Insights

My Blog & SEO & Traffic & Incoming Leads

Peter · August 15, 2013 · 1 Comment

A friend asked me what words and phrases were used in the past week to find my website via search engines (mostly Google.)

So, just for SEO edification and to show you that I have my Keyword strategy down, here is what my blog activity looks like. As you might expect, some visits have turned into leads and some into assignments for my business development consultation.

If you are wondering what the term “Talking” is all about… go here.

Search	Views
talking	87
peter levitan	43
zillow	21
advertising agency business plan	20
linkedin app	19
business plan for advertising agency	17
advertising agency business model	17
people talking	14
ad agency business plan	14
ad agencies on vine	10
business plan advertising agency	9
how to get new business in advertising	9
ad agency new business development	8
ad agency new business	7
ad agency business development	7
advertising agency new business plan	5
advertising agency business development	5
digital agency business plan	4
advertising agency new business development	4
new business development advertising agency	4
ad agency business development strategies	4
advertising agency it outsourcing	4
positioning advertising agency	4
marketing agency business plan	4
creative agency business plan	3
creative agency	3
how does an advertising agency market for new clients?	3
advertising agency pinterest	3
new advertising agency business model	3
business development plan advertising agency	3
peter a levitan	3
new business development strategies for advertising agencies	3
mobile advertising agency	3
software for advertising agency new business	3
is an advertising company a good business?	3
business development plan for an advertising agency	3
what companies outsource their advertising?	3
developing new ad agency sales	3
somersby cider	3
advertising agency new business	3
541-419-2309	3
best social media agency	3
business development in advertising agencies	3
agency positioning	3
steve klinetobe portland	3
ad agencies on pinterest	2
advertising agencies app developers	2
agencies like wexley school for girls	2
design agency business plan	2
zillow.com	2
business development for advertising agencies	2
advertising and design agency business plans	2
how to build an advertising agency	2
talk image	2
business plan digital agancy	2
talking people	2
babyboom generation	2
how to do a sales business plan for digital advertising agency	2
digital agency business plan template	2
somersby apple	2
nissan vine commercial	2
how to get more business in advertising	2
advertising agency importance to business	2
isuzu sex	2
elements of advertising	2
advertising agencies business plan	2
pinterest for advertising agencies	2
billionaires in ad agency	2
some business model for advertising agency	2
booz allen hamilton leagas delaney	2
agencies new business consultants	2
vine as an advertising tool	2
ad agencies on instagram	2
widelux	2
how to build an advertising agency client list	2
advertising agency business plans	2
building the new ad agency	2
marketing agency for zillow	2
talk	2
ad agency vines	2
new business development for advertising agencies	2
average savings for age 55-64 is $65,000	2
business plan digital agency

Is Anyone Interested in Investing In Your Advertising Agency?

Peter · August 14, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Is Anyone Interested in Investing In Your Advertising Agency?

Sorry. Probably Not.

But, D on’t Shoot Me. Rethink Your Agency.

Way back in 2013, I wrote about Bend, Oregon’s specialist ‘advertising agency’ G5. I wanted to show you, Ms. Agency CEO, that there are advertising agency business models that actually:

Attract high-margin clients

Are more efficient than your project-based approach

Are category specific. This is their pitch: “G5 simplifies digital marketing by delivering best-in-class sites, search, and social for Apartments, Self Storage, and Senior Living properties.”

Are unique in a world of me-too agencies

Leverage the power of marketing tech to help clients and grow your bottom line

And… increase agency valuations. You do wnat to sell someday, right?

Way back in 2013 you had to take my word for it. Not anymore. I was right.

G5 Raises $76 Million Investment Led by Peak Equity Partners

From the Portland Business Journal:

Digital marketing firm G5 has raised $76 million from a private equity firm.

The figure is the largest Oregon investment round this year. According to investment research firm PitchBook, the next highest round was $22 million for the New York and Portland-based biotech firm Schrödinger. Urban Airship raised $21 million and Jama Software raised $20 million.

The Bend-based company offers a digital marketing platform for the apartment, self storage and senior living market segments. Peak Equity Partners, which is taking a majority stake in the company, led the round. CEO Dan Hobin declined to name other investors in the deal.

Portland Business Journal.

Here is a bit from the press release:

BEND, Ore. (August 12, 2015) – G5, the leader in maximizing digital marketing effectiveness for the property management sector, today announced the closing of a $76 million investment led by Radnor, Pa. based Peak Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on the enterprise software market. The investment enables G5 to build on its ten year history of growth and innovation by accelerating feature development of the G5 Marketing Cloud – the most innovative, scalable, and up-to-date digital marketing platform in the property management sector.

From my 2013 blog post:

G5. A Little Digital Agency That Kicks Butt

When the digital agency G5 was launched in Bend Oregon in 2005 (my agency Citrus had offices in Bend and Portland), I wondered if their SEO oriented business model was going to succeed. As you can see, it did.

G5 is, if anything, a highly focused agency. They chose not to be one of the thousands of “full-service” agencies that are designed to meet virtually any client’s needs and ultimately wind up with a somewhat mushy sales proposition and inefficient business model.

G5 provides software and services directly to the large national property management sector which includes multifamily, senior living, self-storage and student housing. They call their service Digital Experience Management (DXM) and they offer an audacious promise: they promise that they will deliver client properties “within the first five organic SERP listings on Google.” In the active property management category, having a high SERP is a promise that can’t be refused.

G5 works it. In addition to their original SEO service, G5 now offers suites of services that include a Discovery Suite (SEO / SEM): Reputation Suite, Conversion Suite (websites, lead tracking, applicant screening), Retention Suite (CRM) and the Insight Suite (analytics.)

These targeted services allow G5 to pitch a compelling benefit story to prospective clients. Take a look at G5’s Solutions page to see how a set of services can be applied to multiple clients in each of their target categories. Like efficiency? This pitch can be repeated over and over.

What Works?

Category specificity and expertise.
A focussed and efficient new business pitch.
An audacious promise and an unequivocal value story.
A set of core services that can be resold across an entire category.

Add Central Oregon’s outdoor lifestyle and you have a profitable, smart, narrowly focused agency staffed with national talent that gets to live 25 minutes from great skiing. That’s Mt. Bachelor in the background.

Four Reasons For Advertising Agencies To Want A Car Account

Peter · August 14, 2013 · Leave a Comment

… And One To Help Go Get That Car

As an addendum to my Advertising Week Social Club “Dreaming of a Car Account?” interview with Nielsen’s Ian Beavis, I offer some more thoughts on why you should go after a car account.

Big Bucks

Not that you didn’t know this but these guys spend big bucks. According to Kantar Media, in 2013’s first quarter alone, automotive manufacturers spent $1,971 billion and $1,381 billion respectively on manufacturer and dealer advertising.

According to Ad Age, General Motors spent $3.59 billion on advertising last year while Toyota spent $2.86. For contrast, Hyundai and Kia spent only $776 million and $1.26 billion.

Big Media

Again, no surprise that auto accounts use all types of media, which offers agencies of all stripes the opportunity to customize services for manufacturers and dealers. According to Ads24’s most recent Path to Persuasion (P2P) Wave 4: Automotive (passenger cars), “Usually, the most effective media mixes include media formats that play differentiated roles across the Path to Persuasion.”

Big Noise

Just as a reminder… Has anyone not seen Audi’s “Prom”?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANhmS6QLd5Q

Or, Volkswagen’s “The Force” (with 58 million YouTube views)?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0

Or, Kia’s “Hamster Rap”?

Or… Chrysler and Eminem?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKL254Y_jtc

Big Love

Toyota has been with Saatchi & Saatchi (nee Dancer, Fitzgerald, Sample) since 1975. Car accounts are hard to move.

“A car account always has been a rite of passage in the world of agencies,” said Jon Bond, co-chairman of Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners. “It’s like being a made man in the Mafia, but … today, you can get whacked the next week.”

Big Need

Two of the more interesting questions and answers from my interview with Ian Beavis, EVP Automotive at Nielsen and ex auto CMO point to the fact that agencies can find a wedge service into auto accounts. Go for it boys.

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.

Levitan: What are the current digital hot buttons at car companies?

Beavis: Quality lead generation and follow up. It is the top priority with all OEMs

So, be smart, be distinctive, be a problem solver… get going.

Beer For Advertising Agency New Business

Peter · August 13, 2013 · Leave a Comment

I’ve been on an interview trip lately. I’ve done a couple of soon to be published interviews with industry leaders for Advertising Week Social Club and Agency Post. More are on the way.

One major point I keep hearing is that advertising agency specialization is key to breaking out of the me-too agency positioning malaise. Specialization is one way to get to a more powerful (i.e. relevant, impactful, efficient) new business program.

In my Advertising Week interview with Ian Beavis, Nielsen’s EVP Automotive, on how agencies can win an auto account, he mentions that most advertising agencies do not act as a business solution partner,

“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.”

In another for Agency Post, Rich Sullivan, the CEO of Alabama’s RedSquare Agency, discusses how RedSquare has specialized in casino marketing with growing success.

I’ll let you know when both of these are published.

Time For Beer

On to today. I was looking at a new list of Seattle’s largest agencies and noted that Taphandles, the fourth largest agency in Seattle, specializes in, get this, beer. I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard of Taphandles and I am just down the road in Portland. I was intrigued.

Seattle’s Taphandles

Taphandles’ Twitter profile @taphandles describes the agency as:

“We know beer. Logos, taphandles, signs, displays, package/label/web design, glassware and all things POS… Let us help you sell more beer.”

There are a few things that work with this positioning. A key factor is that Taphandles has zeroed in on a fast growing category. Here are some stats from the Brewers Association.

Growth of the craft brewing industry in 2012 was 15% by volume and 17% by dollars compared to growth in 2011 of 13% by volume and 15% by dollars.
Craft brewer retail dollar value in 2012 was an estimated $10.2 billion, up from $8.7 billion in 2011.
The craft brewing sales share in 2012 was 6.5% by volume and 10.2% by dollars.
2,347 craft breweries operated for some or all of 2012, comprised of 1,132 brewpubs, 1,118 microbreweries and 97 regional craft breweries.
As of March 18, 2013, the Brewers Association is aware of 409 brewery openings in 2012 (310 microbreweries and 99 brewpubs) and 43 brewery closings (18 microbreweries and 25 brewpubs.)

Taphandles is well positioned to, yes, tap into the market due to its strong support for their beer expert positioning. They started out designing and manufacturing taphandles for most of the major beer brands. I love their concise story that has to grab the attention of beer clients.

“Since we opened our doors in 1999, we have worked with almost every beer brand worldwide, which has given us comprehensive understanding of competitive landscape, and appreciation for what it takes to build a successful brand. This experience makes us uniquely able to help breweries tell their stories effectively through the brands we design, and the merchandise we make.”

A Message

Clearly Taphandles has grown into a full-service provider by building on their taphandle design experience. But, there is something instructive here for all agencies.

Pick a growing category, learn it, own it and then you’ll be able to hammer it on your home page.

Emotional Marketing As An Advertising Agency Positioning

Peter · August 8, 2013 · 1 Comment

I am talking with one of my clients about an agency positioning that positions them as an expert on emotional marketing. As in, the agency is an expert at triggering an emotional response in the consumer. Yes, they have the right chops for this. And, they live in the right country. And, clients, well some, Ok some, understand the emotional vs. the uber rational sell. Kiss me and I’m all yours.

As such, I am sensitized to emotional pitches these days. Here are two examples of emotional marketing in action. One is a movie trailer (from the great Spike Jonze) and the other a Google Nexus website and really sweet video (a really sweet story.)

Why is Google’s advertising getting so much better than Apple’s?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS8zOLOcPMQ

Here is the Nexus website. Watch the video.

I did some personal math the other day. I’ve been positioning agency’s for over 25 years. I’ve got another 13 really smart positionings up my sleeve. If you are interested in separating your agency from the pack, start here…