Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

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Chevrolet Tahoe Consumer Generated Media Fail

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Adweek’s Cathy Taylor Discusses An Instructive Story About A Chevrolet Tahoe Consumer Generated Media Fail. Not Pretty.

Hear Cathy Taylor, of Adweek, tell tails of the mid-2000s digital media world and the mighty Chevrolet Tahoe’s consumer generated media fail. It seems that the Chevrolet Tahoe SUV marketing team did not quite understand that putting its brand message in the hands of unrestrained consumers, some of whom did not like big gas guzzlers, might not be a good thing for a consumer generated media ad program.

Yes, we are going all the way back to a 2006 podcast interview that I did for my advertising agency when Chevy made this digital marketing mess. This is episode one of a two-part series. Part one is just one  Advertising Stories episode earlier. Visit this story… Adweek Editor On Google Advertising.

Cathy has been a writer on the ad world for, get this: ADWEEK, Advertising Age, Media Post, The Conference Board, and The Mobile Marketing Association and now… WARC.

SHOW NOTES:

Cathy Taylor on LinkedIn
Cathy’s Adweek article

Here is a New York Times article about the debacle: Chevy Tries a Write-Your-Own-Ad Approach, and The Potshots Fly.

You can see the growing list of all of my Advertising Stories podcasts right here.

Use the handy subscribe buttons that we’ve placed on this wonderful page. 

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

Instant Social Media Content For Your Brand And Advertising Agency

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I’ve updated this blog post about, well, I’ll repeat the title for you, and especially Google. Instant Social Media Content For Your Brand And Advertising Agency.

OK, I admit it, there is no totally instant social media content. But, there is fast. In fact, fast and good. In fact, there really is fast + good + cheap. Which, as you might suspect, will make a brand and any advertising agency very happy.

I have used a few different methods to accelerate the generation of my more than 700 blog posts. Try a few of these on for size.

TikTok

I am going to write about TikTok in detail in the very near future. TikTok which, given its size and growth, is the most underutilized advertising agency business development social media platform. Hmmm. Why?

Here is what I think. Some possible agency excuses not to use TikTok…

  • TikTok is too young.
  • Too international.
  • Too new. As in, why should I bother? Um, remember when you didn’t use Instagram?
  • None of my clients have asked about it.
  • Worse… I do not have a TikTok account.

Interviews

Interviewing an expert, or even a consumer in your client’s or client industry or target market can take as few as 5 minutes up to say 45. A 45-minute interview will deliver approximately 8,000 words that you could cut up into 4 2,000 word blog entries or whatever you like to do with social media content, ur, I mean highly valuable insights. My book on presenting and pitching has multi interviews that I also amplified into blog posts. You bought the book so you’ve read those interviews and will now win more pitches – right?

I was recently interviewed for the Working Without Pants podcast. After Selling Your Agency, was published, I sent it to Rev.com and now have an 8,000-word transcript I will soon edit down into bite-sized blog posts. One will be a foundational blog post on how and why to sell your agency.

Do Videos

Easy… just turn on your webcam (or iPhone) and talk. I mean, you are an advertising agency, right? You can do this and start to own some SEO juice on YouTube. Less easy, but easy enough ideas: Go on the street and do some interviews (social distance yourself, please) or do a webcam interview with a genius (remember you can turn that into copy via an audio transcription company like REV.com.)

Rip Off A Podcast

Here’s a post I created by responding to the Adage interview with Lindsay Slaby. I took the interview, sent it to rev.com for transcription, and commented on what Lindsay was saying. Easy, smart, and brilliant. All around. Here is the blog post that was created by borrowing some content from Ad Age, Ad Age Small Agency Conference Podcast.

Do Your Own Podcast

I have a new Advertising Stories podcast. I interview people. They talk to me. I, well do not steal, but I do get lots of smarts out of their mouths. Plus, the entire process is essentially free.

Do A Google Survey

[Read more…] about Instant Social Media Content For Your Brand And Advertising Agency

Resources: Now What? Life After Advertising

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Is There Life After Advertising? Some Resources.

Yes, there is life after advertising. Since you will most likely age out of this business by 45 (no, I do not have any stats to support this), it might be a good idea to start to think about what else to do.

Me? I became, surprise, a business development consultant for aspiring advertising agencies after I sold my own advertising agency. I spend about a third of my time doing this and it is working very well. Agencies need what I have to offer because my personal experience is steeped in agency management and sales. All in all, a very good fit.

But, But, Now, Add In Coronavirus Complications

…It is 2020 and I am seeing that this blog post, initially posted in March 2016, is getting traffic because people are searching on terms related to “life after advertising”. Obviously, there is a segment of the advertising agency community that is trying to figure what else to do if the ad world does not return to what was “normal”. It will not.

So, here are some resources, just a bunch, that might help you figure out your life after advertising.

Now, what about your life?

[Read more…] about Resources: Now What? Life After Advertising

Three Must Have Social Media Content Strategies

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Repeated For Effect: Here are three important social media content terms and strategies to add to your advertising agency’s 2020 marketing plan.

The world of social media “content” (what a strange, and a bit anti-descriptive, term) is going through major changes and increasing challenges. Getting seen is muy difficult. Example: there are now over 500 million blogs. There were 150 million in 2010. Instagram addicts upload over 95 million posts and 400 million stories every day. Given this content and brand attention-seeking barrage… How does one stand out in an overrun world of social media content?

I could give you more stats that show how difficult it is to break out from the clutter. I won’t here. All you have to do is a quick search to see lots of websites that list stats for every corner of the social media landscape.

So, back to the question… “how do you stand out?”

Three Social Media Content Terms and Strategies You Should Be Thinking About Using.

1. Omnichannel.

Today one has to think through getting past a one or even two-channel strategy. Too often I see advertising agencies concentrate on one channel. Examples… blogs or LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter – or you name it. Simply put, in a world of serious customer ADHD, you and your sales prospects will use Youtube, Netflix, multiple phone apps, maybe a blog, and on — today. The way to get out in front of this craziness is to go Omnichannel. Just do it, use more than one channel in your marketing. Here is a Wikipedia definition.

Omnichannel is a cross-channel content strategy that organizations use to improve their user experience and drive better relationships with their audience across points of contact. Rather than working in parallel, communication channels and their supporting resources are designed and orchestrated to cooperate.

2. Content Sprouting.

For years I have been advocating what I have called content amplification. [Read more…] about Three Must Have Social Media Content Strategies

How Clients Find An Advertising Agency

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How Do Clients Find Their Next Advertising Agency?

One of the more challenging questions I ask my advertising agency business development clients is, “How do your prospective advertising, design, digital or PR clients find your advertising agency?”

In most cases, the number one answer is referrals or WOM. Of course, of course, this is a wonderful way to gain future client interest. However, the referral route is rather passive unless an agency has a highly active referral program. Even with a proactive in-house referral program, counting on referrals is not a high numbers game and is a bit too passive.

I am not a fan of passivity and think that an advertising agency needs to be everywhere a prospective client might look for them.

Everywhere.

In the old days, that even included having a Yellow Pages ad. Call me if you do not know what the Yellow Pages were.

Back to the question… “How do your prospective advertising, design, digital or PR clients find your advertising agency?”

The general list of responses goes like this. I’ve included links to some previous thoughts on some of these front doors:

  • Through direct referrals from clients, friends, and family. General word of mouth. Read: Six Business Development Referral Strategies.
  • Clients find us using a Google search. Read: Google Will Screw Your Ad Agency.
  • We run ads on Google.
  • We are on third-party advertising agency lists. Read: The Ultimate Advertising Agency List
  • We have won creative and marketing awards that increase our brand awareness. Clios help.
  • We get press from advertising industry publications.
  • We get press from client category/industry publications.
  • A future client saw one of our ‘great’ existing client ads or programs and contacted us.
  • Our social media programs attract new client interest. Read: Does B2B Social Media Still Work?
  • Our account-based marketing sales program directly targets the clients we want.
  • We get RFI and RFP requests advertising agency consultants. Read: 34 Advertising Agency Search Consultants.
  • We are listed on the local advertising club website.

So, How Do Clients Find Their Next Advertising Agency? As in, like yours?

First, let’s agree that you want to be found (maybe not by every potential client. But, you still want to out there.)

The only way to do that is to be everywhere a potential client will look for you. If this sounds simple and you are already doing this, Great. If not and you need an actionable strategy and tactics to solve this formable problem/opportunity…

Let’s talk about how to grow your business. You are in a hurry, right?

Contact me and take me up on my free Vito Corleone offer.