Insights

Should Your Advertising Agency Blog?

Peter · February 24, 2016 · 4 Comments

The Advertising Agency Blog? Worth The Effort?

You know all about blogging so I won’t go down the pedantic click-bait road of using a headline like: “24 Unbelievable Reasons That Your Advertising Agency Should Blog”.

But, do you actually know if your advertising agency should blog? Here are the pros and cons and a path beyond running and jumping through the hoops of doing it right… like writing over 7,000 words per month (I made that up, but it’s about right if you want Google to dig you).

Blogging: The Pro’s

Blogging is an incredibly powerful new business attractor tool. Virtually all of my incoming leads and new ad agency clients come to me because I have over 500 well-targeted blog posts… just like this one. It works for me.

What about you?

Your agency blog allows you to self-publish thought leadership on a daily or weekly basis.

Your blog delivers SEO chutzpah to your website that results in more repeat views than your ‘brochure’ website could ever generate.

You have a refined content plan based on agency objectives.

You target the right viewership (as in future clients) with targeted posts.

Your blog is Ta Da… 24/7 national owned media.

Your best blog posts will get shared accross the universe.

Your posts are designed to build your new business pipeline.

Your blog is used to reinforce agency culture and acts as a new employee attractor.

Blogging: The Con’s

Forbes Tries To Stop My Use Of AdBlock

Peter · February 14, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Forbes Does Not Want Me To ‘Continue’ Or… Let The AdBlock War Begin

Interesting find in what I think is the most intriguing thing going on in the world of advertising (OK, one of them.)

Ta Da…. Ad Blocking. Some data from PageFair’s 2015 report on ad blocking.

Ad blocking estimated to cost publishers nearly $22 billion during 2015.
There are now 198 million active adblock users around the world.
Ad blocking grew by 41% globally in the last 12 months.
US ad blocking grew by 48% to reach 45 million active users in 12 months up to June 2015.
UK ad blocking grew by 82% to reach 12 million active users in 12 months up to June 2015.

Forbes Tries Anti Adblck

I tried to go to the Forbes website and got the message below.Yes, I admit it, I use AdBlock. Interesting. I guess we’ll see:

If people are willing to turn AdBlock off.
If people want to bother going the extra clicks to read Forbes.
If the use of the words… “continue into Forbes ad-light experience” helps. Ad-light – now that’s a new one.
If other websites follow Forbes down this path.

Frankly, I don’t like barriers to entry. Too many content options out there. As I said, we’ll see where this goes. It is definitely going to be interesting.

See the Forbes message below.

But first, here is what Elon Musk is working on as we speak:

Does Your Ad Agency Use Storytelling In Its Sales Pitch?

Peter · February 12, 2016 · 1 Comment

Agencies Do Storytelling

Advertising agencies love the idea of being storytellers. Storytelling skills have become one of the ways that agencies offer agency brand differentiation. To be clear, here’s a definition:

Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, sound and/or images, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, and instilling moral values.

I see three ways that agencies do storytelling:

The Agency itself has a story.

Frankly, this is an amazingly underused opportunity. Why don’t agencies use their own personal or business stories more often on their websites, in their new business programs and pitches? Need an example (yes, an obvious one): Ogilvy’s use of David. The

The Ogilvy website has David’s bio and the following ‘story’ about David that he wrote to his partners 3 years after he started the agency Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather. He is writing about himself.

Will Any Agency Hire This Man?

He is 38, and unemployed. He dropped out of college.
He has been a cook, a salesman, a diplomatist and a farmer.
He knows nothing about marketing and had never written any copy.
He professes to be interested in advertising as a career (at the age of 38!) and is ready to go to work for $5,000 a year.

I doubt if any American agency will hire him.

However, a London agency did hire him. Three years later he became the most famous copywriter in the world, and in due course built the tenth biggest agency in the world.

The moral: it sometimes pays an agency to be imaginative and unorthodox in hiring.

My moral… This story reinforces the perception that Ogilvy is ‘imaginative and unorthodox.’ The agency delivers this compelling message neatly wrapped up in a founder story — not just saying it.

The agency sells its ‘storytelling’ prowess.

HubSpot published an interview “Have agencies Abused The Term Storytelling?” I did with Michael Donahue, ex-EVP of The American Association of Advertising Agencies about the art of brand storytelling . Is storytelling overused? My take? No, telling stories to help consumers build a better understanding of and a closer bond with brands works. However, how the agency describes this particular art must be distinctive. It’s the

Is The Stock Market Freaking Out Your Advertising Agency?

Peter · February 10, 2016 · Leave a Comment

As In… Are We Heading Towards Another Recession??

I’ve been doing this advertising agency thing for a long time. Started in the 1980’s and have gone through 5 recessions. Each time, clients got nervous. Many pulled their advertising back but some (the ones we loved) actually added to their budgets to gain market share when their competitors pulled back.

Here is a chart of the recessions. Of course, the most recent recession was a major killer coming just as digital media hit. Traditional agencies really got smacked down.