Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

Insights

Do Not Put Your Advertising Portfolio On Your Website. Really?

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I am working with a Canadian advertising and design agency and am doing a competitive analysis. I came across the website of Halifax’s Burke & Burke agency and found this amazing page where Burke & Burke tells its website visitors that it…

Won’t Show You its Advertising Portfolio!

I thought that I’ve seen it all. Apparently not. Mind blowing approach to using the website to NOT sell the agency. And, why wouldn’t they “want to walk into their competitor’s office with our portfolio”? Is the issue potential idea theft.

Marketing Branding Web Design and Advertising Agency in Halifax Nova Scotia

 

Coca-Cola And The Future of Advertising Agencies

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download (1)Today’s Wall Street Journal article, A New Marketing World Requires New Skills, gives us a sweet opportunity to get into the head of Joe Tripoldi, Coca-Cola’s Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer. Joe shares what he expects from his marketing organization as the world of marketing makes some dramatic and fast-paced shifts from old-fashioned brand-building to digital marketing.

This deep look also provides client-side direction for advertising and digital agencies to better understand where the world of marketing is headed. Not that any of this informations should be news. However, it is reinforcement for the way all agencies should be thinking in March, 2014. Thinking means designing agency services and hiring the right talent for the future. If Coke wants analytics, digital, social, mobile and gamification expertise — all clients will eventually want this and agencies need to plan accordingly.

“The biggest issue for CMOs today is the critical need to ‘re-skill’ their marketing organizations and build new capabilities in areas like big data/analytics, digital, social, mobile, gamification and design.

“This is not just about hiring a few subject-matter experts, but building a depth of knowledge leaders and practitioners in these critical new competencies. If they don’t, marketing organizations will be stuck with traditional 1980s and ’90s brand-building skills in a 21st-century world of an ‘always on’ consumer. The times, they are a-changing.

“You cannot slide over people in your current organization because they have loosely dabbled in these areas. You need to go to the millennial marketplace for ‘natives’ who have lived and breathed these disciplines for much of their lives. Individuals who have passion for connecting brands with people in new ways.

“The talent is out in the marketplace, you just have to be creative to source it in nontraditional ways through communities or networks. Then you have to understand that you may only retain these people for a short time, but the positive, disruptive impact and the knowledge they can impart on your organization is game changing.”

How To Sell Your Advertising Agency

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I talk with advertising and digital agencies every week that want to “sell in five or fewer years.” We discuss how they can begin to position themselves for a future sale. Well, one way isn’t to be “full-service” or another “social media guru.” These generalist brand positions are not going to get the attention of a WPP or even the larger shop down the street.

One of the paths to SOLD! is to find a niche to own. A niche that a larger company might want. At the moment, and for the foreseeable future, a technology niche is what the bigger boys are looking for. Portland’s not yet three year-old tech niche-owning Vizify (“Vizify turns your social media data into interactive infographics, videos, and more”) just got bought by Yahoo!

Vizify found a data visualization niche and worked it.

I know. They aren’t an advertising agency. But… so what. There is still a lesson here for you ad guys.

What is Yahoo! gonna do with Vizify? Who the hell knows. (OK, it might have been a talent acquisition since Vizify is shutting down.)

As Selena Larson on readwrite writes… “Yahoo is shutting down innovative apps and services right and left as it snaps up startups—to no clear purpose.” So, go figure. But, the guys that sold the company are smiling.

Vizify has been acquired by Yahoo

An Advertising Agency Website That Actually Brands

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Most, like most, advertising agency websites do not do a very good job of branding. Ooops, an understatement. They kinda look alike. or, at least fit into a standard set of design styles (peruse this visual agency directory.)

Lets face it, leading with client work, which makes a great deal of sense, doesn’t really brand an agency. Like its nice to know who did the Samsung work but branding? No. That’s why 72andSunny’s website could work for Goodby Silverstein & Partners and vice versa.

JWALK has an agency website that brands the agency within 2 seconds of your visit. Jay Walk… get it?

JWALK

I think that JWALK could do a better job of explaining what they do (see their About copy below.) But, there is no question that I am in JWALK land when I am on their website.

JWALK makes brands culturally relevant through storytelling with intent.

As an agency of creatives, designers, technologists, entrepreneurs, influencers and inventors, we understand what it takes to build businesses. Our job is to make your brand part of culture, loved by your consumers and envied by the competition.

The customer journey has evolved from the traditional awareness-to-purchase funnel to today’s fragmented shopping experience. Storytelling is the only common thread that binds the brand together, and drives consumer engagement.

(They do a better job within the limitations of their Twitter profile):

“@jawalk JWALK is an award winning agency that believes the only way to build a brand is through immersive storytelling.”

One Hour Advertising Agency

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Ah, an advertising agency with a promise and a distinctive message.

Sweden’s One Hour Agency makes a very simple promise to potential clients:

You give us one hour.
We generate quality ideas.

As ADWEEK says:

“If the meeting works from both sides, then we offer different kinds of packages depending on the brief,” says Larsen. The crew is currently working on a project for Swedish Public Radio.

OHA has a handy pie-chart that breaks down the first hour: 10 minutes each for greetings, evaluation and presentation, and 30 minutes for ideation. That’s pretty packed. Demands for bigger logos and “guaranteed viral” videos presumably require buying more time.

One Hour AgencyWhat works? It is a simple message, it is intriguing, it works because (OK, I am about to tell all of those advertisers out there a big secret), your marketing issues aren’t that difficult (well, at least for most clients – just try to sell Cadillacs to anyone under 55+) and most super savvy agency folks can probably suss out your issues and at least one smart idea in an hour. All One Hour Agency wants is for the advertising client to want to talk more. And, why not?

The one hour offer reminds me of my Corleone Offer. I know that I can talk with you and your agency leaders for 30 minutes and I will give you at least one business building new business program idea. I can do this because I am coming at understanding  your advertising agency’s positioning and marketing from an outsider’s perspective. Coupled with my experience, we can get to some smart thinking fast.

This is why I know that One Hour Agency can do for you what they have done for Spotify:

‘Impressed about how many great ideas came out of a single hour session! There’s no threshold to work with you guys. I don’t think you need good luck, just keep on working the way you do’ – Joel Brosjo, Spotify