CEO

Neil Patel On Advertising Agency Mistakes

Peter · September 5, 2021 · Leave a Comment

I am a regular listener of Neil Patel and Eric Siu’s The Marketing School podcast. As of today, these digital marketers and prolific audio publishers are up to 1,848 episodes (WOW!) that cover many of the tactics and strategies that have made their agencies successful.

Each daily show is delivered at wake up and is approximately 3 minutes long. Bite-sized advice. A recent episode “Mistakes That Neil and Eric Made While Growing Their Agencies” (#1842) is worth a listen (link below). Hey, maybe your agency should produce bite-sized vs. those hour-long podcasts. Like my loooong, but entertaining 40 podcast series – Advertising Stories.

Below is my take on their Neil and Eric’stake.

The podcast transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Eric Siu On Leadership and Work Habits:

“… when I first took over (the agency), one of the big mistakes that I made was taking a book too literally called “Let My People Go Surfing”. So some of you might’ve heard this story already, but it’s from the Patagonia co-founder, it’s a great book. And it talks about letting your people go surfing. He lets his people go surfing during lunch, right. Basically, it’s saying people don’t want to be micromanaged, and they don’t. And I went a little too extreme with it and I stopped showing up to the office. So I learned that it’s important, especially in the very beginning, especially when you’re trying to save something, to trust, but verify and also be there in person and be there in the trenches showing that, hey, you’re there and you have some type of vision for the company as well.”

My take. I grew up during the always be in the office days. I was usually the first in when I worked at Saatchi & Saatchi New York and London, definitely when I was the CEO of two digital startups and when I owned my own agency. It was critical that I demonstrated interest and energy – and its good news for me that I have always been a morning person. Sure I know all about the idea of work-life balance, especially when I had two offices in outdoor , fresh-air driven Oregon. But, running an advertising agency, or any business, requires real leadership and dedication. I demonstrated this dedication by showing up. Showing up is especially requiered for client focussed businesses.

Now, how to exhibit this style of leadership in a WFH environment is a bit up for grabs these days. We’ll see where this goes. That said, the last thing I’d do as a leader today is to pump out 6:35 AM emails that ask for an immediate response. That is not effective leadership.

“The other thing is I made a lot of kind of rash decisions without consulting people. And I learned that building actual relationships and building rapport with people and not coming from an arrogant perspective that just because I came from tech I thought that I kind of walked on water, which I didn’t, right. I just thought I was super amazing when really – it takes a village to build something amazing. So that’s what I would say. Don’t take things too literally, build relationships with people and make decisions that are… If they’re reversible, act on them quickly, but if they’re not reversible, you’d probably want to deliberate on them a little more.”

My take: There are a couple of points here. First, yes your agency will work better in a team environment. Even if you are the smartest or most experienced person in the room, don’t act like an ass. If you stop and listen to other people you will generally come out ahead. LOL, most of the time.

Second, it is OK to fail. But, try to do it too too fast and own up to mistakes. That said, repeted faliures are not a good thing.

Neil Patel On Client Concentration:

A Funny Advertising Agency Lawyer Story

Peter · January 19, 2021 · Leave a Comment

Yes, The Often Dreaded Three Words “Advertising Agency Lawyer” Can Be Funny

I was speaking with an advertising agency client this morning and she told me that they just got off a call with their advertising agency lawyer and it appears that the agency, for competitive reasons, has to rename one of their in-house developed tech applications. It is an important app for their clients and it also represents real smart intellectual property for the agency. OK, this stuff happens. Plus, it reminded me of a funny conversation I had about trademark infringement.

Citrus Vs. Citrus + The Advertising Agency Lawyer

About fifteen years ago my Ralston360 Portland advertising agency bought the graphic design firm Citrus. We liked their name so much we took it as our own. Citrus the advertising agency was born.

I sold Citrus the agency in 2014. A couple of weeks after the deal closed, a close where the name Citrus was dissolved, I am sitting in my room at L.A.’s The Standard Hotel and I check my voice mail. An unknown lawyer says that I have to call him immediately about a serious company issue. So, I give him a call. [Read more…] about A Funny Advertising Agency Lawyer Story

How To Be The Best Global Advertising Agency

Peter · October 22, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Want To Run A Global Advertising Agency Out Of Only One Office?

London Advertising, the crazily awarded global advertising agency (like being called the Agency Of The Year by The Drum year upon year) allowed its CEO Michael Moszynski to be interviewed by me right here on Advertising Stories. It helps that we worked together while having a few pints at Saatchi London in the way back. It also helps London Advertising that Michael’s Creative Director partner Alan Jarvie kicks butt as well.

Here are lessons on how to be distinctive; the value of the single-minded branded big idea; how to spend 25 years growing the massive Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group (and making it one of, if not the, most revered hospitality brands); how London advertises itself and how it kicks global / multi-office behemoths like WPP via one focussed office in London. Mantra = much more effective advertising for less. Not a bad sales pitch.

Really, there is not much more that I can say other than listen up. There are multiple teachable moments for any digital or “full service” advertising agency in this podcast. Pass it on to your mates.

NOTES:

London Advertising

Michael Mosynski on LinkedIn

The Mandarin Oriental “I’m A Fan” Advertising Campaign

Hypnotism coming: Remember to subscribe to Advertising Stories. Remember to subscribe to Advertising Stories. Remember to…

A nice thing for me… Feedspot has recognized Advertising Stories as being a top 15 advertising podcast.

The Richards Group And Your Advertising Agency

Peter · October 21, 2020 · 1 Comment

The Richards Group – A Teachable Moment

No, I am not going to comment on Stan Richard’s big mistake that had The Richards Group, the leading Dallas agency, quickly lose major accounts including Motel 6, Keurig Dr. Pepper, HEB, Motel 6, The Salvation Army, and The Home Depot. These are huge account losses that could destroy virtually any agency – in weeks.

But, What About Your Agency?

I was interviewed this week by ADWEEK’s Doug Zanger for my take on what the future might hold for The Richards Group. Specifically, what could they do to hold on to existing accounts and if and how they could find and land new business. I suggested that job #1 is for the agency to work hard to maintain the accounts they still have. Here is my quote:

What it might take to get back in the game

According to agency business development consultant Peter Levitan, the first step is to look inward.

“A part of business development that many agencies don’t understand or spend time and energy working on is growing existing accounts,” said Levitan. “In the case of The Richards Group, they have to save as many accounts as they can, and be totally upfront in dealing with the problem. There are sharks in the waters circling the accounts, so the pressure is on holding what remains.”

Your Agency – The Learning

I counsel my advertising and digital agency clients that the single best, and most efficient source of new business, read that as incremental profits, comes from existing client relationships. Why? Well, you already have the client in-house; you are well beyond the initial cost of pitching; you know their business; objectives, and opportunities inside and out; and, I assume that they love you.

Also, note that account retention is critical. In our land of doing specific projects vs. long-term agency of record relationships, it is imperative to be a client’s ideas and tech go-to leader. Keep the client’s marketing moving forward. Happy clients stay put.

This is clearly logical. However, I need to point out two recurring agency fails. One is complacency. You have the account, think that it will stay put and leadership moves their focus to landing that new account.

The other fail is the universal issue of not training agency account management. When I started in the business, I was trained in how to run accounts, how to communicate with clients, how to build long-term relationships, how to think of new ideas, how to present those ideas (and sell them)… Sadly, too many 2020 agencies do not stop to train their account managers. Believe me, the cost of losing an account is much higher than a few hours of training.

Back To The Richard’s Group

As I stated in ADWEEK, The Richard’s Group should, today, have a total focus on retaining the remaining clients. A well-trained account services team and involved media and creative departments should be having the right business-growth conversations and be perceived as brand builders. Agency staff will need to reinforce the reasons the client works with the agency in the first place and be looking future-forward. Client’s can be like lemmings willing to join others and jump off the cliff. While the team focuses on the future, agency management should allay any client concerns. Proactivity is critical. Split up the duties.

OK, one more …. the agency has to make sure that everyone is on message. “We are all sorry about what Stan Richards said and it does not reflect our agency culture”… and, on. Get on the same page and get on with business as usual.

How To Build A Profitable Advertising Agency

Peter · October 6, 2020 · Leave a Comment

It Has Become More Difficult To Run A Profitable Advertising Agency – Here Is How To Do It

The marketing communications world started shifting in the 1990s when clients moved advertising agencies from a 15% commission basis to fees; from TV, radio, print, and outdoor to an ever-increasing number of digital media options; a couple of recessions and, well, I’ll stop here. I know this because I grew up in the heady high-profit days and sold my digital agency when it became more difficult to run a profitable advertising agency of any kind.

The Michael Farmer Interview… Michael has advised virtually all of the leading advertising agencies from WPP to Omnicom to you name it to help them grow profits by using smarter agency and staff management. Michael also wrote the book: “Madison Avenue Manslaughter: An inside view of fee-cutting clients, profit-hungry owners and declining ad agencies.” Sir Martin Sorrell wrote the forward.

Over the years, Farmer & Company, the acknowledged expert of Scope Of Work (SOW) management has worked with Ogilvy & Mather, Wonderman Thompson, VMLY&R, The Martin Agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, TBWA, and McKinney to name just a few.

A Bit Of The Interview. From 360 Deliverables To 15,000.

The only true metric in an agency is the profit margin. That’s profit margin by client, which agencies have a hard time doing. And then profit margin for an office and then for a global client. In order to do that, they have to use timesheet data to figure out what their costs are. And everyone knows that the timesheet data is at least 30 to 40% incomplete. And they do not measure and document their scopes of work. When I worked with Ogilvy in the 1990s, they had 50 creatives and they were doing about 360 deliverables, 360 ads. It was all original work, TV, radio, and print. Even then it took us seven weeks to figure out how much work they were doing for each client today. I just did work with a similar office of 50 creatives. Today they are doing 15,000 deliverables for clients because of email marketing, social posting, Instagram, Facebook, you name it.

And, 90% of that work is adaptation work as opposed to origination work. The workload has exploded in volume and diminished in individual importance. Each little thing that they do is pretty small and doesn’t have a big impact on the brand. The agency and clients still don’t know how much of it is. I’ve worked with, Ogilvy, Gray, VMLY&R, BBD, you name it. I’ve worked with them all. I don’t know of a single holding company agency that has yet developed a methodology for measuring the amount of work they do so that they can better negotiate fees and resources with our clients.

Note, I think that this interview is so Important for any agency of any size that I will put the entire transcript in a separate post.

Profitable Advertising Agency Links

Madison Avenue Manslaughter – The Book.

Farmer & Company

Go here and sign up to get my free book, “How To Sell An Advertising Agency.”

YO – Hypnotism coming: Remember to subscribe to Advertising Stories. Remember to subscribe to Advertising Stories. Remember…