video

Yikes. Donald Trump Loves Me. The Videos.

October 19, 2020 By Peter Leave a Comment

I Admit It. I Am Not Sure That My Donald Trump ‘Loves Me’ Endorsements Are Good For Me. Ever. However.

Months ago The Donald made a couple of video endorsements for me. One about my business development consultancy… “Levitan’s The Best”. And, one about my Advertising Stories podcast. Here is the podcast list.

To put it mildly, The Donald is a bit divisive. However, he cannot be ignored, and therefore at the time, I thought what the heck, if he is going to do a couple of personal non-political videos, why not let him. I won’t get political either (plus I am an Independent). My goal was and is to be Unignorable. So, here is a bit of borrowed interest just for you.

Oh, Mahatma Gandhi also endorsed me as well. I had visited one of his homes in Mumbai last January. Does Mr. Gandhi help me find the center – for you? I mean, who was EVER liked by both Gandhi and Trump? You can see Gandhi’s pitch for me here on my Contact page.

Ta Da, Donald Trump For Levitan’s Expertise. #1.

Ta Da, Donald Trump For Levitan’s Podcasts. #2.

Thai TV Commercial Offers Some Feel Good During Covid-19

July 15, 2020 By Peter Leave a Comment

Take Three Minutes To Feel Good

I don’t have much to say to add to this commercial. Just watch it.

But I do want to point out that my very socially conscious friend Russ Stoddard, who runs Oliver Russell, one of the more serious purpose-driven marketing firms, pointed out that he thinks that charitable donations are up in the world of Covid-19. This message is inside of our Advertising Stories podcast. After you watch the Thai TV commercial, listen to the podcast. One of my best.

The Advertising Agency Of The Future

February 22, 2020 By Peter 2 Comments

What Does The Advertising Agency Of The Future Look Like? How About Your Agency?

The advertising agency of the future needs some serious planning and agility. No surprise here. But, what is surprising to me is the lack of attention paid to how to craft an advertising agency for the future.

Just for the hell of it. I’ll start with the good old days.

My first job in advertising was at Dancer Fitzgerald & Sample. Back in the 1980’s DFS was New York’s largest advertising agency. We were sweetly based in the iconic Chrysler Building. At that time, we did not spend lots of gray matter on thinking about the future of the advertising agency business because we were making a 15% commission on media and 16.5% on production. We had a sweet client list that included General Mills, P&G, RJR Nabisco, Sara Lee, Northwest Airlines (I ran the account and our annual profits were $6 million on $9 million in revenues), HP and Toyota. As you might expect, we were not too concerned about reinvention. All this client and revenue firepower helped Saatchi & Saatchi love and buy Dancer in 1986.

Today advertising is a radically different business and ad agencies need to be thinking about how to be positioned for a future where multi-year AOR clients; 15% media commissions; three primary media types (TV, print, radio); a positive global network effect and loyalty are attributes of the past.

Not to get too down, but today the advertising world is about project work, crazy price consciousness, competition from all sides (large consultancies, in-house agencies and your ex-Creative Director who does just fine as a freelancer).

Bummed Out?

Look, for many agencies, it is kinda fucked up out there. As the famous Chinese curse says,

“May you live in interesting times”.

But, but, there are still agencies that grow and make bucks. You can too.

So, in preparation for this blog post – yes, it is ultimately about how to position your agency for the future – I read a bunch of articles on “the advertising agency of the future.” Not too surprising, this is a hot topic.

Interesting (as in ‘Uh Oh’) the first page of Google has articles on your future from traditional agency killers like Deloitte, Accenture, Adobe, CMO.com (an Adobe site).

The agency industry perspective is not on Google’s page one. It isn’t until page two that Inc., AdAge, The Drum and the ANA get to chime in.

I stopped trying to find an actual advertising agency perspective delivered via this search term by the time I got to page four. Do the big guys (even WPP, Publicis, Omnicom, etc.) not want to discuss the future?

Some Findings On The Future on Advertising

Here are some of the highlights from my research. I’m listing these in random order. I’ll have my personal thoughts a bit later. [Read more…] about The Advertising Agency Of The Future

How to Build A Winning Advertising Agency New Business Program

July 17, 2019 By Peter 23 Comments

An Advertising Agency New Business Survival Guide

I admit it, the blog post “How to Build A Winning Advertising Agency New Business Program” has been read by your competitors over 40,000 times. Glad you stopped by.

Advertising agency business development is a 24/7 operation that requires the right agency positioning, strategies, action, and high efficiency. I help my agency clients get there faster.

The post’s popularity is due to three key factors:

1. It directly addresses a major marketing pain point: how to build a winning and efficient advertising agency new business plan.

2. The post is well optimized for search engines, delivers high value, and, therefore…

3. Google loves it. FYI, my number two trafficked post is, “How To Name Your Advertising Agency – Part One” at 30,000 + views. While always rethinking their website, advertising agencies also obsess about their name. By the way, this post is also a very good cheat sheet on naming that you can steal if a client ever needs a new brand name.

“How To Build…” is all about the most important thing an advertising agency can do (while it is nurturing its current clients)… run a new business program that ensures that the agency will keep growing. Agencies are like sharks. They must keep moving forward to eat or else.

Your potential clients have over 4,000 marketing communications ‘agency’ options (other agencies, new consultancies, freelancers, even your ex-creative director…).

Therefore, any form of business development passivity on your part – sucks. If you think you are doing everything right, you probably are not. How can I say this? I never thought that all was well whilst running business development at Saatchi & Saatchi and when I owned my own agency.

Here’s my “ad”: I suggest that you give me a shout and take me up on my Corleone offer – It’s hard to refuse.

OK, Let’s Go… The 24/7 Business Development Plan

I moved from New York to Bend Oregon in 2002 to buy a very successful advertising agency (and raise a family 20 minutes from a ski lift).

Citrus grew to add a Portland office and national accounts including Dr. Martens, Harrah’s, Leagalzoom, Nike, Providence Health, Montana Lottery, and the UN.

I woke up every day as if a client like Nike was going to walk out the back door along with its revenues. I bet as an ad agency owner or manager you have rough nights too. One of the things I knew I could and should do was to manage this back-door issue was to have an active, I stress active, new business plan in place.

Here are some (I stress some) of the elements of my marketing plan. They helped me grow Saatchi & Saatchi and my agency Citrus. I hope my insights help you grow your agency.

Execution Rules.

When I set out to write this advertising agency new business post I didn’t think that it would be this long – a warning to the ADHD types. But, advertising agency new business planning is complex and is getting more complex every day due to the rapid changes in our industry and technology. That said, the devil in business development, you know what’s coming, is in the detail. Success is all about execution.

For example, running a successful inbound biz dev program that attracts market attention must be based on a sound strategy and smart agency process if you want to run a 24/7 sales program. Staying the course is critical.

The Advertising Agency Business Plan. First Things First.

Video And An Advertising Agency Sales Pitch

April 14, 2019 By Peter Leave a Comment

I’m in L.A. doing some work with agencies and a local micro-photo-series for my global The People project. While waiting to get started shooting on Venice Beach, I hit up the Social Media Marketing podcast – one of my long-term get-smarter podcasts. I landed on a really good one. I highly recommend that you listen to “How to Create Video Ad Funnels That Work.”

I guarantee that the learning here could be applied to both your clients and your agency’s own sales program. Video rules – if done correctly. Here’s the podcast pitch from the host Michael Stelzner:

Thinking about creating more video ads? Wondering how to produce more effective social media video ads?

To explore how to create video ad funnels that work, I interview video ads expert Travis Chambers. His company, Chamber Media, specializes in creating scalable social video ads for clients such as Turkish Airlines, NordicTrack, and Yahoo.

I urge you to check it out. Especially if you want to learn from an ‘advertising agency’ that has separated itself from the mega-pack of zillions other advertising agencies.

But wait, there’s more…

The Chamber Media Website

The more is that I want to quickly highlight Chamber Media’s website.

They do a few things very right.

They have an unambiguous agency positioning that meets a clear market need.
I dig their concise opening sales pitch and so would potential clients: DRIVE MILLIONS IN PROFITABLE SALES WITH SCALABLE SOCIAL VIDEO ADS. They deliver the right words: millions, profitable sales, scalable and video ads.
They immediately go for the ask. The home page Work With Us button and the We’re Excited To Chat (as in friendly) contact page is aimed at driving leads. Chamber might ask a bit too many questions, but these are not required and helps the agency weed out low-spend low-value clients.
The Home Page goes right to strong cases and (!!!) results + ROI. ROI is in… pretty pictures, kinda, out.
They say what they do, list their clients, testimonials and show some very good press. How could you not say, “Yup, these guys are for real?”

It’s About Sales Baby

Way too many advertising agency websites do not sell. If you need some sales inspiration, head over to Chamber Media.

Me

A personal note: I am just getting started on my The People photo project. My goal is to shoot more portraits of more people on more continents than any other photographer. I will discuss this in detail in a future post. So far, I have over 300 portraits all shot with the same look = outside against a portable white background. I’ve now shot in China, Mexico, Selma, and L.A. Here are two from this week’s Venice Beach series. I think I’ll head back to Mexico with over 60 new portraits.