Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

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Advertising Agency Self Promotion #2

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A couple of days ago I wrote about a small advertising program that my Agency Citrus Ralston360 ran 7 years ago. I just took a look at the post and it got me thinking about what else Google had stored in its memory about how we promoted the agency. This led me to an article about a podcasting self promotion we ran for the agency close to ten years ago.

Way back when, I decided that podcasting, because of automated distribution via RSS and inclusion in iTunes, was a platform for the future. If you have been following the world of podcasting, I was both right and wrong. Podcasting is still hot but RSS (Really Simple Syndication) didn’t really take off. Sure, podcasting is out there but the RSS thing was a bit too complicated for most web users. In fact, I think its promise of automated delivery has been taken over by apps. But, that’s another story.

So back in 2000 something, we promoted our expertise in podcasting by 1) having our own marketing interview podcast, Ralston360 View (it had a large following on iTunes); white papers, speaking engagements and a nifty video that was embedded inside an iPod looking gizmo graphic. You spun the interactive FLASH-based dial to select different instructional videos. I wish I still had the videos but they are long gone. This is what it looked like:

360_podcasting

This sweet tool garnered press for the agency and helped us with our very early social media prowess. It burnished our image. We became known for our thought leadership.

I continue to be a major fan of the value of thought leadership when it is targeted to the right audience. I recommend the art of thought leadership as win-win self promotion to my agency clients.

Need some strategic leadership ideas? I’ve got a whole bunch more. Give me a shout.

 

 

 

 

 

Advertising Agency Self Promotion

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Once again, as I research my pitch book, I find wonderful things. This time I was searching Google for images of agency self promotions and I find (on page one) two self promo ads that my agency did for itself when we were called Ralston360 (we were soon renamed Citrus.)

The ads, yes we used advertising to promote our own advertising agency, go figure, used the idea of napkins and ideas to highlight a series of brilliant (if I say so myself) ideas for our clients Legalzoom.com and Napa Valley Vintners (the trade org for Napa’s wine industry.)

Yup, we were selling how good we were at strategy — think ideas. Strategy is the second most important thing clients look for in their agencies. It comes after creativity and just before lunch.

ad agency self promotion 2 Google Search

An Ad Agency Infographic Leave Behind

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Data And Infographic Visualization for the ADD Generation.

I originally wrote this blog post way back in 2014 when I was writing my book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.” This book has sold thousands of copies and proves the point that writing a book can also lead to your own business growth as in generating lots of good leads. The same goes for using smart graphics. They will drive business.

The smart folks at Killer Visual Strategies pointed out that they’ve changed their name. So, this updated post.

Back to 2014…. I am doing research for my book(s) on advertising agency pitching. While collecting thoughts on post pitch leave-behinds, I came across this infographic for Killer Visual Strategies, an infographic design agency in Seattle with clients like Pepsico, Toyota and Expedia. Makes sense that they would employ an infographic to deliver their info. Makes sense to consider using infographics as a new business pitch leave behind. [Read more…] about An Ad Agency Infographic Leave Behind

8 Reasons Your Advertising Agency Fails At New Business

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Know what? There aren’t 8 reasons. 8 is a silly number. Don’t get distracted by numbers in blog post titles.

The single biggest reason for advertising agency new business failure is…

Inconsistency.

Agencies that fail don’t have a plan, a consistent approach (sorry, being busy working on current client business is a bad excuse) and don’t have a CEO who makes this his / her primary job… These agencies don’t act hungry.

Agencies cannot wait until they lose clients before they decide to reactivate their new business program. The sales cycle is way too long.

If this sounds at all familiar… call me up and I will help you get focussed.

While you are at it… Don’t miss any of my brilliant (LOL, but I mean it) thoughts on new business.

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How Advertising Agencies Should Find Clients

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The RSW/AgencySearch New Year Outlook Survey is out. It was completed by 150 senior level marketers in December 2013. I haven’t had a chance to review it in detail but I found the section on how clients find agencies (or conversely, how advertising agencies should find clients) particularly relevant to my current agency new business clients.

I had two meetings yesterday where we discussed the balance between inbound and outbound marketing. I can’t see an agency only doing inbound marketing (social media, etc.) as suggested by some of my agency new business colleagues. Is is simply too passive and the great majority of agencies are not so specialized or well-positioned that they get a high level of incoming leads. I believe that its a mistake to put all of an agency’s chips on blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook. I stress “all.”

The research shows that agencies need to directly target clients and make the “call” — a warm call. Agencies also need to have a referral strategy to stimulate referrals from current and past clients, friends and family. Yes, even cousin George.

I have written about “warm calling” and how to grow referrals. 

Back to the study. As you can see, 32% of marketers find out about agencies from direct contact and 48% use referrals. To not go directly to clients with the right message and not stimulate your referral base would be a huge mistake. You need sound strategies for both.

www.rswagencysearch.com images_and_uploads 2014 RSWAgencySearch Agency Client New Year Outlook Report