Smart Agencies

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google & The Death Of Advertising

Peter · February 9, 2016 · 1 Comment

Does Advertising Still Work In The World Of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google?

According to Scott Galloway, professor of Marketing and Brand Strategy at the NYU Stern School of Business, “The Gang of Four” (Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon) and the new world of digital (I actually don’t know what to call user owned media anymore) are killing your advertising agency. Or, at least dramatically decreasing its effectiveness. Watch the video.

By the way, read to the bottom and see how Galloway helped me to grow my agency.

“Advertising is a tax that only poor people pay.”

Yup, he said this. You have some bucks. Do you watch ads unless you put on your agency “I better pay attention” hat? Do you use an ad blocker? Do you record TV shows and skip the ads? Would you rather pay a ‘Netflix tax’ to watch almost anything and avoid the ads? Yes or no, watch this video. Especially at the 3:00 mark where Galloway shows how advertising does not work (or as hard) as it used to, especially for CPG brands. And, of course, note the tepid valuation growth of WPP, Omnicom and Interpublic.

Back To Me.

Two things.

One: Pay attention to what’s happening in the macro business universe. Clients are and you need to tailor your sales message to overcome, or better yet, leverage what is happening to advertising today.

Two: OK, how did Galloway help me grow my agency? I stole a very Big idea from his L2. Go here and see what I mean at “An Irresistible New Business Sales Pitch.”. I’ve stolen other great ideas to my advantage. Give me a shout and I’ll show you what I mean.

Bing Needs An Advertising Agency

Peter · February 2, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Microsoft’s Bing and Your Advertising Agency

I just took a look at my WordPress referral stats. I was discussing where my referrals come from with the 4A’s ex-Executive VP Michael Donahue who I just interviewed about the world of storytelling agencies. I’ll let you know when I get that up as a guest post on a major advertising news site. By the way, I love guest posting. I also love looking at MY stats.

The stats showed something that I find CRAZY! Back to that in a sec.

Help Bing, Please.

This post is about relevance. I urge all of my agency clients to make sure that when they contact a prospective agency client that they are very clear about how they can help them. I mean help them with some uber smartness that you think will impact an important business issue or opportunity. Your communications should be about how you can help them. Not a random liturgy of how wonderful you are.

Bing Needs Your Help.

What you can easily see from my WordPress chart is that Google rocks and Bing, um, sucks. What could you do with this information?

Well, I’d think about going to Bing and giving them a solution. It won’t be a competitive message, hard to compete with Google. But it could be a Bing-only experience that you won’t get anywhere else. Example? Remember the first time you saw The Wilderness Downtown (which for some of you might be today.) From Chrome Experiments…

Choreographed windows, interactive flocking, custom rendered maps, real-time compositing, procedural drawing, 3D canvas rendering… this Chrome Experiment has them all. “The Wilderness Downtown” is an interactive interpretation of Arcade Fire’s song “We Used To Wait” and was built entirely with the latest open web technologies, including HTML5 video, audio, and canvas.

Note: Bing spent millions a few years ago trying to get you excited about their search platform. Unfortunately, it was way wasted bucks. As you can see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3u7pfDa5yc

Really, WTF were they thinking? JWT made this magic.

If you think that this Bing project is worth the effort, then take a read of the PCWorld article. It can’t be surprising that there is more info out there that you can use to craft your pitch. You could even use my website (or yours) as the start of a discussion.

Keep It Simple Stupid

Peter · January 5, 2016 · Leave a Comment

KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid Is One Of My Mantras

Too often advertising and digital agencies overstuff their messaging with the goal of telling future clients that they can do anything that the client needs. It goes from the idea of the full-service agency (we do ads, TV, radio, brochures, websites, SEO, content, social, PPC, and on…) to we do digital (PPC, SEM, landing pages, mobile, social, content, analytics, remarketing and on). This kitchen sink approach tends to overwhelm the agency’s messaging, reduces any sense of focus and is often perceived as mission impossible by clients who do not think that a mobile agency can also be an expert at programmatic buying and eCommerce management and — pick more.

That’s Why I Preach: KISS

Keep your agency brand positioning focused. Keep your messaging focused. Keep focussed on business development. Focus your social media and thought leadership. Focus on the type of clients you want and can get (that isn’t every client in the universe).

Speaking of KISS — Tim Ferriss’s weekly broadcast email turned me on to this story from Rhode Island’s late George Germon – a very special chef and restaurant owner. I had the pleasure of dining at Al Forno, his fantastic Providence restaurant. Read on to get a taste of the power of simplicity.

George Germon On The Power Of Simplicity

George Germon (co-owner of the famed Al Forno restaurant) recounts an experience that he says he’ll never forget. “I was visiting some people in England who had a four- or five-year-old daughter. They weren’t around, but I was in the kitchen and the little girl pulled a chair over to the stove and started heating up a pan, saying she was going to make tomato soup,” he remembers. After getting the little girl’s assurance that her parents allowed her to do so, Germon says he watched her heat some butter in the pan, then take out a knife and cutting board and chop some tomatoes. She cooked the tomatoes in the butter for about 3 minutes, and then added a little salt and a little cream.

“Would you like some?” she asked Germon, who politely replied, “Sure!” Once he tasted it, Germon says he was absolutely floored. “It was unbelievable,” he says. “I couldn’t believe that something tasted as good as it did with so few ingredients.”

Al Forno’s menu features a potato soup that’s equally simple. “It has just four ingredients: potatoes, onions, butter, and water. That’s it,” says Germon. “And when our cooks first made it, they kept asking, ‘What’s the next step?’” Johanne Killeen remembers, “They found it impossible to believe that anything wonderful could result from four ingredients!”

So… What’s your tomato?

Do You Like Flying?

Peter · December 23, 2015 · 1 Comment

Do You Like Flying? Willing To Pay For Less Pain?

“Why Airlines Want To make You Suffer” is a ‘sweet’ article from the New Yorker on how your airline works hard to make you uncomfortable so you buy the longer leg room seat and check your bags. Extra fees rock.

But the fee model comes with systematic costs that are not immediately obvious. Here’s the thing: in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be described as “calculated misery.” Basic service, without fees, must be sufficiently degraded in order to make people want to pay to escape it. And that’s where the suffering begins.

Is this why marketers are ranked just ahead of Congress by American consumers?

So, What Pain Can Advertising Agencies Build Into Thier Service To Get More Bucks?

Hmmm…. grade your AE’s, ECD’s, responsiveness, efficient media buying and charge more for the best? Or, charge on a sliding scale for your Big Strategic and Creative Ideas? More for Tweets based on reTweets? More for more Likes? What other types of pain can you deliver to have clients pay to get better services?

Just trying to learn from United.

Is There Life After Advertising?

Peter · December 22, 2015 · 2 Comments

Is There Life After Advertising? Yes.

FYI: This was originally written in 2015. As of July 2016, I now live in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. This is one of North America’s coolest towns and I can still run my ad agency consultation business c/o the sweet waves of Wi-Fi.

December 22, 2015. Sayulita, Mexico.

This is a personal story.

I’ve been asked about life after advertising by many of my clients. And, why not. Advertising owners (my case) wonder if and how they can sell their agency and then wonder ‘what’s next?’

Ad workers see that they will probably age out of the industry by their late forties (a fucking huge problem for our industry’s brain drain that is exacerbated by the absurd notion that it’s a young person’s industry. However the BIG fact is that the margins are so slim that agencies can’t afford to pay their older employees decent salaries and associated benefits).

In other cases, people just get fried crisp or get fired and want out.

In the interest of speed, here are my two lives after advertising. If you have a few more minutes, check out my It’s Me page to read a bit more about my global and local advertising and client side Internet experience.

Life After One – From Saatchi to Internet

1995 – 2001. I left Saatchi in 1995 to work for Advance Internet, a division of The Newhouse’s Advance Publications. I was an early CEO in the reinvention of online news. I then went on to found and run ActiveBuddy. You might have played with our SmarterChild natural language bot / app.

Life After Two – From Owning Citrus to Peter Levitan & Co.

2001 – today. After SmarterChild (a long story) and 9/11 (I was fairly close to ground zero), my wife and I decided that we’d move to Oregon (Bend and Portland) after I bought the ad agency Citrus. I ran that for 8 years. I enjoyed selling it. The experience reminded e of selling my sailboat. The two best days were the day I bought it and the day I sold it.

I started this advertising agency business consultancy after I sold my agency and was asked by a couple of friends to help them craft a new business program. Citrus had done quite well. I’ve been applying my Saatchi and Citrus knowledge to help dozens of agencies build growth strategies during the past four years.

OK. What’s The Point?

I took my skills and founded a consultancy. I’m not unique. But, people love it when I tell that I can work from any part of the world (thank you WIFI and Skype). I kinda lucked into this new career, but I recommend that you do some planning because… you will have a life after advertising.

Here are some links that might deliver food for thought and guidance.

Smart Passive Income: Check out the guru on the idea of earning passive income. Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income is a simply brilliant how to start a live-anywhere make real-money business. He made $108,000 last month! Online! In his jammies! Ok, not that easy but… read him.

Grow Supply: Ali Mese tells you how to succeed and if you go right here you can get links to many many free tools and websites that will help you build your new business.

How To Sell Your Ad Agency: A link to my blog posts on selling your agency.

The Bottom Line?

Take my Corleone Offer and call me up. It’s an offer you should not refuse and a faster path to —– how to make the cash to get to What’s Next.