Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

Pitching

Advertising Research Tools

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How To Win New Advertising Accounts With Research

images rI am a research junkie. I think it comes from having started my career at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, a huge NYC agency that excelled at consumer research and had a range of proprietary tools all managed by a multi-person research staff. And then, a couple of years at Saatchi London, with its cadre of Account Planners. And, over the years, I worked with clients like General Mills, J&J and Sara Lee that used advertising research to track everything before they made big buck decisions.

And, I know that smart targeted research is one of the best new business attractors. Read this article on how to grab the attention of virtually any client “An Irresistible New Business Sales Pitch“.

And, when used strategically in an in-person pitch, smart, compelling research can help you win the heart and mind of a client within the first five minutes of your meeting. Used correctly, research can be a dramatic wake up call or a smart way to confirm that you get the client’s business and industry.

It’s Gotten Easier

Good news on the research front is that with digital tools, we do not necessarily need to run expensive research programs to generate decision-making or new client attracting data. Here are a few tools that even an intern can manage (manage, not set up) to whet your information appetite. [Read more…] about Advertising Research Tools

Watch This Amazing Steve Jobs Talk On Advertising

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I Thought That I Was Way Tired Of Steve Jobs And The Glory Days Of Apple Advertising

Screen Shot 2015-12-01 at 7.45.50 AMBut…

I took a re-look at Apple’s 1997 Think Different TV commercial. You’ve seen it. Watch it again, please. Ads like this are why experienced advertising people from the olden days can (I stress “can”) get real sick about how the advertising industry spends more time thinking about content, programmatic buying, ads that follow you around for the rest of your freakin online life, how to squeeze ads that you don’t want on your phone and how to create brilliant Facebook ads. Oh, and lame click bait headlines like my, “Watch This Amazing Steve Jobs Talk On Advertising”.

OK, stuff it Peter. We’ve heard all of this before.

Just watch the commercial – again. Here’s a line from the spot… (And, then, more importantly, watch the next video.)

“Because the people who care enough about changing the world are the ones that do.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmwXdGm89Tk

OK, BUT!

I’ll stop. But, not till you see this internal Apple meeting where Jobs discusses his vision for the company and introduces the ‘”new” Apple (after he returned from exile) and the new :60 Think Different TV spot. Job’s says the new TV commercial is:

“It’s about what we are. It touches the soul of the company.”

I admit it. I can’t control myself: When was the last time your client said that about your advertising? I know 1997 Jobs and Apple doesn’t represent our everyday advertising world reality and your client isn’t Steve Jobs.

But… please start to really want to have your clients get emotional when they see your ad ideas, not your invoice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GMQhOm-Dqo

 That’s it.

Oh, want your agency to Think Different? Call me. That’s what I do.

 

Write Your Advertising Agency Book

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My Books Make Me Happy

Levitan Pitch coverThis post was generated by my smiling at Powell’s Books. See why below.

I’ve written two books. Both are self-published on Amazon as a book-book and eBook. The first, Boomercide: From Woodstock To Suicide was my training-wheels book. It is about using suicide as a financial planning tool (OK, and a deep discussion of suicide itself).

The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. (yes you can learn more about it and then buy it at the top of this page) is a best seller in the narrow category of advertising agency business development books. It has worked hard as a business development tool for me and because it has sold well, it generates some cash, too.

That’s two books. I am already thinking trough book #3. Yes, folks, you can publish books too and should think hard about the value of taking the time to write a book as an agency marketing tool. It isn’t as difficult as you think and an agency is perfectly positioned to get that book out the door..

Here are links to a couple of “how-to’s”….

How to Write An Advertising Agency Book. This post includes a video of my HubSopt book writing presentation.

Yes, You Can Write And Publish A business Book In 6 Months. Yes, you can!

Happy At Powell’s Books

So I am cruising through Portland’s Powell’s City Of Books (it’s the largest used and new bookstore in the world, occupies an entire city block and sells over 1 million books.) As a lark, I typed my name into their database and… yup, my book The Levitan Pitch. was listed. This was a surprise because the book is only distributed on Amazon and must have made it to Powell’s as a used book sale. That means that someone in Portland bought the book and then sold it to Powell’s. Cool. Everyone wins.

Here’s what I saw on the screen…

FullSizeRender copy

 

What Does Your Advertising Agency Charge?

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What Does Your Advertising Agency Charge?

There, I’ve said it twice. Why? Because if you are an agency owner or partner or business development director or creative director and you have no clue how to charge for your advertising agency’s services, you are way screwed my friend.

As an agency owner and CEO, I participated in all large pricing surveys. Why wouldn’t I? Throwing darts at the wall of agency fees is not a good plan. It won’t help you win new accounts and will undoubtedly not help you become more profitable. Most of the RFP’s you deal with demand that you get your pricing right. Also, I’ve occasionally used these numbers with existing clients to show them that my agency’s fees were in line with the world of competitive agencies.

This industry-wide survey will immediately become a “best of” because it comes from our friends at HubSpot and the results will represent a huge number of agency respondents. Here is the link to the Agency Pricing & Financials Survey and here is what HubSpot is saying…

How do you determine the price for your services and track the profitability of your agency?

Some might call it an art, but that might be because many agency leaders are forced to get creative with their approach. They have very little industry data and best practices to tell them how to price their services, what metrics to track, and how to improve their business practices. 

In addition, profitability in agencies has become a more difficult thing to achieve. Margins are shrinking, and clients can ask for more for less because of the number of competitors. 

Do It. It Takes Ten Minutes.

Taking this survey will help all of you agency leaders better understand what pricing models to use.

The survey takes ten minutes. You’ve got ten minutes to get into your competitor’s heads, right?

 

 

Does Your Ad Agency Use Storytelling In Its Sales Pitch?

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Agencies Do Storytelling

Why-Storytelling-and-Why-NowAdvertising agencies love the idea of being storytellers. Storytelling skills have become one of the ways that agencies offer agency brand differentiation. To be clear, here’s a definition:

Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, sound and/or images, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, and instilling moral values.

I see three ways that agencies do storytelling:

The Agency itself has a story.

Frankly, this is an amazingly underused opportunity. Why don’t agencies use their own personal or business stories more often on their websites, in their new business programs and pitches? Need an example (yes, an obvious one): Ogilvy’s use of David. The

ogilvy2The Ogilvy website has David’s bio and the following ‘story’ about David that he wrote to his partners 3 years after he started the agency Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather. He is writing about himself.

Will Any Agency Hire This Man?

He is 38, and unemployed. He dropped out of college.
He has been a cook, a salesman, a diplomatist and a farmer.
He knows nothing about marketing and had never written any copy.
He professes to be interested in advertising as a career (at the age of 38!) and is ready to go to work for $5,000 a year.

I doubt if any American agency will hire him.

However, a London agency did hire him. Three years later he became the most famous copywriter in the world, and in due course built the tenth biggest agency in the world.

The moral: it sometimes pays an agency to be imaginative and unorthodox in hiring.

My moral… This story reinforces the perception that Ogilvy is ‘imaginative and unorthodox.’ The agency delivers this compelling message neatly wrapped up in a founder story — not just saying it.

The agency sells its ‘storytelling’ prowess.

HubSpot published an interview “Have agencies Abused The Term Storytelling?” I did with Michael Donahue, ex-EVP of The American Association of Advertising Agencies about the art of brand storytelling . Is storytelling overused? My take? No, telling stories to help consumers build a better understanding of and a closer bond with brands works. However, how the agency describes this particular art must be distinctive. It’s the

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