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How To Be The Best Global Advertising Agency

Peter · October 22, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Want To Run A Global Advertising Agency Out Of Only One Office?

London Advertising, the crazily awarded global advertising agency (like being called the Agency Of The Year by The Drum year upon year) allowed its CEO Michael Moszynski to be interviewed by me right here on Advertising Stories. It helps that we worked together while having a few pints at Saatchi London in the way back. It also helps London Advertising that Michael’s Creative Director partner Alan Jarvie kicks butt as well.

Here are lessons on how to be distinctive; the value of the single-minded branded big idea; how to spend 25 years growing the massive Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group (and making it one of, if not the, most revered hospitality brands); how London advertises itself and how it kicks global / multi-office behemoths like WPP via one focussed office in London. Mantra = much more effective advertising for less. Not a bad sales pitch.

Really, there is not much more that I can say other than listen up. There are multiple teachable moments for any digital or “full service” advertising agency in this podcast. Pass it on to your mates.

NOTES:

London Advertising

Michael Mosynski on LinkedIn

The Mandarin Oriental “I’m A Fan” Advertising Campaign

Hypnotism coming: Remember to subscribe to Advertising Stories. Remember to subscribe to Advertising Stories. Remember to…

A nice thing for me… Feedspot has recognized Advertising Stories as being a top 15 advertising podcast.

A Bit Of Executive Creative Director History

Peter · September 13, 2020 · 2 Comments

If there is anything that I find a bit off-putting about the dynamic move to digital marketing it is the loss of the BIG IDEA. The love of the big ideas that have been generated by the “traditional” Executive Creative Director….. (“traditional” – yikes, what a shitty & pejorative descriptor).

Worse, that for some digi-geeks, the big idea has gone by way of the dinosaurs. Today we spend much of our time thinking about KPIs, PPC, SEO, SEM, DA, CTR, programmatic, Facebook drek, driving YouTube views, how to hype Instagram posts, and now TikTok (which is still thankfully mostly still about individual creator ideas and productions). OK, I am not going to go too far over the top here. In many cases, ideas still rule, well, some of the time. But, let’s face it, it all got a bit geekyly vs creativityly in the past 20 years.

When A Executive Creative Director Walked The Earth

Pat Peduto and I worked at Saatchi. He was an Executive Creative Director (and member of the Director’s Guild) and I was the senior account guy. We won creative and a few Gold EFFIES. That is the type of collaboration y’all want. We even discussed it right here at this podcast heard around the world: “A Lost $80 Million Advertising Agency Account That Rocked The Ad World.”

Side note, if you are thinking that I am also a dino, I invented Internet marketing in 1995.

So, finally, if you are wondering who this Pat guy is, imagine a rather successful Executive Creative Director. Here is his history – yes, he came after the dinosaurs. He was ECD on accounts like Burger King, Toyota, AT&T, Nabisco.

I will put his master list of accounts Pat has worked on a bit below.

Show Notes.

Pat’s book… Author of “I Wrote The Book On Advertising”

Member of the Directors Guild & commercial director.

Owner of the agency RocketScience Creative.

YO – Hypnotism coming: Remember to subscribe to Advertising Stories. Remember to subscribe to Advertising Stories.

A nice thing for me… Feedspot has recognized Advertising Stories as being a top 15 advertising podcast.

Ok, The List.

Pat’s clients… ABC Entertainment, Access Fund, A-Cute Derm, Act!vate, Adatom.com, agencyfinder.com, Alaska Distillery, ASM Fund, AT&T, Alka-Seltzer, Almond Joy, AVIS, Bayer Aspirin, Bally Total Fitness, BellSouth, Beneficial, Birds Eye, Burger King, Camel Filters, Canon, Century21, Chelsea Market, Ciroc, Citibank, Clairol Ultress, Club Med, Coca-Cola, Con Edison, Cox Interactive Media, Creative Artisan Brands, Crunch, Cuervo 1800, Delta, Diet Coke, Don Q Rum, Donnelley Directory, E-Z Wider, EasyLink–AT&T, EliasArts, Exxon, Florida Citrus, Frontier Brands, GE Rechargable Batteries, GM Credit Card, Gold Medal Flour, Grand Marnier, IBM–Latin America, Hamm’s Beer, Hanes Hoisery, Hardee’s, Healthy Home Environmental, Hellmann’s, Holiday Inn, homedelivery.com, Honey Graham Bears, ICI Americas, Interview Magazine, Investment Expo, JAL, JetUSA, Joker, Kellogg’s, Kodak films, Kodak Photo CD, Kodak 35mm Cameras, Krystal, Lamaze Publishing, LaMotta’s Tomatta Sauce, Lexus, L’Eggs Sheer Energy, Lipton, L’OREAL, Lucent, IRS, Life Savers, Lufthansa, Luxe Hotels, Manhattan Mortgage, Marriott, McDonald’s, MGD, Miller Beer, Mistic, Molson, Nabisco Cookies, National Car Rental, National Council for Adoption, Navan, New Jersey Online, New York Life, NewsWorks, Nomad Networks, Northcoast Consulting Group, NYC Office for Economic Development, Nikon Cameras, Northwest Airlines, Nucoa Margarine, Olympia Beer, PT-1, Palm Springs International Raceplex, PaineWebber, Parker Brothers, PheasantRun, Pizza Hut, Pleasant Company, Ponds, Portfolio School, Prodigy, Nuprin, Ragu, React.com, Ruffino, Rums of Puerto Rico, Rival Dog Food, SFATA, Sandella’s Cafe, Schick Electric, Skippy, Smirnoff, STP Motor Oil, Stella Show Mangement, Stockgroup.com, T42, TailWinds Distillery, Tampax, TIME, Talbot Hotel, Tommy Hilfiger, Toyota, US Army, US Postal Service, Unisys, United Craft Distillers, UrbanGlass, Virgin Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, Winston, Wrangler, Wendy’s, Wheaties, Woolmark Co, Yoplait.

How To Follow-Up With Your Future Client

Peter · July 1, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Once Connected: Stay In Touch & Follow-Up With Your Future Client

I am going to keep this blog post brief. In fact, I will concentrate on one feel-good idea: do some follow-up touching.

Do The Client Follow-Up

No, it isn’t a 1960’s James Brown song. Follow-up means stay in touch with past clients, referrals that have not signed up yet and clients that you’ve pitched and did not win.

Need three reasons to have a follow-up plan?

Ex-clients can recircle to become a new client. I had a casino client that did just that after a couple of years of their wandering in the agency forest. It took them a while to re-realize just how wonderful my agency was.
Your ex CMO, the one that left your account in the lurch, will resurface someday at a new client organization that will want you.
Client prospects that did not choose you in a pitch will eventually tire of the agency they selected and might eventually realize that they want your brilliance. After a pitch loss, do not say, “oh, they didn’t select us – boo hoo” and crawl into a hole. Nope, stay in touch. After all, that client once put you on their new agency shortlist.

Here is a how-to from my book: The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. (LOL, given the book’s sales figures, there is a good chance your competition has already read the book. Go buy it).

The Post Pitch Follow-Up

You’ve busted your ass to get into and then pitch the new client. Sorry, you did not win. Now what?

Chances are good that it has been at least a couple of months since the client or consultant first made contact. This major league pitch might have included an RFI, RFP, a kick-off meeting, phone calls, questions, and your own special strategies designed to make you look smart, passionate and well, you fill in the blanks of what you did ahead of the big presentation.

After the presentation, you graciously handed over your leave behind, smiled, hugged, and walked out. Now what? Really, now what? You could sit by the phone like a 1950’s ingénue on a Friday night waiting for that call or be a bit more aggressive. But, how aggressive? And how long should you take before you make contact? How passionate do you want to look – because there can be a fine line between looking passionate and, well, desperate.

As I have said before: every pitch lives in its own little world and has its own pace. Some clients recognize that you are anxious, there is a need for speed, and that they should get back to you quickly. Some are not so caring. Or worse, after going through the pitch process, they may be revaluating their initial business objectives and requirements. Need more maybes?

Maybe the client is now wondering about what type of agency they really need. Do they want a huge agency or a specialist? Maybe a decision maker just went out of mobile range to climb K2 for three weeks. Or, maybe, just maybe, the budget has shrunk.

Or, bam! After getting to know a few new agencies, they’ve realized that they really love the incumbent agency.

Lots of maybes. But fear of follow-up? Get over it. I mean, get over over-thinking. The deal is that you have no choice but to follow-up. You have to look like you care, a lot. Clients, good clients, respect passion. Here are my 3 follow-up rules.

Do it. Find the balance between looking very interested in working with the client and being respectful of their time. Being a nuisance does not work. Acting interested does. The other agencies will follow-up. Just do your own follow-up scenario smarter.
Find a value-add reason to follow-up. Chances are good that the client asked a question in the meeting that could be the basis for a follow-up call. It is quite possible that you didn’t have the time during the presentation to answer a question in detail, or you might have some new related research to impart. Maybe you held back some information, and it’s now time for your pre-planned reveal.
Be you. Maintain the personality you used in the presentation. Be genuine, professional, and if you can, add some humor if appropriate.

A Pitch Planning Tip:

Don’t wait till after the meeting to create a follow-up plan. Think ahead and have a follow-up insight or document at the ready. Consider embedding a preplanned reason to follow-up in your presentation. Let the client know that you will be sending them something and get it to them fast. Get it in their head that you are on the ball and are proactive.

Give me a call. Let’s discuss your last or future pitch.

I Read The News Today, Oh Boy

Peter · June 28, 2018 · Leave a Comment

The News Today

Stay with me on this post. The happiest part is at the end.

I live in Mexico. Split from Portland, Oregon in 2016. Nice to live in what is a happy country (despite the shitty press Mexico gets in the USA). By the way, Mexico’s inbound tourism is up.

Nice to earn a good living here. Nice cost of living.

Nicer to not be hammered by daily USA news. Today was particularly nuts.

Because of my move, I am often asked by my American agency clients about the how and why of my move down south.

To help… I am reposting my blog post Moving to Mexico. A super well-read post.

And, just because I do like going to a happy place, I offer the Beatles’ A Day In The Life.

“I read the news today, oh boy…”

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?