Peter Levitan & Co.

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Is There Life After Advertising?

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Is There Life After Advertising? Yes.

the-endFYI: This was originally written in 2015. As of July 2016, I now live in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. This is one of North America’s coolest towns and I can still run my ad agency consultation business c/o the sweet waves of Wi-Fi.

December 22, 2015. Sayulita, Mexico.

This is a personal story.

I’ve been asked about life after advertising by many of my clients. And, why not. Advertising owners (my case) wonder if and how they can sell their agency and then wonder ‘what’s next?’

Ad workers see that they will probably age out of the industry by their late forties (a fucking huge problem for our industry’s brain drain that is exacerbated by the absurd notion that it’s a young person’s industry. However the BIG fact is that the margins are so slim that agencies can’t afford to pay their older employees decent salaries and associated benefits).

In other cases, people just get fried crisp or get fired and want out.

In the interest of speed, here are my two lives after advertising. If you have a few more minutes, check out my It’s Me page to read a bit more about my global and local advertising and client side Internet experience.

Life After One – From Saatchi to Internet

1995 – 2001. I left Saatchi in 1995 to work for Advance Internet, a division of The Newhouse’s Advance Publications. I was an early CEO in the reinvention of online news. I then went on to found and run ActiveBuddy. You might have played with our SmarterChild natural language bot / app.

Life After Two – From Owning Citrus to Peter Levitan & Co.

2001 – today. After SmarterChild (a long story) and 9/11 (I was fairly close to ground zero), my wife and I decided that we’d move to Oregon (Bend and Portland) after I bought the ad agency Citrus. I ran that for 8 years. I enjoyed selling it. The experience reminded e of selling my sailboat. The two best days were the day I bought it and the day I sold it.

I started this advertising agency business consultancy after I sold my agency and was asked by a couple of friends to help them craft a new business program. Citrus had done quite well. I’ve been applying my Saatchi and Citrus knowledge to help dozens of agencies build growth strategies during the past four years.

OK. What’s The Point?

1865wu3vpfb9ejpgI took my skills and founded a consultancy. I’m not unique. But, people love it when I tell that I can work from any part of the world (thank you WIFI and Skype). I kinda lucked into this new career, but I recommend that you do some planning because… you will have a life after advertising.

Here are some links that might deliver food for thought and guidance.

Smart Passive Income: Check out the guru on the idea of earning passive income. Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income is a simply brilliant how to start a live-anywhere make real-money business. He made $108,000 last month! Online! In his jammies! Ok, not that easy but… read him.

Grow Supply: Ali Mese tells you how to succeed and if you go right here you can get links to many many free tools and websites that will help you build your new business.

How To Sell Your Ad Agency: A link to my blog posts on selling your agency.

The Bottom Line?

Take my Corleone Offer and call me up. It’s an offer you should not refuse and a faster path to —– how to make the cash to get to What’s Next.

 

 

It Might Be Time To Start Your Own Ad Agency

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Yes Folks, You Can Start Your Ad Agency – And Succeed

Screen Shot 2015-09-22 at 8.37.50 PMGreat article in the U.K.’s The Drum from London Advertising’s CEO Michael Moszyinski on what might just happen if you bailed from your ad agency and decided to go out on your own. Sure, it’s scary. Sure, you might not succeed. Sure you are putting your career on the line. Sure you’ll miss the other hundred’s of people you drink with at Ogilvy or Droga5 or 72andsunny.

But, you know you want to do it. You know that you can do a better job than the management of your current agency. You know that you have super special smart ideas that you’d like to share with high-profit clients. You know that your time may be running out. You know that you might even be able to steal one of your clients.

“Confessions of an indie agency start up: Seven years in”

Take a good read of Michael’s agency launch story on The Drum. It will be enlightening, repeat enlightening, and should get your entrepreneurial juices flowing. Here is a brief energizer from London’s history for you to get you packing up… [Read more…] about It Might Be Time To Start Your Own Ad Agency

What Your Ad Agency Can Learn From The Army

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Your Ad Agency Failed. Now What?

Army_Strong_WP.jpg 1024×768“Oh well” should never be the last thing you say when your ad agency failed to sell in an idea, a new advertising program or are at the losing end of a pitch for a new account.

“Oh well” simply isn’t good business. Advertising agencies need to have a process for evaluating what did not work (even what worked) in order to improve its business systems — including how to pitch ideas. I suggest that agencies consider using what the U.S. military calls, the After-Action Review (AAR). Here’s a definition from the Air Force:

An after-action review (AAR) is a professional discussion of an event, focused on performance standards, that enables soldiers to discover for themselves what happened, why it happened, and how to sustain strengths and improve on weaknesses. It is a tool leaders and units can use to get maximum benefit from every mission or task.

Stop Failing… The Ad Agency After-Action Review

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Advertising Agency New Business Conference + Bourbon

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Fuel Lines Advertising Agency New Business Conference: October 8-9

postcard-frontOctober is soooo boring. NOT. Here is something to do that will help you grow your advertising agency’s client list.

Fuel Lines New Business Conference will be held in Nashville, TN on October 8-9. The Tennessee part is where the bourbon comes into play. But, that isn’t the reason you should attend. Here are a couple of other really good reasons. These are not necessarily in order of importance:

  • I am a keynote speaker and I’d love to meet you in Nashville.
  • Another great keynote speaker is the famous (infamous?) ‘Ad Contrarian’ author and blogger Bob Hoffman. Bob is one of the folks that added his humorous but oh so spot on insights to my book, “The Levitan Pitch.” 
  • You will get to see the smart Michael Gass of Fuel Lines and the well-read Jami Oetting of Hubspot’s Agency Post. Plus.
  • You will spend a couple of days focussing on advertising agency new business to hear what works and to interact with other agency leaders to hone your agency’s new business program.
  • Nashville is sweet in October.

Sign Up –> Right Here

The Conference

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