Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

Insights

A Happy Case History And An Ad Agency Sold To WPP

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Client case histories are probably as old as the advertising industry itself. So, how can an agency show its expertise and ROI chops without sounding like every other agency down the street?

Think different.

Canadian ad agency John St., which was just purchased by WPP, created this great video-driven case history of how they made Chelsea Bedano’s 8th birthday party a huge success. The agency employed direct mail, out-of-home media and social media to deliver the message. The results put smiles on everyone’s face.

In case you missed this case (which means you were not one of the 350,000 plus viewers of the YouTube video (!)….

StoryWorldwide: Advertising Agency Of The Week

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Native advertising, content marketing, curation, death. Ah, I love our 2013 advertising buzzwords. I also love seeing companies that are perfectly positioned to take advantage of these buzzwords. This week’s Agency of the Week is just that. They also going to be unhappy with me because I call  them the dirty words “advertising agency.”

StoryWorldwide calls itself a “post-advertising” agency that engages consumers through storytelling. The agency sure makes it sound like it’s the right agency for the right time. By the way, the “death” from above is about the looming death of advertising as we know it. I think that Digiday writes about the death of traditional advertising agencies every day. I’m not saying they are wrong. But, it has become an ever evergreen theme for them.

Here is the essence of the StoryWorldwide story – it’s a nice clear message in a word of fuzzy agency messaging:

In this post-advertising age, we work to connect brands directly to customers by telling engaging stories that audiences actually want to hear.

The idea of building audience engagement is not wholly unique, but StoryWorldwide grabbed the idea long before other agencies started to glom on. Plus, they managed to grab the brand name “story.”

StoryWorldwide goes further with this competitive stake-in-the-ground…

Today, brands are competing with filmmakers, writers and entertainers, not other brands.

Story is the world’s first post-advertising agency, applying established storytelling techniques and talent to marketing and communications.

Our work includes integrated campaigns and through-media content for clients such as Lexus, Unilever, Estee Lauder Companies and J&J.

The agency delivers a complete package by “creating stories, telling stories and spreading stories.”

StoryWorldwide is interestingly worldwide, with offices in Asia, Europe and North America. They seem to be cooking with a blue-chip client list that includes Bank of America, Chile’s Epica Wines, Columbia University, Holland America (talk about an industry that needs some good news), Lexus and Starbucks to name a few. They also own a Cannes Lion Bronze.

Why Do I Dig?

StoryWorldwide hammers home a few key, compelling points.

  • They have positioned themselves to own the storytelling niche. What client wouldn’t want to tell a story? Hey, they love their stories.
  • Their niche has legs. They can do digital, video, publishing and installations. They can even do good old-fashioned TV if they wanted to.
  • Business development should be a slam-dunk.
  • The agency likes to sound smart. This is always good news for nervous CMO’s.

Here is one of their videos (they have 20 on their YouTube channel.) At 52,000 views it has a decent view count. For a comparative YouTube view count, Ogilvy’s “Storytelling: Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland on Defining the Narrative” has only 900 views.

Last week’s Agency of the Week was Jess3.

Advertising Agency Wake Up Call From eMarketer

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I woke up, read my mail and saw these three quotes in an eMarketer email. They got me thinking fast.

You are an advertising agency. You worry about how to be digitally relevant  in the next couple of years — or perish. Here are just three quotes from eMarketer that can act as thought starters. if these don’t start your mind, maybe its time to, um, bail?

By 2016 nearly a quarter of the world will be using location based services.

US online video ad spending will nearly triple in the next four years.

43 million Americans convert to using smart phones every minute.

If you need one more idea, another path to agency success lies in the following eMarketer chart. And, no it isn’t rushing onto the Facebook or Twitter scrum.

social media usage instagram and pinterest

Why Don’t Advertising & Digital Agencies Have A Business Plan?

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Today’s marketing advertising and digital agencies need a well-considered marketing plan to plan and build a profitable marketing communications agency for the future. The problem: most agencies don’t have a plan.

Through my experience as a board member of the Portland Advertising Federation, a business development director working across the global Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide network, President of the Newspaper Association of America’s Digital Federation and an Internet entrepreneur, I have been continually amazed that most agencies, media and tech companies don’t have a master plan. Considering the rapid changes happening in the advertising and technology industries, I can’t imagine navigating the marketplace without one. [Read more…] about Why Don’t Advertising & Digital Agencies Have A Business Plan?