July 31, 2008
12 advantages when you focus your agency’s new business efforts on your “sweet spot.”
The sweet spot is that part of the club, bat, tennis racket, etc. that wastes the least amount of energy when it collides with the ball.
New business targeting is about finding an agency’s sweet spot. Deciding on the most fruitful audience that match your agency’s core competencies and wastes the least amount of your agency’s energy and resources to win.
Too many agencies fall into the trap of wanting to go after any prospective client that has a budget, even if its not a good fit. Maybe that is part of the reason why 53% of advertisers are dissatisfied with their agencies and the average agency-client relationship is now two years.
53% of advertisers are dissatisfied with their agencies and the average agency-client relationship is now two years.
If your agency will go after anything and everything you are playing a numbers game. You might get lucky and win a few but you wont be building your brand and when it’s not a good match, you and your staff are going to be miserable.
Think about the advantages when you focus new business efforts on your sweet spot prospective clients, you can expect to:
- Properly brand/position your agency for success with surprisingly little effort
- Go beyond thinking about category experience to defining what audiences you know best — one of the most interesting ways to define your brand
- Clearly articulate how your agency is distinguished
- More easily build awareness among the best prospects for your agency
- Become an expert and leader in your field
- Acquire new business with the least amount of wasted agency energy and resources
- Develop a well-defined set of criteria for identifying the clients who want your agency for what it does best
- A stronger win ratio in new business, because the agency is playing to its strengths
- A broader — not narrower — geographical market area
- Fewer competitors, because there will be fewer agencies who do what you do
- Better margins, because specialists command premium pricing
- A business model that increases the agency’s value and relevance to clients
It’s possible to stop chasing business and have business start chasing your agency.
When advertisers know who your agency is and what it stands for, they’ll seek you out. Instead of being being mildly appealing to a broad group of prospects, you are intensely appealing to your sweet spot group of prospects — prospects who want your agency for what it does best.
33.184618
-86.834263
2 Comments | 
New Business Tips, New Business Trends | Tagged: ad agency prospects, agency new business consultant, Agency Positioning, Blogs I Recommend, Michael Gass, midsize ad agencies, New Business Tools, small ad agencies | 
Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 29, 2008
Ultimately, a blog can be your most highly effective, powerful and low-cost new business marketing tool.
I recently conducted a new business seminar for an ad agency. One of my recommendations was to use Web 2.0 to promote their agency with an agency blog as the center piece of new business marketing tools. They’ve committed the next 90 days making this a priority.
Why would I recommend a blog as one of the most important tools for ad agency new business?
Having an agency blog is well worth the time and effort. It provides many great benefits. Below are some of the important lessons I’ve learned through blogging and the ten reasons why your agency should have a blog:
- Communication that Connects. The most important lesson I’ve learned, “you don’t know what you know until you write it down.” I’ve been associated with great writers and I know that I’m not one of them! Blogging has helped me to be a better communicator.
- New Business Paradigm Shift. New business for ad agencies is undergoing a paradigm shift; instead of hunting for clients, it’s now more important for your prospective clients to find your agency. Blogs make it easier for your prospective clients to find your agency. They’ll even initiate contact when they are ready to engage.
- True Expertise. Clients want leadership not partnership from their agency. In the early days of television, programs were produced by ad agencies, leading the way utilizing a new technology. Today, when ad agencies should be leading, they are woefully behind in Web 2.0 marketing expertise.
- Prominence of a Blog. At one time it was said, “every business needs a Web site.” Today it’s, “every business needs a blog.” A blog will become the gateway to your agency, make your agency easier to find and provide a reason to visit online often. Your agency’s Web site becomes more your agency’s online brochure. That’s good news for the majority of agencies that know how difficult it is to redesign and update their Web site!
- Learning is Doing. It is difficult to learn to use the Web 2.0 tools, such as blogging, through a conference or seminar. You must experience it and discover the potential benefits it has for your agency and your clients.
- If its Good Enough for Your Client, It Better Be Good Enough for You. Blogging is an excellent tool for new business. Demonstrate how these tools have helped your agency by practicing what you preach. It makes for a powerful demonstration when you’ve actually used the tools you recommend to your clients. Also be sure to point out, in your next prospective client meeting, that your competitors aren’t using it.
- Personal Enrichment Tool. Blogging will enrich your professional life, keep you up to date with the freshest thinking and help you too be aquainted with the newest and best new trends. That will also be good for your clients, and position you in their minds as a trusted expert.
- Positioning Tool. Most ad agencies struggle with narrowing their target audience and thus have great difficulty in positioning and differentiating themselves. Blogging is an excellent tool to help ad agencies discover their positioning. A good example is the She-conomy blog, positioning a small ad agency as an expert marketing to women, who by the way, make 85% of all brand purchases.
- Focus on Client Benefits. Blogging keeps your agency focused on what is important to your prospective clients. It forces you talk to their benefit instead of talking about your agency.
- A Passion to Assist. Blogging isn’t for every agency. If your agency doesn’t have a passion to help your audience succeed you wont succeed with blogging. As soon as you start to “sell” your agency or brag about your credentials and awards, you will lose your credibility and your audience. Instead, provide rich content that helps your prospects with their marketing challenges and build trust. Then new business will come.
33.184618
-86.834263
57 Comments | New Business Tactics, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency blog, ad agency business development, ad agency positioning, ad agency prospects, Blogs I Recommend, marketing 2.0 tools, Michael Gass, midsize ad agency, practice what you preach, reasons for an agency to blog, small ad agency | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 27, 2008
Most ad agencies are target-less. Just ask, they wont be able to adequately define who is their target audience. They want to be everything to everybody. That is why they are viewed as generalist instead of specialist. A generalist is going to make less money, be confined primarily to business acquired because of location, personal chemistry and networks. They are forced to take on accounts they don’t want and do work they don’t want to do.
For a small or midsize ad agencies client diversity isn’t a strength its a weakness.
Without a target a new business program becomes much more difficult. Focusing on a target audience is foundational, it impacts everything about an agency from how it is promoted to even staffing.
A blog is a great tool to help a small or midsize agency focus on a target audience for new business.
To have an effective agency blog you must have a target audience in mind. Another blog about marketing isn’t going to stand out. A blog however that is targeted to marketing for real estate developers would be more effective. If it were a blog for real estate developers using Web 2.0 tools would stand out even more. Such a blog isn’t attractive to everyone but it can be highly attractive to a specific target group and helps build awareness and an expertise for your agency.
G&G ADVERTISING, Orlando, Florida, provides a good example of how a full service advertising agency can position itself as being experts to a specific target audience. Their main Website is general, but they created another division specifically to marketing real estate. This division is called RENDERINGS.COM.
The RENDERINGS.COM agency created a blog about Real Estate Marketing. Allowing the agency to engage their target audience online, providing helpful marketing tips, trends and tactics for developers.
Small and midsize ad agencies can use a blog to build awareness and trust with a particular target audience.
If an agency’s strength is marketing destinations, or professional services, leisure products, healthcare or whatever it may be, they can identify and reach their best target audience through a blog. This is a communications tool that must be used correctly. There are many examples of agencies with bad blogs who have no idea how they should be used to build an online community of prospective clients.
An example of a smaller ad agency that has developed a blog to a broader, but still specific, target audience, is Holland + Holland in Birmingham, Alabama. The agency’s president and creative director, Stephanie Holland, is one of only three percent of female creative directors in the country. This was the biggest and best point of differentiation her agency.
Stephanie’s agency developed an appealing position to male advertisers whose primary target audience is women. The agency developed a blog called www.she-conomy.com, a guy’s guide to marketing to women. The agency has already acquired new business directly related to their blog. She-conomy positions the agency as having an expertise in marketing to women.
This isn’t a niche market and doesn’t lessen but enhances the agency’s new business opportunities. Just look at the following stats. All the agency has to do is target categories that are dominated by the female consumer. Eighty-five percent of all brands purchased are purchased by women. They are the purchasing agency for the family. Plus:
- 69% of household health decisions are made by women
- 74% of all NBA & NFL apparel is purchased by women
- 91% of new home decisions are made by women
- 81% of grocery decisions are made by women
- 60% of the online population are women
- 62% of all workers are women
The agencies target group is bright for the future, ninety-four percent of the wealth acquired in the next four years, will be acquired by women.
“As a general rule ad agencies try to be all things to all clients for fear of losing potential business. We were no different. But narrowing our focus on a particular target audience gives us a much better focus for new business and has led to more opportunities than we could have imagined.” - Stephanie Holland, President/Creative Director Holland + Holland Advertising
Stephanie says they have to continually remind themselves that their target audience is male advertisers as they write their blog post on how to market to women. They even designed their blog with graphics and colors that would not be offensive to men and copy that is helpful not demeaning.
For additional info read my Top Ten Reasons Agencies Need a Blog
33.184618
-86.834263
26 Comments | New Business Tips, New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Advertising Agency New Business, alabama, birmingham, Blogs I Recommend, female creative directors, G&G Advertising, holland and holland advertising, marketing to women, Michael Gass, midsize ad agency, real estate marketing blog, renderings.com, small ad agency, Stephanie Holland | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 26, 2008
Personal networks lead to ad agency new business acquisitions. People like to work with others they know. LinkedIn can be a great ad agency new business tool.
- Performing a People Search will quickly find the right person at the company and determine who you know in common for a warm Introduction. If this isn’t possible, you also have the option to reach out directly via an InMail.
- While reading an article on partner sites (such as Business Week, CIO, etc) you can immediately see how your network can help you get access to that company to discuss an opportunity using Company Insider.
Try it now, click the 
icon to see who you’re conncted to at LinkedIn.
- Viewing your counterpart’s profile can help bridge the gap by providing mutual contacts, background, recommendations, etc.
Click on the button below to view my LinkedIn Profile. You are welcomed to join my network.
33.184618
-86.834263
1 Comment | New Business Tools, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency new business tool, Blogs I Recommend, LinkedIn, Michael Gass, midsize ad agency, small ad agency, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 22, 2008
An agency CEO and I were talking recently when she just learned of a dilemma. About 100,000 brochures had been printed and delivered for one of her clients. Even after an exhaustive approval process prior to print, on both the agency and client side, an AE discovered an error. It was a small error and difficult to detect. The printer suggested letting it go that it would not be noticed. Besides the client approved it and reprinting would be out of the agency’s pocket. The CEO finally said, “I don’t know why I’ve been wrestling with this decision. Even if the client doesn’t know, I know. I’m going to have them reprinted.”
“When you are at a crossroads and you don’t know what to do. Do the right thing.” – Rick Warren
33.184618
-86.834263
2 Comments | Fuel for Thought | Tagged: Michael Gass, Rick Warren | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 22, 2008
My first position at an ad agency was as an AE, working directly with one of the agency partners. I’ll never forget his advise to me one day while we were eating lunch together. He said, “My background is in sales and when I’m in a meeting with a prospective client, I’m thinking to myself … my money is in their pocket. How do I get my money out of their pocket into mine?”*
Sometimes the best life lessons I’ve learned have been from those that I vowed never to be like. I’ve discovered that prospective clients have a strong sense of what motivates you. Your motivation matters in agency new business, especially using social media.
Advertisers and their ad agencies are looking at social media, the first mass marketing media that isn’t supported by advertising and wondering, what is in it for me?
Radio, TV, your newspaper exists because of advertising. It exists to please the advertisers.
Seth Goggin’s blog is ranked number one by AdAge Power150. In a recent post he points out,
“The internet is different. It wasn’t invented by business people and doesn’t exist to help your company (agency) make money. It is entirely possible it could be used that way but it doesn’t owe you anything. The question to ask isn’t how does this help me?” The question to ask isn’t, “but how does this help me? The question to ask is, “how are people (the people I need to reach, interact with and tell stories to) going to use this new power and how can I help them achieve their goals?”
Social media is an interactive event and online social marketing needs to focus on the community. The most important term is ’social’ – be social, be a part of the community, and the results will speak for themselves. Interact within these social communities for the benefit of everyone, not just yourself, and the results can be tremendous. You may find your agency’s profile and reputation growing, the number of quality visitors to your sites growing, and, ultimately, your new business growing.
*A footnote: this agency is no longer in business!
33.184618
-86.834263
4 Comments | New Business Tips, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency blog, AdAge Power150, Blogs I Recommend, Michael Gass, Seth Goggin, social marketing, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 19, 2008
The answer to this question will dramatically affect your agency’s ability to attract future new business.
Traditional advertising agencies face significant technical challenges. Consumers have turned away from media channels that built the agency industry and have moved toward emerging internet media. Ad agencies must build new interactive competencies quickly in order to survive.
Jeremiah Owyang, former Forrester Sr Analyst: Social Computing and current Web Strategist, states emphatically that the agency of the future is a connected one.
Owyang says,
“I can’t imagine ever advising a client to deal with an advertising, PR, or interactive team that doesn’t get social media. Of course, I’m biased as I’m sitting right smack in the middle of the social media space. But with the power shifting to the participants, agencies must demonstrate they can participate before they can ever help clients with it.
Sadly, most agencies still don’t get the new space, or if they do, they lightly gloss it over by saying “Oh yeah, we’ve a blog” and when I look, it’s a bunch of self-serving posts written by a variety of different folks with little strategy and few comments.”
Learning is doing. The best way to learn social marketing is to experience it first hand.
A beneficial way to experience and learn how to use these new tools is to use them to attract new business for your agency. To do this right takes work. For these tools to work these tools must be used correctly. But the effort is worth it. You’ll gain experience as track and tweak your agency’s promotional campaign and learn first hand how these tools can benefit your clients. Once your agency is connected, you will find that these new tools actually make your new business effort easier and consistent.
Combining Web 2.0 & ad agency new business, provides a powerful, inexpensive and highly effective combination for your agency’s self promotional efforts.
33.184618
-86.834263
3 Comments | New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency promotion, Blogs I Recommend, jeremiah owyang, Michael Gass, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 19, 2008
Brand agency, Neutron, has developed a creative way to build their online community of prospective clients by offering “Steal This Idea.”
“We regularly develop brand concepts and thinking tools that will help you zag, design, and innovate your way to the next business frontier. Sign up for Steal This Idea, and get a new tool every month.”
Neutron’s viral program draws executives and managers directly into their brand-building process. It gives these prospective clients an opportunity to learn how the agency thinks. Neutron also demonstrates a powerful unique market position for themselves as well as how they go about assisting their clients, building brands from the inside out.
Do the same for your agency by challenging your creative staff to develop unique ways to promote your agency online.
33.184618
-86.834263
2 Comments | New Business Tactics, New Business Tips, New Business Trends | Tagged: ad agency promotion, agency brand positioning, Michael Gass, midsize ad agencies, Neutron, small ad agencies, Steal this idea | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 19, 2008
Stephan Boehler, founder of the Mercer Group, in a AAAA New Business Webinar Series, “How to Work with Search Consultants”, offers some sound advice, for small to midsize ad agencies, direct from Ad Agency Search Consultants:
“Agencies that ask intelligent questions and stimulate interesting dialogue during the search process – versus using the time to talk about themselves.” Menno Ellis, ABA Consulting
“A good attitude that’s centered around keeping clients happy. It’s not about YOU.” Brian Goodall, Jones Lundin Beals
“An agency that understands honestly what their capabilities are and don’t try to chase everything.” Judy Neer, Pile & Company
“Be relevant in your communication. Don’t bombard consultants with every new campaign.” Mike Duda, Deutsch
“Beyond your work, your people and your process, you need a point of view on how you see the world. Ideally everything else conforms to it. Agencies aren’t great at articulating what makes them different. Having a point of view makes you stand-out.” Jamie King Hal Riney & Partners
“Respect our time. E-mail us, don’t send us boxes the size of Texas.” Joanne Davis, Joanne Davis Consulting
“Be clear in how you’re positioned – culture, capability and competency”. Lorraine Stewart Rojek, The Rojek Consulting Group
“First, determine if you should be on our radar. We are hired by national brands that are looking for companies doing world-class work (regardless of their size). If your work is less than stellar, quite frankly your firm is not going to be of interest to most search consultants.” Russel Wohlwerth, Ark/AAI
“There’s no substitute for doing good work that gets noticed.” Brian Goodall, Jones Lundin Beals
Some additional tips to get on the radar of search consultants:
- Develop relationships
- Keep a detailed, up-to-date profile regarding the needs/habits/practices of each major search consultancy
- Ask what the process is for being listed by each consultant and to that
- Don’t “pay to play”
- Include your Agency Fact Sheet on your Website
33.184618
-86.834263
6 Comments | Agency Search Consultants, New Business Tips | Tagged: ABA Consulting, Ad Agency Search Consultants, Ark/AAI, Brian Goodall, Deutsch, Jamie King Hal Riney & Partners, Joanne Davis Consulting, Jones Lundin Beals, Lorraine Stewart Rojek, Menno Ellis, Mercer Group, Michael Gass, midsize ad agencies, Mike Duda, Russel Wohlwerth, small ad agencies, Stephan Boehler, The Rojek Consulting Group | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 19, 2008
New business directors, who often carry the title of senior vice president, are responsible for marketing their agencies to prospective clients. Their tasks range from calling on companies to seek the opportunity to present an agency’s credentials, to positioning an agency, to leading a pitch team to win an account in a specific business category. In the past, as with many executive level advertising agency positions, this position had been mostly held by men.
Women are now filling one of the more critical roles in agency management: the pursuit of new business.
One of the largest independent advertising agencies in the country, The Richards Group, tapped Diane Fannon, to oversee new business development back in 2004. Diane is a frequent panelist and speaker for AAAA new business seminars.
Cindy Scott, Director of Business Development for LWT Communications. Cindy is a natural at New Business Development. She has all of the abilities, plus learned skills and personality that make her very successful in what she does for this regional ad agency.
Ad agency executives and consultants who assist companies in finding agencies say that half or more of agency new business directors are women. Some sources say that upwards to 75% of agency new business directors they talk to are women. The trend is significant, these people say, because the new business position may be a possible path to agency leadership, which has been nearly closed to women.
33.184618
-86.834263
12 Comments | New Business Talents | Tagged: AAAA new business, agency business development director, female advertising CMO, female agency new business director, foote cone belding worldwide, lwt communications, Michael Gass, midsize ad agency, small ad agency, The List, the richards group, Women in advertising, women pursue agency new business | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 18, 2008
History is in the making with the socialization of media and information. This is our Industrial Revolution.
A Communications Revolution.
This revolution is already impacting ad agency new business practices. There is definitely a revolution taking place in the way agency new business is acquired. The new business paradigm shift that is taking place requires agencies to position themselves where they can be found by their prospective clients. This will require the use and greater dependence upon social media and new media tools.
Agencies must practice what they preach and participate in the use of these tools for themselves to have credibility. They also will be forced to identify their best target audience and be positioned as having the kind of expertise and leadership that makes them irresistibly appealing.
In this new era of agency new business prospective clients will actually let you know when they are ready to engage by initiating the call. And when they call, the conversation is a longer way down the road. They are ready to do business. You wont have to woo them.
In any revolution you have those that are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what is going to happen. You have those that are followers. But then you have those thought provoking leaders out in front of us all. Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWork, an award winning PR and New Media agency is one of those emerging new leaders. Encouraging his industry to arise to the challenges of this new era. Brian recently wrote,
“Media is experiencing a textbook Darwinian definition of survival of the fittest … Media will re-emerge as a more dynamic, nimble, and innovative medium.
In the era of Socialized Media, relationships are the new currency and participation and collaboration are emerging as the new information exchange.
Mainstay brands will persevere, but the cost of their education to learn how to compete for the future will be great. Some will wait until it’s too late only to awaken to a daunting challenge of creating and earning presence and relevance in a new economy.
Times are definitely changing and the mood of a large number of small and midsize agencies is somberness instead of an excitement for this new media revolution. They haven’t kept up with the changes and find themselves behind in by a lack of knowledge of social media and how to use it correctly for themselves and for their clients.
My encouragement is to get involved now. Experience it for yourself to know the many great opportunities it provides. Learn the use of new media to engage your prospective client community. It takes time and effort to have a working understanding of this new technology, but you will be amazed at how quickly it will provide benefits to your agency and allow you to utilize these new tools for your clients. Experience truly is the best teacher.
The cost of your education is going to be great but if you don’t invest in your education now it will be costlier later.
0.000000
0.000000
13 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: agency new business practices, Blogs I Recommend, Brian Solis, FutureWorks, Michael Gass, Social Media, socialization of media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 17, 2008
More clients are making social media a top priority. But according to a recent survey, conducted by TNS Media Intelligence/Cymphony,
“traditional ad agencies just don’t get it.”
The research found that the typical agency is poorly structured to help navigate the social landscape.
The report goes on to say that agencies have very little practical skills and personal experience in this area. They are trying to talk a good talk but they aren’t walking the walk. Most are treating social media like traditional media.
Digital agencies, on the other hand, tend to grasp social media but they lack the branding skills of an ad agency.
Clients are left frustrated.
Two things are clear:
- Social media isn’t easy for tradtional agencies.
- Advertisers are more in control and the role of the agency is become less relevant in social media. The new web 2.0 trend is presenting opportunities for new web service platforms that replace the middleman agency.
Agencies can still be relevant but they need to roll up their shirt sleeves and jump into the midst of the social media revolution and gain personal experience and skills.
If you are the president or CEO of a small to midsize ad agency, why not use social media as one of your agencies new business tools. It will provide you practical experience on how social media works and benefits your agency in many ways. It will also provide the skills and knowledge that will benefit your clients and prospective clients.
What a powerful demonstration to prospective clients, showcasing how social media has worked for your agency and practicing what you preach!
Read the the AdWeek article
33.184618
-86.834263
6 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency survey, adweek, midsize ad agency, NS Media Intelligence/Cymphony, small ad agency, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 16, 2008
“If you focus on principles, you empower everyone who understands those principles to act without constant monitoring, evaluation, correcting or controlling. Principles have universal application. And when these are internalized into habits, they empower people to create a wide variety of practices to deal with different situations.” – Stephen R. Covey
Principles are guideposts for your staff that provide the direction they need to make the hundreds of day to day decisions that will determine the success and direction of the agency. This is especially true in regards to new business.
“Remember, your agency is your most important client.”
33.184618
-86.834263
Leave a Comment » | Fuel for Thought | Tagged: principles, Stephen R. Covey | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 15, 2008
We are experiencing a paradigm shift in ad agency new business programs. The old way was the agency new business hunter seeking and intercepting prospective clients. Today, it is all about positioning your agency to be found by your prospective client community. When they are ready to engage, they will even initiate the contact.
With this new paradigm shift agencies must incorporate Web 2.0 tools into their new business program. The most important tool, at least for now, is the agency blog.
It wasn’t that long ago that it was said,
“Every business needs a Web site.” Today it’s, “every business needs a blog.”
Your prospects have come to expect a blog from your business. This is particularly true if you business happens to be an advertising agency.
There are a number of benefits to having an agency blog:
- A blog provides better search engine optimization.
- Helps agencies better articulate what they do, how they do it and why they are different than their competitors.
- Positions your agency as being experts at what you do.
- Allows agencies to narrow their target audience, test their messages and speak to a prospective clients benefits.
- Provides a personal enrichment tool to stay on top of the latest trends and technologies and pass that knowledge to your online community.
I’m a believer! An agency blog is a great new business tool to help your prospective clients find your agency. They’ll even call you.
WARNING: As with any other media tool, it must be used correctly.
33.184618
-86.834263
6 Comments | New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency blog, agency new business paradigm, agency new business tool, Michael Gass, Web 2.0 | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 15, 2008
Bigness does not lead to greatness. Dan Wieden observed,
“At the end of the day, size and scale isn’t king, relationship is king. And getting bigger doesn’t make relationships easier, it makes them more difficult.”
People want to work with others they know and trust. Concentrate on building relationships and the bigness of your agency will take care of itself.
33.184618
-86.834263
Leave a Comment » | Fuel for Thought | Tagged: dan wieden | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 14, 2008
Digital marketing is expected to double within the next four years.
What’s a small to midsize ad agency to do? Outsource their digital marketing? Hire in-house expertise? Purchase or merge with a digital marketing agency? Hide their head in the sand in hopes that this new phenomena goes away?
A new digital marketing consultancy, specific to small and midsize ad agencies, was recently launched to help answer those questions and provide help at a reasonable cost. Convince & Convert is believed to be America’s first digital consulting group devoted solely to helping agencies get better (and more profitable) at digital marketing. The firm improves agencies’ in-house expertise in email marketing, search marketing, Web strategy, Internet advertising, social media, and mobile marketing.
The company specializes in Digital Marketing Audit and Actions, an intensive, 2-day analysis and examination of an agency’s digital capabilities, with a detailed roadmap for improvements. The firm also works with agencies on an ongoing basis to increase in-house digital marketing expertise and profits.
Convince & Convert is led by Jason Baer, a 15-year Internet veteran who has worked with dozens of agencies and hundreds of major companies including: Nike, Fujitsu, Pulte Homes, Cold Stone Creamery, and RJ Reynolds. He founded the award-winning digital marketing firm Mighty Interactive, which he sold to integrated Tempe, AZ agency Off Madison Ave in 2005. He remains a senior consultant to Off Madison Ave.
Jason and I have been conversing for a couple of weeks now. We understand the tremendous potential utilizing Web 2.0 tools for ad agency new business. We hope to share some of our thoughts and ideas on how your agency can gain new business with these low cost, easy to use tools in the near future.
33.184618
-86.834263
2 Comments | New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: convince and convert, jason baer, Michael Gass, midsize ad agencies, mighty interactive, off madison ave, small ad agencies | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 14, 2008
“Often the best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing at all” - Seth Godin
Whenever you are uncertain which way to go, ask yourself what the traditional agency would do. Then do the opposite.
Leave a Comment » | Fuel for Thought | Tagged: Seth Godin | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 7, 2008
Changing consumer habits, driven by the shift from analog to digital media, are revolutionizing the advertising industry. Advertising agencies have the most to lose according to digital study.
The long-term future of the advertising is bright, according to the Accenture Global Digital Study. But the study is also a call to action, particularly for ad agencies.
Key Findings:
- Advertising agencies have the most to lose in the transition to digital advertising.
- A real threat to the survival of advertising agencies and traditional media companies that do not embrace new technologies and business models.
- Advertising will become more performance-based.
- Analytics will become more accurate and more critical to the business.
- Advertising relationships with customers will become more interactive.
- Traditional advertisers are largely unprepared for the wave of digitally driven change about to engulf them. Especially in terms of customer analytics, targeted advertising and customer interactivity.
Those surveyed for the Global Digital Advertising Study were unanimous that major disruptive change is coming — and that those who fail to respond will simply find themselves swept away.
Bare in mind that this shift in advertising brings with it a dramatic shift to your agency’s new business practices and innovative new ways to promote your agency.
The digital phenomenon is here to stay. Why not put it to work for your agency?
33.184618
-86.834263
19 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, global digital advertising study, Michael Gass, midsize ad agencies, small ad agencies | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 6, 2008
“Branding your agency means moving from the middle and taking a side. If you don’t claim a position, you will be positioned simply by your location. Which is really no position at all.”
- Tim Williams
33.184618
-86.834263
Leave a Comment » | Fuel for Thought | Tagged: Branding your agency, Take A Stand for Your Brand, Tim Williams | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
July 2, 2008
Forrester Research believes today’s ad agencies are not well-structured to take on tomorrow’s marketing challenges, needing to move from making messages to establishing community connections.
In a report, the research firm paints a painful view of ad agencies.
“The current state of advertising is in “a world of hurt.”
Consumers are tuning out the messages the ad industry is determined on producing.
Forester believes ad agencies need to be organized around communities, not disciplines. What it is calling “the connected agency” would not only know certain communities but also be active members of these groups. Pushing messages would give way to encouraging voluntary engagement, and ongoing conversations would replace time-based campaigns.
“I can’t say there’s an agency now that’s the agency of the future,” said Peter Kim, a Forrester Research analyst and co-author of the report.
The research firm is certainly not the first to assert that agencies haven’t kept up with changing consumer habits and technology. Accenture in November said the shift from analog to digital media is catching agencies flat-footed.
In Forrester’s view, a simple fact is driving the need for needed change in how advertising agencies are structured: consumers increasingly do not trust marketing messages. Instead, they rely on advice from friends and others in their various communities to make product decisions, while using tech tools to tune out ad messages they deem irrelevant.
“I don’t think agencies are going away,” Kim said. “They’re going to be the ones that help marketers to communities of mutual interest.”
Forrester said creative and media agencies are still built around the mass model: to either produce messages or distribute them. Digital agencies have gone farther, in Forrester’s estimation, in centering their businesses around “interaction,” but it finds them lacking in the branding skills of traditional ad agencies.
Clients are finding their agencies lacking. Forrester quotes one marketing exec calling agencies “a necessary evil,” rather than a strategic partner to grow his business. Another complains, “Most senior ad execs appear more comfortable with conventional channels, which they claim are ‘integrated’ because they have tacked on a Web site.”
“The first step [agencies] need to take is with digital integration,” Kim said. He added that the organization of ad agencies around specific skill sets is the root of their problems.
Your ad agency may need to break some bones to reset them correctly.
33.184618
-86.834263
12 Comments | New Business Trends, Research, Social Media | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, forester research, Michael Gass, midsize advertising agencies, peter kim, small advertising agencies, the connected agency | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass
