Insights

Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch: Part Two

Peter · September 17, 2015 · 1 Comment

Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch: Part Two

This is the second part of my interview with Tony Mikes, Founder of the Second Wind Network. It is his first-person perspective on how advertising agencies performed in an pitch for the National Aquarium in Baltimore. It is enlightening and instructive… to say the least.

The interview first appeared in my book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.”

The interview is over three thousand words so I broke it into two parts. I urge you to read both – part one is here. At the end of the interview, I will give you my impressions on the lessons that every agency can learn from Tony’s experience and insights.

The Anatomy Of An Advertising Pitch Interview

PL: So to be clear, of the six agencies, how many wanted to know who from the client would be in the room?

Tony: Nobody else.

PL: That’s… crazy.

Tony: Yeah, I mean, I think that that’s a sin, maybe not mortal, but that’s certainly a sin. But nobody asked.

PL: Well that’s incredibly surprising considering the importance of making interpersonal connections. What else did the smart agency do that stood out?

Tony: There was a pitch leader, and he occupied the podium. The other three presenters sat on director’s chairs. The leader moderated the whole session. So anything that needed to be stopped or moved or changed or accelerated or decelerated – the leader had control. The leader read the room and controlled the flow.

PL: Did you have a sense that they were well rehearsed?

Tony: Yes. They certainly had rehearsed a lot. They started with a bang – without introductions. Dark room. Killer video. Which ended in a… here we are.

The video lasted about a couple minutes. It was really great.

PL: Was the video about them or about the client? [Read more…] about Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch: Part Two

How To Win New Business

Peter · September 15, 2015 · 1 Comment

Yes, How to Win New Business

Now, I am not so, um, naive to say that all it takes is to get out there with a compelling message and then go for it. But, guess what… all it really takes is to get out there with a compelling message targeted to the right people at the right time – a message that is unique to your business and is difficult to ignore because it goes right to the heart of an issue that is keeping your prospect up at night. There, I said it. Let me put it another way and I’ll coin it as…

SSP: Smart Sales Pressure.

OK, one more piece of advice. We all (and I mean all of us) make mistakes that kill pitches and deals. As you might suspect, being conscious of these mistakes is rather important to avoiding them.

Mistakes.

Here is the poster of the 12 mistakes that I outline in my book. For your viewing (and hopefully humorous) pleasure:

I Am Worried About The Future Of Advertising

Peter · September 11, 2015 · Leave a Comment

I put some thoughts on the future of advertising on LinkedIn (a publishing platform that you should consider using for your agency).

I am concerned that the growth of ad blocking software; the shift to mobile where ads simply don’t work (yet) and the reduction of TV viewership by the under 30 crowd does not bode well for TV – which is still the leading advertising medium.

Head over to LinkedIn to see my thoughts. Agencies that crack this new code will win.

By the way, here are my 8 posts on the power of LinkedIn as a B2B marketing tool.

Advertising Agency Names For Your Agency

Peter · September 9, 2015 · 1 Comment

Advertising Agency Names and SEO Terms

This is an update to a 2015 post about advertising agency names. Yes, 2015. It was a hit at that time and subsequent blog posts about how to name an advertising agency have done well… as well. Here is an example post (a two-parter) on how to name an advertising agency.

I thought that I’d update this because I took a look at the agency names from some recent award shows – OK, Cannes Lions. I think that names matter:

The Monkeys
adam&eveDDB
GUT
SMUGGLER
Uncommon Creative Studio
Special

Back To Advertising Agency Names From 2015

Before I begin, I just want to apologize for the clickbait headline. Obviously, this headline is silly:

Unbelievable Advertising Agency Names For Your Agency.

But if you hang out on the web these days, you will see clickbait headlines all over – as in ad nauseam (I love the definition: Ad nauseam is a Latin term for a discussion that has continued so long that it has continued “to [the point of] nausea”.) The subject of the proliferation of clickbait, even by major advertisers and publishers – vs. delivering consumer value vs. trickery – is a worthy subject for another post. But, let’s get back to advertising agency names.

SEO

On the left is a list of some of the top search terms that people have used to wind up on my website. I only include these (and they are a bit wonky, and at best directional, ’cause they are from WordPress stats.) However, it is interesting (well, to me) that it appears that there are a lot of searches for ‘how to name an advertising agency.’ Advertising agency people really dig this subject and they spend hours thinking hard about selecting the perfect name.

They also spend hours thinking that they need to redesign their website. And, many should.

Note: If you read to the bottom, you will see that agency names just might not matter. But, first…

I renamed my ex-agency twice.

I admit it, I’ve been a re-namer too. When I bought my agency in 2002 it was Ralston Group (named after the founder); then we moved to Ralston360 in 2004 (we were becoming more digital and direct responsive.) A few years later we switched to Citrus after we bought the design firm Citrus and expanded our presence in the Portland market. We simply liked their name more than ours (and, as you might expect we also got tired of the 360 thing, 360 got way overused) so we took Citrus on.

What’s Your Agency Name?

A New Bottled Water Account For Your Ad Agency

Peter · September 6, 2015 · Leave a Comment

I Bet Your Ad Agency Doesn’t Have A Bottled Water Account Conflict

You don’t have Poland Springs or Crystal Geyser. So, go get the Timmy Brothers Water account.

And, yes, I know, bottled water is one of those evils. An account that might get some of your greener staff to ask why the agency really needs an account like this. Like, why would you:

Pay for water that might in fact not be any cleaner or better tasting than what comes out of your tap.

Buy dozens of freaking plastic bottles and then dump them out on civilisation and across our oceans.

But, Timmy Brothers is way different. Watch the video to see why.