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Ad Agency Pitch Killing Mistakes

Peter · March 19, 2015 · 1 Comment

Last Batch: Ad Agency Pitch Killing Mistakes

This is the third installment of my list of 16 ad agency pitch mistakes made by, um, you Ms. Ad Agency CEO, Business Development Director, Creative Director and other pitch team members.

This list is in my book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.” Amazon is holding your copy for you right here.

I’d like to reiterate what I said in part one of the series:

This expert list is one of the last chapters in the book. I consider it a coda to my detailed advice on how to nail a presentation. In this case, I wanted to see what people who have listened to thousands of hours of sales presentations from what should be the best presenters in business (advertising, digital, PR and media agency executives) had to say about mistakes that occur all too often.

“All to often”. Yes, I know it’s crazy. Have you made these pitch killing mistakes? According to these consultants…. You do.

Debbie Morrison: Director of Consultancy and Best Practice, ISBA, thegoodpitch.com, UK

In terms of things agencies do wrong in pitch presentations, the biggest howler I have come across which instantly alienates the client, is disharmony in the agency pitch team!

Either the session is dominated by one senior person and no other agency team members ‘dare’ or are given the chance to input. Or there have been times I’ve experienced in pitches when there has been obvious hostility between agency team members resulting in open warfare during the pitch presentation! Highly off putting and results in an instant de-listing in most cases!

Dan Pearlman: CEO/Managing Partner, Bob Wolf Partners/TPG, California

In answer to your question: Most agencies don’t pay enough attention to the chemistry and culture aspects of their pitch. Where do the philosophies and values of their firm align with those of the client? [Read more…] about Ad Agency Pitch Killing Mistakes

Managing The Huge Hispanic Marketing & Advertising Opportunity

Peter · March 10, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Managing The Huge Hispanic Marketing & Advertising Opportunity

I’ve been invited to speak about business development strategy at AHAA’s annual conference in Miami on April 27th. AHAA is the only national trade organization representing the entire Hispanic marketing, communications, advertising and media industry.

I am looking forward to this opportunity because the Hispanic opportunity is… huge. In case you’ve been out of town, the United Sates is experiencing dramatic growth in our hispanic population — how is that for an understatement. I am sure that you are all well aware of our need to understand the Hispanic market and diverse culture. Need a reminder from the U.S. Census Bureau? Look left.

But, I am not sure that you know how digital the Hispanic group is. Here are some thoughts on this market from Google’s Think With Google.

You’ve likely heard the numbers: a 163% increase in population between 2010 and 2050, making up 30% of the population by July 1, 2050. One trillion dollars in buying power in 2010, rising to $1.5 trillion next year (an increase of 50% in just five years). I’m talking about U.S. Hispanics, of course—a consumer segment that’s on the radar of every Fortune 500 CMO.

At Google, we’ve taken notice of this audience too, but for a different reason: technology. U.S. Hispanics are ahead of the curve when it comes to digital. They lead in adoption of new devices. They are power users of mobile and over-index in video consumption. “Many marketers may think they trail the so-called general market in adoption of new tech, when in fact they are far ahead and should be among the first prospects for marketers seeking to grow their consumer base,” says Marla Skiko, senior vice president and director of digital innovation at SMG Multicultural.

Despite the facts, U.S. Hispanics are a vastly underserved market, and the opportunities to reach them through digital remain largely untapped.

Largely Untapped!

How can we have a market that will be over 47 million in 5 years and have it be ‘untapped’? [Read more…] about Managing The Huge Hispanic Marketing & Advertising Opportunity

How To Create Nice Ad Agency Clients

Peter · March 2, 2015 · Leave a Comment

My first client was General Mills (Total cereal and Yoplait). GM had been a client of my agency Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (the largest agency in New York at the time) for over thirty years and the relationship was deep and sweet. It was based on mutual respect and the goal of producing great creative to drive sales. It was a fabulous starter client, but I soon realized that all of the clients that I would work for in the next 25+ years were not going to be as professional. Most were, but not all.

My old agency Citrus once had a very profitable casino client who’s marketing director was soooo stressed out and f&cking mean that she had made an AE cry. After determining that this was not a win-win situation, we fired the client. A few years later we readmitted her and the casino to our account list. Time had passed and they needed our expertise and frankly, we liked their budgets. We also hired a brilliant ‘lion-tamer’ AE that actually wound up building a great relationship.

Then the client left and an even more major asshole became the marketing director. (What’s up with casino clients? I’ve heard casino client horror stories before.) The President of the casino thought that this guy ‘got it’ as he had run the floor of a major Las Vegas casino. Guess what… he didn’t have a clue and he was very insecure.

Things got so bad before we again parted ways, that I wrote the following white paper to:

1) Tell my clients that nice, professional clients actually get more time, personal attention and hard work from their agencies;

2) That being nice and decent and professional is a good thing and,

3) I had to blow off steam — nicely. I figured, why not turn this problem into a learning experience. Here’s the 2009 white paper based on my best ad agency client relationships during my 16 years at Saatchi & Saatchi and owning my own agency. Why not share it with your clients? Subtly.

“I Heart My Ad Agency. Or, How To Create Nice Clients.”

Building a Strong client-agency relationship for Better Work— and Better results. Lets start with a good quote.

“There are no bad advertising agencies, only bad agency-client relationships.”

Kenneth G. Romanzi, Domestic Chief Operating Officer, Ocean Spray Cranberries [Read more…] about How To Create Nice Ad Agency Clients

The Worst Presentation Mistakes: Part One

Peter · February 19, 2015 · 1 Comment

Sixteen Ad Agency Search Consultants On “The Single Worst Presentation Mistakes”

Here is Part One of a list of sales presentation mistake insights from some of the most experienced people ever to sit on the buyer’s side of a B2B sales presentation table. This list, and the next three parts are from my book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.”

This expert list is one of the last chapters in the book. I consider it a coda to my detailed advice on how to nail a presentation. In this case, I wanted to see what people who have listened to thousands of hours of sales presentations from what should be the best presenters in business (advertising agency executives) had to say about mistakes that occur all too often. The list, the agency search consultants observations and thoughts are both instructive and surprising to anyone delivering a business presentation. I think that the learning here is applicable to a very wide range of businesses… and individuals as we are ‘selling’ all day long.

Part 1

Just because I was in the mood to highlight even more agency mistakes, I asked sixteen of the world’s leading agency search consultants for their answers to the question, “What are the worst pitch mistakes agencies make?”

These opinions come from consultants that have sat through thousands of agency pitches. After reading their comments, imagine the eye rolling that they must do when many of us are presenting our truly brilliant ideas and work.

Again, my goal is to point out what not to do. Hidden between the lines of these answers is what to do to help you win.

Vasily Ananin: Agency Assessments International, Russia

Here are my thoughts on the topic of your question: To present, the people in the pitch should have the best presentation skills throughout the agency.

Presenters should be able to answer any client questions without the help of colleagues.

If you want to win the pitch, it is better that the presentation is conducted by the GM of the advertising agency.

One of the biggest mistakes during the pitch is that the agency offers services that they can’t knowingly perform. I mean that the agency, during the tender, promises to customers something that they obviously can’t deliver (they are bluffing). This behavior has a very negative impact on the reputation of the agency.

Laura Bajkowski: Principle, Bajkowski+Partners, New York

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.