Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

marketing

Advertising Age and The Future Of Advertising

· · Leave a Comment

The Future of Advertising

Display-LUMAscape_2012-04-05Advertising Age recently ran two very interesting and insightful articles about the current and future state of advertising. It’s that time of the year.

In Part One, I offer my take on what I think are the most salient points in The Industry Speaks: 2016’s Top Priorities that delivered a range of industry leader perspectives on issues and opportunities. I’ve edited the original copy and briefly discuss what it means for you Ms. Advertising Agency CEO.

Part Two comes later this week. I’m feeling too cluttered right now.

One big takeaway… clutter. Advertising clutter, technology clutter, social clutter, content clutter, SEM clutter, even personal blog clutter and on.

Article 1: The Industry Speaks: 2016’s Top Priorities

“What’s the No. 1 issue that the overall marketing and advertising industry needs to deal with in 2016? Advertising Age surveyed executives from throughout the business, and heard a surprising range of answers.

Jeff Charney, CMO, Progressive

Everyone’s so concerned about ad blocking and time shifting, but we see a very different threat. Everybody is flooding the web with their own content, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute. We’re not just competing with our top competitors, or even other brands outside of our category, we’re competing with people’s friends, mothers and self-made celebrities on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. And it’s just getting started.

PL: Yes!!! So much stuff. So much competition for your eyeball and ear. I am currently advising an L.A. based fashion agency and have been digging into fashion and luxury marketing trends. The fashion and cosmetics marketing world has shifted. For example, Revlon’s mindshare competition is now coming from personal tastemaker sites like The Blonde Salad — not L’Oreal and it’s Vogue ads. That was Revlon’s old school competition. But, cosmetics buyers attention is now whipped snapped by dozens of new eyeball options.

Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP

So number one on the agenda is encouraging companies to take a longer-term, less risk-averse view of the world, predicated on the fundamental truth that marketing is an investment not a cost.

It’s clear from BrandZ analysis that investing in brands works. In the last 10 years, a measurement of the strongest brands from the BrandZ Top 100 as a stock portfolio shows their share price has risen over three times more than the MSCI World Index and almost two thirds more than the S&P500.

PL: Ah, the old argument. Advertising spend is a long term “investment.” OK, yeah, we’ve heard this before. But, Sir Martin backs it up with some facts.

Lori Senecal, global CEO, CP&B

Convention won’t challenge itself. As an industry, we need to help marketers really take control of the technology solutions that unlock opportunities to offer consumers truly inventive, additive, and welcome experiences. But clients, agencies, and consumers will only benefit – and our industry will only thrive – if together with CMOs we can control the necessary technology from start to finish.

PL: A nice wish. Will agencies control the technology food chain? No. Will some savvy agencies build their own technology? Sure. but, the agency world will not be in control.

Maurice Levy, chairman and CEO, Publicis Groupe

Mobile and data.

[Read more…] about Advertising Age and The Future Of Advertising

Keep It Simple Stupid

· · Leave a Comment

KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid Is One Of My Mantras

download tomToo often advertising and digital agencies overstuff their messaging with the goal of telling future clients that they can do anything that the client needs. It goes from the idea of the full-service agency (we do ads, TV, radio, brochures, websites, SEO, content, social, PPC, and on…) to we do digital (PPC, SEM, landing pages, mobile, social, content, analytics, remarketing and on). This kitchen sink approach tends to overwhelm the agency’s messaging, reduces any sense of focus and is often perceived as mission impossible by clients who  do not think that a mobile agency can also be an expert at programmatic buying and eCommerce management and — pick more.

That’s Why I Preach: KISS

Keep your agency brand positioning focused. Keep your messaging focused. Keep focussed on business development. Focus your social media and thought leadership. Focus on the type of clients you want and can get (that isn’t every client in the universe).

Speaking of KISS — Tim Ferriss’s weekly broadcast email turned me on to this story from Rhode Island’s late George Germon – a very special chef and restaurant owner. I had the pleasure of dining at Al Forno, his fantastic Providence restaurant. Read on to get a taste of the power of simplicity.

George Germon On The Power Of Simplicity

George Germon (co-owner of the famed Al Forno restaurant) recounts an experience that he says he’ll never forget. “I was visiting some people in England who had a four- or five-year-old daughter. They weren’t around, but I was in the kitchen and the little girl pulled a chair over to the stove and started heating up a pan, saying she was going to make tomato soup,” he remembers. After getting the little girl’s assurance that her parents allowed her to do so, Germon says he watched her heat some butter in the pan, then take out a knife and cutting board and chop some tomatoes. She cooked the tomatoes in the butter for about 3 minutes, and then added a little salt and a little cream.

“Would you like some?” she asked Germon, who politely replied, “Sure!” Once he tasted it, Germon says he was absolutely floored. “It was unbelievable,” he says. “I couldn’t believe that something tasted as good as it did with so few ingredients.”

Al Forno’s menu features a potato soup that’s equally simple. “It has just four ingredients: potatoes, onions, butter, and water. That’s it,” says Germon. “And when our cooks first made it, they kept asking, ‘What’s the next step?’” Johanne Killeen remembers, “They found it impossible to believe that anything wonderful could result from four ingredients!”

 

So… What’s your tomato?

 

Do You Like Flying?

· · 1 Comment

Do You Like Flying? Willing To Pay For Less Pain?

Wu-Airlines-Suffer-690“Why Airlines Want To make You Suffer” is a ‘sweet’ article from the New Yorker on how your airline works hard to make you uncomfortable so you buy the longer leg room seat and check your bags. Extra fees rock.

But the fee model comes with systematic costs that are not immediately obvious. Here’s the thing: in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be described as “calculated misery.” Basic service, without fees, must be sufficiently degraded in order to make people want to pay to escape it. And that’s where the suffering begins.

Is this why marketers are ranked just ahead of Congress by American consumers?

So, What Pain Can Advertising Agencies Build Into Thier Service To Get More Bucks?

Hmmm…. grade your AE’s, ECD’s, responsiveness, efficient media buying and charge more for the best? Or, charge on a sliding scale for your Big Strategic and Creative Ideas? More for Tweets based on reTweets? More for more Likes? What other types of pain can you deliver to have clients pay to get better services?

Just trying to learn from United.

My 500th & Most Valuable Advertising Blog Post About Saatchi

· · Leave a Comment

Wowzer – This Is My 500th Blog Post

BLOGI  started blogging a few years ago to help promote my ad agency Citrus. We were early and, I have to admit, the blog world was a bit less crowded in the mid-2000’s. Today with over 3,000 marketing services blogs, agency blogs have to work a lot harder and smarter. I’ve tried to do just that here.

To commemorate this personal milestone, I want to make sure that this 500th post is highly valuable to my readership – that’s you. After I ramble a bit about what I think are some of my most useful advertising agency insights, I am going to discuss the essentials of my blogging system as a final point. This system works for me as virtually all of my business leads come from this blog as well as LinkedIn, Twitter, Slideshare and guest posting which are tied into the blog. These social media actions are directed by very clear objectives and are focused on targeting ‘you’ via the use of personas. I can tell you that, if used correctly, social media is a highly effective inbound marketing platform. But, you know that.

I believe that many of my past posts have provided value since they have been read over 159,000 times, have been shared across the web and, most importantly, drive those sweet incoming leads from agencies (hopefully like yours) that are looking for growth strategies.

Here Are My Top Posts

As you’ll see, my second most read post at over 9,000! covers the worst advertising pitch and presentation ever.

top posts

“The Worst Advertising Agency Presentation – Ever”  is about a Saatchi & Saatchi pitch debacle and was one of the reasons I wrote my book on how to run winning pitches. The outcome of this botched pitch was that Saatchi did not win the global Adidas account and I didn’t get to run the account from my very own Saatchi sports agency. Go ahead, buy the book to see all of our mistakes and how to avoid them from Amazon here.

The worst ever pitch blog post is also the reason I put the word Saatchi in this headline. “Saatchi” is serious blog post headline click bait. More on click bait, or better yet, targeted keyword rich blog headlines a bit later.

The Post: The Worst Advertising Agency Presentation – Ever [Read more…] about My 500th & Most Valuable Advertising Blog Post About Saatchi

Six Ways Ad Agencies Are Winning New Business

· · Leave a Comment

Six Ways Ad Agencies Are Winning New Business

download adHere is a headline from a 2009 Advertising Age article:

By the way, am I the only one confused by AdvertisingAge / AdAge branding. Which is it?

“Six Ways Ad Agencies Are Reeling in New Business Now  Some Novel and Tried-and-True Tricks to Snag Accounts in Recession”

I found the article searching for ways that advertising agencies are winning new accounts. Since the article was from the dark days of the recession, I thought… hey maybe there are some insights that are applicable to today’s agency world. Here’s the Ad Age article and my take.

“Client cutbacks amid the recession have placed intense pressure on agencies, who are clamoring to hold on to the clients they have and starved to add new business where they can. “When times are tight, even the huge agencies go after the tiniest of accounts,” said Ann Billock, a principal at consultancy Ark Advisors in New York. Below, Ad Age shares some of the ways agencies are managing to still snag business.

NETWORK INNOVATIVELY

Having an ample Rolodex is essential to growing your agency, but networking doesn’t have to be about three-martini lunches. Via Group, Portland, Maine, has developed a clever way of drumming up new business. Once a month, founder-CEO John Coleman organizes a get-together of eight to 10 marketing executives to discuss topics such as “technology’s role on the evolution of society and culture.” 

Yes! Create events, face-to-face events that attract your most cherished client prospects. My Portland agency Citrus ran events about new marketing trends in the late 2000’s for clients and prospects. We were able to get folks from LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and Microsoft to come to Portland and discuss the newish world of digital and each company’s advertising products. This was a no-brainer for us. We initially ran these in our lobby and when the attendance grew, we rented a big rock hall to add a bit of hipster. Your agency can do this easily. Start small… rent a bar at happy hour and drink and talk. You’ll look smart and cool and sell face-to-face. Beats cold-calling.

SHOW YOUR SOCIAL-MEDIA SAVVY

Having an influencer on your team is a huge asset. Take Dave Armano, VP-experience design at digital agency Critical Mass, or Steve Rubel, senior VP-director of insights for Edelman Digital (and an Ad Age columnist). These are new-business people on social-networking steroids. 

I suggest that your agency designate a partner (reasoning to follow) to author and be the face of your social media. Get out there and do a really great and powerful and consistent job in social because it works (see my recent article on how social works hard for my brand and… because if you can’t look good in social media (!!), how the heck can a client think that you have the chops to ever recommend any social programs to them.? Do unto others, baby.

OK, why a partner? Do you really want to build an employee’s brand and then watch them go across town? This happens. I don’t thin AdvertisingAge gets this one: “Sure, the thoughts they share are their own and not their employers.’ But in the end, the agency wins with talent that is active in consumer conversations.”

ADOPT A RECOGNIZABLE PLATFORM

Agency-positioning efforts such as Kevin Roberts’ “Lovemarks” platform (he really siuggests that a consumer can learn to LOVE their tootpaste) at Saatchi may not be new, but they really can work. One of the more recent platforms to emerge is Publicis Groupe’s “Contagious Ideas”…

“It’s not just some abstract theory,” said Mark Hider, exec VP-director of engagement strategy for Publicis USA. “There is a conversation going on about brands whether we like it or not,” and the key is to “monetize brand conversations, and then alter them in your favor.”

Obvious, right? Um, no. Most agencies don’t look all that different than the shop down the street. It is very easy to look and sound different. Don’t believe me? Call me.

BE WILLING TO CONTORT

Every client seeks flexibility in a partner, but increasingly that requires taking it one step further to build custom-made solutions. There’s WPP’s Enfatico, the agency it built from the ground up for Dell, and more recently DDB Entertainment, a dedicated agency unit at Omnicom for Blockbuster. 

LOL. Blockbuster!!! Guess this article was from the olden days (I bet you have employees that have no clue what Blockbuster was.) OK, here is a better point than AdAge’s building a brand new agency – clearly a point for the holding companies.

You a smaller agency? Why not create niche agency service for a category like Louisiana’s Innovative Advertising did when they offered the restaurant category their specialized website The Fridge. Innovative’s kicking it for their beer client Abita and other edibles, why not isolate this sales message?

WRITE A BOOK

Mitchell Levy, CEO and author at Happy About, says books are the new calling card. According to Mr. Levy, the author is the one asked to speak at conferences and events, and books are a great networking tool when sent to both existing customers and new prospects. 

Um again. I wrote a book on agency pitching and because of that, I have given presentations about how agencies should write books. Please do this for your agancy and follow my directions on how you can make it  a painless process. A link: Yes, You Can Write and Publish A Business Book in 6 Months

OFFER A DIRECT LINE TO THE CEO

Personal attention goes a long way. Anyone who knows Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based agency honcho Jordan Zimmerman knows he is not only accessible to clients 24 hours a day, he’s checking in with them on a daily basis. It’s no coincidence that the shop in the past two years has grown its operation by leaps and bounds, winning an astounding 85% of pitches.

Really, daily? LOL. Do you know a client that wants to talk to an agency CEO daily? Does your cousin want to catch up daily? Ok, the real point is that a small to medium agency CEO’s should be up front and center and accessible with clients and prospects. Why not put the CEO’s contact in the Contact section of your website? What else should the CEO be doing?

That’s it. Know what?

What worked during the recession works today. I always tell my agency clients… Have a bias for action! Want me to tell that to you — lets talk.