August « 2008 « FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

Will Small and Midsize Ad Agencies Be Social Enough?

August 31, 2008

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Not being social enough is a big problem for companies trying to use social media. That’s what Jeremiah Owyang and his team at Forrester Research discovered in a recent report.

Forrester selected 16 companies across four industries and found only one company worthy of accolades, BMW. What makes BMW a social marketing winner? In part, it’s that the automobile manufacturer managed to avoid the most common pitfalls, which is still where most firms fell short. Some examples of those easy-to-make mistakes: creating marketing programs that aren’t self-fueling, that don’t encourage members to participate in conversations amongst themselves and that don’t include some amount of participation from the company, itself.

Jennifer Jones, Marketing Voices podcast discusses Jeremiah’s findings.

The BMW 1 Series campaign is indicative of efforts by mainstream marketers to alter their media mixes as consumers change their media habits.

A recent survey by PQ Media projected that by 2012, advertisers will increase spending by 82 percent from 2008 in areas like search-engine marketing, online video and e-mail messages.

Collaborating agencies for these ads are Austin’s own GSD&M, which is part of the Omnicom Group, and Dotglu in New York, part of the Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners division of MDC Partners.

A number of the larger agencies understand and are effectively using social media. But will the smaller to midsize ad agencies be social enough?

Leave a Comment » | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency blog, BMW, Jennifer Jones, jeremiah owyang, lead generation, Marketing Voices, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Agency New Business Impacted by The Perfect Storm

August 29, 2008

My observation from the front line trenches, acquiring new business for small and midsize ad agencies, is that we are in the midst of a “perfect storm.” There are dramatic changes occurring in the way we attract and win new clients.

With the acceptance and growth of new media plus a downturn in the economy, there has been an acceleration of a paradigm shift in agency new business development.

Prior to the “storm” agencies actively pursued new business. For most small to midsize agencies, it has been targeting the masses. Trying to appeal to everyone. Relying upon our personnel networks, referrals, presentations, newsletters and cold calling.

Today, prospective clients are finally forcing agencies to differentiate. They are being pressured to clearly state and demonstrate their expertise. Agencies that aren’t doing for themselves what they recommend for their clients are viewed with suspicion. Prospective clients want to see leadership. Agencies are being pushed, prodded and poked into the new media arena.

Small to midsize agencies have seen the storm clouds on the horizon for sometime but they still are unprepared to deal with it.

Many agencies believe that as soon as the economy picks up, it will be business as usual.

But I’m telling them, that isn’t going to happen. This storm is of such revolutionary proportions, it will change advertising as we know it and it will dramatically change the way we develop new business.

The small and midsize agencies that weather the storm will be the ones that:

Differentiate themselves from their competition
They have narrowed their focus by either their target audience, category or discipline
Have realized they will not appeal to everyone, but within their target group they will have strong appeal
Clearly articulate who they are and how they benefit their target audience
Are digitally ready and comfortable with new media
Have a blog, and understand how to use social media to build relationships
Have a large online footprint positioning their agency where it can be easily found online by their target audience
Do for themselves what they do for their clients, having a sustainable new business program that fully utilizes new media to promote themselves

Additional Reading:

7 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: agency new business, Michael Gass, mid size ad agencies, small ad agencies, Social Media, the perfect storm | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Email Newsletters a Key Tool for Ad Agency New Business

August 27, 2008

An email newsletter is one of the two most important sources for information and advice for small and medium businesses, according to a study entitled, “Optimizing Email Newsletters for Small/Medium Businesses” released byBredin Business Information, Inc. (BBI).

According to the study of over 300 executives …

email newsletters rank highly as sources of information, beating out websites and blogs, and matching print media for importance.

Although the study specifically focused on small to medium (less than 500 person) businesses, it would be safe to extract that out to small to midsize ad agencies. Email newsletters are becoming more important than newsletters.

Some highlights from this study:

83% of respondents indicated that email newsletters were either very important or important sources
“How to” information (40%) was the preferred form of content
65% of respondents said they read some issues thoroughly and skim others
The most important in deciding whether or not to read a vendor’s email newsletter, 64% said it was who the newsletter was from
The top reasons for stopping an email newsletter? Irrelevant content (63%)
The vast majority of small business executives want to receive their email newsletters weekly (45%) or monthly (34%)
Monday was the preferred day to receive an email newsletter

Ad agencies should be using this information to redesign their email newsletters to get the best possible response. And agencies that have been to busy with client work to develop an eNewsletter for themselves should reconsider investing the time. The effort is worth it. Just remember to keep it simple. Consistency is more important than perfection.

Check out the complete survey results “Optimizing Email Newsletters for Small/Medium Businesses”

A great, super simple idea starter from VerticalResponse to help build your agency’s email newsletter list using business cards.

3 Comments | New Business Tactics, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency email newsletter, ad agency promotion, agency enewsletters, Blogs I Recommend | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Business Model Shifts – Small and Big Companies Blogging

August 25, 2008

Of the approximately 112.5 million blogs on the Web, almost 5,000 are corporate, according to blog indexer Technorati. Blogging originated to start online conversations and be a part of a virtual community, but corporate bloggers are in it for other reasons: talking directly to customers or giving a personal touch to a big business.

“It’s a phenomenal promotion vehicle for a company, or a great crisis tool or a great customer service tool,” said Geoff Livingston, a public relations strategist and social media expert.

Smaller businesses are experimenting, too, since a blog can be an economical way of getting attention.

“It’s a small business, so we don’t have a marketing budget,” said Robb Duncan, who began a blog for his Georgetown gelato shop, Dolcezza, about two years ago. “We’ve never done any ads or promoting because we can’t afford it. So I guess it’s kind of guerrilla marketing, and it’s free.”

When his second store opened in Bethesda in July, Duncan used his blog to advertise an opening night ice cream giveaway. He ended up serving over 300 gallons of ice cream to more than 1,000 customers that night.

Read more of this Washington Post story: Marketing Moves to the Blogosphere

Blogging is an excellent new business tool, especially for small and midsize ad agencies. It provide your agency with:

A much larger online presence
An economical way to get attention
A way to connect and build relationships with your target audience
An effective way to generate relevant inbound leads

It does these things and more but, only if you create your agency’s blog correctly. It isn’t a place to “sell” your agencies services. The moment you start selling, touting your expertise, is the moment you will lose your audience.

1 Comment | New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: blogosphere, Geoff Livingston, midsize ad agencies, new business tool, small ad agencies, Washington Post | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Does social media end cold calling as an ad agency new business tactic?

August 21, 2008

A definition from Wikepedia:

Cold calling is the process of approaching prospective customers or clients, typically via telephone, who were not expecting such an interaction. The word “cold” is used because the person receiving the call is not expecting a call or has not specifically asked to be contacted by a sales person.

This posts is specifically addressing the value of cold calls for ad agency new business. My background in advertising, for the majority of my career, has been spent in the area of new business. I never had difficulty making cold calls. As a matter of fact I have a gift for it. A natural ability to be persistent without being a pest. Some of my best new business acquisitions came as a result of cold calling. That being said, as it was then and even more so today, cold calling for ad agency new business is not an efficient method.

Many of those charged with the responsibility of new business are forced into a dependency upon cold calling as a new business tactic. Cold calling is only necessary if your agency principal(s) refuse to differentiate the agency from its competitors and create an appealing position for a specific target audience. Cold calling is often necessary if your agency doesn’t have a consistent new business program.

Tim Williams, founder of Ignition Consulting Group , and author of the book, Take a Stand for Your Brand, tells it like it is in his recent article, “The End of Cold Calling:”

“Ask any agency principal what he or she dislikes and avoids the most and the answer will almost always be the same: cold calling new business prospects. Not only is this the most dreaded activity among C-level agency executives, it’s also among the least effective.

Cold calling has always produced only modest results and today’s avoidance-enabling technology only makes it easier for prospects to hide from your phone calls and ignore your e-mails. I routinely hear from agency principals how traditional new business prospecting methods are becoming less and less effective.”

We are in an amazing paradigm shift in advertising and also in the way agencies acquire new business. Cold Calling has never been the best way to acquire new business. It generally only produces modest results from lots of effort and is even less effective today with the growth of social media. In my opinion, social media is the death nail to cold calling for new business.

Please take this quick poll: How receptive are YOU to cold calls?

31 Comments | New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: 2008 new business survey, cold calling, Ignition Group, the end of cold calling, Tim Williams | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Mark Schnurman to Lead AAAA New Business Workshop

August 20, 2008

Mark Schnurman will lead the “Winning New Business by Perfecting Your Pitch” workshop, sponsored by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), September 16 at the Sheraton Philadelphia City Center, Philadelphia, PA.

As the founding partner of Filament Inc., Mark has spent the last 10 years working with agencies throughout the world. As a pitch consultant, Mark works with agencies to better craft their message and differentiate themselves from the pack.

Filament wins 62 percent of the pitches that it is involved in, including some of the largest pitches that have been awarded in recent years.

Mark has worked with agencies like The Martin Agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, MediaVest, Abelson-Taylor, Northlich and Grey to name a few, helping them become more effective at pitching new business.

HIGHLIGHTS

Explore how to better differentiate your agency
Learn the 5 biggest mistakes agencies make when pitching new business
Better understand how it is difficult to win a pitch during Q&A but very easy to loose the pitch during Q&A
Learn how to trim the fat out of your presentation allowing your core messages more opportunity to resonate with the audience
Discover your agency’s bad habits and how to get rid of them
Learn how to better relate to your client/prospect
Learn how to deliver case studies that build enthusiasm for your agency
Better understand the prospect’s decision making process
Understand how to streamline the pitch process
Learn how to better run pitch prep meetings
Better understand the prospect’s typical selection criteria
Learn how to better establish your brand with the prospect before and after the pitch

Who should attend?

New business directors, C level staff, creative directors. The more you are involved in the new business process, the more you will get out of the workshop.

More information/program agenda

Please let us know of upcoming agency new business events. We’re always glad to promote them through FUEL LINES.

Michael Gass, agency new business consultant, primarily to small and mid-size advertising agencies, utilizing both traditional and new media tools.

Leave a Comment » | New Business Tools | Tagged: agency new business seminar, American Association of Advertising Agencies, Filament Inc., Mark Schnurman, Michael Gass | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Promote Your Ad Agency with Social Media Tools

August 18, 2008

Marty Neumeir, President of Neutron, simplifies the art of branding like no other. His brand agency has developed many online promotional tools that has put Neutron at the forefront of brand agencies. Marthy has put together the most powerful presentation on branding I’ve seen yet. The presentation has already been viewed by over 339,049 people thus far on SlideShare. Not a bad way to demonstrate your agency’s expertise utilizing another new media tool.

SlideShare makes for a great tool for ad agency new business.

8 Comments | New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, branding, Marty Neumeir, Michael Gass, Neutron, slideshare, Web 2.0 | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Email a Great Tool for Ad Agency New Business

August 17, 2008

83.2% of marketers in a February survey by Datran Media list email as their most important advertising tactic for 2007

Email marketing needs to be among the promotional tools for small and midsize advertising agencies new business programs. It has the potential to deliver the best ROI (time and money) of any of the tools in your new business program’s arsenal. Agency new business is going through a paradigm shift. Using online marketing tools, such as emails, has become essential securing new business opportunities.

It is typical for email marketing campaigns to top the 2% conversion rates typically expected from direct mail.

In fact, email delivers the highest return-on-investment among marketing mediums by an eye-popping margin: a whopping $57.25 for every dollar spent on it in 2005, according to the Direct Marketing Association’s “The Power of Direct Marketing”(October 2006).

Not only that, but email is delivering sales at an average cost per order of less than $7! Compare this to average cost per order of $71.89 for banner ads, $26.75 for paid search and $17.47 for affiliate programs, according to Shop.org’s “State of Retailing Online 2007″ (September 2007).

Some helpful email marketing stats and metrics:

Wednesday is the most popular day for opening emails, followed by Tuesday.
Text drives more email click-throughs than images
11 a.m. has been the highest time for email recipients to open their email messages.
304: Average number of business emails weekly
83.2% of marketers in a February survey by Datran Media list email as their most important advertising tactic for 2007
HTML has nearly universal adoption among consumers: A Jupiter Research consumer survey found just 3% receive only text email
67% of survey participants said they read at least three out of four promotional emails they receive from direct marketers

A great resource for small and midsize ad agencies is iContact’s 35 page report Email Marketing Best Practices

Check out these EmailLabs’ online email tools:

Email marketing Websites:

A great way to demonstrate your competence for email marketing is to demonstrate its success for your agency’s own promotional efforts. Practicing what you preach and using the tools you recommend for your clients.

For the latest agency new business tips, trends, tactics and tools subscribe to Fueling Ad Agency New Business by Email or ask Michael a question about your agency’s new business challenges.

Michael Gass, agency new business consultant, primarily to small and mid-size advertising agencies, utilizing both traditional and new media tools.

4 Comments | New Business Tools, Social Media | Tagged: advertising agencies new business, agency new business tools, email marketing, emaillabs, icontact, Michael Gass | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

What small advertising agencies should do during a recession

August 15, 2008

Small agencies are especially vulnerable during a bad economy.

Bart Cleveland, AdAge’s Small Agency Diary provides some excellent advice for hard times. He shares that this recessionary period is the time for small agencies maximize their opportunities during lean times to gain ground in achieving their business goals:

Keep what you have while getting someone else’s. Advertisers aren’t just trimming budgets; they are re-evaluating their relationships to determine if they are getting the most for their money.
Great agencies shine brightest during dark times. When times are bad, there is better talent available to small agencies. Due to layoffs or the fear of them, good talent can be open to working for an up-and-coming agency.
Work hard even when there isn’t a lot of work going on. Staying busy is the key to getting out of the gate fast when the economy rebounds. Good employees expect to be challenged.

I’ll include a fourth, contributed by ad agency digital consultant Jason Baer, Convince & Convert:

Focus on marketing tactics where success can be measured and defined. Marketing directors are running scared (or are likely to be eventually), and in that scenario that want to minimize risk and waste. The inherent measurability and relatively low cost of digital tactics are more attractive to clients when the economy is less robust, and digital will be the one area of the business that will grow this year.

Agencies will have much more success acquiring new business if they diligently pursue their new business goals despite the economic conditions.

Read Bart’s article: Buckle Up; It’s Going to Be a Bumpy Ride

Read Jason’s article: 5 Reasons Why Digital Marketing Will Thrive in the Recession

2 Comments | New Business Tips, Social Media | Tagged: AdAge, Bart Cleveland, convince and convert, jason baer, Michael Gass, Recession, small ad agency, Small Agency Diary | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Fuel for Thought

August 15, 2008

David Ogilvy practiced what he preached and instilled the belief that his agency’s job was to create advertising that sells. He demonstrated that the advertising that sells best is advertising that builds brands.

Building brands today requires a keen understanding of how new communications technology, new channels, and vibrant creativity combine. This is a world where the consumer is now in control, and consumer insight is paramount.

It’s time to create and connect your agency’s brand for new business.

Leave a Comment » | Fuel for Thought | Tagged: ad agency business development, advertising agencies, agency new business, building brands, David Ogilvy, Michael Gass, new business | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Four Ways Social Media is Changing Advertising Agencies New Business

August 14, 2008

To paraphrase Little Orphan Annie, “Tomorrow is only a day away.”

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.

I receive inquires almost daily from ad agencies who are trying to discern how social media marketing will impact their current new business business model.

I’ve highlighted four ways that social media is changing ad agency new business:

A paradigm shift for how new business is acquired. According to a recent CMO survey, 80% of decision makers say they found the vendor, not the other way around. Instead of finding your prospects, the “new” new business paradigm for Marketing 2.0 is to help your prospective clients find your agency.
SEO is now a critical part of new business strategy. According to Marketing Sherpa, 80-90% of business to business transactions begin with a search on the web. That means that SEO is a very important component to your agency new business program.
An agency blog is a necessary component for marketing your agency. It wasn’t that long ago that it became understood, every business needed a Web site. Today it’s, every business needs a blog. This is especially true for ad agencies. We’re suppose to be leading not following our clients.
The growth of new media mandates agencies participation. Social media is now mainstream, your agency’s credibility is suspect if it isn’t walking the walk, not just talking the talk. I can’t imagine ever advising a client to deal with an advertising, PR, or interactive team that doesn’t get social media. One of the best ways to demonstrate your agency’s participation is to incorporate new media into your new business program.

Combining social media and ad agency new business, provides a powerful, inexpensive and highly effective combination for your agency’s self promotional efforts.

53 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: advertising agencies, Michael Gass, new business, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Boston agency Modernista! is demonstrating that it gets social media

August 14, 2008

Thanks to my good friend, Scott Nelson, president of Nelson Creative.net who turned me on to this Boston agency, Modernista! They have the most radical online presence of any advertising agency I have ever seen. You’ll have to see it for yourself to believe it.

Modernista! was founded by Gary Koepke and Lance Jensen in January 2000, both from a marketing/advertising background, as a startup business. In October 2000, Modernista! was appointed the advertising agency responsible for the Hummer brand and remained associated with General Motors thereafter.

The company was appointed as the Cadillac brand agency in 2006. At that time, Modernista! had a portfolio that included a number of prestigious brands.

In March 2008, Modernista! gained some attention for a redesign of its own website, which now displayed the referring page (such as Google search results) all over again, but this time with a small navigation menu overlaid in the upper left corner. Other than basic information, the menu primarily directed visitors to information from other sites, including on Flickr and YouTube, so the effect could be described as going “siteless”.

This is certainly a radical format to traditional agencies. Not something you might want to try as a small to midsize agency. But, you do need to “demonstrate” that you also, get Web 2.0. It’s not enough to talk the talk your agency must walk the walk.

For the latest agency new business updates subscribe to Fueling Ad Agency New Business by Email

Michael Gass, agency new business consultant, primarily to small and mid-size advertising agencies, utilizing both traditional and new media tools.

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Leave a Comment » | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Gary Koepke, Lance Jensen, Michael Gass, midsize agency, Modernista!, Scott Nelson, small agency | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

2008 Prospective Opportunities Fewer for Ad Agencies

August 14, 2008

Findings from both The Reardon Smith Whittaker agency poll, conducted in May, a survey of CEOs, principals or senior managers and an April report from Forrester Research collectively, underscore just how difficult it is for agencies to generate new business against client caution and cutbacks.

“In response they [agencies] need to sharpen their approach, said Mark Sneider, managing director at Reardon Smith Whittaker in Cincinnati. It has got to be more intelligent. Tell them how you can help them, give them something useful to work with.”

Read the entire AdAge article: Survey of agencies indicates 2008 wins have been harder to come by

1 Comment | New Business Tips, New Business Trends | Tagged: ad agency business development, ad agency prospects, AdAge, Blogs I Recommend, Forrester Research, Michael Gass, midsize ad agencies, reardon smith whittaker, small ad agencies | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass