Peter Levitan & Co.
The New Business of Advertising
Nothing should warm the soul of advertising agencies like the introduction of a brand new multi-billion dollar category. The newest category (well, new to legal marketing, not eons of inhalation) is the marijuana industry.
A recent study from IBISworld states:
[Read more…] about Advertising Agencies And A New $13.4 Billion Client
I have an objective that I give to all of my advertising agency clients. I tell them that they need to include FAME as an agency marketing objective. My primary point is that in a universe of 4,000 agency brands in the USA and possibly dozens in their home town, standing out from the clutter is an essential goal. Sounds obvious, right? However, most agencies do not actually have FAME as an objective. Or, maybe more to the point, they don’t actually work hard to be famous.
I put David Ogilvy’s’s photo on the left because he just might be the most famous man in the history of advertising. He worked it. In addition to founding one of the world’s most well-known agencies, he wrote three seminal advertising books that propelled his FAME: “Confessions of an Advertising Man” (1963), “Blood, Brains and Beer” (1978), and “Ogilvy on Advertising” (1983). These books formed the platform for his agency’s thinking and awareness. This is an important point. I’ll come back to it.
Google defines fame as, “the condition of being known or talked about by many people, especially on account of notable achievements.”
Known and talked about. Interesting, right? One of those easier said than done things. But, I can virtually guarantee you that if you do not make fame an agency objective, chances are you will not get there. [Read more…] about Fame and Advertising Agency Business Development
I was in New York recently and noticed, actually re-noticed and re-noticed, that advertising messages are everywhere. This hit home when I went to a restaurant urinal after a fine lunch and had to face an ad, you know, one of those framed ads. Not very high tech but very much in my face — like about 6 inches away.
I thought two things: 1) why do I have to look at this ad and, I have other things that I should be paying attention to right now. 2) it doesn’t stop. A few minutes later I was speeding up to a thirtieth floor meeting in an elevator equipped with one of those relentless video screens and more ads.
No peace! No chance to reflect on my upcoming meeting. No moment to be alone in my thoughts in places that used to be ad free. I’ve been attacked by, yes, dreaded ad clutter.
The New York Times’s “Sunday Review” ran the excellent excellent op-ed piece, “The Cost Of Paying Attention” by Matthew B. Crawford, author the upcoming book “The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction”. Mr. Crawford points out that we are bombarded by ads. No news here. But, he makes the strong case that “attention is a resource.” A very scarce resource and the advertising world (that means you and me) are destroying our individual chance to be introspective, alone in our own thoughts and focussed on our own being rather that yet another freakin ad or wannabe social media relationship. Bathroom and elevator advertising isn’t a new phenomenon. However, in Mr. Crawford’s view, they are a form of pollution. I have to agree. Here is how the article begins. [Read more…] about Planes, Trains, Automobiles, Ad Clutter & Urinals
I put a new infographic on social media planning and a checklist below. It is a good one. Big thanks to Post Planner and its article “FINALLY! A Checklist for Social Media Marketing that Actually Helps or the advice and graphic. “
Good stuff.
Most advertising agencies cannot and will not do all that is recommended. I firmly believe that the 2 biggest issues confronting ad agency business development programs are the lack of a clear plan (or any plan for that matter) and biting off more social media marketing than they can chew. This leads to inaction and inertia…. and not running the program 24/7. Therefore, my caution. This is a great chart on what to do and how to do it. But don’t bite it all off. You probably won’t be able to run it all.
Define your target audience. I am continuously amazed at how few (50%?) of ad agency social media programs look like they do not have clear objectives and understand what will be of value to their target audience. Is it current or future clients? Culture support for your agency? The press? Prospective employees? [Read more…] about Ad Agency Social Media Check List
I’ve written and talked about why and how your ad agency should write a book. You can see my presentation “The Agency Book. From Idea To Published In 6 Months” below.
In the presentation I mention that video is a great way to promote your agency-built book and that the video can go up on your author page on Amazon (very easy to do.) You can see how it fits in right HERE. But, to make your life easier, I put the video below.
As I discussed in the presentation, interviews are a great way to create lots of content – easily. In fact, my author video is an interview I set up with my friend Rebecca Armstrong, the leader of Portland’s ad agency North. The whole experience took about 45 minutes and it was done in one take. Again, very easy.
Here is my SlideShare presentation.
http://www.slideshare.net/peterspace/yes-you-can-write-and-publish-a-business-book-in-6-monthspeter-levitan-inbound-presentation-slideshare-version