ad agency

7 More Ridiculous Ad Agency Presentation and Pitch Mistakes

Peter · March 3, 2015 · 1 Comment

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

Here is Part Two of a list of ad agency sales presentation and pitch mistakes 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.” The poster on the left has all of my top 12 agency presentation mistake cartoons. These are all in the book.

Don’t miss Part One of the series and its first 6 mistakes… it is right here.

Mind Blowing.

As you will see from this series on agency presentation and pitch fails, most agencies make these mistakes. Yes, it is hard to step up and say that you and your team also make these kinds of mistakes. But, according to my agency search consultant friends, and their zillions of hours sitting across the table from you, you are in fact making these mistakes.

Pete Bogda: ABA Consulting, Inc., Texas

The common/worst mistakes that agencies make is not starting with the folks who will be on the client team, but load the room with agency top brass and/or stars. [Read more…] about 7 More Ridiculous Ad Agency Presentation and Pitch Mistakes

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

Is It OK For Ad Agencies To Shout?

Peter · February 25, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Yes, it is OK for ad agencies to shout.

First, a story.

I received an email last week from a reader that told me that he thought that I was promoting my book on presenting and pitching too hard. I found this comment thought provoking for a few reasons.

I have, like most of you, been ‘selling’ something for years. I’ve sold creative, strategic thinking, internet startup ideas, ad agency services, an ad agency itself and two books. Selling comes naturally to me. Not hard selling. But, selling nonetheless.

Why shouldn’t I be promoting my book? It is after-all my book; a new business tool for me (I get new clients because they have read the book) and it is a great read, if I do say so myself. OK, I’ll let others talk about its value at the bottom of this post.

I wrote the book as a marketing tactic and ‘publishing event’. It delivers credibility and gives me an outbound marketing tool (I send it to the right people) and an inbound source of lots of content. It has 70,000 words that I can repurpose on this blog, as guest posts, on LinkedIn and on SlideShare.

The book forms the basis of one of my strongest recommendations to my ad agency clients: help your agency stand out by writing a book. [Read more…] about Is It OK For Ad Agencies To Shout?

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

How High Can Marijuana Marketing Get?

Peter · February 16, 2015 · 1 Comment

Colorado ‘High’ Travel Marketing Meets Marijuana

I’ve written about the blossoming opportunities for marijuana industry marketing that are coming from the ‘Green Rush’. (See below for links to a couple of past posts on this very subject.)

Colorado, as a fully legal state, and Oregon, with its medical marijuana system, are worth looking at as harbingers of what’s coming to a town near you.

How high is up?

I’ll get to mile-high Colorado in a second…

There are ad and design agencies, publishers, ad networks, architects, retail designers, sign makers, website designers, social media experts, VC’s, lawyers, real estate agents, engineers, etc. jumping on this new Rush. The numbers, if you like hockey-stick-like bar charts are LRG! How large? CNBC has estimated that the legal global marijuana market could reach as high as $120 billion.

No surprise here: people like drugs. LOL! Surprisingly, most ad agencies are not paying attention to this brand new market. They are still competing with every other agency for the local hospital, bank, outdoor brand, soda, etc. Even WPP agencies.

My Portland Petri Dish.

I live in Portland where medical marijuana is legal and we will go all out legal in June, 2016. Today, there are over 30 dispensaries in the city and each dispensary needs the help of the marketing community. That’s 30 brand new clients for the marketing services community that came virtually out of nowhere.

The dispensary Farma is an example of a new ‘client’ and is clearly one of the best cases of a well-designed and branded medical marijuana dispensary. An agency or designer made some cash on this. I’ve been inside the shop and Farma has clearly taken a page out of the Apple retail playbook. This shop is the cleanest, neatest, most minimal shop in the city. On the other side of the design spectrum, we have a shop that looks and feels like a 1920’s speakeasy. Each of these needed a brand, a logo, a website, social media platform, packaging, ads and retail design. Multiply this activity by the other shops (and activity from products like edibles) and you start to see a growth category.

Need Some Brand New Clients? Try Marijuana Tourism.

I am consulting for an advertising agency that specializes in the real estate and travel markets so I punched in the search term ‘marijuana resort colorado’ in Google and got a bunch of results that further my case that there is money to be made in this market (yes, I know this should be is obvious.) Take a look at the website for Travel High Colorado.

Travel High offers packaged (get this (“high-cation”) cannibis trips. Here’s how they describe some of their services:

Cannabis Concierge: There is a lot to know about the new Colorado Cannabis laws and about the wonderful plant itself. Trust our experts to answer any questions that you may have as we are “Colorado’s Premiere Cannabis Concierge.”

Reservations: Our Travel Specialists will tailor your transportation, activities, and accommodations into a personalized “high-cation.” We personally plan all the details for your “High Country Experience.”

OK, My Point?

If you live in one of the legal marijuana states, or the growing list of fully legal states, I’d at least start to think about this brand new marketing category opportunity. There are already marijuana specialist agencies. But, you might not want to go that far. That said, start to pay attention to this space and… why wouldn’t you want to have a great branding story like Farma’s in your portfolio?

Feeling squeamish? I can imagine that. Especially if you live in a conservative state or one run by old white guys. However, the times are a-changin. Here is what Gallup has reported.

Gallup’s long-term trend on Americans’ support for legalizing marijuana shows that in 1969, just 12% of U.S. adults were in favor. But that swelled to 28% by the late 1970s, and 34% by 2003. Since then, support steadily increased to the point that 50% supported it in 2011.

Last year was the first time Gallup found a solid majority in favor, at 58%. That poll was conducted amid heavy news coverage of the imminent implementation of Colorado’s marijuana legalization law, which may have contributed to what appears to have been a temporary jump in support. This year, support at 51% is still a majority, but closer to where it was in 2011 and 2012.

Still squeamish? If you ever dreamed of getting some of the $3 billion that Pfizer spends per year selling Ativan and Viagra, then get over pitching a marijuana client — today’s newest ‘drug’ client. Still fearful? I bet you’d probably like to land the Jack Daniels 9o proof account. Nuff said.

Well, more stuff. Here is just one agency that seems to have figured this out. By the way, do you need to dedicate your entire agency to this industry? Of course not. Here’s a wild idea, why not build a sub brand. Why don’t agencies create sub-brands that targeted specific industries? Hmmm… back to the start. That’s exactly what the real estate agency I am working with is doing. Does every thing you do have to be under your NAME?

Looking For Some Past “Marijuana” Posts?

See the list here.