Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

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Is Saying Fck (You Know What I Mean) Cool?

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Can you say ‘fck’ in your B2B marketing?

(Before I start, a side note… I originally had the URL: www.peterlevitan.com/issayingfuckcool  I now know that Google does not like the word Fuck – so I took out the “U” from any Google heat seeking search missile.) We’ll see if this post gets indexed now. See at the bottom of this post for an article about Google’s no-mas potty-mouth.)

I have a client, a brilliant agency client in the data-marketing space. A real data scientist. He grows brands leveraging the best of Adobe and the Google Marketing Platform (here is how Google describes the GMP):

Google Marketing Platform brings together DoubleClick Digital Marketing and the Google Analytics 360 Suite to help you plan, buy, measure and optimize digital media and customer experiences in one place. Google Marketing Platform helps you deliver more relevant and effective marketing, while ensuring that you respect your customers’ privacy and give them control over their data.

Data marketing rules. But, he has a problem. He only aims to work with clients that really want to leverage data to grow their business. Apparently, it is difficult to find the clients that actually GET IT. That said, he gets lots of inquiries. However, many are either poor leads for many reasons (many need lots of training) or are not willing to take the multi-month plunge/commitment to work into a very successful data-driven program.

‘Fuck’

Last week we discussed the use of the word ‘fuck’ to arrest attention and to help cull out the serious leads from the explorers. In this case, can you say ‘fuck’ on your home page? Essentially, something like this (just an example)…

We Are Looking For The Best And Brightest Clients That Want To Fucking Kill It Using The World’s Best Data-Marketing.

I pointed to Gary Veynerchuck as an example of a media personality that uses ‘fuck’ a lot to, yup, help cull out the serious leads from the explorers. It is difficult to paraphrase Gary but his mantra is hey, get the fuck on board the digital train.

Find Your Active Words

This is not a long blog post on the use of challenging words. But, I do want to make that point that you might want to consider actually telling the people that visit your home page that you are looking for the right fucking clients. The use of the word might even net you the balls to the wall clients that you want.

If the ‘F’ word scares you… just try having some attitude.

Oh, the Google article:

F***=off, Google tells its staff: Any mention of nookie now banned from internal files, URLs.

 

 

The Internet – A New Discovery

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The Internet – Great Music

I’m heading to Mexico City for a few days. So, here is something to keep you busy. It’s about the Internet.

I discovered The Internet in 1994. I had been working in Saatchi’s London office. An office sans any discussion of the Internet, or better yet digital marketing platforms like CD-ROM’s (look them up if you are way young.) Luddite land.

My discovery happened when I returned to New York. I remember watching my first CD-ROM and said, ‘Whoa” what is this stuff and, yup it’s a marketing platform. This discovery got me to meet with digital guys like Ted Leonsis.

Digital Native

I love the term ‘digital native’. It describes my kids. I am not sure that they remember the days pre AOL and the birth of the graphical browser – the ever-present mobile phone. A definition…

Digital native: a person born or brought up during the age of digital technology and therefore familiar with computers and the Internet from an early age.

Why mention this? I view myself as a digital native. While not “born or brought up during the age of digital technology”, I cannot remember the days pre-digital. OK, that’s bullshit. I do remember. Most importantly for my audience, we seem to have forgotten some of what actually makes marketing work – stuff from the old days. I’ll keep it simple… I mean having a big idea, something that resonates with your audience, something that a creative mind (not an algorithm) serves up — I know you know this. Therefore here is a creative organization that might get your creative juices flowing.

Today’s The Internet.

Heard of The Internet? Um, the band?

Here’s the band’s Come Over video. Very cool. They are simply in the groove – a modern take on R&B. What Pitchfork has to say,

The fourth album from the R&B collective is a peak example of their combined powers. It simplifies their sound with soft-focus blues, plush arrangements, and deep-in-the-ground grooves.

The video. While you are at it, check out the band’s other videos. Maybe you’ll get an idea for your ad agency videos.

Does Your Advertising Agency Do Content Marketing Right?

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Is Your Advertising Agency A Savvy Content Marketer?

I’ve read acres of advertising agency content (blogs, white papers, videos, on LinkedIn, etc.). Some rock and some suck. Many agencies, once they have stellar content, do not put in the effort to spread the wealth. As in, they do not amplify their brilliant thinking across a range of social media and traditional marketing platforms. This is a missed efficiency driver. Here’s a how to maximize your hard content building work.

To be clear, ‘content’ means the stuff that agency’s use to deliver their insightful thought leadership programs which are designed to sell the agency’s brains, expertise and to drive inbound visits and interest. Just for the hell of it, here is the definition of content from Google…

A type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.

Here is another well-crafted definition from the Content Marketing Institute…

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Great Content: Part One

One of the best content marketing companies I’ve visited/read is TrinityP3 an Australian-based global marketing management consultancy with offices on four continents. TrinityP3 is a primary thought leader in the advertising client and agency space.

Darren Woolley, founder and Global CEO, along with Mike Morgan, are the driving force behind TrinityP3. To date, they have hundreds of blog posts covering a wide range of subjects including agency management, agency search, compensation, media buying, procurement, and scope of work and, even infographics. I’m talking lots of content.  [Read more…] about Does Your Advertising Agency Do Content Marketing Right?

I Read The News Today, Oh Boy

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The News Today

Stay with me on this post. The happiest part is at the end.

I live in Mexico. Split from Portland, Oregon in 2016. Nice to live in what is a happy country (despite the shitty press Mexico gets in the USA). By the way, Mexico’s inbound tourism is up.

Nice to earn a good living here. Nice cost of living.

Nicer to not be hammered by daily USA news. Today was particularly nuts.

Because of my move, I am often asked by my American agency clients about the how and why of my move down south.

To help… I am reposting my blog post Moving to Mexico. A super well-read post.

And, just because I do like going to a happy place, I offer the Beatles’ A Day In The Life.

“I read the news today, oh boy…”

 

Harley Davidson And Ad Agencies

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Let’s Start With Ad Agencies

It is nice to see that ad agencies are willing to pivot.

I read today that Cal McAllister of Seatle’s now closed Wexley School For Girls is starting a new agency. Having visited Wexley in the now distant goodish old days, I am not surprised that Cal has shifted from running a super creative ad agency to a specialized ‘new and improved’ version. The new Paper Crane Factory is dedicated to growing early stage business and is teaming up with VC’s in Seattle and Silicon Valley. As Cal says in ADWEEK (strangely at Cannes — well, I guess it’s a good old-fashioned place to launch a new age agency)…

“The opportunity to do game-changing work with brands is happening at a much earlier stage,” said McAllister during last week’s Cannes Lions.

McAllister is initially opening offices in Seattle and Silicon Valley, taking a leaner and digitally focused approach with his client base and building more around equity with partners, as opposed to the traditional agency model.

“The billable hour—I think is broken,” noted McAllister. “The fact is, the way agencies make the most money is by putting more people on jobs and having it take longer. This is precisely what clients don’t want now. We are focused on taking clients who are willing to pay part of the fee in equity, so our wins are their wins, and their wins are our wins.”

A New Model Ad Agency

Let me start by saying this type of agency isn’t a brand new idea. However, aiming to work with start-ups for equity plus fees is a decent 2018 idea for a new agency.

A key point for my readers is that the agency is highly specialized. Wexley worked with a range of clients. Paper Crane Factory is dedicated to a much narrower category. It is a hell of a lot easier to be distinctive when you are specialized that a generalist.

Harley Davidson And President Trump And Advertising $

I never get into politics here. However, it is becoming clear to me (and, I hope you) that Donald Trump does not actually understand big business.

The news that America’s great brand Harley Davidson is moving manufacturing and jobs to Europe and, a few months ago Thailand, is a direct result of two #MAGA policies that clearly do not get how large-scale manufacturing works. Or, how a public company should work for its shareholders. As in, grow sales and profitability. (See below.)

Europe’s tit-for-tat motorcycle tariffs are obviously a result of the #MAGA trade tariffs (and an interesting aim at Wisconsin) and the move to Thailand is a direct result of America’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP.)

Why does this matter? More of this type of movement of USA dollars to foreign countries is, I think going to accelerate. This move will result negatively on large brand USA advertising.

According to S&P, 43% of Fortune 500 sales happen overseas. If, as in Harley Davidson, your USA sales were in decline while sales in Europe and Asia were growing, where would you put your ad dollars?

(Below…)

Harley Davidson would have to raise the price of each motorcycle it ships to the EU by $2,200 if production doesn’t leave the U.S.

That’s a dealbreaker, considering Europe is Harley’s second-biggest market (driving 15% of its revenue).