Search Results for: pitch

Is Anyone Interested in Investing In Your Advertising Agency?

Peter · August 14, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Is Anyone Interested in Investing In Your Advertising Agency?

Sorry. Probably Not.

But, D on’t Shoot Me. Rethink Your Agency.

Way back in 2013, I wrote about Bend, Oregon’s specialist ‘advertising agency’ G5. I wanted to show you, Ms. Agency CEO, that there are advertising agency business models that actually:

Attract high-margin clients

Are more efficient than your project-based approach

Are category specific. This is their pitch: “G5 simplifies digital marketing by delivering best-in-class sites, search, and social for Apartments, Self Storage, and Senior Living properties.”

Are unique in a world of me-too agencies

Leverage the power of marketing tech to help clients and grow your bottom line

And… increase agency valuations. You do wnat to sell someday, right?

Way back in 2013 you had to take my word for it. Not anymore. I was right.

G5 Raises $76 Million Investment Led by Peak Equity Partners

From the Portland Business Journal:

Digital marketing firm G5 has raised $76 million from a private equity firm.

The figure is the largest Oregon investment round this year. According to investment research firm PitchBook, the next highest round was $22 million for the New York and Portland-based biotech firm Schrödinger. Urban Airship raised $21 million and Jama Software raised $20 million.

The Bend-based company offers a digital marketing platform for the apartment, self storage and senior living market segments. Peak Equity Partners, which is taking a majority stake in the company, led the round. CEO Dan Hobin declined to name other investors in the deal.

Portland Business Journal.

Here is a bit from the press release:

BEND, Ore. (August 12, 2015) – G5, the leader in maximizing digital marketing effectiveness for the property management sector, today announced the closing of a $76 million investment led by Radnor, Pa. based Peak Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on the enterprise software market. The investment enables G5 to build on its ten year history of growth and innovation by accelerating feature development of the G5 Marketing Cloud – the most innovative, scalable, and up-to-date digital marketing platform in the property management sector.

From my 2013 blog post:

G5. A Little Digital Agency That Kicks Butt

When the digital agency G5 was launched in Bend Oregon in 2005 (my agency Citrus had offices in Bend and Portland), I wondered if their SEO oriented business model was going to succeed. As you can see, it did.

G5 is, if anything, a highly focused agency. They chose not to be one of the thousands of “full-service” agencies that are designed to meet virtually any client’s needs and ultimately wind up with a somewhat mushy sales proposition and inefficient business model.

G5 provides software and services directly to the large national property management sector which includes multifamily, senior living, self-storage and student housing. They call their service Digital Experience Management (DXM) and they offer an audacious promise: they promise that they will deliver client properties “within the first five organic SERP listings on Google.” In the active property management category, having a high SERP is a promise that can’t be refused.

G5 works it. In addition to their original SEO service, G5 now offers suites of services that include a Discovery Suite (SEO / SEM): Reputation Suite, Conversion Suite (websites, lead tracking, applicant screening), Retention Suite (CRM) and the Insight Suite (analytics.)

These targeted services allow G5 to pitch a compelling benefit story to prospective clients. Take a look at G5’s Solutions page to see how a set of services can be applied to multiple clients in each of their target categories. Like efficiency? This pitch can be repeated over and over.

What Works?

Category specificity and expertise.
A focussed and efficient new business pitch.
An audacious promise and an unequivocal value story.
A set of core services that can be resold across an entire category.

Add Central Oregon’s outdoor lifestyle and you have a profitable, smart, narrowly focused agency staffed with national talent that gets to live 25 minutes from great skiing. That’s Mt. Bachelor in the background.

Emotional Marketing As An Advertising Agency Positioning

Peter · August 8, 2013 · 1 Comment

I am talking with one of my clients about an agency positioning that positions them as an expert on emotional marketing. As in, the agency is an expert at triggering an emotional response in the consumer. Yes, they have the right chops for this. And, they live in the right country. And, clients, well some, Ok some, understand the emotional vs. the uber rational sell. Kiss me and I’m all yours.

As such, I am sensitized to emotional pitches these days. Here are two examples of emotional marketing in action. One is a movie trailer (from the great Spike Jonze) and the other a Google Nexus website and really sweet video (a really sweet story.)

Why is Google’s advertising getting so much better than Apple’s?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS8zOLOcPMQ

Here is the Nexus website. Watch the video.

I did some personal math the other day. I’ve been positioning agency’s for over 25 years. I’ve got another 13 really smart positionings up my sleeve. If you are interested in separating your agency from the pack, start here…

3 Ways for Floundering Advertising Agencies to Find Growth

Peter · May 3, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Hubspot’s article “3 Ways for Floundering Agencies to Find Growth” is mighty fine take on how agencies need to act if they want to grow care of a guest post by Agency Post’s Jamie Oetting.

Jamie highlights three areas for agency concentration.

Find A Focus. Being everything to everyone (an agency malaise) is as far as being single-minded (a point pitched to agency clients) as possible.

Invest In Education. Training your employees is a very good thing. It, well, educates them (and you agency manager too) and should make them more loyal.

Acquire More New Business Strategically. Having a new business plan and systematic approach is critical to keeping the agency shark swimming forward. Or, else. Oh, and I’m quoted inside.

Demolicious. A Portland Digital Event. Where Were The Ad Agencies?

Peter · April 9, 2013 · Leave a Comment

I went to the Portland’s Demolicious last week. There was a room full of digerati (do we still use that term), five tech companies that were each given 5 minutes to pitch their business ideas and four more that were given a fast-paced 1-minute to pitch their ideas. It worked great: beer + smart people + a nice room-buzz.

Go to the website to see the winner GlobeSherpa, a public transportation mobile app that’s now in action here in Portland.

Personally, I was most dazzled by the app Show Of Hands, one of the 1-minute presenters. From their Website…

We collect (anonymously) and share (transparently) public opinion. Every single day.

Show of Hands was launched in 2009 as a free iPhone app with the goal of asking simple questions that can lead to mind-blowing insights. We allow users to sign-up anonymously using their mobile phones, and vote on a few poll questions each day. Poll topics are kept diverse – variety is the spice of life! Along with their opinions on these poll topics, we collect optional demographic information from our users – and this info is what really powers the fun. After voting on each poll question, every user can see the full real-time poll results, displayed geographically or by a variety of demographic filters including gender, age, income, and political party. Users can also comment on each question, which can lead to some of the more intelligent (sometimes) and humorous (often) discussion forums on the internet. 20 million votes later, we are just getting started.

I spoke with Tony Bacos, Show Of Hands’ leader today and asked if the advertising world had discovered his app. I hate to say this, but, P&G has found him but it dosen’t look like the advertising agency world has. Why not? And, why weren’t there any agency folks at the event? As I have written (ranted) before…. Why aren’t more agency people curious?

I have a few more opinions and advice for the advertising world.