new business

The Best Advertising Agency Podcast Ever

Peter · November 30, 2020 · Leave a Comment

I am so unbiased. Therefore, I can say without any hesitation that this is the best advertising agency podcast interview. How do I know this? I was recently interviewed by what I consider the best (well in addition to Advertising Stories) advertising agency podcast and host. Full stop. Great interviewer and I was, on that day, a brilliant speed-talking guest.

I discuss my loooong New York, London even Oregon advertising career, how to pitch (I wrote THE pitch book – see the top portion of this page), and how to buy and sell an advertising agency (get this 57-page freebie by subscribing to my occasional newsletter).

The Best Advertising Agency Podcast? It’s Aqui: The Businessology Show

The Businessology Show is a podcast about the business of design and the design of business It is hosted by CPA/coach Jason Blumer. Jason is a leading financial and accounting consultant for the advertising and marketing communications industry. I said expert, right? Also, a really cool interviewer.

Here is the show – go here: “Pitch It.”

About this show… from Mr. Blumer

Businessology is a platform to help designers, developers, and agencies run more successful businesses. One of the greatest things about the web industry is that we have the desire to share the most valuable tips and tricks of our trade with our “competitors.” When it comes to business, however, that knowledge seems to be kept behind closed doors.

This podcast was started because we want that information to exist in the open. We talk about what to charge for your work. We talk about how to do great work that your clients value. We talk about business models. We talk about managing projects. We talk about growing. We talk about the business side of design and how you can most effectively design your business. We coach real owners of real agencies working through their own growth complexities.

Guests have included Tim Williams; Matt Faulk (here is my interview on winning Webby Awards with Basic’s Matt); and, Drew McClellan of The Agency Management Institute (AMI).

Go listen…

How To Win A Virtual Advertising Agency Presentation

Peter · October 29, 2020 · 1 Comment

Advertising Agency Search Consultant Lisa Colantuono of AAR Partners On How To Win The Virtual Pitch.

Some people who have read my book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.” have asked me how to present in the virtual world. Well, I am going to a bunch of experts to help me help y’all to win your next virtual advertising agency presentation and pitch.

First in what will be a multi-part series is a fantastic interview with the very experienced pitch consultant and, good for us, loquacious Lisa Colantuono of AAR Partners. Lisa covers many aspects of virtual selling. This might just be the most compelling interview I have done on Advertising Stories.

Lisa discusses how to manage what she calls the virtual “Brady Bunch” room; how to be human; body language management; what to do in advance of the session; how to create creative differentiation; backgrounds; and even, oh no, how to use online presentation tools like Powerpoint.

Bottom line? Just give this interview about how to run a virtual advertising agency pitch a listen. HEY —- Listen to this interview. Win more pitches.

Note, this is the first in my series on how to run a virtual presentation. Interviews with agency owners who’ve won virtual presentations to a brainiac neuroscientist’s perspective on making friends in the online sales world are coming. Stay tuned.

Links:

Lisa on LinkedIn

AAR Partners

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.

A New Business Plan For An Advertising Agency

Peter · October 15, 2020 · Leave a Comment

An Advertising Agency Business Plan Thought Starter.

Ten years ago I was the owner and CEO of Citrus, a Portland and Bend Oregon advertising and digital agency. Just so you get the picture, our clients included AOR work for Nike; the Montana Lottery; Harrah’s; Providence Health & Services (5 states), and lots more. As you will see below, I knew that we needed to change our approach to the business. We needed a new advertising agency business plan. A radical shift from what was starting to look like a way too traditional advertising agency business model. My team and I looked at different approaches and ultimately, I determined that I (that means me) did not want to make the required revisions. At that point, I decided to craft the agency for sale. I wrote about how I sold the agency in my 57-page PDF, “How To Sell An Advertising Agency.” Links to it are on this page.

2020. Is It Time For You To Invent A New Business Plan?

I talk to lots of advertising agencies. Many are looking very hard at how to reinvent their agency. This is driven by ongoing factors like waves of recessions; clients asking for more and more for less money; lower profits; unhappy and overworked staff and, of course, the results of the pandemic. I talked yesterday with a New York agency buddy that is shutting down his office, asking his landlord for rent concessions, and will go full-time virtual. He is not alone. Again, in many cases, the need for a new business plan is being forced on agency leaders. Being forced is OK. Not changing is not OK.

Back to my past as one model for the future.

10/12/10: Twas Time For A New Business Plan

Before I sold my Portland agency, I spent some time thinking through what a new, an evolutionary, a smarter, competitive, and higher profit advertising agency business plan might look like. Simply put, how could we make more money? This is what I was thinking a few years ago.

I think that my thought process at that time might help you think hard about your agency’s business plan.

A bit of background. Citrus was a successful Northwest agency. We had offices in Portland and Bend, Oregon. Our clients included Nike (we were an AOR agency for major league baseball and college sports); Oregon State Football, Harrah’s Las Vegas; Wildhorse (a large Oregon casino); the Montana Lottery; LegalZoom; a couple of major west coast banks and Providence Health and Services (a multi-state hospital and healthcare company) and a range of leisure accounts.

Background

I bought the majority share of Oregon’s full-service advertising agency Ralston Group in 2002. I had just left being CEO of ActiveBuddy, a serious natural language company that proceeded Siri and Alexa. It was time for me to get out of New York and get some fresh air. Over the course of the next 8 years, we bought Portland’s Citrus, renamed the agency, and grew our account base across the USA.

However, by 2008, after the horrible recession, clients driving down profits, the increase of workload from digital and social media, the increasing cost of running a marketing company (ala healthcare costs), I decided that we had to either reinvent the agency or I’d move on.

The Birth Of “Portland”

Ok, what should we do? I needed to reinvent the agency via a new advertising agency business plan to be more competitive; leaner; more nimble; lower cost; and NEW. As in, new and improved to get the attention of more of the high-profit clients we wanted.

Here is the document, the 2010 think-piece that I used to help guide me. I hope you find it, um, maybe inspiring.

My 2010 Plan – A New Agency Model: Food-For-Thought For Your Agency

Citrus needs to change.

The agency industry (especially full-service agencies) knows it must explore new business models. The old 15% commission + 16.5% mark-up is so long gone. Plus, we know that finding a way for clients to pay up for “big ideas” is difficult.

Within this context, clients are confronted by fast-paced changes, are skittish and are understaffed. Media options have grown exponentially, clients are asking for program metrics, they need smart digital solutions, can’t figure out how to manage integration and do not fully understand social marketing. They still want big ideas but want all of this for less. All of this is compounded by the view that “agencies” are costly and inefficient. Many prospects don’t even want to take our calls.

To further compound the issues, a sea of agency industry sameness and lack of clear brand and service differentiation confronts us. It is very difficult for small full-service agencies to stand out from the crowd. Defining a unique and focused agency brand for a non-specialist agency isn’t easy.

Citrus shares these issues and at present does not have a clear and compelling brand story. We have our “Move” positioning but we need to express this beyond just words.

There must be a new way.

An idea…Move To Small + Smart.

In my mind, a Small + Smart Citrus is the smartest customized agency in the world.

The Smartest Advertising Executive and Business Development Consultant

Peter · August 26, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Michael Keeshan was the smartest advertising executive in the room. I know, I worked with him when he was President and COO of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising New York and the Chief Strategic Officer of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide. If you are wondering, he was smart like an Einstein.

He also counseled major advertisers including AT&T and Novartis to pick their advertising agencies. His MagikBox search consultancy rocked.

Here is my interview with Michael about advertising agency business development and advertising agency search consultants and the pitch experience. Over his years in advertising, Michel worked on both sides of the agency/client table. As you will see, Michael was one of the smartest advertising executive dudes.

This entertaining and informative interview covers how advertising, digital, PR agencies, you name it, should manage their business development process and pitches and presentations. I did this interview in 2006. Believe me… Michael’s cogent advice is even more relevant in today’s highly competitive advertising universe.

I have many other interviews with advertising agency search consultants in my book on presenting and pitching for new ad accounts. Just go here to win more pitches… There have been thousands of happy, richer readers.

Links To Other Super Smart Past Advertising and Marketing Interviews.

Cathy Taylor of ADWEEK. Hear about one of the great social media fails… C/O Chevrolet Tahoe. It was an early screw up that was very prophetic as we all moved on into more social media.

Rob Walch of Libsyn.

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.

How To Grow Your Advertising Agency

Peter · August 10, 2020 · Leave a Comment

I Know, I Know. You Want To Grow Your Advertising Agency.

Here is an entertaining interview with Joe Koufman, CEO and Founder of Setup, an Atlanta-based agency and client “matchmaking” consultancy. Here is what Setup says they do to help y’all to grow your advertising agency. Man, I’d like to see more agencies be able to tell their story this fast. Very succinct.

“Setup™ (marketing matchmakers) ignites relationships between brands and marketing agencies. Marketers often require help from experts, but can’t always find them.”

Joe, a biz dev expert, and I discuss the core principles that deliver a strong sales pipeline and on to building wonderful marketing and advertising agency and client relationships. Ah, love!

Getting there includes having the right agency positioning (as one of my M&A specialists told me last week – this means telling the client exactly what you do and can do for them before they form their own opinion); understanding if the prospective client has a capacity or a capability challenge; having an information system; knowing how to do the best-targeted outreach; the critical importance of managing and building interpersonal chemistry; and the, yes, closing the deal. As an agency owner and consultant, Joe’s perspective and advice is right on.

Joe also talks a bit about having been on the scene of a few agency sales and mergers. As he says, some are great, some so-so and one was a kind of a failure.

Selling and buying a company isn’t that easy. OK, not that hard if you read my book, How To Sell Your Advertising Agency. (I had to get this in there.)

Here are links to Joe and Setup.

Joe Koufman.

Setup.