Peter Levitan & Co.
The New Business of Advertising
It isn’t often that we get to see how advertising agencies advertise themselves. Thanks to Advertising Week and its Guide, we can see how 40 agencies advertise their brand or promote their session sponsorships. Its a rare opportunity to look into the heads of the agency world.
The ads fall into three types:
[Read more…] about Advertising Week: Advertising Agencies Advertise
I promised my friends at Advertising Week that I’d list 24 advertising agency positioning ideas. Here’s the list. First a couple of caveats.
I know that from a Brand Police perspective, that these may not be pure “Brand Positions.”
They are, however, meant to be thought-starters that lead the way out from our more standardized — as in me-too — agency positioning statements to the promised land of differentiation and, most importantly, to provide a reason to have your agency stand out from the 4,000 or so other “agencies” down the street and around the globe.
If you’ve made it this far (I am assuming you’ve read Parts I and II) congrats. I hope I’ve started to stimulate some thinking to get your agency past the same old same old.
Don’t forget to read Part I.
I advise advertising agencies on how to build and manage extraordinarily innovative business development programs.
I can do this because I ran business development at Saatchi, for my two Internet start-ups and for my own Portland ad / digital agency. I understand the brand positioning, messaging and marketing issues confronting global, mid-sized and small agencies. I am also a decent bloke.
Let’s go. Click this link.
A friend who just read my “How To Name Your Ad Agency” post, sent me this taxonomy graphic from Rob & Joe on advertising agency names. Thanks guys. Really cool.
I’ve got a bunch more advertising infographics on my Pinterest advertising agency directory.
I’ve been on an interview trip lately. I’ve done a couple of soon to be published interviews with industry leaders for Advertising Week Social Club and Agency Post. More are on the way.
One major point I keep hearing is that advertising agency specialization is key to breaking out of the me-too agency positioning malaise. Specialization is one way to get to a more powerful (i.e. relevant, impactful, efficient) new business program.
In my Advertising Week interview with Ian Beavis, Nielsen’s EVP Automotive, on how agencies can win an auto account, he mentions that most advertising agencies do not act as a business solution partner,
“You rarely hear of an agency being a business solution provider, as it just doesn’t sound cool or creative. A good agency solves a client’s business issues and is a partner. Very few qualify and even fewer truly embrace this challenge.”
In another for Agency Post, Rich Sullivan, the CEO of Alabama’s RedSquare Agency, discusses how RedSquare has specialized in casino marketing with growing success.
I’ll let you know when both of these are published.
On to today. I was looking at a new list of Seattle’s largest agencies and noted that Taphandles, the fourth largest agency in Seattle, specializes in, get this, beer. I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard of Taphandles and I am just down the road in Portland. I was intrigued.
Taphandles’ Twitter profile @taphandles describes the agency as:
“We know beer. Logos, taphandles, signs, displays, package/label/web design, glassware and all things POS… Let us help you sell more beer.”
There are a few things that work with this positioning. A key factor is that Taphandles has zeroed in on a fast growing category. Here are some stats from the Brewers Association.
Taphandles is well positioned to, yes, tap into the market due to its strong support for their beer expert positioning. They started out designing and manufacturing taphandles for most of the major beer brands. I love their concise story that has to grab the attention of beer clients.
“Since we opened our doors in 1999, we have worked with almost every beer brand worldwide, which has given us comprehensive understanding of competitive landscape, and appreciation for what it takes to build a successful brand. This experience makes us uniquely able to help breweries tell their stories effectively through the brands we design, and the merchandise we make.”
Clearly Taphandles has grown into a full-service provider by building on their taphandle design experience. But, there is something instructive here for all agencies.
Pick a growing category, learn it, own it and then you’ll be able to hammer it on your home page.
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…