Insights

Marketing Agency Influencers

Peter · September 16, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Where To Eat and Marketing Agency Influencers

This post is about amateur reviews, the power of influencers as noted by Adweek and marketing agency influencers, and reviews on websites like Agency Spotter.

Some history: I came back to Saatchi & Saatchi New York from our London office in 1994. In both offices I ran business development and ate out a lot. By the time I hit the New York office, Saatchi was on its last legs (as in a company run by Maurice and Charles Saatchi – who were soon “exited” – but founded M&C Saatchi which is arguably a savvier agency).

A thing that hit me when I returned from London in 1994 was this thing called the Internet. I ran around the agency trying to get someone to pay attention but since we were in a bit of a death spiral, I could not excite leadership about the growing digital universe.

While still at the agency I worked with our tech guru to make plans to launch a digital company funded by Digital Equipment. Around that time, I got a call from Tom Florio, the publisher of the New Yorker, who told me that the Newhouse family, the owners of Condé Nast magazines, the New Yorker, Random House and the third largest newspaper group, had this idea of launching online newspapers. I got the CEO job, a brilliant team, and said bye bye to Saatchi.

OK Now On To Reviews

Putting newspapers online in the 1990s was wild. We had carte blanche to invent the formula and the backing of billionaires. New Jersey Online was the combo of the Newark Star-Ledger (the largest paper in NJ), The Times of Trenton and The Jersey Journal. We had the news feeds from each paper, the best coverage of New York and New Jersey’s 7 professional sports teams, the first direct news feed from the Associated Press (a news first), a haiku film critic, Hoboken nightlife reviews, put zoomable cams on NJ beaches, and fab design. We also had what was one of the first set of social media forums – which drove our page views higher than The New York Times online

Ok, I Mean It. Now Onto Reviews.

A Zoom Cartoon Just For You

Peter · September 9, 2022 · Leave a Comment

A Zoom Cartoon About A Zoom Pitch Problem

To help illustrate the insanity that often accompanies the act of an advertising agency pitch for new business, I included 12 pitch mistake cartoons in my book “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.” I love the fact that cartoons are a fast way into overloaded brains, evoke emotion, and get remembered. Remembered well past fleeting podcast interviews. Here’s a zoom cartoon to help make my point.

Possibly the most memorable Internet meme is the 1993 (!) cartoon, “On the internet nobody knows you are a dog.” From Peter Steiner in the New Yorker.

My Zoom Cartoon Just For You

Here is a new Zoom cartoon I commissioned from master cartoonist, and brilliant Creative Director, Steve Klinetobe. Steve was a CD at my Portland agency Citrus. This cartoon will go into my next book on how to run a successful marketing agency and business development.

Steve’s nostril cartoon illustrates one of the worst uses of Zoom. It’s about where people put their camera in relation to their face. In this case, it is the camera that sits below a face and looks into your buddy’s nose. YUCK!

When Zooming, pay attention to camera placement + lighting + sound quality + your background. You know this right?

That said, I look up way too many nostrils.

By the way, Steve has gone freelance. So hire him. You will thank me.

Advertising People Die Earlier. Why? Job Burnout.

Peter · August 30, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Job Burnout Kills.

Job burnout is a hot topic (no pun intended.) I’d like to start with a question before I share some data on burnout. We talk about employee burnout. Do we ever discuss owner/leader/HR job burnout? Imagine trying to figure out how to manage a remote workforce. Hybrid working? Juggling salaries for in-house and out-of-office staff? Trying to figure out if you still need that office coffee system? How to manage a growing freelance workforce?

Have you read about leadership burnout? Can you point me to any data? It is going in my next book in the burnout chapter. Yes, with solutions.

Advertising Agency Job Burnout – Since the 1950s

Job burnout is endemic in the advertising industry (see some history below). I’d even say endemic in most service industries. From the Mayo Clinic:

“Job burnout is a special type of work-related stress — a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.”

For the entire history of the advertising profession, workplace stress (today’s burnout) has been a health concern and worse largely unaddressed.

Here is a passage from Stephen Fox’s history of advertising, “The Mirror Makers”. He riffs on the 50’s burnout. 1950s!

“A survey of advertisers in 1957 found that nine out of ten ad people routinely took work home at night. “What other business has so many young men anxious to break in,” asked one adman, “and so many older men anxious to break out?”

Wait. This Is Crazy. Even More. Now 1956.

A study in 1956 by Life Extension Examiners of New York compared the health of executives in manufacturing, banking, and advertising. The ad people showed up worst in ten of eighteen categories, including high blood pressure, organic heart and prostate problems, and abnormal blood counts.

From 1949 to 1959, at a time when life expectancy for white males was 67.1 years, the average age at death in Advertising Age’s obituaries was 59.9. “It’s a killing business,” concluded Lou Wasey, seventy-one years old in 1956.

“Most of the men who have been along with me in business – they’re all dead, and they were younger than I.”

Wait for a second… I need to repeat this alarming fact…

“From 1949 to 1959, at a time when life expectancy for white males was 67.1 years, the average age at death in Advertising Age’s obituaries was 59.9.”

Good thing I sold my agency. No more Job Burnout for me.

Advertising is simply a very demanding service business that has gotten much more complex from a time perspective with the proliferation of needy 24/7 digital programs.

I’ll be frank. Other than being ready to move on to my other loves, a key reason I sold was to not have to manage a large crew of creative workers. not easy then and I think way harder today.

It is OK if you want to pass this blog post on to some buddies – for their health. I like being passed around.

Layoffs or Firing? – Ad Age On Who Is Cutting

Peter · August 29, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Layoffs or Firing? That Is The Question.

So far in this “is it or is it not a recession” all I have heard from my advertising agency clients is that they are hiring.

At the same time, we see large companies laying off staff. I went to Ad Age and wondered if they report on company staff layoffs. And guess what… They do.

I’ll put some major reported layoffs below. But first. Are the big agencies hiring?

Example: WPP, alone has zillions of job openings around the world. Specifics?
1694 Media Jobs
650 Creative openings
717 in Analytics
819 in Client Services
596 Openings in New York
259 in Australia
106 in L.A.
501 at Ogilvy
331 at Wunderman Thompson
Omnicom has 10 AE openings, 7 production openings, and 19 “creative” jobs.
Publicis has 1,108 job openings on its LinkedIn jobs page.
Interpublic has 654.
There are 17,233 advertising agency jobs available on Indeed.com. 453 in D.C. alone.

I have no historical frame of reference but it looks like advertising agencies are looking for people. Client corporations?

From Ad Age Headlines on Major Client-Side Moves:

Ford Layoffs 3,000 Employees Globally
Apple Lays Off Recruiters (rater telling!)
Warner Bros. Discovery cuts 14% Of HBO and HBO Max
LinkedIn Lays Off Global Events Marketing team
Calm Cuts 20% of Staff (I Guess we don’t need as much calm these days)
HootSuite Lays off 30% of Employees
Shopify Lays Off 10% Of Workforce
Huge Lays Off 3% of Staff (An IPG Agency)
META Cuts Hiring Plans

Big companies are laying off while Big agencies are hiring. Yes, confusing.

I am looking at these numbers because a chapter in my new advertising agency management book (still in the typewriter) will examine all of the latest shifts in the ad biz hiring and talent management space. I’ll cover recruiting, burnout, diversity, and ageism. And, fun new terms like ghost quitting.

WTF Takeaways From Ad Age Small Agency Conference

Peter · August 10, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Ad Age Small Agency Conference: Stating The Obvious… Way Too Often

Here are some smart, yet painful, takeaways from The Ad Age Small Agency Conference. I am not surprised at what the speakers say. But also a bit horrified. I mean, what you are about to hear are what I would consider no-brainers for how to run an advertising agency.

No Brainers… That is my What The Fuck. Am I being too dramatic? I don’t think so.

The issue is that these expert takeaways and advice should be ingrained in all advertising, digital design, and PR agencies. Clearly these takeaways are not. But, YMMV. I include some thoughts and links to “helpful’ thinking. Mine.

Not Speaking Client Language. From Mirren:

Brent Hodgin, Mirren’s Managing Director, is focused on language. As in client language.

“Clients are focused on growth and revenue and most agencies are focusing on brand reputation and positioning,” Hodgins said. “And that is a gap.” Awareness “in and of itself is not an end benefit,” he said, because you can grow awareness and still not move one product off the shelf.” He added: “When you don’t use the language of your client … it’s like you are an outsider trying to be an insider.”

The Levitan take. Hey, agencies are selling services to a prospective client that wants stuff. Figure out what stuff they want (gee like more sales and customers and the right analytics + KPIs) and talk their language. Do the upfront research.

Get past typical agency “branding” talk to talking about “sales”. Like ROI.

Some “CLIENT” language from my pitch book:

Here is a quote from an interview I did with Ian Beavis who has been EVP Automotive at Nielsen and ex auto CMO (Kia, Mitsubishi.) He has been pitched by dozens of agencies (and ran the Toyota account at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, as well)

Levitan: A final question. Agencies have a hard time creating a competitive agency brand positioning. Any insights and advice you can give to the agency world on how to be distinctive in this highly competitive category?

Beavis: You rarely hear of an agency being a business solution provider, as it just doesn’t sound cool or creative. A good agency solves a client’s business issues and is a partner. Very few qualify and even fewer truly embrace this challenge.

Clients want agencies that understand business objectives and business results. They want to hear that you get it. That’s it, folks. This WTF is about not doing the research to learn what that prospective client wants.