Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

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How To Be The Best Global Advertising Agency

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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.

Yikes. Donald Trump Loves Me. The Videos.

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I Admit It. I Am Not Sure That My Donald Trump ‘Loves Me’ Endorsements Are Good For Me. Ever. However.

Donald Trump EndorsementMonths ago The Donald made a couple of video endorsements for me. One about my business development consultancy… “Levitan’s The Best”. And, one about my Advertising Stories podcast. Here is the podcast list.

To put it mildly, The Donald is a bit divisive. However, he cannot be ignored, and therefore at the time, I thought what the heck, if he is going to do a couple of personal non-political videos, why not let him. I won’t get political either (plus I am an Independent). My goal was and is to be Unignorable. So, here is a bit of borrowed interest just for you.

Oh, Mahatma Gandhi also endorsed me as well. I had visited one of his homes in Mumbai last January. Does Mr. Gandhi help me find the center – for you? I mean, who was EVER liked by both Gandhi and Trump? You can see Gandhi’s pitch for me here on my Contact page.

Ta Da, Donald Trump For Levitan’s Expertise. #1.

 

Ta Da, Donald Trump For Levitan’s Podcasts. #2.

 

 

How To Build An In House Agency

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in house agancyThe market vibration is that there is a growing use of the in house agency. To be more specific, this is an in house “advertising agency” since what is brought inside are one or more of what I’ll call “advertising services” that include strategy development; digital marketing; PR; ‘traditional advertising”; media planning, and buying and, most common, high-volume and fast-paced content development.

There are many reasons for a company to bring some or all marketing services inside by creating an in house agency. That said, there is no one size fits all and it ain’t easy folks.

The rather experienced Steven Morvay, he’s held senior positions as both an agency president at Saatchi & Saatchi Direct and senior marketing positions at Borders and HBO, gets both sides of the in house agency equation. Take a listen. This is a smart discussion. Yes, I said that.

The In House Agency – The Why Do It?

I am going to go deeper into the growth of the in house agency and its efficacy and issues. But for now, here is a revealing chart from the Association Of National Advertisers and eMarketer about the primary benefits of creating the in house agency. Yes, it is often mucho about saving some bucks.

in house agency

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Show Notes.

Steven Morvay on LinkedIn.

YO – Hypnotism coming.

Remember to subscribe to Advertising Stories. Remember to subscribe to Advertising Stories. Remember to subscribe.

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

An Expert On How To Do M&A

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How to do M&AI’ve got to tell you… you do not just wake up one morning and know how to do M&A. There is a fine art and science (both) to getting the smartest, best and happiest deals done.

Dominic Rinaldi is Managing Director of Chicago’s Sun Acquisitions. He is an expert at crafting the best deals for buyers and sellers. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what you can learn directly from a leading M&A advisor.

I’m into the universe of M&A these days because I wrote “How To Sell An Advertising Agency. And, How To Buy One.”  I wrote the book for my advertising agency world because I think, well I know from my agency leadership conversations, that many advertising agency owners and potential buyers are looking at the M&A market. It is a time for some ad folks to either sell out or use the market to acquire some well-priced assets.

There is a lot of information in the interview. That said, here is a bit on getting bank financing. It sure looks like a good time to borrow.

Peter: I’ve, I’ve bought and sold three agencies. I never borrowed money. I never went to a bank, never lived through the banking experience. What percentage of sales of your middle and lower market clients require borrowing from a bank?

Dominic: The largest, most sophisticated buyers want to borrow money because they want to put leverage on that deal. So let’s talk in the terms of a sophisticated private equity group that’s looking to make acquisitions. If they have $200 million in a fund and they’re looking to go out and make acquisitions, they don’t want to do 10 transactions with the 200 million. They want to do a hundred transactions. So they’re spreading their risk. The chances are that they are going to hit a couple of home runs and also hit a couple of doubles and triples. Whereas if they do 10 deals the odds of success really shrink. So using the money to do as many deals as possible putting bank lending on it gives them leverage to do that. And it’s today’s very low-interest rates. It makes a lot of sense.

My “How To Sell…” book is free. All you have to do is use the handy get the free book link on this page to ask for a copy.

Show Notes Links To Get You To… More How To Do M&A.


Sun Acquisitions

Dominic Rinaldi’s M&A Unplugged Podcast

K2Advisor – On setting up and positioning a business for a sale

The Beatles Taxman

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

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

Is Your Advertising Agency Famous And Unignorable

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Advertising Agency FamousMy friend Michael Moszynski, Founder and CEO of London’s global advertising agency LONDON Advertising, recently sent me an agency Press Release with the headline: “LONDON Advertising ad campaign sees its awareness surge an impressive 50% and overtake Adam & Eve in Populus poll.” I’d say that LONDON Advertising is able to say “yes” to the question… “Is Your Advertising Agency Famous And Unignorable.’

LONDON Advertising got to fame and unignorability by running a real broad awareness advertising campaign for the agency (and working on being famous for years). Yes, you heard me right. They actually used real (LOL) advertising to up their image and awareness in the UK. I’ve written about this campaign here: Does Your Advertising Agency Advertise Itself?

Help You Getting Your Advertising Agency Famous And Unignorable

#1. How did LONDON do it? Read their PR and think about your agency

Here is a quote from the press release (gotta love that England still has Lords)…

In a Populus poll of awareness of UK ad agencies among over 2,000 members of the public, LONDON Advertising demonstrated the power of its ad TV and Outdoor campaign to promote its own brand with an outstanding set of results.

Lord Cooper, Founding Partner of Populus, said:

“Amongst the public, brand awareness of LONDON Advertising rose by an impressive 50% in just a month.  LONDON Advertising is now 6 times more well-known than highly established agencies like VCCP. The increase in awareness of LONDON Advertising was the only statistically significant change in the month between our two polls, so their campaign clearly cut through. Among the critical sub-group of consumer opinion influencers, LONDON Advertising now has the highest awareness of any of the agencies covered in the poll, at 27% – its campaign taking it past Adam &Eve.”

Here is the press release sweetly shouting about LONDON. Results of LONDON Advertising advertising campaign

#2. How do y’all get to famous?

Quick story. A while ago I moved to London to work at the original Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide on Charlotte Street. I quickly found out how famous Saatchi was when I  got in a cab and told the driver the address. He said, “Oh, you are going to Saatchis.” From then on I’d just say that I was going to Saatchi. If you said your agency name to an Uber driver (let’s pretend she does not have the app for a second) would she know YOUR address?

OK. How to get to famous? Three “simple” but, ya know, like, important things.

  1. Make being famous and unignorable an objective. A second on the idea of being unignorable… Imagine the alternative?
  2. Is your advertising, digital, social, PR or whatever agency marketing designed to be famous and unignorable?
  3. Show the world that you are (!) unignorable. Shout it. This is precisely how Maurice and Charles Saatchi did it. They made damn sure that the world thought that Saatchi & Saatchi was famous. This was an objective. This was LONDON’s freakin objective, too.

Oh, while you are at it, how about your personal brand? Are you famous? Did you see the video on my Home Page? For some of you… yes, I ripped off the name association idea from the great conceptual artist Chris Burden. Steal like an artist.

Need more fame???? Contact me.