this week’s mega kudos and wet kisses from The Drum Awards.

The agency is London Advertising and after you hear about all that they just won, I’ll share an interview with LONDON Advertising’s CEO Michael Mosynski. By the way, the interview is one of many in my book, The Levitan Pitch. Read This Book. Win More Pitches. [Which is an excellent holiday gift for all your favorite agency leaders or yourself, for that matter.]

This should become one of my best read posts. Please pass it on. Use my cute social media logos.

Some Nights It Is All About Winning

From The Drum – London Advertising was named International Advertising Business of the Year at last night’s Drum Network Awards held in London.

Here is the copy from the agency’s email announcing this year’s Drum Awards. FYI: LONDON is a repeat repeat repeat winner.

A SUCCESSFUL NIGHT AT THE DRUM NETWORK AWARDS

We had an amazing evening at The Drum Network Awards last night. Proud to say we were the most awarded agency, receiving the Agency Grand Prix, as well as winning Agency of the Year for a fourth time.

Our He’s/She’s a fan campaign, for Mandarin Oriental Hotels, won the International Advertising Campaign/Strategy of the Year, as well as International Digital Campaign/Strategy of the Year.

Our work for Mandarin Oriental London, on which we collaborated with Sir Peter Blake, won Leisure & Tourism Campaign/Strategy of the Year.

We were delighted Sir Peter was able to join us on the night.

In a speech to the audience, he said, “seeing my artwork towering over Knightsbridge made me very proud”.

Here is the full list of awards won:

The Agency Grand Prix – Winner

International Agency Business of the Year – Winner

International Advertising Campaign/Strategy of the Year – Winner for He’s/She’s a fan – Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group

International Digital Campaign/Strategy of the Year – Winner

Leisure & Tourism Campaign/Strategy of the Year – Winner for Our fans by Sir Peter Blake – Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London

International Integrated Campaign/Strategy of the Year – Highly Commended – Our fans by Sir Peter Blake – Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London

Agency of the Year for Advertising – Highly Commended

My Interview

Michael Mosynski is CEO of LONDON Advertising. He launched the agency eight years ago as a global agency built for today’s marketplace. The agency’s clients include Boots No7, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Ketel One, W&O Travel, and Wegwood.

Prior to starting LONDON, Michael was the CEO of M&C Saatchi Hong Kong, Middle East, and London’s IS. Prior to joining M&C Saatchi, he held a range of senior positions at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide (I was a lucky boy to have worked with him during Saatchi’s golden years).

PL: LONDON Advertising is positioned as an international, yet very nimble one-office agency that that delivers “One Brilliant Idea that can work in any media, anywhere in the world.” Why does this positioning generate interest from multinational clients?

A Marketing Email Program With Personality

Peter · November 7, 2017 · 4 Comments

Yup, Your Marketing Email Program Can Have Personality

Me-Too is bad. Different is good. Boring is bad. Personality is good. Here are some ideas about building a marketing email program that works harder by delivering some cool personality. For your readers and for your advertising agency.

How many marketing or information emails do you get? I get a lot. To be clear, I am talking about both direct marketing emails (the unsolicited kind) and email newsletters that I have subscribed to. In both cases, I am a hell of a lot more interested if the email has some personality. Most don’t. This brings me to The Hustle.

Hustle On Brothers and Sisters

Below is the copy of a “Thank You For Subscribing” email that I got from the HUSTLE. As the Hustlers say:

Your smart, good looking friend that sends you an email each morning with all the tech and business news you need to know for the day.

I urge you to go through the entire sign-up process to see how these guys use personality to stand out and make love to you (don’t worry, it is easy.)

The full email.

Want More Of Not Boring? AKA A Marketing Email Program With Personality…

The HUSTLE doesn’t stop at just sending you your daily email. They want you to refer friends. Below, again, is what their website page looks like after you’ve subscribed. The copy is below the image.

A question, do you add a refer your friends’ message to your agency emails? You should. Note how the Hustle even promotes/incites/entices you to tell your friends… That’s what we call asking for referrals.

OK, before I leave you, my point is that even a simple email system can have personality.

Be not bland my friends. Be active.

The above website referral page copy:

I used to read the news, but let’s be honest: that crap is dry and you only read it because you feel kinda like you should if you want to be a “good” adult. If you want a quick, blah-blah-blah sounding scoop on big world news today, your robot pal Alexa or the New York Times app can do that for you in a jiffy. But for a daily news email that’s funnier, punnier, less political, more relevant, and 200% guaranteed to make you sound more interesting at dinner parties and/or during Tinder dates, you HAVE to get on board with The Hustle. Like, now. Sign up today and tell me I’m right tomorrow.

Hey, want to hear more about advertising agency email marketing? From someone who started an email program in 1996 – yes, 1996. And, used it to get clients like Nike, Nabisco, and Radiohead.

Don’t be shy…

The History Of Podcasting

Peter · September 19, 2017 · 1 Comment

The History of Podcasting +

This is my 600th blog post so I thought that I’d be particularly insightful (in my mind at least.) Stay with me as I am about to ramble about me and some business development insights. A bit later, I’ll actually discuss the history of podcasting. But first, some back-patting.

I am consistently on Google’s page one for searches for ‘advertising agency business development’. This in-your-face ranking drives my business. How did I wind up on page one?

My Blog @ 600 Posts

I have posted about one subject = advertising agency business development since January 12, 2013. With this post, I am now at 600 posts. While not totally slavish to my primary keywords of ‘advertising & agency & business & development’ (note today’s Podcasting headline), I have hammed the subject of advertising, digital, design and PR agency business development and sales with short 200 to 500-word posts up to very long 3,000 word plus posts for 4.5 years. Google seems to like the consistency and dedication to providing relevant targeted information.

In addition to being a dedicated weekly blogger, I have effectively increased the amount of my content by publishing chapters from my 70,000-word book, The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. and love using interviews as long-form blog content. Interviews are a go-easy way to deliver 1000+ word content. Interview the right people via audio or video (I use my iPhone, Skype and Zoom) and voila – content. Interviews deliver content that can be transcribed to text overnight via a company like Rev.com. With just a bit of editing, you can easily have very valuable text (Google candy), audio, podcasting, and video (YouTube candy) for your blog and beyond.

Beyond? I amplify my content via my email list, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and SlideShare. This meets my Rule Of Five — get the content on at least five distribution platforms.

There is more to my content marketing strategy including a love of guest posting. However, you will have to take me up on my Vito Corleone Offer to learn more. [Read more…] about The History Of Podcasting

You Will Lose 75% Of Your Advertising Agency Pitches

Peter · July 13, 2017 · Leave a Comment

How To Win More Advertising Agency Pitches? Well, Buy My Book

Think I’m kidding. I’ve seen the common sense and insights and techniques inside my book work after people have simply read the book – they’ve won more advertising, PR, digital, experiential agency pitches. Other agencies have benefitted by hiring me as a business development and pitch coach; or, I’d imagine by watching my HubSpot pitch presentation which is nicely situated below for your viewing pleasure.

75% Sucks

Here’s the drill. You, if you are like most agencies, you will lose about 75% of your pitches*. This fact, of course, is painful. Kinda nuf said. But I’ll add some more heat to this fire. Pitches + the cost of daily business development + a business development director salary and bonus can raise the hard and soft costs (labor, freelancers, and overhead) of an individual pitch to over $100,000.

FYI: Most agency leaders tell me that, given their sales skills, all they need to do is to get into a room with a client and they will sell them on hiring the agency. Hmmmm, sorry, the math does not work.

$10.99 To Leverage Your $100,000

So, for $10.99 – much less on Kindle – you can buy a book that will at least remind you of all of the mistakes you should not make that might reduce your odds. At best, the book will help you win the pitch you are giving in three weeks. Am I selling hard here? You bet. I am getting tired of hearing about the mistakes that it seems every agency – large to small make every day. How do I know this? I talk to the kinds of advertising agency search consultants and clients that are interviewed in the book.

From HubSpot – The YouTube Video

Here’s the online seminar I gave to HubSpot peeps. Hope you enjoy it. Oh, and Win More Pitches. Oh #2, don’t forget to go to the top of this page to buy the book. Or, just go here.