Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

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10 New Year’s Resolutions For Advertising Agencies

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babyNew Year’s resolutions work. Well, at least some do. The bottom line: at least give them a chance.

Here are ten 2014 resolutions for advertising agencies that I think your agency should make. I mean… really do if you want to grow your advertising agency and your bottom line.

1. We will strive to create an agency brand position or business model that stands out from our competition. This will be designed to give prospective clients a compelling reason to want to work with us. Let me help you out here.

2. We will write and execute an annual business development plan that uses both inbound and outbound marketing. In fact, we will start by updating our master business plan. Too much has changed in the past twelve months to not revisit all of our assumptions and objectives.

3. We will manage and run our business development program with consistency. We will not start and stop. It is too late to restart a new business program after loosing a large client.

4. We will not pitch every account that comes our way. The pitch process is simply too costly. Before we pitch any account we will work hard to determine if the prospective client is a good fit for the agency based on a set of predetermined criteria. Here is a start. Is the client famous? Do they respect marketing? Do they want us to do brilliant work? Will they pay well? Are they a cultural fit? Hopefully you can say yes to two or three of these.

5. We will establish a recommended agency compensation plan and will share this with current and perspective clients. This plan will include cost-plus, fixed fees and performance-based remuneration based on a client’s performance metrics and an annual agency review. I’d like to se agencies get out in front of this issue.

6. We will ensure that we provide more value to all existing clients than we did in 2013. We will make sure we know how to prove our value.

7. We will give our people the time to fully explore the marketing value of new media or communications technologies. Some savvy agencies jumped on Vine when it was introduced and used it to build agency awareness.

8. We will work to grow our expertise in mobile and video marketing, the two fastest growing segments. To not do this will kill us.

9. We will write the book we want to read. I stole this line from Austin Kleon’s “Steal Like An Artist.” I wrote about why advertising agencies like The Gate Worldwide write books to grow their awareness for the blog Agency Post.

10. Have Big Hairy Audacious Goals. Go for it this year. I firmly believe that without BHAG’s agencies will wither away.

-> Here’s a bonus resolution:

We will call Peter Levitan and take him up on his Vito Corleone offer. We have nothing to lose and so much to gain from his new business insights. No, I don’t think that humility is a business-building attribute.

While you are at it… Don’t miss any of my brilliant (LOL, but I mean it) thoughts on new business.

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Why Advertising Agency New Business Might (Not) Fail In 2014

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I thought that I would ignore my blog today because I am writing a book on a system that will help all types of advertising and marketing communications agencies improve how they run their new business programs. My goal is to write a book that is so brilliant that YOU will have to buy it because the agency down the street bought multiple copies.

However, my goal on focussing on the book has been thwarted. I was surprised to wake up to lots of incoming traffic from search engines. People, I assume advertising people, must be thinking about how to grow their agency today. Its a very powerful 2014 New Year’s resolution. And, for most agencies, one that will unfortunately fail.

There are lots of reasons that advertising agencies do not run optimized new business programs. ADHD Rules.

The most often cited problem is inconsistency. You know, the on and off again program where agencies get the machine cranked up only to fall behind a few months later. Its kind of an ADHD thing. Why are so many agencies scattered and inconsistent? There are lots of reasons, but let me state a few that I will address over the next few months.

  • The CEO is not involved and does not look or act hungry. She is not leading the charge and has not made business development an agency priority.This leadership failure – its a big one – will drive down agency motivation and will make the best agency employees seek greener pastures.
  • The agency does not have a business development plan. Most of the agencies that do not have a business development plan don’t even have a business plan. WTF?
  • The agency is so busy with current clients that they have not made the time for new business efforts. This is really really bad news. Most agencies will loose AOR and project clients this year (I am certain that this will happen.) Starting up the new business machine when you are spiraling down is absurd. The sales cycle is simple too long to wait.

There are more reasons.

Some are people related like having the wrong business development director (or poorly written compensation plan); or they are outsource-related like handing your new business program to a third-party  and hoping for the best or praying that a poorly planned agency blog will simply draw in the most desirable clients because what you write is so compelling and different. My bet is that one quarter of all agency blogs are not based on a strategic content plan. I think that reviewing agency blogs in an industry that thinks that their under-planned blogs will lead to “win without pitching” scenarios should be revealing, instructive and entertaining.

OK, enough spewing. I am going back to writing my book. Today I am working on the agency compensation chapter. It might just be one of the drier chapters but, at the same time, one of the most important. So, as 2014 stimulation I offer…. a compensation mantra for our first day back.

“Show me the money!”

Oh, and call me, I have a plan for helping you get the money you deserve.

While you are at it… Don’t miss any of my brilliant (LOL, but I mean it) thoughts on new business.

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Social “Media” Still Means Face To Face

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f t fI know, I know, it seems really crazy but it appears that people in Europe actually ask each other in PERSON (as in that old-fashioned face to face style social “media”) about products and services. According to eMarketer, reporting on research by YouGov:

Despite social media forming a staple of much of UK consumers’ digital life, it will not feature as a significant influencer this Christmas according to research by YouGove for The Drum suggesting that only a tiny share of internet users would turn to social media for gift suggestions. 83% of internet users would not turn to social media for gift suggestions.

The UK’s social networking population is the second-largest in Europe after Germany with even higher penetration. Overall, just 83% of internet users said they would use social media for Christmas gift recommendations, however.

Now, if I was an advertising agency with a retail client, I might be elated to tell them that 11% of UK 18-24 year-olds now use social media for recommendations and that we better dial up our social activity. However… 0ver 18% of this age group group are unemployed.

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How To Name Your Advertising Agency: Part Two

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8 pitfalls to watch for when naming your baby BabyCenterThis is Part Two of the two part series on how advertising agencies name themselves. Other than the gyrations that agencies constantly go through with how to design and redesign their website; what and how they name themselves is one of their most important branding decisions. Part One is right here.

Just a reminder… I worked for three ad agencies. Two were “founder” agencies: Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (remember “Where’s the beef?”) and Saatchi & Saatchi (which bought Dancer) and the other was my very own Portland agency with its “current usage” name: Citrus. Or, as one of our creative directors thought was critical to our success, citrus, with a lower case “c.’

The Naming Process

Yes, there is a process to naming. I believe that selecting a name should be one of the most important elements of your new advertising agency’s marketing plan (a new name also works for agency’s that need a facelift and repositioning.) And, importantly, this process deserves your team’s best thinking and the time to ensure that you have selected the most powerful name possible. Most of us thought hard about what name to give our kids or the letters on our vanity license plates. Your company deserves this as well.

Objectives & Positioning.

You cannot begin to name your brand without establishing a clear brand positioning and business objectives which in the case of ad agencies sometimes just means sounding cool. In San Francisco alone, agency names span Muh-Tay-Zik Hof-fer’s self-love (OK, maybe its just name-play) to Argonaut’s promise of brand voyage (I assume) to Engine Company 1 (yes, you guessed it) to Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners and Goodby Silverstein & Partners’ authenticity (for old times sake) to BarrettSF and its hope for BarrettNY — I suspect. [Read more…] about How To Name Your Advertising Agency: Part Two