Study: The Top Five Causes of Friction in Client and Ad Agency Relationships

January 31, 2012

The evolution of the advertising industry demands that traditional agency services and client relationships evolve as well.

Only 9% of marketers believe traditional ad agencies are doing a good job of evolving and extending their service capabilities.

Marketing has become more complex. Traditional agencies must have new skills and fresh approaches to meet these new challenges. The “More Gain, Less Strain” survey offers a clearer picture on how traditional agencies are being challenged in their retention of client relationships.

Here are the CMO survey respondents rankings of the top five causes of pain and friction in their client/agency relationships: 

  1. Lack of an agreed-upon set of analytics and metrics that defines success and failure.
  2. Limited knowledge and comprehension of the client’s business
  3. Lack of value-added strategic thinking.
  4. Pricing and budgeting issues.
  5. Integration of marketing plans and services.

Here are some additional key insights from this CMO study:

  • Just 9% of senior marketers believe traditional ad agencies are doing a good job of evolving and extending their service capabilities in the digital age.
  • Only 5% of marketers report longstanding relationships with their agencies and only 37% rate their relationships as relatively stable.
  • 22% view their agencies as struggling to transition their business models and service offerings.
  • 51% see their agencies as playing catch-up with regards to new technology, or acquiring but not integrating digital marketing capabilities.
  • 48% of respondents report they are hiring specialized digital marketing solution and service providers to implement new social, mobile, and interactive strategies. Another 47% plan to build internal capabilities and use incumbent agency services less, while an additional 45% are bringing in outside consultants to help set up and structure digital programs.
  • 58% of marketers remain unsatisfied with the current process of measuring their agencies’ advertising effectiveness.
  • 60% of marketers state that agency selection has become more stringent, time-consuming and complex.

Selection of agency partners tends to be CMO driven, with 50% of CMOs reportedly making the final agency choice. This is not necessarily welcome news, as Forbes recently estimated that the average CMO has the least secure job in top management, at just over two years per stint.

The study also recommends 5 top techniques for improving client/agency collaboration, output and performance:

  1. Ensuring teams are fully aligned and in-sync with objectives and deliverables (71 percent)
  2. Identifying and addressing points of friction and disruption (52 percent)
  3. Using or developing performance scorecards or metrics (40 percent)
  4. Continuously auditing and assessing competency and effectiveness (39 percent)
  5. Refining marketing operational processes to maximize efficiency (37 percent)

“Smart advertisers understand that good advertising comes from a partnership. It doesn’t come from an agency just delivering work, and it doesn’t come from clients trying to do it on their own.” John Ingersoll,Vice President, Marketing, Farmers Insurance

Click on the following link to download the entire Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council’s milestone report on client/agency effectiveness titled, “More Gain, Less Strain”. Be sure to read the Expert Prescriptions and Perspectives section.

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Posted by Michael Gass

Leo Burnett Still Wins Ad Agency New Business 40 Years After His Death

January 25, 2012

Leo Burnett is one of the most enduring ad industry legends. He broke all the rules. Even after 40 years since his death he is still winning new business for his agency.

“The Burnett agency has accomplished something that has eluded so many other businesses: It has managed to keep the spirit and drive of its founder alive and well almost two decades after the founder himself passed on.“ Rita Koselka of Forbes

To celebrate Leo Burnett Worldwide’s 75th anniversary, Lobo, an animation and design studio, produced this animated spot. It is based on a speech given by Mr. Burnett announcing his retirement and leaving his staff with enduring principles for creating the fifth largest ad agency in the world.

The original film of Mr. Burnett’s speech is still required viewing for all new Burnett employees as part of their induction.

“We chose to create a short film that looked straight from the 50s/60s, the modern age of cartoons, from the graphic style to the slightly worn, flickering picture quality, to the jazzy soundtrack. The main character is a cartoon version of Mr. Burnett himself, who goes through the situations described in the speech, teaching a lesson not only to the advertising world but to every creative activity.” Lobo

Leo Burnett “When to take my name off the door” from Lobo on Vimeo.

Time Magazine included Leo Burnett as one of the most influential people of the 20th century creating some of America’s most memorable ads and advertising icons such as the Jolly Green Giant, Pillsbury Doughboy, Charlie the Tuna, The Marlboro Man, and Tony the Tiger.  His Chicago-based ad agency became the 10th largest agency in the world and was one of the few not headquartered in New York City.

“Almost 40 years after the founder’s death, rival agencies complain that Burnett’s can still swing a pitch by showing a 50-year-old film of the master himself explaining his advertising philosophy” adbrands.net

Burnett revolutionized the advertising industry by developing a creative approach called, ‘The Chicago School of Advertising” as described by American National Business Hall of Fame:

“Leo Burnett had the rare distinction of leaving behind a new approach to the creative side of the advertising business. Burnett had developed a creative approach that many termed ‘The Chicago School of Advertising” It stressed finding the inherent drama in the product and writing the ad out of the drama, rather than using mere cleverness.

Burnett felt that Chicago was the Midwest — the heart and soul of the nation. In addition, he felt that the down to earth, wide-eyed perspective of Midwesterners facilitated their ability to create ads that appealed to the majority of Americans. Thus using his rare ability to see and use the dramatic in products and the acceptable perspective of Midwesterners, Burnett’s philosophy and style spread throughout the advertising industry.”

When television became mainstream in the 1950s, Burnett’s agency boomed because of this visual philosophy. Burnett said that television, “is the strongest drug we’ve ever had to dish out.” 

When Burnett started his business in August 1935 he had one account and a staff of eight. The agency’s only client was a Minnesota canning company which had been a client at his old firm.

Burnett’s widow, Naomi, credited Leo’s hiring of Richard Heath as the turning point for the agency. Heath was responsible for new business. He promoted the agency and created opportunities for bigger accounts such as Campbell Soup, Kellogg, Pillsbury and Proctor & Gamble. As brilliant an ad man as Leo Burnett was, he still needed someone to sell the agency and create new business opportunities.

Here are a few of Leo Burnett’s memorable quotes:

  • Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.
  • When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.
  • A good ad which is not run never produces sales.
  • Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.
  • I have learned to respect ideas, wherever they come from. Often they come from clients. Account executives often have big creative ideas, regardless of what some writers think.
  • I have learned that you can’t have good advertising without a good client, that you can’t keep a good client without good advertising, and no client will ever buy better advertising than he understands or has an appetite for.
  • I have learned that any fool can write a bad ad, but that it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one.
  • Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.
  • What helps people, helps business.

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Posted by Michael Gass

Bob Hoffman’s 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising

January 24, 2012

An ad agency principal who is an example on how to use content marketing and social media to build awareness and new business opportunities for your agency.

I am a Bob Hoffman fan. I have read everything he has written, from his book The Ad Contrarian, to every ADWEEK and blog post article and now his new book, 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising.

Bob is the CEO of Hoffman/Lewis advertising located in San Francisco and St. Louis. He has created marketing strategies and advertising for some of the world’s most successful companies: McDonald’s, Toyota, Shell, NBC, Pepsico, Bank of America, Nestle, AT&T, Chevrolet, Dole, Blue Cross, Seagrams, Fairmont Hotels, Pebble Beach and others.

I was first introduced to Bob Hoffman through a cbsnews.com article, “Hoffman/Lewis CEO Can’t Stop Cursing and Swearing on His Blog”

Hoffman/Lewis in San Francisco and St. Louis promises on its website to “get beyond the fleeting trends, false goals, and dreadful jargon of contemporary advertising.” But a look at the blog of its CEO, Bob Hoffman(pictured), shows that ‘getting beyond the jargon’ seems to mean dropping the F-bomb as much as possible. The blog is titled “The Ad Contrarian; Cranky opinions and advice from the CEO of a pretty big ad agency.”

Hoffman has a created a large online following as one fan recently wrote, “Your no b.s., take-no-prisoners approach to our business is entertaining, informative, and spot-on…”

Bob’s blog puts a face to the Hoffman/Lewis agency. He comes across as being transparent and blatantly honest. He’s not going to appeal to everyone but those who find him appealing they become ardent fans. They know that Bob will tell it like it is and cut through all the agency B.S. He’s not afraid to tell his readers what he really thinks. 

Even though Hoffman often berates social media, he has wisely used it to build awareness for his agency.  He has experimented again with a self-published book, 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising: The strange world of advertising in 101 delicious bite-size pieces. This is a collection of some of his best blog post articles that have been repurposed in a convenient Kindle eBook.

This was very smart of Bob. With a little bit of work, he gets an even greater return on the time he originally invested in writing these blog post articles. His new book is already a best seller within its category.  

The Kindle version is a great buy. Only $2.99, You will also find it to be an excellent, entertaining read.

Hoffman’s take on the advertising industry is refreshing, insightful, amusing and discerning. With the advertising industry in such a state of flux and upheaval, he will keep you grounded. I highly recommend it. 

Here’s some additional reviews:

“Bob Hoffman’s perspective is terrific because he continually digs into various heaping piles of advertising hype to discover nuggets of truth. And if he doesn’t find any, he’s not afraid to say how bad it stinks.”

“I just love the way Bob thinks and writes about our crazy business and even more crazy world. This is take no prisoners kind of stuff that is just superbly written always.”

“Bob is one of the smartest guys in the business. His thoughts are not obscured by fads, what’s au courant or quotidian bs. He is a straight-shooter. Honest, to the point and fact-based. Qualities sorely missing in the world today.”

“This book is an insightful, hilarious look at what’s wrong with advertising agencies, with marketing in general, and maybe even the world overall. But it isn’t just for people who work in ad agencies. It’s for anybody who ever saw an ad that sucked and wondered how it got that way. It’s for anybody who works in any kind of job involving generation of new ideas. And yes, it’s for anybody who enjoys “Mad Men.” Bob Hoffman is smarter than Don Draper. He’s funnier than Don Draper. And he’s better looking than… Okay, like I said, Bob Hoffman is definitely smarter and funnier than Don Draper.”

“A funny, enlightening, clear-eyed look at advertising and marketing. Pleasantly didactic and cheerfully challenging of the fables and fantasies that pass for advertising principles.”

Bob shares some insights on the process of writing and promoting his book that I think you will find helpful:

101 contrarian ideas about advertising, Bob Hoffman

Click Here to review on Amazon.

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Posted by Michael Gass

B-2-B Agency Gains New Business from a Narrow Niche and Social Media

January 16, 2012

Social media can end the anxiety of creating a niche and differentiation for ad agency new business.

John Sonnhalter, CEO of Sonnhalter, a B2B ad agency located just outside of Cleveland, OH, shares an example of an agency that found a way to finally “draw a line in the sand” and openly declare his agency’s area of expertise for a particular market.

John was able to first ‘test the waters before jumping in’ by creating a ‘niche blog’ clearly targeted to a very specific audience.

Sonnhalter’s primary ability was knowing how to reach the professional tradesmen better than most. John was able to show that knowledge by creating a blog, Tradesmen Insights.

This was blog is different from most agency blogs. It had its own unique URL and stood alone, apart from the agency’s website. It didn’t include any of the agency’s branding. It was John’s personal blog instead of a team blog approach and allowed him to become the face of the agency.

Here are John’s first steps:

  • Selected a title and subtitle that clearly reflected his intended audience.
  • He wrote a bank of 50 post articles within a few weeks before adopting a more realistic writing schedule of one to two posts per week.
  • He also rapidly grew his Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn followers from among his target group.
  • He leveraged a database of previously collected email addresses from his target group to share content through an eNewsletter that he sent every other week.
  • By paying attention to his blog’s analytics, John polished the appeal for his blog. He simply wrote more content in the areas his readership liked the best, the post articles that produced the most traffic.
  • Following a number of new business successes, driven by his social media effort, John was then willing to merge this narrower focus into the branding and positioning of his agency.

John Sonnhalter:

“We call our specialty B2T marketing. Business-To-Tradesman. We know the manufacturers that sell to tradesmen. We know their businesses. Their distribution channels. And the media they use to deliver their messages.”

We are in the B-to-B space, and typically, our clients are slower adopters of new technologies and trends. If you think back to 2008, there weren’t many agencies, big or small, that was participating in social media.

Our agency went through a re-branding process three years ago. Social media became an important part of this effort by allowing us to become focused on a specific audience, manufacturers who were trying to reach professional tradesmen. It also helped us sharpen our point of differentiation and appeal.

I can’t tell you how hard it was over the past few years to turn down opportunities because they were outside of our specialty. But it’s beginning to pay off!

Social media became a great way to generate new business opportunities.

It’s been almost three years later and here’s where we stand:

  • 2011 was our biggest year for new business wins in several years thanks primarily to our social presence.
  • Our Blog, Tradesmen Insights,  is the center of our promotions. We’re almost to 500 posts and we generate more page views on it than we do on our website.
  • We’re now recognized as an “Industry Expert” in the field of marketing within our space.
  • We get requests to do interviews, guest posts and take part in industry-related workshops and seminars.
  • Most our agency’s new business leads now come from social media.
  • When someone inquires, now it’s because they have followed our blog and like what they are hearing.
  • We don’t participate in any RFQs from these leads because they have already qualified us as experts.

Social media not only has been a good way to generate new business through thought leadership, it also helps us with current client relationships. It’s difficult to aid a client in the use of social media if you haven’t used it effectively for yourself.

Bottom line is that if your agency isn’t on board with a social program you will be missing many opportunities. We’re all trying to set ourselves apart. Social media, especially a blog, will help you do that.

John Sonnhalter

Check out our agency blog, Tradesmen Insights: Marketing to the professional tradesmen in Construction, Industrial and MRO markets

Have questions? Click here to send me an Email. I also invite you to connect with me on Twitter and Facebook.

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Posted by Michael Gass

12 Initial Steps for Ad Agency New Business Directors

November 3, 2011

Photo Credit dennis.vetu

If you are charged with developing a new business program for a small to midsize ad agency, PR firm or digital shop, then this article is for you.

I’ve often found that new business development people often lack experience. They also usually have responsibilities other than new business development.

If this is your situation,  I’ve pulled together a list of brief steps to help you to get a jump-start for your new position.

1. Develop a SWOT analysis and conduct staff interviews.

SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

I recently wrote an article about creating a SWOT analysis that you may want to review as a resource to help you get started. A SWOT analysis was also a part of Steve Jobs’ 12 Rules of Success.

Conducting a SWOT analysis is a very straightforward, non-complicated process for gathering agency information quickly around 4 key categories: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

A SWOT analysis also provides you with a focus for conducting internal staff interviews which will give you some helpful insights into your agency.

2. Review creative and case studies.

Most of the agencies that I work for have a samples room. We always make sure there were samples of creative work to share with prospective clients. If your agency has such a resource, spend time reviewing each piece of creative and creative campaigns.

I would suggest reviewing all of the current creative campaigns. Spend some time with the creative staff and ask them to take you through the process of how each of the campaigns were developed and the results.

Most agencies will have case studies written that you can review. If your agency lacks the case studies, now would be a good time to get these done. This would be helpful to have, even if you have to be the one who gathers the information and writes the studies.

3. Review past RFPs.

This is another way to utilize the information that has been developed for various RFPs and will help you to get up to speed about your agency quickly. From billings, agency experience, past and current clients along with staff profiles. These responses are filled with rich information and will highlight agency experience across a variety of industries and disciplines.

4. Identify and profile your agency’s top 5 competitors.

This information will come together in the development of your SWOT analysis. I would suggest learning as much as you can about your agency’s top competitors.

  • What accounts were lost to your agency’s competition and why?
  • How does the competition compare with your agency? Look at staff size, billings, client roster, category experience, location, agency networks, awards, etc.
  • What are your competitor’s weaknesses?

5. Identify and profile your agency’s best target audience.

Your target audience will become clearer as you progress through these steps. This is a vital step for new business success. Most small to midsize agencies refuse to identify who their target is because of the fear of missing a new business opportunity that won’t be reflective of your target audience. But that doesn’t have to be the case.

No agency can be everything to everybody. If you try to appeal to everyone your agency won’t appeal to anyone.

Agencies may have spent lots of money for someone to tell them who their target is but they lack the will power to publicly state it.

For your purpose as the new business director, you need to know who the target is. I wouldn’t waste time trying to build internal consensus – just go through the process and do it on your own. If you don’t, you won’t be able to successfully go beyond this step to create a new business program that has focus.

6. Identify the best positioning for your agency and create a strong point of differentiation.

Again, you don’t have to have buy-in internally for this to work. You should be able to easily create a positioning and point of differentiation having completed the earlier steps. You will waste a lot of time if you try to reach this decision collectively.

It’s important for you to conduct this step expeditiously to be able to move on to creating a new business plan. Most agencies get stuck in a rut at this step. That’s why they are in a perpetual state branding their agency and can never quite get there. But it’s new business development purgatory so just do it!

7. Create the parameters for qualifying agency prospects.

You can burn up a lot of your energy, along with the energy, good will, creative and financial resources if you aren’t focused on the right prospective clients. You are not charged with mere new business activities, but on the activities that will generate the best return on investment to get your agency the “at-bats” with qualified prospects.

There are a number of tools to assist you in evaluating potential clients and creating a set of parameters for prospects. The List, Hoovers Online and Redbooks to name a few. You can develop parameters by marketing budget, company size, location, etc.

The establishment of parameters for prospective clients will also help with new business focus and eliminate chasing after and wasting resources on the wrong prospects.

8. Set REALISTIC goals and objectives.

There’s a tendency with a lot of agencies to set unrealistic goals when they want to reach the elusive “next level.” You’ll need to be able to accurately describe what the next level looks like and create a realistic, measurable plan on how to get there. Unrealistic goals and objectives will turn into meaningless activities that carry no weight.

9. Create a simple New Business plan built around your agency’s culture and resources.

The plan doesn’t need to be beyond 2 to 3 pages. It should be a realistic plan that takes into consideration the current agency culture and resources available to implement the plan.

I would suggest creating a budget for new business. Taking into consideration both the finances and time investment that it will take to consistently implement.

10. Implement the plan.

Remember, a plan is just a plan until it is implemented. Plan your work and work your plan. This step is that simple.

Remember that consistency is a key component to success. Without consistency the plan is doomed for mediocre success or complete failure. This is also a time for evaluation and adjustments.

11. Evaluate your program monthly and create 1 page report of the measurable results.

I am against a lot of reporting on new business activities. It will bleed valuable time and energy from implementing your new business plan. Bottom line, in the end, you are going to be judged on the qualified “at-bats” you generate rather on the amount of new business activities. You can showcase lots of activities, but if those don’t turn into new business opportunities, your position will be in jeopardy.

That isn’t to say there shouldn’t be any reports on what you’re doing. I would suggest limiting the reporting to a 1 page monthly update that includes measurements against your agency’s new business goals and objectives.

12. Be prepared to make adjustments

Following the monthly evaluation of your program, you should be ready to make any necessary adjustments to your plan. Adjustments are always necessary and an important part of the process.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

1 Comment | Agency Leadership, New Business Plans, New Business Talents, New Business Tips | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

IBM Study: The 4 key challenges that CMOs everywhere are confronting

October 13, 2011

As CMOs struggle there is a window of opportunity for ad agency new business. 

A new IBM study of more than 1,700 chief marketing officers reveals that most CMOs are well aware of the changing marketing landscape and the need to make fundamental changes to traditional marketing methods of brand and product marketing.  But they are struggling to respond. Their unpreparedness to manage these key changes in the marketing arena presents a great opportunity for advertising agencies, PR firms and digital shops. But, only if they are prepared to lead.

The study’s findings point to four key challenges that CMOs everywhere are confronting: 

  1. The explosion of data - 90% of the world’s data today has been created in the last two years alone.
  2. The rise of social media - 56% of CMOs view social media as a key engagement channel
  3. Channel and device choices - The growing number of new marketing channels and devices, from smart phones to tablets, is quickly becoming a priority for CMOs.
  4. Shifting demographics - New global markets and the influx of younger generations with different patterns of information access and consumption, are changing the face of the marketplace.

The Importance of Social Media

This study reiterates the importance of social media and the need for agencies to be better positioned as leaders in this evolving consumer engagement channel. Currently very few of the global or regional advertising agencies can claim a leadership position within this space.

Carolyn Heller Baird, CRM research lead for the IBM Institute for Business Value and the global director of the study, likens marketers who underestimate the impact of social media to those who were slow to view the internet as a new and powerful platform for commerce.

“The inflection point, created by social media, represents a permanent change in the nature of customer relationships … Like the rise of e-business more than a decade ago, the radical embrace of social media by all customer demographic categories represents an opportunity for marketers to drive increased revenue, brand value and to reinvent the nature of the relationship between enterprises and the buyers of their offerings.”

CMOs identify customer relationships as one of their top priorities. They recognize the impact of real-time data and social media supplementing traditional methods of marketing and gathering market feedback, but they remain stuck in traditional approaches. Missing another opportunity to lead, agencies haven’t been receptive to social media and slow to understand its relevance.

“Marketers who are receptive to social media and the insight it provides will be far better prepared to anticipate future shifts in markets and technology.”

Additional insights from this study:

  • 78% of CMOs expect more complexity over the next five years, but only 48% are prepared to deal with it.
  • 82% of CMOs say they plan to increase their use of social media over the next three to five years, only 26 % are currently tracking blogs, 42 percent are tracking third-party reviews and 48 % are tracking consumer reviews to help shape their marketing strategies.
  • 63% of CMOs believe return on investment (ROI) on marketing dollars spent will be the most important measure of their success by 2015. However, only 44 % feel fully prepared to be held accountable for marketing ROI. 
  • Less than half of the CMOs surveyed have much sway over key parts of the pricing process and less than half have much impact on new product development or channel selection. 
  • 56% of CMOs view social media as a key engagement channel, but they still struggle with capturing valuable customer insight from the unstructured data that customers and potential customers produce.
  • CMOs still focus primarily on traditional sources of information such as market research and competitive benchmarking and 68% rely on sales campaign analysis to make strategic decisions.
  • Four-fifths of respondents plan to use customer analytics, customer relationship management (CRM), social media and mobile applications more extensively over the next three to five years.
  • 75% of CMOs believe marketing must manage brand reputation within and beyond the enterprise.

The IBM 2011 CMO Study Video News Release:

To access the full 2011 IBM Global CMO Study, visit http://ibm.com/cmostudy

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Posted by Michael Gass

Advertising Week: Resources for Daily Reports, Live Updates and Videos

October 3, 2011

If you can’t attend Advertising Week here are some good resources to follow the events, capture insights and even participate in the dialogue through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google +.

Oct. 3 kicks off Advertising Week, New York’s premier annual gathering of marketing and communications leaders from around the world.

Begun in 2004, Advertising Week now draws over 70,000 people who will attend some 200 events featuring the industry’s best and brightest thought leaders. The panels, programs and parties during Advertising Week are divided among multiple locations.

In honor of the week, The Huffington Post has dedicated a new site to cover the events, news, people, articles, blogs and buzz for the week: The Huffington Post Advertising Week 2011. This is a helpful resource.

Here are a few of the articles and insights from Day 1:

Google and Facebook to Take Advantage of Advertising Week

Both Google and Facebook are announcing new ad formats that each hopes will increase engagement between consumers and brands. According to Bloomberg, Google is launching Web-based circular ads that will “make Internet advertising look more like the Sunday paper.” Facebook is also planning to announce its own new crop of “expandable” ads, Mashable reported.  Read more

For additional updates from Advertising Week:

1 Comment | Agency Leadership, New Business Trends | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

4A’s New Business | Social Media Workshop

September 22, 2011

A Formula for Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

Nov. 3 , New York, NY

This is a rare, one-day workshop sponsored by the 4A’s. I usually conduct these workshops on-site, at individual agencies, and only do one or two of these open full-day workshop all year.

Registration is open to both 4A’s members and non 4A’s members.

CMO Study: 80% of decision makers said they found their vendors not the other way around.

Social media has already impacted advertising as we know it. It also impacts new business development. It’s more important to strategically place your agency in front of your best prospects online than to continually chase new business by interruption tactics such as cold calling.

This practical seminar is designed to “focus and kick-start” your agency’s understanding, participation, credibility and leadership in social media with less expense, time and frustration. Simultaneously, you will create a new business pipeline and lead generation network that can be maintained when your agency is at its busiest.

You will learn:

  • What a major shift in the advertising business means for agency new business practices
  • How to make sense of social media from a new business perspective
  • New methods for inbound lead generation
  • How to greatly accelerate your personal networks and referrals for new business beyond your local market
  • How to create online content that generates online traffic
  • How to use social media to get your agency out of a “perpetual state” of rebranding itself and provide an appealing and differentiating position for your new business

Who Should Attend
This agency seminar is created for “C” level and senior executives charged with the responsibility of new business development.

Event Location
Draftfcb New York, 100 West 33rd Street, New York, (212) 885-3000

Schedule
8:30 AM     Registration and Continental Breakfast (included in registration fee)
9:00 AM     Workshop begins
12-1 PM     Lunch (included in registration fee)
4:30 PM     Workshop adjourns

Registration Fees
$295 per person, 4A’s members
$395 per person, non 4A’s members

Click on the following link to download more information/program agenda

Logistics/Registration:  Contact Cecilia Graham at 212-850-0756 or cecilia@aaaa.org
Programming:  Contact Bob Linden at 212-850-0750 or bobl@aaaa.org

About the 4A’s
The 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies) is the national trade association of the advertising agency business and provides leadership, advocacy and guidance to the industry. The management-oriented association founded in 1917 helps its members build their businesses, and acts as the industry’s spokesperson with government, media, and the public sector. Its membership comprises virtually all of the large, multinational agencies and hundreds of small and mid-sized agencies across the country. More than 1,200 member agency offices served by the 4A’s employ 65,000 people, offer a wide range of marketing communications services, and place 80 percent of all national advertising. For more information, visit the 4A’s Web site at

 

 

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Posted by Michael Gass

Small to mid-size ad agencies need to protect their own backyard

September 9, 2011

This guest post is written by Bret Giles, president of agencyside, which offers training and consulting to sell and implement digital marketing services. It’s all exclusively designed for small to mid-size advertising, marketing and PR agencies. One of the premier agency side events is BOLO 2011, October, 9-11, Scottsdale, AZ. A discount for Fuel Line readers is available by using the code MGass. I hope you’ll plan to join me there.

Bret Giles

My backyard is afoul with these pesky rodents intent on ruining what I’ve spent so much energy planting.  They just won’t go away; in fact, I fear they grow in number while their teeth become sharper and their devastation more obvious.  They are invading my space and I’ve done little to prevent it.

Until now.

As an owner of a mid-size agency, I’m ready to passionately protect my turf and start a little invasion of my own. 

Media companies are not agencies – they have hidden agendas and a distinct bias in media selection.  Technology companies like Google are not agencies – they protect their valuation by positioning themselves as a technology to investors, yet they pretend to our clients they are creative strategists capable of pulling off complex campaigns.  And unfortunately they have found a strong ally in procurement offices across American companies.

They are invading our space because their own backyards bear less fruit than needed to sustain juggernaut growth (or prevent death in the case of some media companies).  They know that as marketing budgets are wrestled from people who look beyond the numbers, they will continue to win plum assignments and perform adequately to the expectations of the unsuspecting buyer.

As the story goes, the buyers commoditize our agency offerings and we are relegated to discussions of efficiency against the likes of Meredith, Hearst and Google.  And yet we have some tricks up our sleeve, right? 

By focusing our energy in owned and earned media we feed ourselves, as these media are mostly fee-based (money to us) rather than the media-based alternative of paid media.  As an added bonus, we lessen our reliance on the very entities that invade our turf, thus cutting off their food supply.  On top of that, we can infiltrate their backyards by becoming publishers on behalf of our clients.  After all, conventional media no longer controls the media and conventional wisdom no longer holds value.

It’s time to protect our backyard and organize a small invasion of our own. 

In addition to co-founding an agency, I also helped start agencyside, an organization dedicated to serving small- to mid-size agencies and the issues we face.  We put on an annual conference called BOLO that will further discussions around the role of the small- to mid-size agency and where we can truly add value in a vastly changing backyard.  There is actually tremendous opportunity right now and I think we’ve lined up some great talent to lead forums around that opportunity.

I hope you will join me and about 175 other independent agency owners and executives to further this discussion.  You can get a full account of our agenda at www.BOLO2011.com.

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Posted by Michael Gass

A Tribute to Trey Pennington Through His Own Words

September 8, 2011

I was moved watching this video created by Ben Cope, founder and president of Epic Web Strategies, a full-service web design firm and wanted to share it with the readers of Fuel Lines.

Trey left an indelible impression upon my life and the lives of thousands of others. I know he will continue to be an inspiration beyond his untimely death.

“Why I do what I do (and why I need to do a whole lot MORE of what I do!).” Trey Pennington

Here are some of Trey’s quotes that are included in this video:

“”What I admire most about my 6 children – every one of them looks out for the rest. They are immensely sweet people.”

“What drives me is a philosophical world view:

  1. Everyone wants to be heard
  2. Everyone wants to be understood
  3. Everyone wants his or her life to count”

“It’s fun to encourage others and help inspire them to boldly make a difference with their treasure.”

“We cannot solve our problems or seize  upon our opportunities with the same way of being we enjoyed last year”

“Just like most of an iceberg is hidden, so a human being’s backstory is out-of sight.”

“There is a certain level of grieving when we know that our expression of ‘I love you’ falls on deaf ears. That hurts at the soul level.”

“Storytelling captures the essence of what it means to be human”

“One day, it was probably around 11 o’clock at night, I was sitting at my computer and my 13-year-old daughter came in and she said, ‘How are you doing daddy?’

I said, ‘Well, okay,’ and I was looking at my to-do list and I said to her, ‘I wish I had a couple of more hours on this thing.’ And she, with great enthusiasm and zest said, ‘Yep, that’s why God gives us a whole new day tomorrow.’

“These are still scary times. You’ve been through them before. Opportunities are ahead. Focus on that one thing in the present and take action on that today. You’ll make it through.”

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Additional Tributes to Trey:

2 Comments | Agency Leadership, Fuel for Thought, Social Media | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Is Advertising a Respected Profession?

August 31, 2011

A lack of respect is bad for ad agency new business. You might not be able to change the perception of our industry but you can control the perception of your agency.

Over the last decade, the advertising industry has become one of the least liked by Americans. In a recent Gallup Poll Advertising and Public Relations ranked 10th on a list of the least respected industries in the nation.

Author Tim Williams is an author and consultant, closely associated with the advertising industry. In a recent article, that is generating some buzz, he raises the question: “Is Advertising a Profession?

Tim writes, “By referring to advertising people as “professionals” and advertising agencies as “professional knowledge firms,” I’m stating my belief that advertising and marketing is – or at least should be – a “profession” in the same league with law, accounting, or architectural firms.”

He goes on to state that the true definition of a profession presents a much more rigorous standard than just being good at your job. Standards such as:

  1. Professionals are accredited
  2. Professions require continuing education
  3. Professions are based on the study and application of science
  4. Professions adhere to “higher aims” than self-interest or economic benefit

Given the above standards, is advertising a profession?

Tim’s opinion is that the advertising industry isn’t there yet but it should be.

“To be respected as a profession, the advertising and marketing business must take a much more evidence-based approach.” 

” … after over a hundred years’ experience with modern marketing, advertising agencies should be a lot more conversant and knowledgeable about what works, what doesn’t work, and why. we should be a lot less focused on deliverables and a lot more focused on outcomes.”

Jason Falls, educator, speaker and author of the book “No Bullshit Social Media”, in the world of digital marketing and social media, was blunt in his response to Tim’s article that I posted on my Facebook page:

“ Uh … Thousands have made a living for their whole lives doing nothing but. That guy’s full of it and just looking piss people off.”

Douglas Burdett, president of Artillery, a full service advertising agency in Norfolk, VA, had just the opposite reaction:

“Great post – have shared it w/my local AAF chapter!”

Do you agree or disagree?  

Click on the following link to read Tim’s complete article, “Is Advertising a Profession?” and share your opinion by taking this  twt Poll: Is advertising a profession?  or weigh in with your opinion in the comment section below.

11 Comments | Agency Leadership, Agency Networks, Fuel for Thought, Positioning | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Steve Jobs’s 10 Best Quotes for Advertising Agencies

August 27, 2011

Photo Credit Annie Bannanie 06

Steve Job’s serves as an example of doing agency new business the right way.

Steve Jobs has stepped down as CEO of Apple.  When it comes to presenting and salesmanship, there’s no one better.

His tenure as CEO should serve as inspiration for advertising agencies that seem to still be in a state of flux in this technology driven communication’s revolution.

Below are some of the best Steve Jobs’s quotes to inspire us to think differently and  up our game through innovation, collaboration: 

 

  1. “The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.” Apple Confidential: The Real Story of Apple Computer
  2. “For something this complicated, it’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” Bloomberg Businessweek
  3. Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Wired
  4. “That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” BusinessWeek
  5. “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” CNNMoney
  6. “When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions.” Newsweek
  7. “We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.” Fortune
  8. “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” Wall Street Journal
  9. “You’re missing it. This is not a one-man show. What’s reinvigorating this company is two things: One, there’s a lot of really talented people in this company who listened to the world tell them they were losers for a couple of years, and some of them were on the verge of starting to believe it themselves. But they’re not losers. What they didn’t have was a good set of coaches, a good plan. A good senior management team. But they have that now.” Businessweek
  10. The system is that there is no system. That doesn’t mean we don’t have process. Apple is a very disciplined company, and we have great processes. But that’s not what it’s about. Process makes you more efficient … But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea.”  Businessweek  

Additional Steve Job articles that may be of interest:

23 Comments | Agency Leadership, Fuel for Thought | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

How McKinney achieved one of the best new-business records among advertising agencies

August 23, 2011

Innovation and collaboration, two keys to ad agency new business.

McKinney is an independent advertising agency based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1969 by Charles “Chick” McKinney, the agency is now independently owned by a management team led by Brad Brinegar, CEO.  It has been recognized as one of the nine best agencies in the country by Advertising Age

In 2003, McKinney became one of the first agencies to pioneer connection planning, which determines the most innovative and creative ways of bringing brands and people together in mutually beneficial ways - ADWEEK

In that same year, McKinney hired a group of interactive experts and injected them into the agency’s existing disciplines. (Today, 35% of the agency’s revenue comes from interactive activities, and 88% of frontline staff is actively engaged in interactive work.) Brad Brinegar: Online Advertising

In 2006, McKinney combined its three strategic disciplines (account planning, connection planning and interactive strategy) into one strategic offering and named Andrew Delbridge, previously director of account planning, partner and chief strategy officer - The Cyber One Report 2006

Under Brad Brinegar’s leadership, Mckinney has achieved one of the best new-business records in the advertising agency industry by being collaborative and innovative.

Brad learned the meaning of collaboration as an oarsman on Dartmouth’s crew team: “It’s not intuitive, but a boat actually goes slower when one guy rows better than the rest. And there is no defense in rowing, no way of stopping the other team. So the only way to win is to be smarter, work harder, care more and pull together better than your opponents.”  McKinney’s website

How he has brought innovation and collaboration to McKinney: 

  1. “We designed our entire space, from the ground up, for collaboration.”
  2. “We invest twice the industry average in strategic resources, to make sure that our innovations are grounded in addressing the right business issues to create the results we want.”
  3. “We work in cross-disciplinary brand-teams, to increase the odds that different perspectives will lead to fresh insight.”
  4. “We bring in lots of outside speakers to teach new perspectives.”

Click on the following link to read Business Management Daily’s recent interview with Brad, “Distruptive Player a Game-Changer”

Leave a Comment » | Agency Branding, Agency Leadership, New Business Talents, New Business Trends | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Age: Top 10 Best Places to Work in Marketing and Media

August 23, 2011

A great work environment is a big plus for ad agency new business.

Ad Age recently released the results of the best places to work in marketing and media. Any advertising agency, media owner or marketer with more than 50 full-time employees was eligible to enter.  Rankings were determined through the use of employer and employee surveys with 150 companies participating and just under 12,000 employee responses. Boston ad agencies dominated the top spots in this years rankings.

Allen & Gerritsen took the top honors. Their offices are located in Artillery Hall, a renovated arsenal just outside of Boston, where U.S. cannons were produced back in the 19th century.  The agency principals credit their positive work environment to:

  • A strong mentoring
  • A valued internship program
  • Monthly “three martini lunch” for staff time Q&A
  • A policy of supporting their employees’ outside interest
  • An atmosphere that promotes wellness.
  • The agency also provides free breakfasts of cereal, oatmeal and Starbucks coffee

Here’s the listing of the top 10 places to work in marketing and media for 2011:

  1.  Allen & Gerritsen, (agency), 120 employees, Boston, MA: Twitter Facebook
  2. BGT Partners, (digital) 175 employees, Miami, FL: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
  3. Digitas, (agency), 2,200 employees, Boston, MA: Twitter Facebook
  4. iProspect, (digital), 850 employees, Boston, MA: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
  5. DataXU, (media) 100+ employees, Boston, MA: Twitter
  6. Ubermind, (digital), 150 employees, Seattle, WA: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
  7. Mr Youth, (marketing), 100+ employees, New York, NY: Twitter Facebook
  8. Airfoil, (PR), 52 employees, Southfield, MI: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
  9. Archer Malmo, (advertising/PR), 100 employees, Memphis, TN: Twitter Facebook
  10. Orion Trading, (media), 300 employees, New York, NY: Twitter
A number of the agencies that made the list are already leveraging their selection for PR purposes, knowing that it will be a huge help in staff recruitment and also with new business.It is appealing to prospective clients that your agency has an employee friendly work environment. Take some time to evaluate the happiness of your staff and explore ways that you can improve their work space and relationships.

Click on the following link to  view the entire list of 30 best places to work. You can also submit your agency for consideration for their 2012 list:  AdAge.com/bestplaces.

An additional articles that may be of interest:

2 Comments | Agency Leadership, New Business Talents | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agency Compensation: The biggest frustration of CMOs

August 22, 2011

For small to mid-size ad agencies, it’s time to address the cost of creating advertising in terms of time and money. 

All our clients want to know is this – Can your agency solve my  problems quickly and at less cost?

Advertising agencies aren’t changing of their own accord, they are being changed. We’ve seen digital technology bring about fundamental change to the news industry, then the music industry. Now seismic change is being forced upon the advertising industry. 

Ad industry downsized. There are nearly 120,822 advertising and marketing services companies in the US. We have  an over supplied market and receding demand. This is an industry that has already laid off over 160,000 people because of the bloat, the wrong kinds of people and too much inefficiency. Not to mention that we are in the worst economic periods since the great depression and it is far from over.

The same problems that led to he agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution are now plaguing the ad industry in this digital revolution.

John Winsor is currently the CEO of Victors & Spoils, the world’s first creative (ad) agency built on crowd sourcing principles and former VP/Executive Director of Strategy and Innovation at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. John addressed the future of advertising agency compensation head on in a recent article  written for his blog, John Winsor: Views from the CEO of Victors & Spoils about the future of marketing and product design.

Personally having discussions with dozens of CMOs of Fortune 500 companies John addresses their greatest frustration, the cost of creating advertising – both time and money.  

He writes,

“Businesses act based on the way they are compensated. And, the majority of agencies are compensated by selling their people’s time.  Compensation is based on the number of FTE’s or full-time employees working on a piece of business. In the age of collaboration the FTE model is broken. The fact is that many agencies make more money when they put more people, or say they do, onto a piece of business. Likewise, it’s more profitable to take more time to do something. If a project should take a month there’s no disincentive for most agencies to drag it out longer.

If advertising industry is to thrive in the age of collaboration we must address the root of the problem, the way we are compensated for our work. If we don’t many companies won’t survive the current economic transformation that’s underway.”

John encourages agencies to come together to fix the problem and proactively transform our industry before it is changed without us.

Click on the following link to read John’s article, “Fees, Lies and Advertising”  also follow John on Twitter. John’s books include:

For the latest industry news and resources from all corners of the internet, be sure and check out my new site: Gass On Line: Daily fuel for ad agencies

2 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Compensation, New Business Trends | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agencies Should KISS for New Business

August 18, 2011

Photo Credit Walt Stoneburner

The K.I.S.S. principle, “keep it simple stupid” is a great maxim to remember when developing a new business program for small to mid-size ad agencies, digital shops and PR firms.

This principle has been a key to success in my years working with new business within an agency environment.

When it comes to new business, consistency trumps perfection. Ad Agencies, the cobbler’s children who have no shoes, are very inconsistent, primarily because they tend to over-think and over-create anything associated with the agency’s brand.

Ad agencies often make things harder than normal. Certainly harder than performing some of the same tasks for clients. They are their own worse client.

That’s why most are so inconsistent with their new business efforts. It’s makes for an unnecessarily painful experience with new business tasks such as updating or redesigning the website; creating a newsletter or eNewsletter; creating direct mail or collateral pieces and even creating and implementing platforms for social media. One agency took over 3 months just to design their blog header.

The person charged with new business for the agency should be on point to simplify anything that relates to new business. Be proactive in keeping all of the processes as simple as possible.

RFPs and agency pitches can also be needlessly taxing upon the time, energy and talent of the agency making new business harder.

For instance, with regards to RFPs. Don’t reinvent the wheel each time a response is created. Covers for RFPs could be designed by well in advance, when there is a lull period and designed for particular industries.

One agency that I previously worked for, we created RFP covers that were specific to Academic Medical Centers. The creative team came up with a great design that was used for every medical center RFP we participated in.

Our creative department was able to put lots of thought into the design because it was not a busy time for the agency. The covers could easily be resized and printed to each RFP, each usually had some variations in their specification, such as size. These covers added a lot to our RFP response and looked custom for each particular academic hospital.

Something as simple as a “leave-behind” collateral piece, following an initial prospective client presentation, can be created and placed on the shelf ready for the next presentation, months in advance.

I know of one agency that had over 50 initial prospective client presentations within 1 year (these weren’t formal pitches) and created  a single leave behind piece that worked for each opportunity.

If your new business responsibilities require you to serve as the agency’s pitch team leader create a simple, repeatable pitch process to save time and energy. Evaluate and sharpen your process after every pitch and find ways to simplify it.

Here are just a few of the benefit for using K.I.S.S. for new business:

  • Much easier to stay consistent and consistency is one of the main keys to success for new business
  • Solve problems faster and meetings can be kept to a minimum
  • Expend less energy from your staff, especially the creative department
  • A huge benefit for your personal time management allowing you to keep your focus on the most important tasks at hand
  • Staff participation in RFPs, pitch opportunities, agency newsletters, collateral, etc will be a much more positive experience that will provide you with their best work and effort
  • You’ll garner lots of appreciation from your time-strapped staff as you constantly look for and implement ways to save time for new business tasks

If you have any examples or ideas for invoking the K.I.S.S. principal for agency new business, please share them in the comment section below.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

2 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, New Business Talents, New Business Tips, Pitches | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The Challenges of Jumping from a Creative Shop to a Digital One

August 16, 2011

Photo Credit charlesdyer

What are you doing to prepare your agency for the digital revolution?

Digital training is critical for the traditional small-to midsize advertising agencies. The strategic partnerships with digital shops have all gone by the wayside, mainly because digital agencies don’t need them any longer.

To quote Aaron Reitkopf, North American CEO of digital agency Profero, “There’s never been a better time to be in advertising, and there’s never been a worse time.” 

Advertising agencies aren’t changing of their own accord, they are being changed. Rising to meet the escalating demands for digital, a lot of agencies are now requiring that almost all of their employees develop digital skills.

Kristina Slade, made the radical decision to leave her job as associate creative director at Omnicom Group’s TBWA \/Chiat\/Day, Los Angeles,  to become creative director at San Francisco-based digital agency AKQA.  In a recent Ad Age interview, Slade shared her challenges. Here are some of the highlights and challenges she expressed in that interview:

  • “… there are better [online] opportunities for brands and consumers.”
  • “Jumping in and absorbing all that tech info was the first hurdle.”
  • “Digital is a self-curated experience, so if someone didn’t engage with you, it just didn’t happen. It’s about what can a brand give someone.”
  • “It was just getting behind the scenes of technology so we could make smarter choices and creative work that was better by leveraging all the potential of different platforms.”
  • “… we actually have metrics and can prove what we can get for every dollar spent in digital.”
  • “The traditional shop is getting smaller. It’ll look like a hybrid shop.”a

Click on the following link to read Alexandra Bruell’s article, “Creatives out of Their Comfort Zone: Kristina Slade”

Additional articles that may be of interest: 

For daily industry news check out Gass Online.

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

When it comes to new business Ad Agencies are ADHD

August 2, 2011

Photo Credit ADHD CENTER

ADHD is a problem with inattentiveness, over-activity, impulsivity, or a combination – It also is descriptive of most advertising agencies, especially when it comes to new business.

For a large number of ad agencies, the atmosphere is chaotic. It is an environment that is in a perpetual state of distraction. Working in this kind of climate is stressful. You’re constantly shifting from one task to the next. There are numerous interruptions and urgent requests throughout each day.

The digital revolution has created additional challenges – how do we stay focused and productive with so many intriguing distractions only a click away. That’s exacerbated with laptops, smartphones, tablets and the popularity of social media.

New business directors must continually refocus their attention, creating fatigue and decreased productivity. That’s bad for agency new business.

Office and internet distractions lessen productivity:

  • Every time we become distracted, it takes an average of 15 minutes to regain complete focus.
  • Gloria Mark, a UC-Irvine professor has found that the average employee switches tasks every three minutes, is interrupted every two minutes and has a maximum focus stretch of 12 minutes.
  • A study showed that people distracted by incoming email and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in their IQs, the equivalent of losing a nights sleep.
  • An American study reported in the Journal Of Experimental Psychology found our productivity goes down by as much as 40% when we attempt to do several things at once.
  • Studies by Gloria Mark, an ‘interruption scientist’ at the University of California, show that when people are frequently diverted from one task to another, they work faster, produce less, report significantly higher stress levels, frustration, workload, effort and pressure.

I have been working in ad agency new business almost my entire advertising career and have completed two post-graduate degrees. I’m   organized and focused but far from perfect. I’m constantly learning new techniques that lessen distraction and increase my productivity. 

One solution that has been the most helpful for me is to dedicate blocks of time to similar tasks. The result – it increases your productivity, creativity, and mental sharpness, while decreasing fatigue, procrastination, and stress. You simply group similar tasks that require similar resources in order to streamline their completion.

Set aside a specific amount of time for specific tasks and make a specific effort to not allow the distractions or disruptions of others break your focus. After that block of time is up, take a brief break, then begin to focus on the next block of time.

Here are some tips to help get you started:

  1. Write it down. Write down 4 to 5 of the most important tasks that need to be accomplished as you begin your day.
  2. Keep time. Use a wristwatch, timer, alarm, PDA or computer—anything that keeps accurate time and is within your sight at all times. When you start a task, say the time out loud or write it down. Allot yourself limited amounts of time for each task.
  3. Check off. After completing a task, manually mark it off your list.
  4. Take a break. A 5 minute break after the completion of each task.
  5. Begin again. Refocus, reset the timer and begin working on the next task.
  6. Take an extended break. After completing your top 4 to 5 task for the day, take a 20 minute break.

I’m a fan of a technique invented in the late 1980s by Francesco Cirillo, a professional in the fields of productivity and process improvement, called The Pomodoro Technique. This easy to use, simple system, used by professional teams and individuals in a range of fields has become a popular tool. It is easy to use and, most of all, it works.

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management system that can help prioritize and accomplish important agency new business tasks.

Here are some Pomodoro resources to help get you started:

  • Download the Pomodoro Technique® book for free or order it on the Internet or from your bookshop.
  • Cheat Sheet. Download a one-page overview of the Pomodoro Technique® .
  • The Pomodoro Technique To-Do Checklist
  • The Pomodoro Pro app is a timer tailored for people using the Pomodoro Technique and designed specifically for the iPhone or iPad.

Whatever plan you use, be committed to improve your focus and time management. Practice makes perfect.

12 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, New Business Tips, Time Management | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Multitasking Kills Productivity and That’s Bad for New Business

July 22, 2011

Photo Credit Daquella Manera

Research shows that the more you multitask, the worse you are at it and that can be bad for ad agency new business.

In some situations multitasking is deadly. I recently read of a well-known plastic surgeon who was killed when he accidentally drove his car over a cliff while sending a Twitter message about his dog. Most of us understand the dangers of multitasking while driving but many don’t realize that multitasking can be killing productivity.

The term “multitasking originated in the computer engineering industry, referring to the ability of a microprocessor to process several task at the simultaneously. Our ability to multitask is not as efficient as we might think.

On the surface multitasking sounds like it would boost productivity but studies show just the opposite happens:

Professor Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a leader in multi-tasking research, says, ‘People can’t do it very well, and when they say they can, they’re deluding themselves,’ he says. ‘The brain is very good at deluding itself.’ 

Psychiatrist Edward M. Hallowell has gone so far as to describe multitasking as a “mythical activity in which people believe they can perform two or more tasks simultaneously as effectively as one.” 

A study at the University of California found that multitasking impedes the brain’s ability to absorb information

Author of the book Distraction, Damon Young, says, “When we move from our job to an e-mail, it takes about a minute to recover our train of thought and then we get another e-mail, or an SMS, so our concentration is fractured. The result? We’re not really multi-tasking. We’re switching between tasks in an unfocused or clumsy way.”

Studies here in the US have shown that students who do homework while watching television get consistently lower grades.

“There is a cost to the way that our society is changing. Humans are not built to work this way, we’re really built to focus.” Russell Poldrack,UCLA psychology professor

Persons charged with business development for most small to mid-size ad agencies often wear multiple hats. That increases the likelihood that they do a lot of multi-tasking and are less efficient than they could be.

We are not made for multitasking and it actually hinders our productivity:

  • The time it takes to complete jobs increases significantly. People actually lose time rather than gain it. The brain has to restart and refocus. Switching attention is from one task to another, work may be faster but studies show that productivity is less.
  • Multi-taskers are prone to errors.
  • Multi-taskers are more easily distracted. The more they multitask the worse they are at it and the less they can focus on one thing.
  • Multitasking hurts relationships. Even though it isn’t intended, it makes clients, coworkers, friends and most importantly family feel unimportant.
  • Multitasking comes at a high price. It greatly increases stress,  even rage in adults and learning problems for children. You need to ask yourself, ‘is this the way I want to feel? Is this the way I really want to live my life?”

If you want to be productive it’s best not to multi-task at all. There is no downside to it. Here are 10 tips to overcoming multitasking:

  1. Embrace single tasking. Acknowledge the problem, “Hi, my name is Michael and I’m a multi-tasker.” 
  2. Manage your time better, do one thing at a time if at all possible.Schedule time to switch your attention from one task to another.
  3. Look for ways to create silence. I turn off any distractions and even use a set of noise canceling headphones to help me get into a focused state of mind.
  4. Turn off the cell phone and disable email alerts. Have set time to check voice mail and your inbox.
  5. Distractions on the internet are abundant. To bring strategy and focus to your online reading, use an RSS Reader such as Google Reader.
  6. Force yourself to disconnect. Take a break from social media and the internet.
  7. Create a To Do List for the day. Plan your day in blocks. Set  just a few primary objectives that you want to complete by end of day.
  8. Begin at in the mornings to complete your most important tasks.
  9. Amazing at how deadlines can keep things moving.  Give yourself less time helps hyper-focus your attention on the project at thand.
  10. Schedule in some periodic breaks during the day, such as going for a brief walk.

10 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips, Time Management | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

10 Reading Resources for Ad Agency New Business

July 5, 2011

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The right reading resources can help fuel your agency’s new business.

The only constant in advertising is change and that change can dramatically impact your agency’s new business development. To maintain success, you have to keep up. That isn’t easy. Especially with this revolutionary change we’re experiencing in communications.

If you are responsible for new business, you know how easy it is to get side-tracked within the agency environment. I would encourage you  to set up a simple routine for reading, your personal ‘continuing educational program’, specific to new business.

I’ve identified some online new business resources for agency owners, management and new business directors. The following sites provide helpful new business tips, tactics and trends particularly for small to midsize ad agencies.

  1. Agency Reinvention | Robb High Consulting, Robb High Owner
  2. Blue Focus Marketing, Mark and Cheryl Burgess, Co-founders
  3. Mirren Business Development, Brent Hodgins, Managing Partner
  4. New Business Intel, Todd Knutson, CEO of The Listr
  5. RSW (Reardon, Smith, Whittaker/UK) , Adam Whittaker, Principal
  6. Sanders Consulting Group, Bob Sanders, President
  7. Second Wind, Anthony Mikes, founder
  8. The “ANB” Blog, Mark Sneider, Owner & President of RSW/US
  9. The New Business Dingo, David Curie, President of Catapult New Business
  10. Thunderclap Consulting Group, Steve Congdon, Principal

A good way to maintain a consistent reading program and keep up with the latest content from these sources would be the use of an RSS Reader such as Google Reader. RSS feeds allow you to easily subscribe to content you want to receive.

Here are a few of the benefits to subscribing to this content through a RSS feed:

  • Simplifies and focuses your reading into one convenient location, your inbox or RSS reader.
  • You can easily add or remove subscriptions and organize your reading into folders.
  • An easy way to keep up with the latest breaking news and trends.
  • Fresh content 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
  • An RSS feed will save you a ton of time.

If you have found additional sites that have been helpful for agency new business, please share them in the comment section below.

2 Comments | Agency Leadership, New Business Tips | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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