Insights

WTF Takeaways From Ad Age Small Agency Conference

August 10, 2022 By Peter 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.

Agencies Have a Serious Branding Problem. From The Martin Agency.

Ad Age Small Agency Of The Year 2022

August 2, 2022 By Peter Leave a Comment

Yes, It Is That Time Again: Ad Age Small Agency Of The Year 2022

There is an old joke about winning. I think that it merits mentioning as we look at the Ad Age Small Agency Of The Year Awards. Why? Because you need to enter an award contest if you want to win. Obvious? Apparently not as only 400 agencies entered this year’s award show.

Every week Murray goes to the synagogue and prays, “God, please let me win the lottery. Just once, please let me win the lottery.”
This goes on week after week, month after month, “God, please let me win the lottery.”
One day this majestic voice booms down from above, “Murray, meet me halfway, buy a ticket!”

I have written about entering award shows plus the why bother plus listed the big advertising awards right here: Top Advertising and Design Awards.

Why bother entering? Well, winners have something to shout about to their staff (and future staff), their current clients and as proof for future clients that the agency is great – as said by a trusted third party.

From Ad Age:

While small, these shops have proven to have big ideas and even bigger ambitions

The winners of our 14th annual Small Agency Awards were culled from a list of more than 400 entries from the U.S. and globally and represent some of the best and brightest agencies today.

The shops that made the grade weren’t chosen just for creative prowess, but also for overall business results, revenue growth and more. The agencies on this list are producing ingenious but effective work and also demonstrate proficiency in a variety of media and a willingness to move into new disciplines including health care or gaming or design.

Since not everyone has an Ad Age sub…. here you go.

The “Big” Small Winners

Since many folks are not Ad Age subscribers, here are the winners.

Small Agency Of The Year.

Gold: Mojo Supermarket // Silver: Movers+Shakers

Gold 1-10 Employees: Fred & Farid // Silver: Quality Meats

Gold 11-75 Employees: Lerma // Silver 11-75 Employees: Preacher

Gold 76-150 Employees: Fitzco // Silver 76-150 Employees: Rosewood Creative

Like Regional Agencies?

Northwest: Opinionated and Copacino Fujikado

Midwest: Highdive and Hanson Dodge

West: Mirimar and Haymaker

Southwest: Callen and Bakery

Southeast: Dagger and Dunn&Co.

International: Zulu Alpha Kilo and Giants & Gentlemen

OK, that’s it. Go out and win that award. Oh, and read my award show blog post.

How Does A Personal Brand Work? Ask Gary Vaynerchuk & David Droga

July 29, 2022 By Peter Leave a Comment

The Powerful Advertising Agency Building Personal Brand c/o Gary Vaynerchuk, David Droga, and David Ogilvy

I’ve been thinking about the power of the personal brand of Gary Vaynerchuk, David Droga, and David Ogilvy. The power of their brands to drive advertising agency awareness, expertise, and new business.

What is a personal brand? There are many definitions. I went to the website PersonalBrand.com for this definition (why not go to a company smart enough to have bought the URL PersonalBrand?)

“A personal brand is a widely-recognized and largely-uniform perception or impression of an individual based on their experience, expertise, competencies, actions and/or achievements within a community, industry, or the marketplace at large.”

Kinda wordy but you get the idea. My definition: “How people perceive you.”

I am keen on the idea of building and managing a personal brand for agency leaders and senior managers.

One’s personal brand is how you present and control your image to your market – your current and potential clients, your competition, and your staff (and, I can’t stress this enough, your future staff.) Your personal brand puts you in charge of your professional perception and lets you highlight your skills, thought leadership, strengths, and history.

The Advertising Agency and the Power of the Personal Brand

A master… David Ogilvy.

As I’ve discussed in my agency naming chapter, many agencies are named after their founder. In most of these cases, the founder is the face of the agency. The founder embodies the agency mission and soul of the agency.

Ogilvy the global agency continues to use the brand essence of its founder David Ogilvy who passed away in 1999. The agency’s Careers page quotes David and leverages his personal brand to help sell the agency’s creative street cred and soul to future employees:

“As out founder David Ogilvy put it, we seek people who are bigger and smarter than ourselves. That’s how we create a company of giants. We’re always looking for modern marketing and brand experts with big hearts and enormous talent.”

How is this for branding? In 1962, Time Magazine called him “the most sought-after wizard in today’s advertising industry“. Believe me, this recognition did not happen by accident. Ogilvy was a PR brand master. [Read more…] about How Does A Personal Brand Work? Ask Gary Vaynerchuk & David Droga

Digital Agency Work From Home

July 15, 2022 By Peter Leave a Comment

I just read a study about the new world of work from home + work-life balance from Beamery – “the leading talent operating system that helps companies attract, engage and retain top talent.” The study should keep any agency manager thinking about digital agency work from home up at night. I highlight the digital agency because of the digital management workload and 24/7 activity.

The study, “Employees Have Upper Hand in Pandemic-Induced Power Shift, According to New “Beamery Talent Index” sheds some number light on this management and employee issue. I am into this big time right now as I am currently writing the definitive digital and advertising agency management book. Clearly, the new world of managing an agency in the post-pandemic universe (it’s over right?) will be a critical element of the book. I found Beamery during my research on the HR side of the business.

Beamery and the Digital Agency Work From Home Issue

Here from the research – some major findings:

Two-thirds of U.S. and UK workers who experienced more work flexibility during the pandemic want employers to prioritize work-life balance moving forward and three-quarters acknowledge they are now being heard – but still – half are looking for a new job.

Of the 5,000 employed adults surveyed in the U.S. and UK, almost three quarters (72%) are confident in their ability to find a new job, half (53%) are considering leaving their current role within the next 12 months, and 23% are actively looking for a new job. The majority (81%) say the pandemic gave them time to make that decision with some soul searching leading a quarter (26%) to change their career path and goals.

In fact, more than a third (37%) actually think their work-life balance was better during the worst of the pandemic and 42% want flexible working opportunities returning to the office. In their current roles, 45% of office workers say they will be returning to the office full-time, whilst just 29% will have flexibility as to when they go in. For organizations looking to reassure and retain staff, it’s optimistic to see that almost three-quarters (71%) think their employers clearly understand what matters to them in a post-COVID workplace.

The Key Is Being A Conscious Employer

This finding is worth repeating: “For organizations looking to reassure and retain staff, it’s optimistic to see that almost three quarters (71%) think their employers clearly understand what matters to them in a post-COVID workplace.” [Read more…] about Digital Agency Work From Home

Is Your Advertising Agency Findable?

July 14, 2022 By Peter Leave a Comment

“Is your advertising agency findable?” This is one of three key questions, and mucho critical points, I make when I start to help an advertising agency plan its business development program. First things first. The other two questions are: “do you have a new client referral plan/program” and “do you have a system for how to grow business from current clients?” Want to know how to do that? Ask me.

So, Is Your Advertising Agency Findable? Your First Issue.

You should have clear objectives for your business development plan. And, the right marketing plan. And, run that plan 24/7. And do you have a smart process to align the agency and make stuff happen? But, the first thing (after having the right positioning and core marketing tools like a great/effective sales-oriented website and LinkedIn presence, etc.) is to make sure that a prospective client who is actually looking for an agency like yours can find you. Yes, a duh.

An idea (a good one)… go ahead and play client and see if you can be found. If you are a Tiktok specialist, will you be found? If you specialize in hospitality, will you be found? If you are the best agency in London, will you be found? You get the idea, right? Yes, a duh. But, go ahead and try to find you.

So, Let’s Get On With It. Is Your Advertising Agency Findable? Are You Everywhere A Future Client Might Look – For You?

This question was driven home today when I examined the Roth Ryan Hayes** agency search consultant website. I noted that they ask advertising agencies that want to be found by clients to list themselves in the WINMO database. A database used by both prospective clients and search consultants. Roth Ryan Hayes asks agencies like yours to enter into the agency information database right here. Just do it.

Need a list of advertising agency search consultants? Search my website.

What else can you do to be found by that client that is looking for YOU?

Some other examples:

Are you on the first page of a relevant Google search? Probably not. What can you do? Do the content thing and manage your SEO. OK, if not listed on page one (and this might take a long time), consider running a Google ad that targets that future client, it’s CMO, and its category. Test a message that breaks through the clutter.
Gee, how about that crazy advertising thing. See what London’s LONDON Advertising has done.
Be in all related marketing services directories. Clutch? Agency Spotter? WINMO?
Optimize your LinkedIn presence. Pay for LinkedIn Navigator. This optimization goes for your company and all leadership and employee individual profiles. By the way, does everyone use the same, or similar, language to describe the agency? Do you look like a team?
Are there client industry lists you should be on? Or, write for industry websites like hospitalitynet.
Does the industry press know that you are a go-to expert on your expert thinking and category experience – always ready to give an educated sound bite? I know that a good PR maven could sell you guys.
Are you speaking at the right industry conferences? No Cannes ain’t what I am talking about. That is ad agency navel-gazing.

There are more “Be found” ideas. Call me up.

Then, Yes, Then. Be Unignorable. Oh, That.

Ok, you are found. Then what? Is your positioning and messaging and branding UNIGNORABLE? Being found is cool. Being unignorably unignorable is even better. Do not waste that be found thing. Work it.

** From Above…

Roth Ryan Hayes, founded in 1988 as Roth Associates, is a pioneer in the search consulting category.

The firm has forged a reputation as a trusted adviser to some of the world’s leading companies as they seek to optimize their agency resources and efficiently navigate the evolving media and marketing landscape. Today, RRH is a leader in the field of agency search, selection, and compensation, providing counsel on the intersection of digital innovation and business strategy to companies such as CVS Health, Aetna, Activision, Blizzard, Home Depot and many others.