Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

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Is Your Ad Agency Being Held Back?

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Is Your Ad Agency Stuck?

stopsignI talk with a lot of advertising agency owners and managers. Their business vibrations range from very happy (usually a smart digital agency or a locally focussed one that owns a market) to agencies down in their luck (they lost one or more of their largest clients or their ‘full-service’ positioning’ isn’t very distinctive) to psyched newbies that are working on honing their sales proposition and developing efficient processes.

As someone who has seen agencies come, go big and then fade over the years, it is instructive to be able to look under the hoods of a lot of ad and digital agencies. The up close examination is interesting / often exciting / occasionally sad but always thought provoking as advertising people are very articulate when it comes to discussing the honest state of their business. Well, to me. Maybe, not to the other owner down the street.

Some Ad Agency Issues

I hear about a few universal issues that many agencies have to deal with and I try to help my agency clients navigate these issues and leverage industry trends (that means: what clients want from an agency) to help agency owners and managers build smarter agency sales propositions, business development systems (that they will actually maintain) and tactical uses of inbound and outbound marketing.

Here are some of the more general (decelerating) issues we discuss.

Agency Positioning: Yes, that one. I have been writing about agency brand positioning for a while and you might be interested in my in-depth article “How To Position An Ad Agency”. The primary issues I see are generally concerned with the fact that most agencies do not clearly express what they are today or… haven’t done the deep thinking, homework and client need market research to create a competitive positioning that will attract the clients they want. Agency ‘sameness’ is a big problem. Many agency owners cannot seem to get past the fear of having a narrow positioning that will actually set them apart. They want to be ready to handle every possible account and project.  This everything-for-every-client approach dilutes having a distinctive sales proposition.

Agency Messaging: Once an agency has a competitive positioning they need to build a messaging system to deliver it. Most agencies (see these numbers as proof) do not have a systematic approach to how the craft messaging that supports their brand position. They also seem to fear being to bold and don’t subscribe to the use of chutzpah. Need an example? Look at how London Advertising supports their very clear and benefit-oriented brand positioning with a video and a unique way to express their strategy via their case histories. Here is their ‘One Idea’ proposition (note that they were named Agency of The Year by The Drum.)

LONDON is an international advertising agency built for today. We create One Brilliant Idea that can work in any media, anywhere in the world. This has been proven to deliver the highest possible return
on investment.

The Agency Website: Since most agencies are always in the mode of wanting to redesign their website, isolating the issue of agency websites that don’t SELL is easy. There are many reasons that agency websites do not work as hard as they should. Here are just a couple. The website does not tell the visitor what that agency does and can deliver in its allotted six seconds (that is usually all the time you’ll get to capture the attention of a busy client prospect); the website does not sell agency thinking or even the work via smart cases or well-crafted thought leadership that prove that the agency can get the job done for today’s skittish clients; and, the agency does not deliver any compelling sense of who they are… that means that the website does not build any interpersonal chemistry between the agency and the visitor. This is critical: try some video instead of lots of copy. Speaking of video, have you tried Wistia yet? From their website: “Wistia provides professional video hosting with amazing viewer analytics, HD video delivery, and marketing tools to help understand your visitors.”

Outbound Marketing: Failures in outbound marketing include not having created a list of potential clients (or even client categories); no CRM system to keep the program moving forward; no scheduled outreach; and… a fear of cold calling. Note, I agree with fear of cold calling. That’s why I promote the use of ‘Warm Calling’. That means, give the clients the ideas and insights they need and want to warm them up and then make the call.

Inbound Marketing: This is a head scratcher for me.  The great majority of agencies do not seem to know how to do inbound marketing. Many agency blogs look like the agency didn’t write a creative brief that clearly states their blog’s objectives including an understanding of what clients they want to reach — or in the case of all inbound programs, the agency wants to have find the agency via smart SEO and guest posting, etc. I could go on to the fact that agencies do not seem to use simple  marketing  calendars to mange their content programs but I will stop here. Frankly, in many cases, there simply too many missed opportunities. I think a  key reason for this missed opportunity is that some agency CEO’s don’t actually understand inbound marketing and the art of content creation. it works. After all, you found me.

One more big issue:

No Business Development Plan: I’ve saved the best for last. An agency cannot solve any of these issues without having a master business development plan that details objectives and strategies. Even a two-pager would help.

Need help getting unbound? Vito can help.

I know that I can help you solve the problems that might be holding your agency back. Give me a call and take me up on my Corleone offer.

 

Ad Agency Social Media Check List

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An Ad Agency Social Media Check List – But, Determine If You Can Do It All

How to Start an Advertising Agency Expert Business AdviceI put a new infographic on social media planning and a  checklist below. It is a good one. Big thanks to Post Planner and its article “FINALLY! A Checklist for Social Media Marketing that Actually Helps or the advice and graphic. “

Good stuff.

But.

Most advertising agencies cannot and will not do all that is recommended. I firmly believe that the 2 biggest issues confronting ad agency business development  programs are the lack of a clear plan (or any plan for that matter) and biting off more social media marketing than they can chew. This leads to inaction and inertia…. and not running the program 24/7. Therefore, my caution. This is a great chart on what to do and how to do it. But don’t bite it all off. You probably won’t be able to run it all.

That said, you must do the first two recommendations:

Define your target audience. I am continuously amazed at how few (50%?) of ad agency social media programs look like they do not have clear objectives and understand what will be of value to their target audience. Is it current or future clients? Culture support for your agency? The press? Prospective employees?  [Read more…] about Ad Agency Social Media Check List

A Twitter Tool For Advertising Agencies

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I love Twitter Tools

download broCheck out the Twitter tool SocialBro (and, don’t thank me for naming this company). Here is what they say about themselves:

SocialBro’s advanced solutions for Twitter marketing are built around what you need. From Enterprise scale organisations coordinating multi channel strategies across multiple teams to individual influencers building a personal brand, our clever tools work with your preferred Twitter client (e.g. Hootsuite or Tweetdeck) to help you achieve your goals on Twitter.

Here is just one of the detailed traffic reports I get from them about my Twitter account. Now, make sure you think about the following detail about me when you look at these numbers:

I post on west coast time. Therefore, my east coast audience is getting up earlier than me.

When see what my Followers talk about in their feeds, consider that I write about advertising, social media and marketing. I am not so sure about the “love” thing.

My audience works 24/7 across the globe. I don’t have best days or seriously best times.

For more, many more, insights on SocialBro, head over to Razor Social. If you haven’t been to this fab website… Go there!

SocialBro Browse your Twitter Community

Want More Twitter Tools?

Here is a link to my post about 11 must have social media tools for advertising agency business development — and agency clients.

Charlie Hebdo, Cartoons and Advertising

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Charlie Hebdo and The Power of Cartoons In Advertising & Social Media

charlieI have been watching CNN’s “Reliable Sources“, it is a thoughtful and smart TV news show that covers the media world. I highly recommend it. From CNN:

Now more than ever, the press is a part of every story it covers. And CNN’s “Reliable Sources” is one of television’s only regular programs to examine how journalists do their jobs and how the media affect the stories they cover.

As one would expect, the show’s been covering the Charlie Hebdo murders, ramifications for the worldwide press and how they are reporting the story in detail.

One of my biggest takeaways from the whole Charlie Hebdo story is how freakin powerful cartoons are. Which brings me to the point…

Why So Few Cartoons In Advertising and Social Media?

Cartoons grab attention.

Cartoons can be so powerful they’ve driven people to murder. OK, we are not looking for this level of passion in advertising. But, think about it. Why aren’t we using this storytelling energy more?

Cartoons are not boring look-alike advertising messages (see ‘be not boring’ below.)

Cartoons are visual and help cure some information overload issues.

Cartoons tell stories. I have 12 cartoons in my book on pitching. They make a strong visual point about what not to do if you WANT to fail in new business pitches.

Cartoons are visual content that have some staying power in a world that eats up content and spits it out a a rapidly growing rate.

Cartoons can be serialized to create campaigns.

Cartoons get shared.

Cartoons can run in print, social media and in video.

Cartoons fit on phones.

Our love of infographics is essentially a love of cartooning. A stretch? Maybe. But, I dig data-visualization vs. dull-data.

Use More Cartoons…

My good friend  Steve Klinetobe runs the Cartoon Agency. Here is how they describe themselves:

We help companies be NOT boring using the universal awesomeness of cartoon storytelling.

Technically, we’re a content marketing agency. That means we help our clients plan, develop and deliver smart, buzz boosting content for their blogs, social media, and other such things.

But! There is a difference (or as us marketers like to say, a differentiator).

We create cartoons. That’s right, big-eyed funnies that reach out and grab your audience by the heart.

If I were a Creative Director or social media strategist, I’d be thinking of using cartoons. Why aren’t more advertising, mobile and ‘content genrators’ doing this? Even Google’s algorithms like cartoons.

Moving on to advertising agency new business: Why not use cartoons to begin to sell your agency on your website, in your blogs or as something different in your outbound marketing? You will stand out from the other 10,000 agencies, you will tell your story in a delightful way and you could have some fun doing it.

don't be distinctive mistake copy jpegAm I just spewing? I put my money where my mouth is. The cartoon at the left is one of 12 from my book. Here is a post I did on the cartoons.

We all talk about making connections. I think that using  cartons can often work harder than just words.

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Yes, you can buy your very own “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches” on Amazon.

You can also buy a poster of all 12 cartoons right here at Society6. I guarantee that if you put this poster up in your agency you will win more pitches.