Add A Fact Sheet for Ad Agency New Business

January 28, 2010

Many agencies trying to impress with a lot of flash they forget that prospective clients need a quick way to be given ” just the facts” about your agency.

I’m amazed at how many agencies make it difficult to get past the hype and provide necessary, evaluative information. Some agency websites don’t even include their location. If a prospective client wants to make contact they are instructed to make a request through info@. Why make finding info about your agency so difficult?

Make it easy for a prospect to obtain the facts about your agency. Provide a link to easily download and print an Agency Fact Sheet from your agency’s website. And while we are on the subject, make it easy for them to make contact, not with the info@ but with a person, preferably the person charged with overseeing your agency’s new business.

Examples of Agency Fact Sheets:

Additional articles that may be of interest:

17 Comments | Best Practices, New Business Tips, Promotion | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

iPad an Opportunity for Advertisers

January 27, 2010

Steve Jobs Calls the New iPad “Revolutionary.” The Apple tablet could offer a new way for marketers to reach consumers IF they will seize the opportunity.

It’s good for agencies to stay ahead of the learning curve of communication technology, to know what’s coming down the pike that will impact our industry.

CNN.com covered Apple’s unveiling of the iPad announcement live with Twitter updates from @cnntech and the CNNmoney live blog. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said,

  • “What this device does is extraordinary.”
  • “It is the best browsing experience you’ve ever had.”
  • “It’s a dream to type on.”
  • “This is a magical device, at a breakthrough price.”
  • “It’s unbelievably great … way better than a laptop.”
  • “Way better than a smartphone. It screams.”
  • “We have an unlimited plan for just $29.99 a month.”

Here are some of the announcement highlights:

  • Apple tablet computer to be called the iPad
  • CEO Steve Jobs calls the computer “magical” and “revolutionary”
  • Price will range from $499 to $829 and they’ll begin shipping in 60 days.
  • iBook interface lets users tap books in a virtual bookshelf to read them
  • A nearly 10-inch screen
  • It runs existing apps from the Apple apps store
  • It’s available in 16-gigabyte, 32-gigabyte and 64-gigabyte versions
  • It is about a half-inch thick and weigh about 1½ pounds
  • The device will have a 1 GHz processor
  • New app: iBooks. Five of the biggest publishers in the world are part of this
  • Users can flip pages forward or back by tapping the screen, or drag pages with your finger
  • Keyboard dock
  • Easily connects to projectors
  • BATTERY LIFE: 10 hours, over a month on standby
  • They are scheduled to begin shipping in 60 days

Most tech blogs are excited and optimistic that the iPad is indeed a revolutionary product because there are already:

  • Over 12 billion App downloads
  • Over 125 million accounts with credit cards
  • Over 75 million people already know how to use the iPad (iPhones, iPods)

It is predicted that Apple will sell over 10 million iPads this year alone. It should get the attention of advertisers. The bigger size of the Apple tablet will allow marketers to introduce more browser and video functions. With a 10-inch touch screen that will display movies, TV shows, games and publications, and also let consumers interact with them.

This device will offer a new way for marketers to reach consumers through this interactivity in a way similar to what the iPhone and iPod Touch has done for the $4.2 billion dollar a year app industry, which didn’t even exist a couple of years ago.

The iPad could also single-handedly resurrect the print industry.

“In the midst of the recession, advertisers left newspapers in droves as circulation numbers plummeted. Many newspapers around the world closed, popular and seemingly indestructible mastheads issued hundreds of redundancy notices and journalists started shaking in their boots – the future of journalism in tatters.

But here we are today, we’ve made it through the storm and now Apple just might save the industry, shaking things up and changing traditional advertising for ever,” UTalkMarketing’s Melinda Varley.

Another insightful article, Luke Hayman, a partner at Pentagram, among the top magazine designers, recently redesigning of New York, Time, and Travel+Leisure, he provides “five ways that iPad will change magazine design.”

The only constant in advertising is change. To maintain success, you have to keep up. That isn’t easy. Especially with this revolutionary change we’re experiencing in communications. It’s time for the ad community and marketing community with all of its creative and intelligent minds, to be the agents of change instead of being the ones forced to change.

Read the entire CNN Tech article, “Apple unveils the ‘magical’ iPad” or watch the video of his presentation: Steve Jobs presents Apple’s new tablet. The NY Times also provides a Demo of the Apple iPad

Additional iPad articles that may be of interest:

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2 Comments | Digital, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Study: The hype is real, social media has arrived in business

January 27, 2010

The Big Question ad agencies want to know, are businesses actually using social media?

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing Research conducted a nationwide telephone survey  in 2009 of those companies named by Inc. Magazine to the Inc. 500 list. According to the study,

… social media has penetrated parts of the business world at a tremendous speed.

The report also shows that the fastest growing private companies are adopting social media 4 times faster than the largest public companies.

“This research proves conclusively that social media has penetrated parts of the business world at a tremendous speed. It also indicates that corporate familiarity with and usage of social media within the Inc. 500 has nearly doubled in the past 12 months,” researchers, Dr. Nora Barnes and Eric Mattson.

Social media has arrived in business. The hype is real:

  • 56% of the Inc. 500 are using at least one form of social media
  • 66% consider social media “very important” or “somewhat important” to their strategy
  • 51% of companies are monitoring social media

They’re using it because they consider it important to their business and marketing strategy.

Click Here to download a copy of this study.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

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5 Comments | Agency Leadership, Fuel for Thought, New Business Survey, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Survey: 2010 Digital Marketing Outlook

January 26, 2010

The Rise of Digital … is your ad agency digitally prepared?

“This is a changing of the guard,” said Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO of Denuo Group and chief innovation officer for Publicis Groupe Media. “If you look back 20, 30 years ago, the major (media) companies would probably be print-based. Then they move to basically be broadcast based. Now we’re looking at companies that have basically digital or technology underpinnings.“

The 2010 Digital Marketing Outlook survey, conducted by The Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA), which polled in excess of a thousand executives from major global brands, traditional and Digital agencies, vendor and service providers that operate in the Digital space, as well as freelance and independent Digital practitioners.

This research continues to confirm that the future of Digital Marketing is exceptionally bright.

Some notable indicators from the survey:

  • 81% of Brand Execs expect an increase in digital projects for 2010
  • 50% will be shifting funds from traditional to digital media
  • 78% of global participants believe the current economy will actually spawn more funds allocated to Digital

Additionally keen insights from SoDA members around the globe on their thoughts and predictions about the future of the Digital Marketing landscape over the forward 12 months.

  • “The web can be anywhere, and physical interaction with brand and the extension of commerce into the real world are the convergence point in the next wave of digital marketing.” – Peter Connolly, Obscura Digital
  • “The most important outcome of the smartphone revolution isn’t sales, but rather the shift in the cultural expectations of the device. In just two years, the iPhone has quickly ascended to pop-cultural icon, and has shifted the way that mobile devices impact consumers’ lives, attitudes, and how they, in turn, view the role of a mobile device to support their daily needs.” – Brian Chiger, AgencyNet
  • “IPTV will be the catalyst for “a move away from the ‘interruptive’ advertising model that dominates television today, toward the idea of enhancement, in which brands support new contexts for viewing.”– Dale Herigstad, Schematic
  • “Augmented Reality has the potential to transform the digital landscape, merging online and offline in many creative ways. It is among the most interactive digital tools available to marketers, delivering unparalleled experiential engagement.” – Richard Taylor, IE
  • “Rather than spending another misguided year trying to “engineer” viral campaigns that will propagate themselves, regardless of consumer intentions, it’s time to refocus our marketing efforts to align with the way that people actually behave.” – Ivan Askwith, Big Spaceship
  • “The most effective digital platforms have shifted from “disruptive” to “productive” by providing a service or utility…[They] fundamentally change the approach from “how we reach our customers” to “how we make their lives better.” – Ken Martin, Chief Creative Officer, and Ivan Todorov, CEO & CTO, Blitz

You can download the report here SoDA 2010 DMO

Additional “digital” related articles that may be of interest:

 

15 Comments | Digital | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Walker Sands: Voted Top Ad Agency Blog of the Year

January 24, 2010

FootPrints, the blog of Walker Sands Communications, a PR/Marketing agency located in Chicago, Illinois, was selected as Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Year for 2009. Walker Sands received 33% of the 1,544 votes cast. The agency has particularly extensive experience working with high-tech and business-to-business firms with complex messaging in need of clarification.

Some of their recent posts:

A special thanks to all of the agencies that participated this past year which spawned some good natured competitiveness, a bit of friendly ribbing that kept this a fun exercise. It’s even created dialogue and formed relationships among agencies.

Click here for the complete voting results and a listing of previous Agency Blog of the Month winners.

Ad agencies will need an integrated social media strategy if they are ever going to see the payoff from their participation. An agency blog should be the central component. The place you can drive targeted online traffic through SEO, Twitter, email newsletters, Facebook and LinkedIn.

The blog becomes the “gateway” to your agency and the“face” of your agency. As important as it was to have an agency website, it is now equally important to have an agency blog.

But … having a blog isn’t something you check off your list of social media “to do list.” To have credibility and generate inbound new business leads

Additional ad agency blogging resources:

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9 Comments | Agency Blogs | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Advertising: Social Media Radically Accelerates Consumer Decision Cycle

January 22, 2010

Agencies are often behind the social media curve and even behind their clients in its use. Where is the advertising agencies leadership?

Barbara Bacci Mirque, executive vice president of the Association of National Advertisers, ANA, recently observed that “more and more advertisers are leading their agencies into new media, not the other way around,”

“If the ad community and marketing community with all of its creative and intelligent minds cannot find a solution for using, effectively using, social networks and user-generated content, it will be the greatest loss to the advertising and marketing business that we’ve ever experienced.” Jack Myers, a leading media analyst

This is an enlightening Ad Age Video reinvention of skiing resort marketing. During the past year, social media has abruptly and dramatically changed the behavior of ski resort customers and forced resort marketers to abandoned their long time marketing strategies and practices.

Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz explains the dramatic changes and his company’s decision to build a new in-house marketing operation that uses both social media and digital marketing to engage their prospective customers in real time.

Click Here to view this Ad Age Video, Reinvent Ski Resort Marketing.

It’s been said that advertising agencies aren’t changing, they are being changed.

The only constant in advertising is change. To maintain success, you have to keep up. That isn’t easy. Especially with this revolutionary change we’re experiencing in communications.  I try to learn something new every day. I know that to do so is essential for my ability to survive, let alone succeed.

Social Media is also impacting ad agency new business …

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7 Comments | Agency Leadership, Fuel for Thought, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agencies: 2010 Mirren New Business Conference

January 20, 2010

Mirren Business Development, is one of the premiere new business conferences for small-to mid-size ad agencies, marketing, public relations and digital agencies.  Over 400 agencies from across the country will be participating in this years conference, April 12-14, in New York.  See the full AGENDA of sessions and SPEAKERS and REGISTRATION information.

I’m scheduled to speak on Wednesday, April 14 for a 1:30 pm session. Let me know if you plan to attend and lets start networking prior to conference through Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Below is my session title and topics.

A Formula for Fueling Agency New Business through Social Media, Wednesday, April 14 at 1:30

This session will provide a step-by-step overview and guide for creating a social media strategy to build credibility quickly and to generate inbound new business leads for your agency:

  • Major Shift in Advertising Means a Shift for Agency New Business Practices
  • The 4 Ways Social Media is Changing Ad Agency New Business
  • The Benefits of Social Media for Ad Agency New Business
  • The Best First Steps Into Social Media
  • A 4 Step Approach to a Social Media Plan
  • Social Media Best Practices: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogging
  • Time Management: How Do I Keep Up with Social Media?

Additional Speaking Engagements for 2010:

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    Leave a Comment » | Agency Leadership, Agency Search Consultants, Best Practices | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    Ad Age: Clients Change Ad Agencies Like they Change Underwear

    January 20, 2010

    Agencies only have themselves to blame … making it too easy for the client to bully us  and only agencies can stop the madness of and their mistreatment from the review process.

    The following are just a couple of the quotes from Rupal Parekh’s recent Ad Age article, “Serial Reviewers’ Risk Brand Damage, Fewer Shops Willing to Pitch,” regarding a growing blacklist of marketers that tend to put their advertising accounts into review every couple of years.

    “I have a huge disagreement with people changing their agencies like they change their underwear,” said Jane Bedford, partner at the Bedford Group, a consultancy based in Atlanta. “Our clients tell us it takes them about three to six months for them to get fully engaged with their agencies. It’s very difficult for an agency to get up and running, and totally please the client, within the first year.”

    “Desperation may be something new to many industries in the recession, but it’s something the agency business has known, embraced and perpetuated for decades. Agencies only have themselves to blame by playing right into the hands of these serial agency-review ‘players’ [and] making it too easy for the client to bully us.” Michael Grey, Chief Marketing Officer, Grey, New York

    If agencies don’t want to play the numbers game they must get away from the mentality that “everybody” is a prospective client as long as they have a heart beat and a budget.

    “The common failing among agencies seeking new business,” says agency search consultant Bob Lundin, “is their inability or unwillingness to name what they stand for and market themselves on distinguishable differences.”

    The agencies that have been able to step out of the crazy agency review process are those that are differentiated and focused. They know who their best prospective clients are and that’s where they spend their time and resources.

    Agencies that have an appealing point of differentiation to a particular target audience have:

    • a much larger geographical marketing area
    • more earning power
    • few competitors
    • clients that respect them
    • more viable new business opportunities with less cost

    Additional articles that may be of interest:

    Leave a Comment » | Agency Leadership, Agency Search Consultants, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    Skin in the Game: Ad Agency Creates Mini-Mutual Fund of Clients’ Stocks

    January 19, 2010

    Clients want more accountability from their Ad Agency. Here’s an example of an agency that has found a unique way to put some “skin in the game.”

    A New York advertising agency, Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners has created a mini-mutual fund of its agency clients’ stocks that are publicly traded.

    “We’ve been hearing from a lot of clients that they want more accountability, they need us to own their challenges.” Lori Senecal, Kirshenbaum Bond president and CEO.

    The agency spent $500,000 to start this Client Stock Index. The 300 employees of Kirshenbaum Bond will be offered long-term cash and compensation incentives to mirror the performance of the stocks in the index, which they will be able to track each trading day on an intranet on the agency’s Web site.

    Starting an agency mutual fund was among 50 ideas presented by employees at a crowd-sourcing meeting in October that sought proposals to help revitalize Kirshenbaum Bond from everyone who works there. The index was the brainchild of two Kirshenbaum Bond employees: Aric Cheston, partner and creative director, and Matt Powell, chief technologist. They will each receive a cash bonus of $10,000 from MDC.

    “Agencies either go forward or backward; they don’t stay the same,” said Richard Kirshenbaum, co-chairman at Kirshenbaum Bond,  “it’s time to have renewed energy and spirit at a time when the landscape is changing” for the advertising business.”

    Read the entire New York Times article by Stuart Elliot: “Agency Combines Clients’ Stocks for a Mini-Mutual Fund”

    Additional article that may be of interest: Edward Boches: 5 questions every CMO should ask a prospective ad agency


    6 Comments | Agency Leadership, New Business Trends | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    Ad Agencies: 6 Quick Tips for Pricing and Servicing Social Media

    January 19, 2010

    Two of the most asked questions I receive from agencies are: “How do we price social media?” and “How Do we service social media?”

    Many advertising agencies are trying to sell social media services and even though they don’t know how to price it nor service it. In prospective client meetings, if the agency brings up social media, it generally will peak a prospects interest.

    A lot of agencies are still struggling for any new business opportunities.  So, if it generates interest and leads to a project, they’ll sell it and try and figure out how to price it and service it when they get back to the office. I’m sure your agency has never been guilty of anything like that. Truth be known, most of us have done it at one time or another.

    The agencies that do have some experience with social media tend to “over-think” social when they try to price it and create a plan for servicing it. They make it much more complex than it is.

    Social media is very time intensive but usually has very little hard cost associated with it. Agencies are accustom to charging for their time and that should make it easier when they need to create a proposal for social media services.

    Here are my six quick tips to help with the pricing and servicing of social media:

    1. Create a very detailed proposal based on “scope of work”
    2. Use a blended rate when pricing agency time, often $125 per hour for small-to mid-size agencies
    3. Provide clients with a flat-rate monthly retainer agreement
    4. Understand and utilize the social media 3rd party tools that will allow your agency to handle multiple accounts
    5. Train your staff in time management skills specific to social media to maximize their efficiency in handling client accounts
    6. Equip junior level staff members to handle a lot of the day-to-day “grunt” work in servicing social media accounts for clients (monitoring, blog comments, Twitter, Google alerts, maintaining Twitter, schedule, etc).

    If you have additional tips, please share them in the comment section below.

    Additional articles that may be of interest:

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    35 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Social Media, Time Management | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    Fuel Lines: Advertising Agency Blog of the Year

    January 17, 2010

    Which of these agencies best understands social media?

    These 12 ad agency blogs are all Fuel Lines Ad Agency Blog of the Month selections for 2009.  Please review and vote for your favorite as the Ad Agency Blog of the Year.

    Cast your VOTE by Clicking Here

    December: Walker Sands Communications, Chicago, Illinois

    November: The Duffy Agency, Malmö, Sweden

    October: Lessing-Flynn Advertising, Des Moines, IA

    September: Brand Cottage, New York, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

    August: AgencyNet, Fort Lauderdale, FL and New York, NY

    July: The Russo Group, Lafayette, LA

    June: 919 Marketing, Holly Springs, NC

    May: SONNHALTER, Berea, OH

    April: The Creative Department, Cincinnati, Ohio

    March: Sapient Interactive, Miami, FL office

    February: Razorfish, Seattle, WA

    January: Zapwater, Chicago, IL

    Submit your agency’s blog for Blog of the month for January, 2010

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    1 Comment | Agency Blogs | Tagged: , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    Edward Boches: 5 questions every CMO should ask a prospective ad agency

    January 15, 2010

    You are not hiring an agency’s past, you are hiring its future.

    Edward is the Chief Creative Officer for the Mullen agency. He joined the Boston agency when it was small and helped to grow it to become a respected and renowned advertising agency that is known globally.

    He is one of the few agency principals willing to immerse himself in social media and has rapidly moved his agency in the same direction. Mullen truly “gets it” when it comes to social and I believe one of the reasons they have had such great success with their new business acquisitions.

    Edward recently wrote a great piece for his blog Creativity Unbound, “Five questions every CMO should ask a prospective ad agency.”  He points out that most RFIs (request for information) sent to agencies are asking about an agency’s past. But he states,

    “… you’re not hiring an agency’s past, you’re hiring its future. And that future, while somewhat informed by previous accomplishments, is more likely to be a reflection of an agency’s vision, the newest people it’s hiring and its willingness to embrace what’s coming rather than preserve what’s been.”

    With that point being made, Edward suggests 5 questions a CMO should ask:

    1. What is the future of advertising?
    2. What are you doing to assure your survival?
    3. What are your criteria for hiring people?
    4. What is your definition of a creative team?
    5. What are five recent creative ideas that aren’t ads?

    Click here to read Edwards entire article, “Five questions every CMO should ask a prospective ad agency.”

    Edward writes the Creativity Unbound blog and is very active on twitter as @EdwardBoches.

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    10 Comments | Agency Leadership, Agency Search Consultants, Best Practices, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    Does your ad agency have a social media marketing strategy?

    January 14, 2010

    In ‘Alice in Wonderland’, Lewis Carroll wrote,

    “If you don’t know where you want to be, it hardly matters which direction you take.”

    Once you’ve had a taste “first hand experience” with social media and have an understanding how this new media channel can  be used to promote your agency, the next step is to develop a “simple” plan of action. One that can be maintained when your agency is at its busiest.

    At the core of every good new business program there’s a good plan. Along with the plan, having a person who pulls everything together. Building a Social Media Marketing plan and determine what the objective of the campaign is and therefore what tools should be utilized and how.

    A helpful resource to get you started is the POST Method. POST is one of the most effective acronyms since the four P’s of marketing. It’s a four-step approach that helps marketers define a social media marketing plan for their business and/or clients.

    The POST method is the heart and soul of the book, Groundswell, written by Forrestter Research analysts, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoffand. It is  highlighted in Josh Bernoff’s Groundswell blog post, The POST Method: A systematic approach to social strategy. The POST Method serves as a guide to help you determine the right strategy for the right audience.

    Your purpose should dictate strategy and the tactics used for reaching desired goals. A few common outcomes for your social media marketing efforts should include:

    • Gain insight into your target audience – You can use all the qualitative data you want, but some of the most interesting and helpful market research can be found within the social communities where your prospective clients interact, share information and make recommendations.
    • Link building for traffic and SEO - According to Marketing Sherpa, 80-90% of business to business transactions begin with a search on the web. Creating linkbait and promoting it to social media news and bookmarking sites can attract a slew of links from bloggers that read them. Creating value for the community is not the only rule, creating value and behaving according to formal and unwritten rules is what sustains social media sourced link building.
    • Build brand visibility and authority - As you participate in social media pay close attention to the interests and needs of your prospective clients. I’ve often said that social media “teaches” agencies the way they should have been doing new business all along. Leading with benefits that are of importance to your prospective clients, not with agency credentials and capabilities. Not only will social media teach you to do new business the right way, it is also the best “branding tool” that I’ve ever used in creating an appealing, differentiating position for agencies.

    I recommend using social media as a central component for your agency’s new business program. It helps agencies create a more clearly defined focus and differentiating business strategy that will give them a competitive advantage for new business, a higher-profile reputation, and an improved ability to attract and win the clients they really want.

    Additional articles that may be of interest:

     

    8 Comments | Best Practices, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    10 New Business Problems and Solutions for Ad Agencies

    January 13, 2010

     

    For ad agency new business, why no try doing the opposite of what you’ve been doing in the past.

    “The Opposite Episode” of Seinfeld, George comes to the realization that he should try to do the opposite of everything, so he does, his luck changes and everything begins to go his way including getting a girlfriend, a job with the Yankees and moving out of his parents’ house.

    Almost my entire career in advertising has been spent in business development. Working with a lot of advertising agencies through the years, I’ve found they all have common problems when it comes to new business:

    1. The overwhelming majority have no target audience
    2. No point of differentiation
    3. Don’t use the marketing tools they recommend their clients use
    4. Have no new business strategy beyond personal networks and referrals
    5. Inconsistent new business practices
    6. Are their own worst client
    7. Use the same descriptive language that other agencies use to describe themselves: Great creative, strategic, outside-the-box thinkers, fun to work with, proprietary process
    8. Poor at promoting themselves
    9. Are always in a mode of redesigning their Websites
    10. Stay in a perpetual state of rebranding themselves

    When business is good, new business practices are usually shelved and only pushed when more business is needed which causes a roller coaster effect. Turning the lead generation pipeline on and off like a faucet. This creates a a major problem because it generally takes months of consistent effort to generate leads from the agency’s new business pipeline.

    How do you correct these problems? Do the opposite:

    1. Choose the best target audience for your agency. You can’t be everything to everybody.
    2. Create an appealing point of differentiation.
    3. Use the social media marketing tools you recommend to clients.Be an active participant.
    4. Have a written social media strategy for new business success.
    5. Be consistent in implementing your new business strategy. Keep processes simple and gauge them by what it would take to maintain when your agency is at its busiest.
    6. Allow your agency to become your best client.
    7. Social media can help your agency redefine itself with a language that resonates with your prospective audience.
    8. Practicing what you preach, using the tools recommending to clients and learn to promote your agency the right way. Don’t throw away your marketing mind when it comes to your own agency.
    9. Allow your agency’s Website to become the agency brochure. This will be the place to show your work, present your credentials and capabilities. In social though, always lead with benefits.
    10. Social media is the best tool I have ever used for agency branding. By incorporating all of the above.

    I started my agency new business consultancy just prior to social media becoming mainstream. I soon discovered that social media can actually teach agencies how to do new business, the way they should have been doing new business all along.

    Check out this article: “Social Media Teaches” Ad Agencies to Promote Themselves the Right Way”

    Additional articles that may be of interest:

     

    7 Comments | Agency Branding, Best Practices, New Business Tactics, New Business Tips, New Business Trends, Promotion, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    Survey: Most Audiences to Get Information from Mobile Devices

    January 12, 2010

    Is your ad agency ready for the evolution of mobile marketing?

    “Regarding the pace of change, we believe more users will likely connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within five years.” The Mobile Internet Report, Morgan Stanley, 12/09

    There is a fundamental shift taking place in how people are accessing the internet. Ad agencies seem  less prepared for Mobile than they were for broadband. As usual they are behind the curve. While they were planning to dip their toe in the water the consumer dove in.

    The number of people who use Internet-enabled mobile devices is expected to pass 1 billion by 2013. According to eMarketer, mobile advertising spending is going to increase from a mere $416 million in 2009 to $1.560 billion in 2013.

    In a recent article for Online Media Daily, Erik Sass, highlights a survey published by ABC Interactive (ABCi), titled “Going Mobile: How Publishers Are Preparing for the Burgeoning Mobile Market.”

    Some of the survey’s key findings:

    • 80% of publishers believe people will rely more on mobile devices as a primary information source in coming years
    • 70% said mobile is receiving more attention at their publication this year than last year
    • 44% said visits from mobile devices boosted their Web traffic by 10% per day
    • 17% of respondents said their company had already developed a smartphone app
    • 56% of responders said they plan to develop an app in the next two years
    • 57.5% of newspapers and 44.7% of magazines already format their sites for mobile devices
    • Over half the survey respondents believe both advertising and subscriptions will be key to the future success of mobile business models

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    8 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    Creating an iPhone App for Your Ad Agency’s Blog

    January 11, 2010

    Ad Agency New Business, there’s an App for that!

    Having your own iPhone app for your website or blog will become a common way to promote and extend your agency’s brand. I found that actually creating that application and getting it into the App Store can be a lengthy and expensive process.

    I’ve discovered a very inexpensive tool that will allow you to create an iPhone app for your agency’s blog easily.

    I recently tried out a new product called AppMakr, which is designed to make creating your own iPhone app simple and inexpensive. In literally 20 minutes I was able to create an iPhone app for Fuel Lines from my existing RSS feeds and then submit it to the iTunes App Store for approval at a cost of $49.

    Click here to get the FUEL LINES’ iPhone App

    AppMakr has two pricing options:

    • $199 for AppMakr to publish your app — which means you don’t have to have your own Apple Developer Account (AppMakr gets credit in the app’s opening splash screen)
    • or $499 if you want to use your own Apple Developer Account, but still have AppMakr take care of the provisioning and management features.

    I was so impressed that I sent a note to AppMakr and asked if I could extend their special introductory offer to readers of Fuel Lines ($49) and soon received this reply back from Scott Suhy,

    “Michael, we talked about it and agreed to provide you with a $100 discount promo code for your readers. The coupon code is “MICHAELGASS” and it’s good through 1/31. We’d love to see the article when you write it!”

    Please note that I do not receive any benefits from this offer whatsoever. Just glad the company was willing to provide an introductory for Fuel Lines’s readers. If you do create an agency iPhone app, please send the link to me and I’ll share it.

    As Apps continue to rise in popularity having one for your agency is an important demonstration to prospective clients that you are walking the walk.

    2010 will be the year that smartphones go mainstream and iPhone is leading the way.

    While the economy is still in a state of recession, the smarthpone market continues to go up, with a total of 39.9 million smartphones shipped during the third calendar quarter of the year. A 28% increase over last year.

    These are some iPhone App stats that will of interest:

    • all the iPods and iPhones sold as of December you reach a total number of 214 million and change
    • 1 Billion iPhone Apps downloaded
    • 100 million apps are downloaded from the Apple app store each month
    • the average apps downloaded per device is 50
    • iPhone’s App Store hits 1.5 billion downloads in first year
    • top apps can make $400 to $5,000 per day on ads
    • average number of apps sold per device is nearly twice as high as songs at 53
    • Domino’s claims to have sold over $1 million worth of pizza through their app

    Agency iPhone Apps:

    Ad Agency Resources iPhone Apps:

    Agency Client iPhone Apps:

    Social Media Resources iPhone Apps:

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    27 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Branding, Promotion, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    Ad Agency Blog of the Month for December: Walker Sands Communications

    January 6, 2010

    FootPrints, the blog of Walker Sands Communications, a PR/Marketing agency located in Chicago, Illinois, was selected from 23 other ad agency submissions as Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Month for December. The contest inspired a “friendly slug-fest” with runner-up, BCAD Group, Toronto, Canada but Walker Sands prevailed receiving a whopping 31,252 votes.

    “I’ve made phone calls and sent emails. Gone through our entire client list and have asked friends and family for favors. We’ve posted to our blog and commented on others. We’ve tweeted abou the competition, spammed our Facebook friends, and posted in our LinkedIn groups. I even put up a post in Craigslist and promised my fraternity that I would doate a fair sum of money if they agreed to keep voting and spreading the word. As one voting bloc drops off we scramble to find another. And as I invest more and more in this I have a tougher time accepting we might lose.” Mike Santoro, president of Sands Walker

    Mike even offered an olive brand to the BCAD Group, to call it a draw, the evening before voting was to end, but he didn’t have any takers.

    The Footprints blog will be included for Fuel Lines’s Blog of the Year. Below is a listing of  previous monthly winners agency blog winners:

    November: The Duffy Agency

    October: Ad Mavericks

    September: Brand Cottage

    August: AgencyNet

    July: The Russo Group

    June: 919 Marketing

    May: SONNHALTER

    April: The Creative Department

    March: Sapient Interactive

    February: Razorfish

    January: Zapwater

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    2 Comments | Agency Blogs | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    The Top 100 Social Brands of 2009

    January 5, 2010

    Prediction: The small-to midsize ad agencies that make social media central to their business model will find success and thrive in spite of the recession.

    Social media marketing is projected to grow at an annual rate of 34%, faster than any other form of online marketing (Forrester Research: US Interactive Marketing Spend 2009 to 2014 Report issued Summer 2009). The Fortune 500 companies not using social media has dropped dramatically – from 43% now to only 9% (eMarketer).

    Virtue, a social media management company, has released its second annual ranking of the most social brands, The Vitrue 100, derived from their daily analysis of over 2,000 popular brands on the social web.
    “The Vitrue 100 helps provide the industry with overall trends. We issue the list to highlight the most social brands and help demonstrate the value of social media marketing.”

    The Vitrue 100 of 2009

    1. iPhone
    2. Disney
    3. CNN
    4. MTV
    5. NBA
    6. iTunes
    7. Wii
    8. Apple
    9. Xbox
    10. Nike
    11. Starbucks
    12. NFL
    13. PlayStation
    14. Adidas
    15. BlackBerry
    16. Sony
    17. Mercedes
    18. Microsoft
    19. Samsung
    20. BMW
    21. Nintendo
    22. Best Buy
    23. ESPN
    24. Ford
    25. Honda
    26. Ferrari
    27. Gucci
    28. Nokia
    29. Major League Baseball
    30. Dell
    31. Coca-Cola
    32. CBS
    33. ABC
    34. iPod
    35. Mac
    36. Turner
    37. Nissan
    38. Toyota
    39. eBay
    40. Amazon
    41. Victoria’s Secret
    42. Nutella
    43. NASCAR
    44. Disneyland
    45. Audi
    46. NHL
    47. Red Bull
    48. Verizon
    49. Intel
    50. Subway
    51. Hewlett-Packard
    52. Puma
    53. Kia
    54. Fox News
    55. Porsche
    56. Jeep
    57. Dodge
    58. Pandora
    59. Walmart
    60. Zappos
    61. Suzuki
    62. McDonald’s
    63. Krystal
    64. T-Mobile
    65. Skittles
    66. KFC
    67. Volkswagen
    68. NBC
    69. Sprint
    70. Pixar
    71. Motorola
    72. IKEA
    73. Pepsi
    74. Cisco
    75. REI
    76. LG
    77. AT&T
    78. Converse
    79. The Gap
    80. Chevrolet
    81. Luis Vuitton
    82. Toys”R”Us
    83. H&M
    84. Philips
    85. General Motors
    86. Pringles
    87. Visa
    88. Prada
    89. Panasonic
    90. IBM
    91. VH1
    92. Hulu
    93. Oracle
    94. Burberry
    95. SEGA
    96. Sears
    97. Avon
    98. Jet Blue
    99. Lacoste
    100. Comcast

    Many ad agencies are still behind the curve when it comes to social media marketing. Barbara Bacci Mirque, executive vice president of the Association of National Advertisers, ANA, recently observed that,

     

    “More and more advertisers are leading their agencies into new media, not the other way around,” and that ”clients are the ones who are personally and professionally experimenting with new media forms and directing their agencies to look into them.”

    “When I started out in this business in the mid 80’s as an assistant product manager at The Frito-Lay Company, we expected our advertising agencies to be innovative and inform us about what was hip and cool – now it appears to be the other way around,” she wrote in the ANA blog.

     

    10 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    Ad Agencies in “The Great Race” for New Business

    January 4, 2010

     

    The whole advertising industry is in a flux. Forrester’s Research has referred to it as “the great race” as traditional agencies scramble to add digital capabilities and digital shops seek capabilities beyond being Web site and banner ad specialists.

    “When you consider the fact that traditional budgets are getting slashed, that interactive budgets are expected to grow significantly in the next five years and that technology is becoming more and more integral to marketing.

    We see digital becoming the backbone of marketing and technology becoming so vital that everyone needs digital capabilities. Everyone is coming from a different strength. Everyone is trying to add the other’s capabilities.

    The market is now ready to take a big step to join, and in some cases even replace, traditional agencies in leading marketing strategy for top brands.” Sean Corocran, The Forrester Blog for Interactive Professionals

    Interactive agencies may have an enormous opportunity but all agencies are adapting and will be competing more than ever.

    The role of small-to mid-size ad agencies will continue to evolve. Is your agency ready?

    Additional articles that may be of interest:

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    12 Comments | New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Research | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

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