Charles Barkley On Social Media
A quote from Charles Barkley from an episode of the sports TV show Pardon The Interruption…
Twitter is…
“Where losers go to feel important.”
…. So, please FOLLOW! Me: @peterlevitan
Insights
Ad Agency People: Get The Hell Out Of Town
Can Ad Agency People Get The Hell Out Of Town?
I’ve been thinking about living and working in a foreign country. I am not alone. It might be a life stage for me (I sold my ad agency a couple of years ago and do not have to live in any specific locale — although I do live in Portland, America’s coolest city.) I also run a ‘nomad’ consulting business and was able to base my work out of three continents in the past couple of years.
Sell Your Ad Agency & Get Out
A few times a year I talk with ad agency owners that want to get the hell out. They want to do this for various reasons: They’ve had enough; they are 61; they want to try something else; their agency is not performing well; agency margins suck; there are too many competitors; they don’t like dealing with HR issues and paying for everyone’s medical insurance. And, on and on.
Move To Mexico Or Chaing Mai
My wife and I started to scout out Mexico last year. We spent some time in Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende and Ajijic. San Miguel was the winner… Here is Huffington Post’s take on San Miguel: “10 Reasons Why People Fall in Love With San Miguel de Allende.” We’ll do more scouting this winter when we vacation in Sayulita and Puerto Vallarta. We’ve selected Mexico for a bunch of reasons. It is Mexico and if you dig Mexico like we do then it is a no-brainer. Mexico is also: close to friends and family via many non-stops; has a sweet cost of living; is in our time zones (which works for my American agency clients); has a very rich and diverse culture; has mountains and beaches and big cosmopolitan cities; has great food; has warmth (on many levels); has a rich art scene and is community oriented. However, it has spotty Internet service which I realized when I was working out of an AirBNB rental in San Miguel de Allende. I got over this issue quickly via evening shots of tequila and mezcal. Two other big reasons to dig Mexico.
Nomad List
I was surfing the Internet this morning in my never ending quest to learn about places where I can live and work and came across Nomad List. Nomad List is an information website and community for nomads. Nomads like 30, 40, 50 and 60-year-olds that might not want to work anymore on Madison Avenue or in SOMA or Austin.
The site lets you put in your criteria as in COL, weather, air quality, activities and Internet speeds. Check it out and realize that you can actually work from anywhere in the world. Nomad List also points you to co-working spaces. Most ad people have portable skills…. why not move them overseas.
Need a start? I punched in some personal criteria and Chaing Mai, Thailand came out on top. It has been on my move-to list for years. Play with Nomad and find out why.
So, get out.
Need more push? Check out this article… “Succeeding from Anywhere: 5 Trailblazing Communities for Digital Nomads”
Advertising Agencies And A New $13.4 Billion Client
Nothing should warm the soul of advertising agencies like the introduction of a brand new multi-billion dollar category. The newest category (well, new to legal marketing, not eons of inhalation) is the marijuana industry.
A recent study from IBISworld states:
- IBISWorld projects the marijuana industry to generate $13.4 billion in revenue in 2020, up an annualized 30.3%.
[Read more…] about Advertising Agencies And A New $13.4 Billion Client
Advertising Is Not Trusted
A study by the 4A’s says that you – Mr. Advertising Man and Ms. Marketing Woman (I am excluding me because I am at the 74% level – see below) – are not trusted by the public. I’m shocked. Actually, I am a bit perturbed that the ad and marketing industry couldn’t beat out Congress.
These discomfiting findings are from a new survey from the 4As called “Sex, Lies & News,” which outlines Americans’ attitudes toward advertising; how much they trust the news media; and their attitudes on sex in advertising. The survey did not specifically ask about agencies, which create the advertising the survey says is not trusted.
Only 4% of Americans think the marketing industry behaves with integrity, and nearly half of consumers surveyed say they don’t trust any news source. “Consumers are getting more astute about the news media and advertising,” said 4As Chief Marketing Officer Alison Fahey. “But we found that only a small percentage of consumers trust advertisers and the media…Americans believe that integrity is at a low and that people are lying to them.”
The “Advertising Is Not Trusted” Chart
Not too much I can add to this… But, you’ll see how much “I” love myself.
Do Your Advertising Agency Presentations KISS?
Use The Power Of KISS In Your Advertising Agency Presentations
Here is an excerpt on KISS – the art and power of simplicity – from my book on ad agency pitching and presentation management. The whole 249-page advice-rich book can be bought at Amazon. Right here.
KISS
KISS — Keep It Simple Stupid — works.
A jam-packed presentation loaded with agency credentials, too many ideas, too many presenters and a dozen creative executions that cover every issue the client has or might ever have in their lifetime, will not help you win. The client will be overwhelmed, and even worse, you won’t be able to build personal rapport and all important interpersonal chemistry. The client, especially the client that has to sit through four other agency presentations, could even go into deep REM sleep. I have seen it happen.they won’t leave the room hearing or remembering your agency’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Think of it this way:
An over-built presentation could also result in their leaving the room without hearing or remembering your agency’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Think of it this way:
CMO + REM + No memorable USP = No Sale.
I truly want to think that an agency could walk into a pitch meeting room and just present one concise insight that leads to one brilliant advertising idea that leads to one mind-blowing execution that leads to the client decision maker saying “I love you, I need you, where’s the contract?” But I am not that crazy. Or am I?
Keep these super KISS Moments in mind.
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was only 272 words long.
Churchill is famously known for his request for brevity in cabinet documents.
M&C Saatchi recognizes that in today’s digital-overload world, where people have the attention span of butterflies, getting even one point across and being remembered for it is golden. In M&C Saatchi parlance, ‘Brutal Simplicity’ rules. They’ve won clients behind this message.
Conversely, we’ve all sat through State Of The Union addresses that are so jam-packed that we don’t remember anything. Clinton’s 2000 speech was 2 hours, 28 minutes and 49 seconds long. What do you remember him saying that night?
A KISS Tip:
Of course, you can use all the time the client has given you to deliver your presentation. But that does not mean that you need to overwhelm them with detail about your thinking and and agency factoids..
Think Like Martin Luther King & Johnny Cochrane
Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream speech was only 17 minutes long and included the key (as in easy to remember) line “I have a dream.”
Johnny Cochrane understood tactical brevity when he helped O.J. Simpson with the line, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
You are in advertising and study culture. Think like a preacher, lawyer or even a skilled headline copywriter who knows the power of a concise headline. Think of the power of Apple’s simple tagline that delivered this highly competitive message: “Think Different”.
In the case of ad agency presentations… thinking different can be all about keeping it all a little bit bit simpler.
