marketing

ABM As In Account-Based Marketing Fails

Peter · April 21, 2023 · Leave a Comment

Account-Based Marketing Anti-Failure

I help my advertising and marketing agency clients build effective ABM – Account-Based Marketing programs. I’ve seen some failures over the years and want to share my thoughts on failure over the next few newsletters. Here is a quick list:

You cannot build your best prospect list because you haven’t accessed the right information and data. As a result, your target list is too broad and undefined.
You do not personalize your outreach content.
Your marketing and sales teams are not aligned.
You do not give your ABM programs the time to become effective. This isn’t usually an overnight/one-time hit tactic. As in, your sales cycles might be too short for pure ABM, and worse you are way too impatient.
You do not have an efficient, smart, hard-to-resist thought leadership program. Plus, you might not be sending unignorable content out into the world. Be not boring.
You haven’t allocated the right budget for your Account-Based Marketing efforts. There are staff, design, and marketing costs. Plan well.

ABM works if you have a solid plan. Full stop.

More ABM Insights

I will riff on these fails. soon.

A New Kick-Ass Email Tool

Peter · October 13, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Here’s a new subject line email tool that will increase opens.

I got an email today from one of my favorite email newsletters – Josh Spector’s For The Interested. The email pointed me to omnisend’s email subject line tester

The omnisend promise: Boost your email open rates: analyze and improve your subject lines before sending your next campaign.

I used the tool to create this blog post’s subject line. It scored high.

You can see more tools and resources right There’s more! Here in my advertising, marketing agency resources list.

Marketing Agency Influencers

Peter · September 16, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Where To Eat and Marketing Agency Influencers

This post is about amateur reviews, the power of influencers as noted by Adweek and marketing agency influencers, and reviews on websites like Agency Spotter.

Some history: I came back to Saatchi & Saatchi New York from our London office in 1994. In both offices I ran business development and ate out a lot. By the time I hit the New York office, Saatchi was on its last legs (as in a company run by Maurice and Charles Saatchi – who were soon “exited” – but founded M&C Saatchi which is arguably a savvier agency).

A thing that hit me when I returned from London in 1994 was this thing called the Internet. I ran around the agency trying to get someone to pay attention but since we were in a bit of a death spiral, I could not excite leadership about the growing digital universe.

While still at the agency I worked with our tech guru to make plans to launch a digital company funded by Digital Equipment. Around that time, I got a call from Tom Florio, the publisher of the New Yorker, who told me that the Newhouse family, the owners of Condé Nast magazines, the New Yorker, Random House and the third largest newspaper group, had this idea of launching online newspapers. I got the CEO job, a brilliant team, and said bye bye to Saatchi.

OK Now On To Reviews

Putting newspapers online in the 1990s was wild. We had carte blanche to invent the formula and the backing of billionaires. New Jersey Online was the combo of the Newark Star-Ledger (the largest paper in NJ), The Times of Trenton and The Jersey Journal. We had the news feeds from each paper, the best coverage of New York and New Jersey’s 7 professional sports teams, the first direct news feed from the Associated Press (a news first), a haiku film critic, Hoboken nightlife reviews, put zoomable cams on NJ beaches, and fab design. We also had what was one of the first set of social media forums – which drove our page views higher than The New York Times online

Ok, I Mean It. Now Onto Reviews.

WTF Takeaways From Ad Age Small Agency Conference

Peter · August 10, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Ad Age Small Agency Conference: Stating The Obvious… Way Too Often

Here are some smart, yet painful, takeaways from The Ad Age Small Agency Conference. I am not surprised at what the speakers say. But also a bit horrified. I mean, what you are about to hear are what I would consider no-brainers for how to run an advertising agency.

No Brainers… That is my What The Fuck. Am I being too dramatic? I don’t think so.

The issue is that these expert takeaways and advice should be ingrained in all advertising, digital design, and PR agencies. Clearly these takeaways are not. But, YMMV. I include some thoughts and links to “helpful’ thinking. Mine.

Not Speaking Client Language. From Mirren:

Brent Hodgin, Mirren’s Managing Director, is focused on language. As in client language.

“Clients are focused on growth and revenue and most agencies are focusing on brand reputation and positioning,” Hodgins said. “And that is a gap.” Awareness “in and of itself is not an end benefit,” he said, because you can grow awareness and still not move one product off the shelf.” He added: “When you don’t use the language of your client … it’s like you are an outsider trying to be an insider.”

The Levitan take. Hey, agencies are selling services to a prospective client that wants stuff. Figure out what stuff they want (gee like more sales and customers and the right analytics + KPIs) and talk their language. Do the upfront research.

Get past typical agency “branding” talk to talking about “sales”. Like ROI.

Some “CLIENT” language from my pitch book:

Here is a quote from an interview I did with Ian Beavis who has been EVP Automotive at Nielsen and ex auto CMO (Kia, Mitsubishi.) He has been pitched by dozens of agencies (and ran the Toyota account at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, as well)

Levitan: A final question. Agencies have a hard time creating a competitive agency brand positioning. Any insights and advice you can give to the agency world on how to be distinctive in this highly competitive category?

Beavis: 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.

Clients want agencies that understand business objectives and business results. They want to hear that you get it. That’s it, folks. This WTF is about not doing the research to learn what that prospective client wants.

Agencies Have a Serious Branding Problem. From The Martin Agency.

Ad Age Small Agency Of The Year 2022

Peter · August 2, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Yes, It Is That Time Again: Ad Age Small Agency Of The Year 2022

There is an old joke about winning. I think that it merits mentioning as we look at the Ad Age Small Agency Of The Year Awards. Why? Because you need to enter an award contest if you want to win. Obvious? Apparently not as only 400 agencies entered this year’s award show.

Every week Murray goes to the synagogue and prays, “God, please let me win the lottery. Just once, please let me win the lottery.”
This goes on week after week, month after month, “God, please let me win the lottery.”
One day this majestic voice booms down from above, “Murray, meet me halfway, buy a ticket!”

I have written about entering award shows plus the why bother plus listed the big advertising awards right here: Top Advertising and Design Awards.

Why bother entering? Well, winners have something to shout about to their staff (and future staff), their current clients and as proof for future clients that the agency is great – as said by a trusted third party.

From Ad Age:

While small, these shops have proven to have big ideas and even bigger ambitions

The winners of our 14th annual Small Agency Awards were culled from a list of more than 400 entries from the U.S. and globally and represent some of the best and brightest agencies today.

The shops that made the grade weren’t chosen just for creative prowess, but also for overall business results, revenue growth and more. The agencies on this list are producing ingenious but effective work and also demonstrate proficiency in a variety of media and a willingness to move into new disciplines including health care or gaming or design.

Since not everyone has an Ad Age sub…. here you go.

The “Big” Small Winners

Since many folks are not Ad Age subscribers, here are the winners.

Small Agency Of The Year.

Gold: Mojo Supermarket // Silver: Movers+Shakers

Gold 1-10 Employees: Fred & Farid // Silver: Quality Meats

Gold 11-75 Employees: Lerma // Silver 11-75 Employees: Preacher

Gold 76-150 Employees: Fitzco // Silver 76-150 Employees: Rosewood Creative

Like Regional Agencies?

Northwest: Opinionated and Copacino Fujikado

Midwest: Highdive and Hanson Dodge

West: Mirimar and Haymaker

Southwest: Callen and Bakery

Southeast: Dagger and Dunn&Co.

International: Zulu Alpha Kilo and Giants & Gentlemen