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Advertising Agency Video Marketing

Peter · June 30, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Let’s start this talk about advertising agency video marketing as a core sales tool for business development in two ways. Then I will point you to a super-smart ad agency video series. The videos I’ll show are aimed directly at a client’s needs (strategic needs). These videos are well-produced, and sell the agency leader. A good thing. People buy people. The videos also leverage the power of LinkedIn.

OK, Some Bad and Good Advertising Agency Video Marketing

The bad: I am continually amazed at how few advertising agencies use agency-oriented video to help them market their agency. If they do, it is usually a sizzle real. A ganged-up sizzle real that might do more for the creative department’s ego than a tool to sell a future client.
The good: Every once in a while I see an agency getting video promotion right. In my mind, this means using video to introduce the agency and its story (quickly), super-smart thinking, a demonstration of agency culture and a look at the people who live inside that agency. Client-people like people so why not show your agency-people to help sell the agency – with some humanness?

Reasons To Use Video

The last truly “revelatory” thing I can tell an advertising agency is that video is a great marketing tool. Like, um, I know that you know this. But, then, why do so many of yous guys not use it for self-promotion? So, here are some reasons to use video marketing – now.

Most advertising agency websites have similar attributes (like the same old same old navigation – not bad – but the same old same old). Few, few, open up with a short but very sweet video to tell the visitor how wonderful (and different) the agency is. No not a sizzle real. A personal message. Not an “I am wonderful” message. A “this is who we” are message. And, even a “what we can do for you” message.

Clients buy people. Many agencies are GREAT, But, so is the next agency next door. Video will make you stand out and sell your story, soul, and grooviness. Soul is an element often missing from the advertising / digital agency website and general marketing experience.
Get the video out there – amplify it… Your video can run on your website, importantly in direct emails, on LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, and, of course, on YouTube (inside your effective channel).
!!! Google loves video. Video SEO rocks.
Video works especially well for your mobile viewers. They will thank you for this. Viewing a video vs. scrolling on a tiny screen will win you points.
Video drives social shares (like I am doing below).

Speaking of LinkedIn, it really likes videos. A lot. Some words on LinkedIn video from Hootsuite:

In one year, LinkedIn video posts generated more than 300 million impressions on the platform. They also earn an average of three times the engagement of text posts. Plus, early findings from LinkedIn’s beta program show that LinkedIn native videos are five times more likely than other content to start a conversation among LinkedIn members.

Impressive engagement stats aside, video marketing has been shown to boost revenue across social platforms. According to Aberdeen Group, brands that use video marketing grow their revenue 49 percent faster than companies that don’t.

Producing video for an advertising agency is cheap (or, at least cost effective). You do stuff like this for a living.

Ok, on to a very good example of an advertising agency’s video marketing.

Transom Design On LinkedIn: Advertising Agency Video Marketing That Sells

You Are A Digital Agency

Peter · June 29, 2022 · Leave a Comment

I have been a major fan of Google Trends as an insight tool for eons. It plays a big role in my list of Advertising Agency Resources. In fact, I just used Trends to help me decide (I’ve been here before) if my target market (you) are an advertising agency or a digital agency. So, are you a digital agency or an advertising agency?

In the olden days, you were called an advertising agency because you were a business that helps clients create advertising programs. This was an all-inclusive term. In fact, you are still an advertising agency. But, you also have to take into account what a client is looking for. So using Google Trends, I have to say that it might be time to call your agency (yes an anachronistic term itself) a ‘digital agency’.

Why You Are A Digital Agency

First of all, these days all marketing services agencies (full service, experiential, PR, retail, mobile, TikTok, even out-of-home, etc.) are digital agencies. And, yes, they are also advertising agencies. So, rather than using my gut feel for what to call your agency, I went to (Ta-Da) Google Trends to help me answer the question. If your litmus test is to be what most clients are looking for, well you might just be a digital agency. Here is a chart to help you see what I mean.

Numbers Matter – Like Three Times!

According to Google, in the most recent period, there were three times the number of searches on the term ‘digital agency’ as there were for ‘advertising agency’.

So, you decide what to call yourself.

Of course, if you are an experiential agency then you’ll need to leverage that term as well – if you want to be found by a client looking specifically for an experiential agency. The same goes for a TikTok agency. How might I play this out? XYC Agency is a digital agency that specializes in TikTok advertising. Just get your SEO and credentials right.

4A’s On Advertising Agency Pitching

Peter · June 7, 2022 · 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

Be The Smart Local Advertising Agency

Peter · April 23, 2022 · Leave a Comment

**How A Local Advertising Agency Can Own Its City**

I was the senior partner at Citrus, a full-service & very digital local advertising agency with offices in Portland and Bend Oregon, and San Francisco. In addition to having national clients like Nike and Harrah’s, we wanted to be a strong brand and resource in each of our local communities.

For Portland, we created the event series Meet The Makers, a small but powerful speaker series where we brought in execs from companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google. Our audience included current clients, prospects, the ad press, and, importantly, local influencers.

In San Francisco, we ran and distributed an agency-produced video series to break into that crowded agency market.

Your Local Advertising Agency Can Own Its City

I have worked with many smaller agencies that wanted to make some noise in their city. The primary objectives are awareness and high-quality branding. As in, how to be unignorable in one’s hometown or region to be famous for future clients and HR staffing needs. In this case, local could mean London or Boise.

Some Smart Ownership Ideas + A Really Big One

Advertising agencies are well-placed for city ownership. Agencies are creative, work at the local level (even if they have national clients as well), are community leaders, and know how to market themselves online as well as physically.

For example…

A city newsletter – On the simplest level, an agency can offer a city-oriented newsletter – a What’s Up / What’s Going On approach from the cool agency people. If done right, it will get read. YMMV but it could include an event schedule and even point to some great local stores and even point to local marketing programs – how that Italian restaurant markets itself on TikTok.
Speaking of TikTok, maybe your agency can ‘own’ the ‘your city’ TikTok channel. Or, be like Gary Vaynerchuck and use SMS. man, I get at least two messages from him a day.
Run an event(s) as citrus did. Or participate big time in an existing event. I don’t mean going to that Chamber meeting, not a bad idea, but more impactful high-interest events.
A cool idea (yes, if I say so myself) — Lease an empty storefront for a week and give away free marketing advice to local merchants, brands, and even wannabe entrepreneurs. Maybe team up with a local publication. Everyone wins.

Here’s one more very interesting – very community-building idea. I’ve got more but you’ll have to call me to hear about those ideas.

A Really Really! Smart Local Marketing Idea…

How I Discovered The Internet After Saatchi

Peter · September 9, 2021 · 15 Comments

I Discovered The Internet – Kinda True

This is my 800th blog post. So why not get personal? Here is my story about how I discovered the Internet and left advertising in 1995 to become an Internet start-up CEO. I think that it might be instructive to the people leaving the advertising industry today. Don’t take my word for it, people are leaving – read Avi Dan’s Forbes article, “People Are Fleeing The Ad Industry Because Of Burnout And Wanting To Work From Home.”

By the way, that is a picture of the explorer Robert Peary.

When I Discovered The Internet and The End Of My Advertising Agency Career

After my three years working at the Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide London office as European Director running business development and the J&J and Sara Lee Europe accounts, my family and I returned to Summit, New Jersey in the winter of 1994. Our welcome was a brutally iced in house. So iced that we had to hire some off-duty firemen to chop out the ice so we could use the front and back doors.

After leaving Charlotte Street, I now worked at the big black iconic (Darth Vader) Saatchi & Saatchi building on NYC’s Hudson Street. My large 18th-floor office had a wide-angle view and very cool furniture inherited from a recently exited executive creative director. Due to a failed New York office culture, talented colleagues were starting to exit the building.

My job was running Saatchi’s North American business development group. The job was nearly impossible as poor management had trashed Saatchi’s New York reputation and the global brand itself was in decline. The Saatchi brothers had finally overreached when they tried to buy a UK bank. These advertising guys’ “want to buy a bank” hubris was not warmly received by the public markets. Saatchi’s had gone from being the “world’s favorite” advertising agency to a company that no longer got the type of new business incoming and responses I had become accustomed to. Like, I wasn’t getting returned calls from prospective clients. This was a new experience. However, I was getting weekly calls from the trade press asking me for comments about people fleeing the New York office. Not the kind of trade media calls a business development director wants to receive.

I Discovered The Internet

While all of this office and career shit was going down, I had discovered the Internet and its insane growth curve. Yes, I discovered the Internet. Well, this happened because I returned to the USA from the Luddite UK and got the wake-up call.

I immediately fell in love with digital platforms like CD-ROMs, Netscape Navigator (the first commercial graphical browser launched in October 1994), and, of course, America Online and CompuServe. I was also seeing the exponential growth of Internet usage – as shown in the chart. How could this not be a gold rush? This was around the time that Jeff Bezos became enamored with the dramatic hockey puck growth of Internet uptake and you see where that got him. Side note, I had had my first early taste of digital when I briefly ran the Western Union Easylink email account a long time before I moved to the UK. Easylink was the first commercial email service – or as we called it, Instant Mail. Um, yes, a good idea but a bit early. Understatement.

In 1995, one did not have to be a genius to see that the digital universe would become a serious advertising platform. I tried to get Saatchi management interested but they were so consumed by the Saatchi death spiral that, like small children, I could not get them to focus on the new opportunity that was right in front of them. We could have been a contenda.

A Life Switch – “Get The Fuck Out Of Advertising”

Two things soon happened that would change my life.

First, thanks to my prescient friend Mike Donahue, who was the digital lead at the American Association of Advertising Agencies, I found out about Redgate Communications. The leading, and one of the few, digital ad agencies. [Read more…] about How I Discovered The Internet After Saatchi