Peter Levitan & Co.
The New Business of Advertising
Leica’s 100th Anniversary and a sweet tribute to the power of the camera from F/nazca Saatchi & Saatchi. One of the Grand Prix Winners of the 2015 Cannes Lions International Festivity of Creativity.
My history… my second camera was an M3. I shouldn’t have sold it.
Watch the power…
Advertising Age recently ran two very interesting and insightful articles about the current and future state of advertising. It’s that time of the year.
In Part One, I offer my take on what I think are the most salient points in The Industry Speaks: 2016’s Top Priorities that delivered a range of industry leader perspectives on issues and opportunities. I’ve edited the original copy and briefly discuss what it means for you Ms. Advertising Agency CEO.
Part Two comes later this week. I’m feeling too cluttered right now.
One big takeaway… clutter. Advertising clutter, technology clutter, social clutter, content clutter, SEM clutter, even personal blog clutter and on.
Article 1: The Industry Speaks: 2016’s Top Priorities
“What’s the No. 1 issue that the overall marketing and advertising industry needs to deal with in 2016? Advertising Age surveyed executives from throughout the business, and heard a surprising range of answers.
Jeff Charney, CMO, Progressive
Everyone’s so concerned about ad blocking and time shifting, but we see a very different threat. Everybody is flooding the web with their own content, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute. We’re not just competing with our top competitors, or even other brands outside of our category, we’re competing with people’s friends, mothers and self-made celebrities on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. And it’s just getting started.
PL: Yes!!! So much stuff. So much competition for your eyeball and ear. I am currently advising an L.A. based fashion agency and have been digging into fashion and luxury marketing trends. The fashion and cosmetics marketing world has shifted. For example, Revlon’s mindshare competition is now coming from personal tastemaker sites like The Blonde Salad — not L’Oreal and it’s Vogue ads. That was Revlon’s old school competition. But, cosmetics buyers attention is now whipped snapped by dozens of new eyeball options.
Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP
So number one on the agenda is encouraging companies to take a longer-term, less risk-averse view of the world, predicated on the fundamental truth that marketing is an investment not a cost.
It’s clear from BrandZ analysis that investing in brands works. In the last 10 years, a measurement of the strongest brands from the BrandZ Top 100 as a stock portfolio shows their share price has risen over three times more than the MSCI World Index and almost two thirds more than the S&P500.
PL: Ah, the old argument. Advertising spend is a long term “investment.” OK, yeah, we’ve heard this before. But, Sir Martin backs it up with some facts.
Lori Senecal, global CEO, CP&B
Convention won’t challenge itself. As an industry, we need to help marketers really take control of the technology solutions that unlock opportunities to offer consumers truly inventive, additive, and welcome experiences. But clients, agencies, and consumers will only benefit – and our industry will only thrive – if together with CMOs we can control the necessary technology from start to finish.
PL: A nice wish. Will agencies control the technology food chain? No. Will some savvy agencies build their own technology? Sure. but, the agency world will not be in control.
Maurice Levy, chairman and CEO, Publicis Groupe
Mobile and data.
[Read more…] about Advertising Age and The Future Of Advertising
If there is one thing you must do when selling a BtoB service (as in your ad agency’s services; a tech solution; a great media or creative idea…) it is making sure you understand the needs and motivations of the person you are selling to when you craft your sales pitch. Sounds obvious, right? Believe me, after interviewing a wide range of clients and ad agency search consultants for my book on pitching I have to say that many agencies do not follow this golden rule. We are simply not spending enough time really thinking about the buyer and her perspective.
I had this lesson hammered home at my first media to agency pitch when I moved from Saatchi & Saatchi New York to launch the brand new newspaper website NJ.com. I figured I’d start selling the new fangled idea of internet advertising to my friends at my old agency (this was 1996). I knew the agency inside and out and had worked with its Executive Media Director Allen Banks for years. My pitch included a hockey puck graph of projected Internet usage and a discussion of digital advertising that touted our news website’s newfound ability to track how website visitors viewed and interacted with online advertising.
Sounds like a great digital media pitch, right? Was Allen smiling? No. His reaction?
“Are you f*cking kidding me? We have made a fortune not really knowing how, when and for how long consumers have been looking at our ads. I manage hundreds of millions in advertising media placement. Knowing how much of it doesn’t work will kill our golden goose.”
My point in telling you this story is that I didn’t really think through Allen’s motivations and potential objections before I delivered my early online sales pitch about tracking and analytics. I had only thought about how wonderful the Internet advertising solution was. By the way, Allen was right. The Internet sure seems like it killed some parts of the golden advertising goose.
Yes, some of these 6 elements may seem obvious (and yes, I am repeating myself) — however, I know for a fact that not everyone in your agency truly understands these simple rules. Many of your colleagues, even the folks on your new business or creative idea pitch team, probably do not have much direct sales experience.
Head over to this link to see my post on the 12 worst mistakes agencies make when pitching. You’ll like the cartoons as well.
Like you, I was saddened to hear of Bowie’s death. It was particularly hard since I had listened to his latest album that morning c/o Spotify. It’s another good / smart / thought-provoking one.
Lot’s been written this week. But, we all love infographics (or, at least, we did last year) — so, here is one that explains Bowie’s career. It is from the Economist’s obit.
A couple of years ago I created a Pinterest directory site that lists advertising agencies – the ones I could find. I did it as a way for prospective advertisers to easily locate and compare agencies and as a thought-leadership-oriented-business-development-lead-generator for my consulting business.
As you can see, the directory organizes agencies by city (primarily major cities) and uses a screen grab of the agency homepage and a brief description to help visitors see the range of agencies in each town.
FYI for you thought leaders worried about the time required to thought lead: this directory was very low-cost endeavor as I had an assistant in the Philippines build it using my template and instructions.
Today the Pinterest advertising agency directory has well over 1,000 Followers and I get some incoming every month from agencies that would like to be listed or have their information revised. I am going to keep the directory up – why not. However, I am just not sure if I want to maintain it beyond adding agencies that request a listing. I am not sure of its value for the ad industry – as in agencies and clients seeking an agency.
OK, one clear value for you agencies. This is a great way to study your competition in just one place. Agencies change / revise their websites every couple of years. The directory provides some great ideas worth, um, contemplating.
You can answer by adding a comment below or by emailing me at peter@peterlevitan.com. Thanks.
Do you think that this advertising agency directory via Pinterest is valuable to advertisers and you?
Were you aware of it?
Any other thoughts? Things that I could do to enhance the advertisier experience?
By the way: If you are not listed, would you like to be?