Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

personal branding

B2B Ghosting Is Bullshit

· · Leave a Comment

B2B Ghosting Sucks.

Do you know what ghosting is? Here is a definition… From a Google search. I believe that the definition works for both interpersonal relationships, the current common usage, and B2B interactions.

The practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication.

Why mention ghosting in a B2B blog post about an advertising agency business relationship? Because B2B ghosting happens too often.

The B2B Black Hole Proposal AKA – You’ve Been Ghosted

You’ve probably been here. You send a prospect a proposal (they asked for it) or a recommendation to an advertising client (because you are smart and this is what they want from a good agency) and you do not hear back. No response. Nada. Like its starting to feel like never. And, sure you followed up. But, nada. Let’s call it ghosting.

And, worse, any way you think about it, it is simply rude.

This B2B ghosting definition occurred to me today for a couple of reasons.

  • First, I heard an episode about ghosting on This American Life. The episode is yet another good one from these stellar folks, listen to it.  Get A Spine.
  • Second, I have two proposals out to agencies without any feedback or response.
  • These proposals are sitting at two Brooklyn agencies and they have gone dark. Important: they asked for the proposals. I delivered. I have been doing this advertising agency proposal / big idea way too long to get upset. But, I do think that not responding is way too unprofessional.

This is a learning moment – a decent subject for a blog post.

Get Past Ghosting

Your mom did not bring you up to act like this. Rude is not cool.

So, y’all need to respond to proposals. Note, NOT doing so is bad Karma. You are, after all, an agency that wants your current and future clients to respond to YOU. Right?

Side note: I get a hundred plus visits to my website every day. Better yet, I get multiple quality leads from advertising agencies a month. These leads, after a conversation, often result in a proposal. Many of the proposals result in clients for my consultancy.

Hardly any end up as dark hole ghosts. Most agencies understand good Karma. And, they listened to their mom. Maybe they even listened to the Dali Lama. Apparently, this Karma stuff might not be an active ingredient at Brooklyn agencies.

OK, it’s a small sample.

LOL. I am over it. Writing is so cathartic.

 

 

 

 

Does Your Advertising Agency Do Content Marketing Right?

· · 1 Comment

Is Your Advertising Agency A Savvy Content Marketer?

I’ve read acres of advertising agency content (blogs, white papers, videos, on LinkedIn, etc.). Some rock and some suck. Many agencies, once they have stellar content, do not put in the effort to spread the wealth. As in, they do not amplify their brilliant thinking across a range of social media and traditional marketing platforms. This is a missed efficiency driver. Here’s a how to maximize your hard content building work.

To be clear, ‘content’ means the stuff that agency’s use to deliver their insightful thought leadership programs which are designed to sell the agency’s brains, expertise and to drive inbound visits and interest. Just for the hell of it, here is the definition of content from Google…

A type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.

Here is another well-crafted definition from the Content Marketing Institute…

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Great Content: Part One

One of the best content marketing companies I’ve visited/read is TrinityP3 an Australian-based global marketing management consultancy with offices on four continents. TrinityP3 is a primary thought leader in the advertising client and agency space.

Darren Woolley, founder and Global CEO, along with Mike Morgan, are the driving force behind TrinityP3. To date, they have hundreds of blog posts covering a wide range of subjects including agency management, agency search, compensation, media buying, procurement, and scope of work and, even infographics. I’m talking lots of content.  [Read more…] about Does Your Advertising Agency Do Content Marketing Right?

What’s After Advertising?

· · Leave a Comment

After Advertising

I am often asked by advertising agency people… what do people do after they leave advertising (or at least, a stay-put advertising job)? Well, to be more specific, what have I done after advertising as in, since I sold my Portland agency six years ago?

I live in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (built a house/60% cost of living/travel all over/work from anywhere)

I work with advertising agencies around the world on helping them build lead generating business development programs

I am on a global quest to photograph the world’s people (starting here with this 210 portrait series)

Some days I just hang out and I constantly try to satisfy my curious mind.

One way I satisfy my curiosity is to stay in long-distance touch (usually by newsletter) with Faris Yakob…. brand strategist (I guess that is one description) who I interviewed for my book on pitching. Here is the interview. By the way, buy the book and win more business so you can get out of your office.

Genius Steals

Faris can show you a way out of the cube, open office or if you’ve been lucky, an office with a couch.

To get going, I suggest that you sign up for Faris and his wife Rosie’s newsletter and visit their website. Why?

They are very smart and you will learn stuff that should make you a better marketer. From the sign-up page… “Put together by husband and wife creative duo Faris and Rosie Yakob, this weekly email is a source of interesting and fun links from around the web on a variety of topics. The content is expertly curated, and if you can’t find something inspiring in each edition, it will at least make you a more interesting dinner date.”  

But, but, there’s more. Faris and Rosie live a nomadic lifestyle. As they say…

“We used to live and work in NYC where we had fancy titles and bars in our offices. It was rad. Mostly. Except there were so. many. meetings.  When Faris sold his share in a digital agency he started, he proposed that we quit our jobs and travel the world for 6 months, to take a break, to explore. We both really loved traveling, and the stars aligned, and so we’ve been traveling ever since.”

Read more about them here at Technomadix. Start to plan on how to… get out of advertising. The time will come.

 

On Being Smart

· · Leave a Comment

Smart Is A Good Thing (For 2018)

Hey, I like being smart. Yeah, I just said that.

I bet you like being smart too. In fact, as you know, being smart is an essential element in driving brilliant marketing. This includes being curious.

So, without further ado, here are a couple of smart places to help you get smarter before 2018. This MIT article and Stanford interview got my intellectual juices flowing and I’ll assume yours will flow too.

First, here is a hot list from MIT’s Technology Review. Its list of the 50 Smartest Companies 2017 offers a look at companies that have found the inflection point between innovative technology and a sound business model. Something I’d think a savvy 2018 advertising agency would like to find.

Second, is a video of the Stanford interview with Chamath Palihapitiya, Founder and CEO Social Capital, on Money as an Instrument of Change. I have listened to Chamath in YouTube videos this past week (the CNBC guest host is also worth your time) and find that he opens up my mind and, yup, makes me smarter.

 

Does Your Thought Leadership Kick Ass?

· · 3 Comments

To Be Unignorable, Kick Some Thought Leadership Ass

500AEC7B-7AB5-41BC-8AB0-FD500EDA9A54_0If you are one of my clients, you have heard me talk about how to be unignorable. That means, do not be ignorable. Which means, do not put forth me-to thought leadership content (copy, videos, podcasts, white papers, books and on and on) that can be easily dismissed by your target market.

How To Stand Out?

Want to get heard and talked about? Be bold. Tell it like it is. Say something that resonates. Have an opinion. Be bold and be quick. Act like Mario Andretti (you know who he is, right?) A quote:

If everything is under control, you are not going fast enough.

Well, L2’s Scott Galloway is not under control. He lets it hang out and… he is NOT ignorable. A sample… his opinion about Amazon, Apple (love this one!), Facebook and Google.