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Solo Design Agency Makes More Money Than Ad Agencies

Peter · February 10, 2023 · Leave a Comment

This Solo Design Agency Kicks Ass

The design agency Designjoy, a solo practitioner, has a much higher profit margin than most agencies. A lesson for advertising agencies follows.

I am writing a new book about how to build and run a kick-ass advertising agency. An important chapter discusses how an advertising agency can productize its services. To, yes, make more money at a much higher profit margin. Lots of ideas. But, here is a big one.

A Bold Productization Idea… Subscriptions

The design agency Designjoy offers design as a subscription. A design product. Billing starts at $4,995/m.

This one-man shop has reported annual recurring revenues of over $1.5 million. From Brett Williams’s LinkedIn profile:

Designjoy is a one-person premium design service currently serving 40+ clients with a + $1.5M ARR. One guy.

On his website:

A design agency with a twist.

Apps, websites, logos & more.

From his FAQ:

“Why wouldn’t I just hire a full-time designer?

Good question! For starters, the annual cost of a full-time senior-level designer now exceeds $100,000, plus benefits (and good luck finding one available). Aside from that, you may not always have enough work to keep them busy at all times, so you’re stuck paying for time you aren’t able to utilize.

With the monthly plan, you can pause and resume your subscription as often as you need to ensure you’re only paying your designer when you have work available for them.”

Big + Big Design Agency Numbers

Brett’s solo Instagram has over 74K Followers. 35K Followers on Twitter. The mega-agency VMLY&R has 57K followers and, get this, 16K employees.

Now the very serious stuff. From a 2023 Tweet at @designjoy:

“Just started tracking my spending habits and budgeting. Designjoy now costs less than $400/m to run. That’s it. That’s my overhead. And half of that is a Shutterstock subscription. Agencies are doing it all wrong.”

Yikes.

Wait. Wait. There’s More $.

You can now dive into Brett’s Productize Yourself course for $99. Of course, you should sign up your design agency, or any agency for that matter, for his productized course.

Advertising Agency Thought Leadership Distributition

Peter · January 3, 2023 · 10 Comments

How To Distribute Powerful Advertising Agency Thought Leadership

I am writing a new book about how to build and run a highly profitable advertising agency. Chapters of the book cover the art and science of developing impossible-to-resist, as in unignorable, thought leadership as an account-based marketing and inbound tool. Here is a quick list of advertising agency thought leadership distribution platforms. You can see more advertising agency resources right here.

Note that anything you produce can be efficiently sliced and diced and put on other platforms. Think content amplification.

13 Advertising Agency Thought Leadership Distribution Platforms

Your website. In a blog post or via a downloadable white paper, webinar offer, or podcast page. The advantage of a PDF offer is that you can ask the interested party for their contact information. Gently, please.
Your company newsletter. Build the list via website offers and gentle outreach. I’ve employed contractors in the Philippines to help build mailing lists.
LinkedIn. Three basic opportunities: 1) Post on LinkedIn (note that LinkedIn loves video). 2) Put your thinking in LinkedIn groups (for example I am a member of Digital Marketing – 2 million members). 3) Use LinkedIn Navigator to make direct connections.
Publish a LinkedIn newsletter. Your connections and followers will be invited to subscribe, and LinkedIn will alert your network whenever you publish new editions.
TikTok. TikTok has become a new gen search engine. It is currently an underutilized ad agency universe.
Video platforms. Australia’s Tiny Hunter agency has over 210 videos. They tell me that the videos help them close deals with the right new clients (right is the operative word), client types that spend time watching Tiny Hunter’s advice. The agency’s founders are more about closing the deal than racking up huge indiscriminate view numbers.
Audio platforms. Build and distribute your own podcast then transcribe it into bite-sized content and roll it out.
Leverage OPA = Other People’s Audience. Guest blog. Guest podcast. Why work to build an audience when you can borrow it?
Paper: Zines and, yes, old-fashioned letters. Hmm, or a targeted very cool (has to be cool) postcard series. So, 1986. However, so 2023 clutter busting. Paper breaks through
Write a book. Both paper and digital. The ultimate proof of expertise. Go self-published. There is no need for a time-consuming traditional publisher to write that B2B book.
Advertising. You use advertising to generate awareness for your clients, right? See What LONDON Advertising did.
Conferences. Go where your next client hangs out. Give that insight talk and make friends. Hand out that book.
Doughnuts? My agency once delivered insights directly to prospects in Portland and San Francisco using a customized and personalized Krispy Kreme box. Free doughnuts to grab attention. The box delivered awareness, actionable insights, and the offer to get some recently launched Krispy Kreme stock. It made us friends.
Write and produce your advertising agency thought leadership and get it out in the world to the right clients. They will love the good stuff.

More to come… in the new book.

ADWEEK Fastest Growing Advertising Agencies

Peter · November 7, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Here Is A List Of The ADWEEK Fastest Growing Advertising Agencies

As ADWEEK promises: “Ranking 75 global companies that thrived in uncertain times.”

Fastest growing is a good thing. I wondered what these agencies say about themselves – how they try to stand out – quickly. As in on their home page. Here you go.

Movers+Shakers: Connect To culture. Spread Joy.

ALTO: A creative company for courageous brands s

The Stable: Forging The Future Of Commerce.

The MRN: Eliminating Random Acts Of Marketing.

Headlight: We power breakthrough growth marketing for disruptive consumer brands.

Socium Media: We specialize in digital marketing, backed by data, and executed from strategies developed over years of digital marketing experience.

The Snow Agency: The Snow Agency is a full-service digital marketing agency for businesses looking to grow.

Refinery89: Digital Advertising Specialists.

Media Matters Worldwide: Your Experienced, Independent Media Strategy., Planning, Buying and Analytics partner. Women-Owned.

Bray & Co.: We are The StoryBuilders.

hunterblu: hunterblu is a full-service media partner that makes media simple. You know what your message is. We know where and how to place it to reach your audience.

Elumynt: Objectively Better Advertising.

Eyeful Media: Proven digital marketers delivering value and earning the trust of our partners every day.

Supply: The Persuasion Planning Media Agency.

NP Digital: The alternative to the agency status quo.

My favorite agency brand promise? Did these messages help them to be leaders in the ADWEEK fastest?

I’ll go with these two since they push a competitive message that makes me want to learn more:

The MRN: Eliminating Random Acts Of Marketing.

Elumynt: Objectively Better Advertising.

The full list.

Hey, why not subscribe to my LinkedIn newsletter??????

Layoffs or Firing? – Ad Age On Who Is Cutting

Peter · August 29, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Layoffs or Firing? That Is The Question.

So far in this “is it or is it not a recession” all I have heard from my advertising agency clients is that they are hiring.

At the same time, we see large companies laying off staff. I went to Ad Age and wondered if they report on company staff layoffs. And guess what… They do.

I’ll put some major reported layoffs below. But first. Are the big agencies hiring?

Example: WPP, alone has zillions of job openings around the world. Specifics?
1694 Media Jobs
650 Creative openings
717 in Analytics
819 in Client Services
596 Openings in New York
259 in Australia
106 in L.A.
501 at Ogilvy
331 at Wunderman Thompson
Omnicom has 10 AE openings, 7 production openings, and 19 “creative” jobs.
Publicis has 1,108 job openings on its LinkedIn jobs page.
Interpublic has 654.
There are 17,233 advertising agency jobs available on Indeed.com. 453 in D.C. alone.

I have no historical frame of reference but it looks like advertising agencies are looking for people. Client corporations?

From Ad Age Headlines on Major Client-Side Moves:

Ford Layoffs 3,000 Employees Globally
Apple Lays Off Recruiters (rater telling!)
Warner Bros. Discovery cuts 14% Of HBO and HBO Max
LinkedIn Lays Off Global Events Marketing team
Calm Cuts 20% of Staff (I Guess we don’t need as much calm these days)
HootSuite Lays off 30% of Employees
Shopify Lays Off 10% Of Workforce
Huge Lays Off 3% of Staff (An IPG Agency)
META Cuts Hiring Plans

Big companies are laying off while Big agencies are hiring. Yes, confusing.

I am looking at these numbers because a chapter in my new advertising agency management book (still in the typewriter) will examine all of the latest shifts in the ad biz hiring and talent management space. I’ll cover recruiting, burnout, diversity, and ageism. And, fun new terms like ghost quitting.

How Does A Personal Brand Work? Ask Gary Vaynerchuk & David Droga

Peter · July 29, 2022 · 3 Comments

The Powerful Advertising Agency Building Personal Brand c/o Gary Vaynerchuk, David Droga, and David Ogilvy

I’ve been thinking about the power of the personal brand of Gary Vaynerchuk, David Droga, and David Ogilvy. The power of their brands to drive advertising agency awareness, expertise, and new business.

What is a personal brand? There are many definitions. I went to the website PersonalBrand.com for this definition (why not go to a company smart enough to have bought the URL PersonalBrand?)

“A personal brand is a widely-recognized and largely-uniform perception or impression of an individual based on their experience, expertise, competencies, actions and/or achievements within a community, industry, or the marketplace at large.”

Kinda wordy but you get the idea. My definition: “How people perceive you.”

I am keen on the idea of building and managing a personal brand for agency leaders and senior managers.

One’s personal brand is how you present and control your image to your market – your current and potential clients, your competition, and your staff (and, I can’t stress this enough, your future staff.) Your personal brand puts you in charge of your professional perception and lets you highlight your skills, thought leadership, strengths, and history.

The Advertising Agency and the Power of the Personal Brand

A master… David Ogilvy.

As I’ve discussed in my agency naming chapter, many agencies are named after their founder. In most of these cases, the founder is the face of the agency. The founder embodies the agency mission and soul of the agency.

Ogilvy the global agency continues to use the brand essence of its founder David Ogilvy who passed away in 1999. The agency’s Careers page quotes David and leverages his personal brand to help sell the agency’s creative street cred and soul to future employees:

“As out founder David Ogilvy put it, we seek people who are bigger and smarter than ourselves. That’s how we create a company of giants. We’re always looking for modern marketing and brand experts with big hearts and enormous talent.”

How is this for branding? In 1962, Time Magazine called him “the most sought-after wizard in today’s advertising industry“. Believe me, this recognition did not happen by accident. Ogilvy was a PR brand master. [Read more…] about How Does A Personal Brand Work? Ask Gary Vaynerchuk & David Droga