Insights

Digital Agency Work From Home

Peter · July 15, 2022 · 1 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?

Peter · July 14, 2022 · 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.

Advertising Agency Video Marketing

Peter · June 30, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Let’s start this talk about advertising agency video marketing as a core sales tool for business development in two ways. Then I will point you to a super-smart ad agency video series. The videos I’ll show are aimed directly at a client’s needs (strategic needs). These videos are well-produced, and sell the agency leader. A good thing. People buy people. The videos also leverage the power of LinkedIn.

OK, Some Bad and Good Advertising Agency Video Marketing

The bad: I am continually amazed at how few advertising agencies use agency-oriented video to help them market their agency. If they do, it is usually a sizzle real. A ganged-up sizzle real that might do more for the creative department’s ego than a tool to sell a future client.
The good: Every once in a while I see an agency getting video promotion right. In my mind, this means using video to introduce the agency and its story (quickly), super-smart thinking, a demonstration of agency culture and a look at the people who live inside that agency. Client-people like people so why not show your agency-people to help sell the agency – with some humanness?

Reasons To Use Video

The last truly “revelatory” thing I can tell an advertising agency is that video is a great marketing tool. Like, um, I know that you know this. But, then, why do so many of yous guys not use it for self-promotion? So, here are some reasons to use video marketing – now.

Most advertising agency websites have similar attributes (like the same old same old navigation – not bad – but the same old same old). Few, few, open up with a short but very sweet video to tell the visitor how wonderful (and different) the agency is. No not a sizzle real. A personal message. Not an “I am wonderful” message. A “this is who we” are message. And, even a “what we can do for you” message.

Clients buy people. Many agencies are GREAT, But, so is the next agency next door. Video will make you stand out and sell your story, soul, and grooviness. Soul is an element often missing from the advertising / digital agency website and general marketing experience.
Get the video out there – amplify it… Your video can run on your website, importantly in direct emails, on LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, and, of course, on YouTube (inside your effective channel).
!!! Google loves video. Video SEO rocks.
Video works especially well for your mobile viewers. They will thank you for this. Viewing a video vs. scrolling on a tiny screen will win you points.
Video drives social shares (like I am doing below).

Speaking of LinkedIn, it really likes videos. A lot. Some words on LinkedIn video from Hootsuite:

In one year, LinkedIn video posts generated more than 300 million impressions on the platform. They also earn an average of three times the engagement of text posts. Plus, early findings from LinkedIn’s beta program show that LinkedIn native videos are five times more likely than other content to start a conversation among LinkedIn members.

Impressive engagement stats aside, video marketing has been shown to boost revenue across social platforms. According to Aberdeen Group, brands that use video marketing grow their revenue 49 percent faster than companies that don’t.

Producing video for an advertising agency is cheap (or, at least cost effective). You do stuff like this for a living.

Ok, on to a very good example of an advertising agency’s video marketing.

Transom Design On LinkedIn: Advertising Agency Video Marketing That Sells

You Are A Digital Agency

Peter · June 29, 2022 · Leave a Comment

I have been a major fan of Google Trends as an insight tool for eons. It plays a big role in my list of Advertising Agency Resources. In fact, I just used Trends to help me decide (I’ve been here before) if my target market (you) are an advertising agency or a digital agency. So, are you a digital agency or an advertising agency?

In the olden days, you were called an advertising agency because you were a business that helps clients create advertising programs. This was an all-inclusive term. In fact, you are still an advertising agency. But, you also have to take into account what a client is looking for. So using Google Trends, I have to say that it might be time to call your agency (yes an anachronistic term itself) a ‘digital agency’.

Why You Are A Digital Agency

First of all, these days all marketing services agencies (full service, experiential, PR, retail, mobile, TikTok, even out-of-home, etc.) are digital agencies. And, yes, they are also advertising agencies. So, rather than using my gut feel for what to call your agency, I went to (Ta-Da) Google Trends to help me answer the question. If your litmus test is to be what most clients are looking for, well you might just be a digital agency. Here is a chart to help you see what I mean.

Numbers Matter – Like Three Times!

According to Google, in the most recent period, there were three times the number of searches on the term ‘digital agency’ as there were for ‘advertising agency’.

So, you decide what to call yourself.

Of course, if you are an experiential agency then you’ll need to leverage that term as well – if you want to be found by a client looking specifically for an experiential agency. The same goes for a TikTok agency. How might I play this out? XYC Agency is a digital agency that specializes in TikTok advertising. Just get your SEO and credentials right.

An Above+Beyond Advertising Agency

Peter · June 10, 2022 · Leave a Comment

London’s Above+Beyond Advertising Agency And…

I woke up, I admit it with a bit of a hangover, and saw that London’s Above+Beyond advertising agency hired Shez Lord has joined as creative director to work on the Subway account. Not big news for me but always good for an advertising agency to get press even if just a typical Media Post News type of article.

I used the article as a spark to wake up my brain and to get me to look at the Above+Beyond website.

Things I Like About The Above+Beyond Website. A couple of quick takeaways:

Good Above+Beyond:

I dig the agency’s name. Above+Beyond works on a few levels. Not the least of which is that the name makes me think that these guys will run through walls for a client. Serice, good agency service, is what keeps clients in-house and offers a good angle for pitching and sales. It would be interesting to see how the agency leverages this promise.

I dig the opening statement: Audience Age Creativity For Ambitious Brands. I admit that it took me a couple of seconds to process the term “Audience Age”. However, once I got my fuzzy brain to think, I liked that Above+Beyond recognizes the power of the audience these days and positions the agency dead center in this evolving universe… Oh, and I’ve had personal experience with “ambitious”. I started in the agency business at New York’s largest ad agency — Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (later bought by Saatchi) which had Ambitious Advertising as its ‘motto’.

I like that the agency defines its clients as being ambitious. Most agencies do not define the clients that they want.

The ‘work’ is smart. The Sh*t Just Got Serious client has a nice story about connecting your bum to trees.

A new brand to fight deforestation, one 100% recycled loo-roll at a time.

Serious Tissues was named to insinuate the serious issues our world faces with the devastating effects of climate change. A world where we’re chopping down 27,000 trees a day just to wipe our arses. Literally flushing away 10m trees each year. The proposition was simple and distinct; for every one recycled toilet roll bought from Serious Tissues – one tree is planted.

Nice client list.

A Better Above+Beyond:

I don’t dig that the agency only uses video for its cases. I’d like to get to know the agency leaders… why not a video with them in it? A short but sweet chemistry-building video? Like… tell me who you are. And, why I should hire you vs the other ‘creative’ shop down the street.

I really could use some explanation surrounding the idea of “Audience Age”. Help me want to use the agency in this new world where the consumer rules (even more everyday). Audience-related strategic insights please. Even short and very sweet audience as in consumer interviews. I said short.

Ok, one more. These guys could do a better job of enticing me to make contact. Most agencies do a sh*ty job when it comes to their contact page. Above+Beyond, how about some love? And a hug.

Look at my Contact page.

I have an offer (as in Don Corleone); make contacting me easy and even have a testimonial from a couple of my clients and even even a video testimonial from my boy Mahatma Gandhi. Yes, Gandhi. I got my friend Gandhi to do the video because I am ambitious – like Above+Beyond’s favorite clients.