• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Peter Levitan & Co.

Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • My Story
  • Resources
  • Show Search
Hide Search

Pitching

12 Advertising Agency Pitch Mistakes 

Peter · September 6, 2023 · 4 Comments

12 Advertising Agency Pitch Mistakes

Advertising Agency Pitch Mistakes Here are my 12 favorite advertising agency pitch mistakes. Delivered as a ‘must do’s’ cartoon series – see below.

Now that my new book How To Build A Kick-Ass Advertising Agency is on the market (and doing well, thank you – buy it) I thought I’d revisit a core message from my first advertising agency advice book.

The fact is that way too many agencies continue to make avoidable mistakes – especially in the world of Zoom-like meetings.

One of the biggest mistakes is that advertising agency leaders do not recognize the importance of interpersonal chemistry. The agency pitch consultants I interviewed for The Levitan Pitch book all told me that many agency selection decisions are made by the client determining that they LIKE the agency and its people. This is because way too many agencies are kinda look-a-like. OK, and sound alike. Work on YOU, INC.

Here they are… The 12 Advertising Agency Pitch Mistakes

I’ve purposely served the pitching mistakes up as advice, as things to do. Why? As you will see throughout my paperback and eBook, The Levitan Pitch. (especially in the interview section) many advertising agencies, pitch leaders, and team members, make these crazy mistakes. According to the 18 agency search consultants interviewed in the book, these pitch mistakes are made all the time. Agencies make them despite knowing that they will lower their batting average. This is quite baffling.

Here are five of my all-time favorites:

  1. The agency hasn’t worked at being distinctive. There might even be a fear of being “too” different. Strange, but true.
  2. The agency hasn’t done a good job of planning the flow of the presentation. They haven’t approached the pitch as theater.
  3. Agencies often leave their best presenters behind because it is someone else’s turn to go to the pitch. Huh!?
  4. The agency presents way too many strategic and creative ideas.
  5. The big one: the agency spends way too much time talking about themselves and not the client. Here is an example from the book:

“Agencies spend far too much time talking about themselves and not enough time addressing the problems of the client. Clients want to hear solutions to their problems, not how great the agency thinks it is. Best advice to agencies – focus on the client, demonstrate real understanding of their issues, unearth commercial as well as consumer insight, keep it simple, and make it memorable!”

C/O Brian Sparks, Managing Director: Agency Assessments International, UK and Ireland…

How did we all get to this not-so-special place? I think that some of the primary issues haven’t been addressed:

  • The speed at which agencies start to work as soon as they are invited to pith an account. Rarely do they stop and think through the entire process before all hell breaks loose.
  • Most agencies do not have a clear methodology for how they are going to run pitches. It is almost as if they are starting with a blank page every time they are invited to pitch for new business. I recommend a few things to do to manage the pitch including having a standard agency checklist. You can see one in my Pitch Playbook.
  • Worse, most agencies don’t even have a master business development plan.

To help resolve this dilemma, I offer my 12 deadliest advertising agency pitch mistakes as counter-intuitive must-dos illustrated by a series of cartoons from my friend Steve Klinetobe.

 

Mistake Poster

 

 

[Read more…] about 12 Advertising Agency Pitch Mistakes 

34 Advertising Agency Search Consultants

Peter · March 28, 2023 · 6 Comments

Advertising Agency Search Consultants – The Personal Shopper Of The Ad World — Updated 24 March, 2023

advertising agency search consultantsI’ve updated my list of the advertising agency search consultants universe. After updating we’re at 42. But, I can not update the “34” URL – so, there. Let me know if I am missing any consultancies. Thanks.

Is Your Agency Findable?

Blows my mind that more (together) advertising agecies are not know within the agency search community. ya know… the people that are looking for your agency for your next client.

Before I get into the subject, I want to make an important point. Whether or not your agency has the chops and appropriate expertise to get the attention of a search consultant, please try to look and act different. Be unignorable.

Yes, you might be a great social media agency or media planning and buying group. But, I bet you have at least a dozen look-alike competitors.

Get It Right – First = Ask The Tough Questions Before You Contact Advertising Agency Search Consultants

Ask how you will stand out under the scrutiny of expert agency search consultants. Ask yourself, would you be interested in your agency? Ask me to help you.

The Big World of Advertising Agency Search Consultants

Advertising agency search consultants help clients locate the perfect agency out of hundreds, even thousands, of small and large agency options. It is estimated that about 10% to 15% of all searches use the services of a consultant (I am thinking about dollar volume, not total agency searches.) I suspect that the number of consultant-led pitches is well over 50% for clients that have large budgets, complicated accounts and now, highly specialized agency requirements.

Should Your Agency Contact An Advertising Agency Search Consultant? It Depends.

Should your agency contact the search consultants on this list? Well, yes and no.

[Read more…] about 34 Advertising Agency Search Consultants

Is Your Advertising Agency Pitching Too Much?

Peter · October 10, 2022 · 3 Comments

Is Your Advertising Agency Pitching Too Much? Maybe You Need To Say No!

advertising agency pitchingHere is an excerpt from my book on advertising agency pitching and presenting. This tidbit emphasizes the importance of not (allow me to repeat myself) not pitching every account that whistles. You can’t afford it. It costs too much cash, time, energy, and agency staff pain (BURNOUT!). Pitching too much causes one more problem. You will reduce your business development ROI.

There is lots more in  “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book Win More Pitches.” You can buy the paperback and eBook on -> Amazon.

Yes, No, Maybe?

Before you embark on a new pitch, you should be asking yourself one extremely important question…

Should we be pitching this account?

I know what you are thinking… Levitan’s kidding right? We’ve made it through the RFI and RFP stages, and now he wants us to ask if we should even be going to the finals.

It’s still ok to say “no”, and now is the time to take a deep breath and review a go-no-go decision. You are about to spend a great deal of time and money. Are you sure that you should go through the next step? Are your colleague’s groans getting louder? Looking in any way ambivalent about the pitch will not help your pitch team feel good about charging into it. Passionless pitches don’t win.

Pitch or not is usually one of the most difficult decisions agency management has to make. There is a good chance that you think that you’ve already answered this question if you participated in an RFP that led to your selection as a shortlist candidate. I believe that even if you’ve performed a sound decision-making process, now is the time to stop to determine if this potentially expensive pitch is worth the time, effort, and human and cash costs.

[Read more…] about Is Your Advertising Agency Pitching Too Much?

A Zoom Cartoon Just For You

Peter · September 9, 2022 · Leave a Comment

A Zoom Cartoon About A Zoom Pitch Problem

Pitch MistakesTo help illustrate the insanity that often accompanies the act of an advertising agency pitch for new business, I included 12 pitch mistake cartoons in my book “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.” I love the fact that cartoons are a fast way into overloaded brains, evoke emotion, and get remembered. Remembered well past fleeting podcast interviews. Here’s a zoom cartoon to help make my point.

Possibly the most memorable Internet meme is the 1993 (!) cartoon, “On the internet nobody knows you are a dog.” From Peter Steiner in the New Yorker.

Zoom CartoonMy Zoom Cartoon Just For You

Here is a new Zoom cartoon I commissioned from master cartoonist, and brilliant Creative Director, Steve Klinetobe. Steve was a CD at my Portland agency Citrus. This cartoon will go into my next book on how to run a successful marketing agency and business development.

Steve’s nostril cartoon illustrates one of the worst uses of Zoom. It’s about where people put their camera in relation to their face. In this case, it is the camera that sits below a face and looks into your buddy’s nose. YUCK!

When Zooming, pay attention to camera placement + lighting + sound quality + your background. You know this right?

That said, I look up way too many nostrils.

By the way, Steve has gone freelance. So hire him. You will thank me.

Bob Hoffman | The Ad Contrarian On Advertising Agency Presentations And Pitching

Peter · April 13, 2022 · Leave a Comment

In This Podcast, Bob Hoffman, The Ad Contrarian, Delivers His View On How To Make Smarter Advertising Agency Presentations and Pitching For That New Account.

A slight update to an older post about my Bob Hoffman interview as a way to point out one of my primary expertise zones – how to create winning advertising agency presentations… we are supposed to be a bit self-loving, right?

I have a prospective agency client in Europe. She has a new business pitch to nail before we are going to talk about my services so I sent her a list of my writings on pitching and am telling her to buy my book, The Levitan Pitch (see it at the top of this page).

To help YOU win more business, go to this omnibus page loaded with my pitch thinking and while drinking a milkshake, arak, or a nice red wine, scroll through the list and as I say, Win More Pitches.

Back To Bob and Building Smarter Advertising Agency Presentations

In this podcast interview, we share the A.I. version of Bob Hoffman’s interview with me about the advertising agency pitch process. Bob tells it like it is. He is not known for being tepid. The interview is from my extremely best-selling book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.”

Bob Hoffman is the Chief Aggravation Officer at The Type A Group, and much more. I’ll just save some time and let Bob tell you about himself:

“Bob is the author of five Amazon #1 selling books about advertising. He is also one of the most sought-after international speakers on advertising and marketing. One of his books, “BadMen: How Advertising Went From A Minor Annoyance To A Major Menace” exposed many of the dangerous data abuse practices that are now making international headlines. It was selected “Best of Marketing 2017.”

He is the creator of the popular “The Ad Contrarian” newsletter, named one of the world’s most influential marketing and advertising voices by Business Insider.”

SHOW LINKS

Bob Hoffman’s Website

The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.

Do not forget to subscribe to Advertising Stories whenever you Listen To Podcasts. See the handy links to podcast players.

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

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 20
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

  • Featured
  • Resources
  • Podcast
  • The Big Advertising Agency Resource List
  • How To Build A Kick-Ass Advertising Agency
  • Improve Your LinkedIn Profile Fast (2023)
  • How to Build A Winning Advertising Agency New Business Program
  • Six Books For The Savvy Creative Director
  • The Six Best Books On Branding
  • The Big Advertising Agency Resource List
  • Moving To Mexico
  • Advertising Agency Process and Profitability
  • What Is Your Elevator Pitch
  • Random Marketing And Advertising Resources
  • Advertising Agency Podcast Guide
  • Bob Hoffman | The Ad Contrarian On Advertising Agency Presentations And Pitching
  • How To Be A Brilliant Podcast Guest
  • Want Advertising Agency New Business Leads? The Ratti Report Delivers
  • How To Manage A Brain On A Zoom Sales Meeting
  • YES! You Can Run A Powerful Zoom Meeting
  • How To Win A Mobile Dating App Client – On Zoom

Post Archive

Subscribe

Subscribe to the Advertising Stories Podcast

Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotify

Contact

Email Peter
Connect on LinkedIn

Peter Levitan & Co.

Copyright © 2023 • All Rights Reserved • Peter Levitan & Co. • Log in