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Fame and Advertising Agency Business Development

Peter · March 31, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Fame For Advertising Agency Business Development

I have an objective that I give to all of my advertising agency clients. I tell them that they need to include FAME as an agency marketing objective. My primary point is that in a universe of 4,000 agency brands in the USA and possibly dozens in their home town, standing out from the clutter is an essential goal. Sounds obvious, right? However, most agencies do not actually have FAME as an objective. Or, maybe more to the point, they don’t actually work hard to be famous.

I put David Ogilvy’s’s photo on the left because he just might be the most famous man in the history of advertising. He worked it. In addition to founding one of the world’s most well-known agencies, he wrote three seminal advertising books that propelled his FAME: “Confessions of an Advertising Man” (1963), “Blood, Brains and Beer” (1978), and “Ogilvy on Advertising” (1983). These books formed the platform for his agency’s thinking and awareness. This is an important point. I’ll come back to it.

What is Fame?

Google defines fame as, “the condition of being known or talked about by many people, especially on account of notable achievements.”

Known and talked about. Interesting, right? One of those easier said than done things. But, I can virtually guarantee you that if you do not make fame an agency objective, chances are you will not get there. [Read more…] about Fame and Advertising Agency Business Development

Is It OK For Ad Agencies To Shout?

Peter · February 25, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Yes, it is OK for ad agencies to shout.

First, a story.

I received an email last week from a reader that told me that he thought that I was promoting my book on presenting and pitching too hard. I found this comment thought provoking for a few reasons.

I have, like most of you, been ‘selling’ something for years. I’ve sold creative, strategic thinking, internet startup ideas, ad agency services, an ad agency itself and two books. Selling comes naturally to me. Not hard selling. But, selling nonetheless.

Why shouldn’t I be promoting my book? It is after-all my book; a new business tool for me (I get new clients because they have read the book) and it is a great read, if I do say so myself. OK, I’ll let others talk about its value at the bottom of this post.

I wrote the book as a marketing tactic and ‘publishing event’. It delivers credibility and gives me an outbound marketing tool (I send it to the right people) and an inbound source of lots of content. It has 70,000 words that I can repurpose on this blog, as guest posts, on LinkedIn and on SlideShare.

The book forms the basis of one of my strongest recommendations to my ad agency clients: help your agency stand out by writing a book. [Read more…] about Is It OK For Ad Agencies To Shout?

Is Your Ad Agency Being Held Back?

Peter · February 12, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Is Your Ad Agency Stuck?

I talk with a lot of advertising agency owners and managers. Their business vibrations range from very happy (usually a smart digital agency or a locally focussed one that owns a market) to agencies down in their luck (they lost one or more of their largest clients or their ‘full-service’ positioning’ isn’t very distinctive) to psyched newbies that are working on honing their sales proposition and developing efficient processes.

As someone who has seen agencies come, go big and then fade over the years, it is instructive to be able to look under the hoods of a lot of ad and digital agencies. The up close examination is interesting / often exciting / occasionally sad but always thought provoking as advertising people are very articulate when it comes to discussing the honest state of their business. Well, to me. Maybe, not to the other owner down the street.

Some Ad Agency Issues

I hear about a few universal issues that many agencies have to deal with and I try to help my agency clients navigate these issues and leverage industry trends (that means: what clients want from an agency) to help agency owners and managers build smarter agency sales propositions, business development systems (that they will actually maintain) and tactical uses of inbound and outbound marketing.

Here are some of the more general (decelerating) issues we discuss.

Agency Positioning: Yes, that one. I have been writing about agency brand positioning for a while and you might be interested in my in-depth article “How To Position An Ad Agency”. The primary issues I see are generally concerned with the fact that most agencies do not clearly express what they are today or… haven’t done the deep thinking, homework and client need market research to create a competitive positioning that will attract the clients they want. Agency ‘sameness’ is a big problem. Many agency owners cannot seem to get past the fear of having a narrow positioning that will actually set them apart. They want to be ready to handle every possible account and project. This everything-for-every-client approach dilutes having a distinctive sales proposition.

Agency Messaging: Once an agency has a competitive positioning they need to build a messaging system to deliver it. Most agencies (see these numbers as proof) do not have a systematic approach to how the craft messaging that supports their brand position. They also seem to fear being to bold and don’t subscribe to the use of chutzpah. Need an example? Look at how London Advertising supports their very clear and benefit-oriented brand positioning with a video and a unique way to express their strategy via their case histories. Here is their ‘One Idea’ proposition (note that they were named Agency of The Year by The Drum.)

LONDON is an international advertising agency built for today. We create One Brilliant Idea that can work in any media, anywhere in the world. This has been proven to deliver the highest possible return
on investment.

The Agency Website: Since most agencies are always in the mode of wanting to redesign their website, isolating the issue of agency websites that don’t SELL is easy. There are many reasons that agency websites do not work as hard as they should. Here are just a couple. The website does not tell the visitor what that agency does and can deliver in its allotted six seconds (that is usually all the time you’ll get to capture the attention of a busy client prospect); the website does not sell agency thinking or even the work via smart cases or well-crafted thought leadership that prove that the agency can get the job done for today’s skittish clients; and, the agency does not deliver any compelling sense of who they are… that means that the website does not build any interpersonal chemistry between the agency and the visitor. This is critical: try some video instead of lots of copy. Speaking of video, have you tried Wistia yet? From their website: “Wistia provides professional video hosting with amazing viewer analytics, HD video delivery, and marketing tools to help understand your visitors.”

Outbound Marketing: Failures in outbound marketing include not having created a list of potential clients (or even client categories); no CRM system to keep the program moving forward; no scheduled outreach; and… a fear of cold calling. Note, I agree with fear of cold calling. That’s why I promote the use of ‘Warm Calling’. That means, give the clients the ideas and insights they need and want to warm them up and then make the call.

Inbound Marketing: This is a head scratcher for me. The great majority of agencies do not seem to know how to do inbound marketing. Many agency blogs look like the agency didn’t write a creative brief that clearly states their blog’s objectives including an understanding of what clients they want to reach — or in the case of all inbound programs, the agency wants to have find the agency via smart SEO and guest posting, etc. I could go on to the fact that agencies do not seem to use simple marketing calendars to mange their content programs but I will stop here. Frankly, in many cases, there simply too many missed opportunities. I think a key reason for this missed opportunity is that some agency CEO’s don’t actually understand inbound marketing and the art of content creation. it works. After all, you found me.

One more big issue:

No Business Development Plan: I’ve saved the best for last. An agency cannot solve any of these issues without having a master business development plan that details objectives and strategies. Even a two-pager would help.

Need help getting unbound? Vito can help.

I know that I can help you solve the problems that might be holding your agency back. Give me a call and take me up on my Corleone offer.

Mitch Joel On The Art Of Ad Agency Social Media

Peter · January 16, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Twist Image’s Mitch Joel On The Art of Ad Agency Social Media As A Business Development Tool

And… Writing Like Crazy Since 2003

Quick note. It is 1 January 2018 and Mitch just served up his 599th podcast. He started blogging in 2003. That is what I call some serious focus and consistency. This is how to run social media.

—-

Here is an interview with Mitch Joel as a counterpoint to his interviewing me for his “6 Pixels of Separation” podcast.

Mitch is President of the WPP Montreal-based agency Twist Image – one of the largest independent digital marketing agencies in North America. Mitch is the most prolific user of social media in the agency world. In addition to his podcast, he authors the agency’s blog, has written two books (with a third on the way), writes for the “Harvard Business Review” and “Huffington Post”, has over 64,000 @mitchjoel Twitter Followers and speaks at major conferences.

Peter: When did you start blogging?

Mitch: I started blogging in 2003. The spirit of it came from my pedigree and background in publishing, media and writing. When I saw the blogging platform come out, it was Blogger at the time, I thought that blogging would be a different and unique way for our agency to do some form of thought leadership. Although, I didn’t call it ‘thought leadership’ at the time.

We were there at the early days of digital becoming something in marketing. It just seemed like the right, comfortable fit for me. Then I got very addicted. I publish eight hundred to a thousand words every day. I couldn’t tell you logically why I do this. I don’t check my stats. I do it because I like to write and there happens to be a publish button.

You’re up to four hundred and forty-four podcasts. Why did you move into podcasting in addition to such prolific blogging?

Blogging + Interpersonal Chemistry Drives Ad Agency New Business

Peter · January 13, 2015 · 1 Comment

This is my 400^th blog post. Why 400? I Am Driving Interpersonal Chemistry.

First of all, I enjoy writing. I started this blog when I published my first book, “Boomercide: From Woodstock To Suicide”. The blog also supports the marketing of my agency consultation business and my second book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This book. Win More Pitches”.

Beyond the fun of writing and expressing my views on the advertising industry, the blog’s primary purpose is to act as my main marketing vehicle for my ad agency new business consultancy (and marketing ‘guinea pig’ to learn more to help my clients).

Last year, 32,111 people visited the blog and viewed 70,202 pages. My blog posts were marketed across LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and in guest blog posts on websites like AdPulp, Agency Post (now HubSpot) and Advertising Week.

The blog, guest posts and my book on pitching have also made me new friends that have helped expand the reach of my marketing program. Guest blogging got me a speaking gigs at conferences like HubSpot’s Inbound conference and the publication of my book made friends like Mitch Joel who invited me to be a guest on his 9-year-old “6 Pixels of Separation” podcast. Mitch has over 64,000 Twitter followers.

Michael Gass of Fuel Lines advertising agency new business fame gave me this great review (which he promoted onto his 71,000 followers)

I possibly have read every book about agency pitches and none come close to the rich, detailed information and guidance that you will find in this book, The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches, written by Peter Levitan. The book lives up to its title. I highly recommend that every advertising, digital, media and PR agency principal read it. (Yes, go ahead, you can Tweet this.)

All of this activity resulted in my working with advertising agency clients on three continents. As you can see, the blog has been read in virtually every country. I even had 5 views in Syria. [Read more…] about Blogging + Interpersonal Chemistry Drives Ad Agency New Business