Fuel for Thought « FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

7 Tips for Using Twitter for Ad Agency New Business

September 1, 2010

Used in the right way, Twitter can be one of the best social media tools to be used to generate traffic and leads for your agency’s new business.

For the past 3 years Twitter has been the leading traffic generator to my Fuel Lines blog. It definitely needs to be part of your agency’s overall social media marketing strategy.

The following are seven of my personal tips to help make Twitter more effective for your agency’s new business:

Don’t be afraid to use Twitter differently from the way it was originally intended to be used. Twitter is more of a broadcast tool that most would admit and current research validates. Treat it as a broadcast tool through reach and frequency of your content marketing efforts and generating the best return on your time investment by repurposing your content through tools such as Social Oomph.
Build a targeted Twitter following. Research Twitter lists such as Mashable’s Twitter List Directory, third-party programs such as TweetAdder.
In addition your own blog’s content, be sure to supplement your Twitter posts with resources from others that are of help to your target audience.
Pay-it-forward. As others are so kind to publicize your content, also help to promote theirs.
In addition to Twitter being a broadcasting tool, it must be utilized as a networking tool for you to have success. Content helps build awareness but it is up to you to turn awareness into relationships. The efficiency of these kinds of online networks should be all that is need to motivate you to participate. People want to work with other people that they know, like and trust.
Use third-party Twitter tools like CoTweet and HootSuite to minimize your time and maximize the effectiveness of your Twittering.
What you learn to do for your agency can be used for your clients. There are a multiplicity of benefits from your involvement.

To provide you with further help in using Twitter for new business here are 20 of the most popular post:

Follow this list of agencies and see first hand how they are using Twitter: Twitter List: 500+ Advertising Agencies on Twitter

5 Comments | Agency Blogs, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: content marketing, lead generation, Mashable, Michael Gass, Social Media, Social Oomph, TweetAdder, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

4 Ways Goals Can Enhance Creativity for Ad Agency New Business

August 16, 2010

Shift Your Ad Agency’s Thinking to Stimulate Creativity, Spur Innovation and Create Enthusiasm for New Business.

A lot of small to midsize ad agencies have chosen to take shelter during the recession, but that strategy doesn’t provide any creative stimulation for ad agency new business. Perhaps the better strategy would be to dramatically shift your agency’s thinking, spur innovation and enthusiasm by setting some challenging new business goals.

I owe inspiration for this post to a recent Stephan Shapiro, a well-known business innovation author, speaker and consultant. In a recent article, , How Goals Enhance Creativity, he said,

“… businesses are driven by goals, how can we leverage them as a tool for enhancing creativity? One way is to use stretch targets. REALLY stretch targets.

What if they set a target of growing by 50% a year? It might have a fundamentally different impact on the organization.

That level of growth is unprecedented. It will certainly stretch the way they think. A 14% improvement can most likely be attained through conventional thinking. But a 50% growth target would require some breakthrough thinking; radical ideas.

The future gives them the present, rather than present giving them the future.”

4 Ways Goals Can Enhance Creativity for Ad Agency New Business:

Shifts thinking. Instead of being reactive, it provides a proactive approach to generating new business. A shift from defense to offense and getting your agency out of its hunkered down, bunker mentality.
Stimulates creativity. I have never liked setting unrealistic goals. To me they are meaningless. But I do embrace robust new business goals, that will stretch and challenge your agency’s creative thinking to attain them.
Spurs innovation. Most agencies are not good in creating a consistent new business program. They are always busy. Client work comes before their own. But, there are solutions to these types of challenges, always a “work-around” if you will take the time to figure out an innovative solution.
Creates enthusiasm. Big goals can be the spark to generate a spirit of enthusiasm. A rallying point for your beleaguered troops. These may seem like the darkest days your agency has ever faced but in reality this could be the greatest of times for growing your agency. You will NEVER have another opportunity like this in your lifetime. These times present the perfect conditions for small to midsize agencies to shine.

I would encourage you to read Steve’s full article, “How Can Goals Enhance Creativity?”

5 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips, New Business Trends | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, Creativity, goals, innovation, Michael Gass, Stephan Shapiro | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

6 Simple Steps for Using Content Marketing to Attract Ad Agency New Business

August 4, 2010

Relevant and valuable content will attract a clearly defined and understood target audience.

Content marketing is an overarching term that involves the creation and sharing of content for the purpose of engaging your prospective clients. Educating your potential clients results in building your agency’s brand awareness and recognition as a thought leader and industry expert. The primary objective is lead generation for new business opportunities.

Here are 6 steps for using content marketing to attract prospective clients:

First, define your target audience
Second, determine what are their marketing and advertising challenges, “what keeps them up at night”
Third, create a blog as your central communication platform that becomes a repository of information, “a one stop shop” that provides consistent solutions, rich helpful content
Fourth, continually measure how well you’re doing and adjust as you go
Fifth, “Jump start” your blog’s traffic, accelerate its growth by repurposing content through other social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn using third party tools to that help to make the process easy to manage and time efficient.
Sixth, now, what you’ve done for yourself, do for your clients

Additional articles that may be of interest:

12 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Content Marketing, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: blogs, Blogs I Recommend, content marketing, lead generation, Michael Gass | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Don’t Cap Your Ad Agency’s New Business Pipeline

July 22, 2010

An ad agency’s new business pipeline isn’t something you can just turn on and off. It needs to continually flow, constantly generating leads.

While there are different approaches to successful agency new business development programs, they are made up of some common building blocks. The first secret to a new business program is getting started. The second secret is developing a new business program that your agency can consistently execute and sustain.

As you create a new business plan for your agency you should think in terms of “what is sustainable when our agency is at its busiest”.

Many well-intentioned plans are often derailed by success. When the agency starts to get busy the new business program is put on the back-burner. This creates a roller coaster effect for new business. Your new business pipeline often takes 3 to 4 months to begin generating leads so it is very inefficient to turn it on and off like a spigot.

Often, when your agency is beginning to get busy with new business, it is the best time to step-up your efforts. What agency wouldn’t want to be in the position of being able to turn away business. To be more selective of the type of client accounts your agency is willing to accept.

To be consistent, any agency new business program must:

1. Be realistically achievable within the culture and resources of the agency

Set realistic goals. There are a lot of agencies, when asked what are their new business goals will say, ”we want to double in size” or ”we want to take our agency to the next level”. This aren’t realistic goals unless you have a plan and that plan will be dependent upon what resources of time, personnel and budget that are available for implementation.

2. Have a manager who is held accountable for its execution

If everyone is responsible for your agency’s new business then no one is responsible.

Someone must be accountable, have the authority and ability to drive it. There’s a lot of pushing, prodding and poking that must be done to keep the new business program working. Someone must be responsible for keeping it focused and on track.

3. Top management must be intimately involved in the process

No one in the agency feels the pressure to succeed more than the agency principals. Like it or not, they are the face of the agency. Their involvement is important for new business and they shouldn’t shy away from this responsibility. To maintain consistency, new business, must be a priority in their daily responsibilities.

Mandate that your agency has an integrated new business plan. Unbelievably, 62% of agencies don’t have a planned new business effort.
Define your agency’s positioning. This is the starting point for any ad agency new business program. It is a fundamental prerequisite for small and midsize agencies. But it is also the place where most agencies where most fail. Positioning is everything.
Choose a target audience. This will not deter your agency from still obtaining “other” type of clients through your personal networks and referrals within your local market, but it will go a very long way to creating awareness, appeal, differentiation and focus for your agency’s new business program. It makes new business so much easier when you do.
Resolve to stay the course. New business efforts are relational and take time to come to fruition.

Some additional articles that may be of interest:

5 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips | Tagged: Ad Agencies, Blogs I Recommend, Michael Gass | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Is social media making many ad agencies look and act the same?

July 20, 2010

It’s time to un-level the playing field. To have success with social media, agencies need to fly a differentiated social media flag.

Small-to midsize ad agencies tend to constantly promote how they are alike rather than how they are different from other agencies. They tend to look and sound just the same.

When agencies gave up fighting against the social media tide and decided to dive in, instead of using this new communications channel to showcase how they were different, they ended up just following the lead of others. Once again positioned as a generalists instead of a specialist and following the “safe-way” rather than the “smart-way.”

I had hoped that agencies would have learned this lesson by now, “if you try to appeal to everyone, you will appeal to no one”.

Having spent my entire advertising career in new business, I know first hand the financial pressures small to mid-size agencies are under. I understand their reservation for not wanting to focus to narrowly on a target audience or discipline. I know all of the excuses for not wanting to drive a stake in the ground and define themselves for who they are. But agencies are missing a grand opportunity.

Social media provide agencies to boldly declare who their target audience truly is, what their points of differentiation are. Social media allows agencies this freedom without fear of ”throwing the baby out with the bath-water.” It provides favorable, acceptable conditions for the agency’s principals to fly their differentiated flag proudly without fear of missing “other” opportunities that use to come by way of their personal networks and referrals.

Agencies tend to look and act the same because they merely have a check list of social media tools and platforms to prove their participation. But their social media practice has no strategy, no connection to a particular target audience, no demonstration of how they are different. Merely showcasing that they are a bona-fide member of the global social media community.

Here are my 5 tips for flying your agency’s differentiated social media flag:

Create an agency blog for a specific targeted audience. If you don’t, it will lack focus and be nothing more than mishmash that has no flavor , appeal or audience.
Have an objective. I would suggest the objective to be using social media for your agency’s new business pipeline. Inbound new business leads through content marketing that positions you as a thought leader to your best prospective clients.
Remember that social is about people. I would strongly suggest that you don’t incorporate your blog into the branding of your agency’s website. Give it room to breath and grow on its own. Let your agency’s blog be a reflection of key persons within the agency instead of trying to socialize an entity. You connect with people online the same way you do offline, but online you can efficiently reach more people over a much broader geographical area. People want to work with people that they know, trust and like. Social media provides you with this great opportunity to network.
Don’t be afraid to use social media differently than the way it was intended. Some social media purists act like Barney Fife and may threaten you with”citizens arrest,” but there is just one social media rule for you to keep in mind, there are no rules! This is still the wild, wild west.
Never lose your marketing mind when it comes to social media. Remember that it is just another communication’s channel. I have had much better success working with the agency “baby boomers” and their getting up-to-speed with social media than younger staffers who understand this new communication technology but they lack the experience in marketing and advertising. Don’t be intimidated. It’s not as hard as it may appear to get your marketing mind around the social media space.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

11 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, Michael Gass, small ad agencies, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ideas for Creating an Ad Agency New Business War Room

July 15, 2010

A command center (often called a war room) is any place that is used to provide centralized command to determine the best course of action.

Every agency needs a “new business war room”, a place within your building that is organized for and focused on nothing but new business.

Usually the new business person is the “odd duck” of the agency. Why? No one else likes doing what they have to do, which is to sell the agency. But it is amazing at how quickly the new business director can get roped into almost everything but agency new business. Endless meetings throughout most days with no time left for execution of the agency’s new business strategy.

When I served as the VP of new business for the BOHAN agency in Nashville, we were fortunate to have our own space dedicated solely for the purpose of new business. We often called it our New Business War Room, because this was the place that we were able to focus on the lifeblood of the agency’s new business efforts.

No matter the size of your agency, I would suggest that you designate an area just for the purpose of agency new business. Here are some of the features, equipment and arrangements we had for our new business area that may spark some ideas of your own:

Multipurpose Room:

Comfortable seating for about 15 people. The chairs were on rollers and could be easily re-arranged or moved entirely out of the way.
Not a typical conference table, but two tables that could be set apart for workshops, focus groups, etc. A large whiteboard, flip-chart, a large bulletin type display board. This provided us our own space where we could keep visuals of on-going new business projects.
Large flat screen TV, wireless Apple keyboard and presentation remote, Apple Airport, DVD player and sound bar.

Work Room:

Equipment and materials to create customized notebooks, presentation-leave behinds, RFP covers and special delivery boxes.
A collection of agency work that was well organized, that could be easily gathered and customized for a specific prospect.
Storage for agency collateral materials, new business direct mail pieces, printed agency newsletters, prospective client gift items such as hats, shirts, pens, thumb-drives, etc.
Files: Hard copies of previous RFPs, new business intel on current prospective clients, materials from prior pitches.

New Business Server:

On our agency’s server, we had a designated area for new business that was password protected. Only a limited number of staff persons had access. It included:

RFP resources: to help with new RFP requests, we had all of the previous RFPs broken down into sections such as Experience, Staff, Billings, Case Studies, Processes, Client Lists, Work Samples. This made the RFP process much easier.
New business intelligence on prospective clients: current news, press releases, staffing info, current work, agency relationships, etc.
Intelligence on competitor agencies: client lists, news updates, press releases, staff changes, etc.
Electronic prospective client data base, a collection of prospective client data from sources such as The List.
Electronic samples of the agency’s creative work and a system to add new work consistently.
Web-based microsites for prospective clients, specific to certain areas such as healthcare and leisure products. Two of the agency’s core strengths.
Downloadable Agency Fact Sheet and Agency Brochures that were specific to certain prospective client groups.

Offices:

Quiet, comfortable, individual offices, designed for long hours, for the entire new business team.
Nice common areas for collaborative discussions.
Our own kitchen area with bar seating. A nice plus for prospective client meetings as well as meetings for our our agency staff.
Our offices included a large balcony overlooking the city of Nashville, where we also entertained prospective clients, after hour drinks, grilling, etc.

Having our own space on a separate floor of the agency allowed us to stay rifled focused on new business. Making calls, gathering intelligence, cultivating and engaging our prospects. It was amazing the amount of work we were able to do.

Systems were in place to keep us in the loop of the new creative work and we had consistent communications with our staff regarding the efforts of the new business team working on their behalf. We still participated in the monthly and quarterly meetings but avoided being brought in for a lot of the daily meetings that went on in one of the agency’s other four conference rooms.

I hope this can serve to help spark your own ideas for creating a space for your agency’s new business. Be sure and share some of your best ideas us.

9 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, BOHAN, business development, Michael Gass | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Let Hemingway improve your writing for ad agency new business

June 9, 2010

A great resource for content marketing, social media marketing and agency new business is Ernest Hemingway, one of my favorite authors.

Hemingway, is among the most famous American novelists, short-story writers and essayists, who won both the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes. No doubt he would have easily adapted to write for Web and word limiting platforms such as Twitter.

Hemingway pioneered a new style of writing, simple clear, direct and unadorned. His style is very helpful for content marketing and writing for social media.

Content marketing is a means of achieving a position of thought leader and lead generation. Creating relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined target audience – with the objective of generating agency new business.

Social media didn’t create content marketing, but it’s an incredible tool for getting it easily circulated to a large audience.

The two combined can greatly increase inbound lead generation and networking opportunities. But I’ve found that a lot of agency principal’s struggle with generating content and writing for the Web.

People read online differently than they do in print. Most people tend to have short attention spans and are constantly scanning rather than reading word-for-word. They are more comfortable and accustom writing for print. Hemingway can help.

Ernest Miller Hemingway was 18 years old when he walked into the newsroom of The Kansas City Star and began his writing career. He was given a copy of “The Star Copy Style’” sheet, a single, galley-sized page, which contained the 110 rules governing Star prose.

Hemingway would always remember the style sheet and its core admonition: “Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative.”

At the core of the style sheet that greatly influenced Hemingway’s writings are these four simple rules for writing well:

Use short sentences. Don’t waste time and words, get straight to the point. Perhaps his finest demonstration of short sentence skill was when he was challenged to tell an entire story in only 6 words: For sale: baby shoes, never used. Just write the truest sentence that you know.
Use short opening first paragraphs.
Use vigorous English. “Vigorous English is muscular, forceful, it comes from passion, focus and intention” – David Garfinkel
Be positive, not negative. Say what something is rather than what it isn’t. For example, instead of saying “inexpensive,” say “economical.”

“Those were the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing,” Hemingway said in 1940. “I’ve never forgotten them. No man with any talent, who feels and writes truly about the thing he is trying to say, can fail to write well if he abides with them.”

I’ve printed out, read and re-read often the Kansas City Star Style Sheet. I hope that it will be a helpful resource too you.

Here are some memorable Hemingway quotes on writing:

All my life I’ve looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.
I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.
I never had to choose a subject – my subject rather chose me.
If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water.
My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.
The shortest answer is doing the thing.
There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
Develop a built-in bullshit detector.

A quote from Hemingway that every agency should adhere to for new business, “Never mistake motion for action”.

Photos from my recent trip to Hemingway’s home in Key West.

6 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Creating Content, Fuel for Thought, Social Media | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, content marketing, Ernest Hemingway, new business development, Social Media, social media marketing | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

How Can I Make FUEL LINES More Useful for You?

May 27, 2010

FUEL LINES was started to help small-to midsize ad agencies, interactive agencies and PR firms with their new business practices. New Business tips, tools, tactics and trends that help give them a differentiating strategy, a competitive advantage, a higher-profile reputation, and an improved ability to attract and win the kind of clients they really want.

Following the writing of my 500th post and closing in on my third anniversary for FUEL LINES, I ask for your input on how I can make this blog more useful to you?

Here are some areas you might like to comment on that I might improve upon:

Topics – are there topics (specific or general) you’d like covered in the coming months? What are the main new business issues that your agency is facing this year?
Types of Posts - reader questions, tutorials, case studies, short tips, guest posts, tool reviews…. have your say about what you’d like most/least
Posting Frequency – too many posts, not enough, just right?
Design – before initiating a redesign – your comments and ideas would be helpful at this point
Blog Features – what would make your reader experience better?
Community – do you feel you connect well with other readers? Are there features that you’d like added to help connect more?
Services and Tools – what could I offer you to help you improve your agency’s new business?
What Frustrates You about FUEL LINES? What is Best about it?
Other Ideas and Feedback – anything goes, big or little.

The ‘Rules’ – Any feedback, suggestions or ideas that you have are welcome. I make a commitment to you to read anything you have to say.

All that I ask in return is that you be honest, courteous and constructive with your feedback.

FUEL LINES is a project that I pour a lot of time and effort into – as a result sometimes criticism can be a little difficult to hear – however I think it’s vital to take it all on board if this is to continue to be a valuable resource for agencies wanting to improve acquiring new business.

So it’s over to you. Feel free to either leave your feedback in comments below or to share them privately with me via my Contact Page. Your input is very much appreciated.

Leave a Comment » | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Fuel for Thought | Tagged: Advertising, Blogs I Recommend, FUEL LINES, interactive agencies, pr firms, readership survey, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

It’s Usually the Best Sign When Ad Agencies are Hiring!

February 11, 2010

In the midst of such a long drawn out recession, it’s always good news when you hear of an ad agency that is hiring.

The best “tell-tale” sign that an agency is doing well is when they are having to fill staff positions due to new business. Bob Hoffman, CEO of Hoffman/Lewis Advertising in San Francisco sent me a heads-up on a new post he had written for his blog, The Ad Contrarian.

Instead of using a “head-hunter” Hoffman/Lewis Advertising is using Bob’s social media network to fill the following 12 positions:

Creative Director/Group CD (2)
Junior Copywriter
Junior Art Director
Edit Suite Assistant
Account Executive
Account Coordinator (2)
Director, Brand Strategy
Data Analyst
Sr. Media Planner
Administrative Assistant

Before you flood Bob’s inbox with email or tie up the agency’s phone lines, to be considered, there are some particulars to follow. Check out The Ad Contrarian’s article, “Yes, Someone is Hiring,” for the details. Tell them Michael sent you!

If you want to check out the Hoffman/Lewis website, it’s here.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

2 Comments | Agency Blogs, Fuel for Thought, New Business Talents, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency hiring, advertising agency positions, Bob Hoffman, Hoffman Lewis Advertising, Recession, The Ad Contrarian | 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:

5 Comments | Agency Leadership, Fuel for Thought, New Business Survey, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Center for Marketing Research, Eric Mattson, Inc. 500, Inc. Magazine, Nora Ganim Barnes, social media study, The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth | 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 …

7 Comments | Agency Leadership, Fuel for Thought, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Advertising Age, CEO Rob Katz, digital media, Ski Resort Marketing, Social Media, Vail Resorts | 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: Ad Agencies, Advertising Age, Bob Lundin, Grey New York, Jane Bedford, Michael Gass, Michael Houston, new business, Rupal Parekh | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Fuel For Thought: Recession Advertising

January 21, 2009

A McGraw-Hill Research study from 1980 to 1985 found that those businesses which chose to maintain or raise their level of advertising expenditures during the 1981 and 1982 recession had significantly higher sales after the economy recovered. Specifically, companies that advertised aggressively during the recession had sales 256% higher than those that did not continue to advertise.

1 Comment | Fuel for Thought | Tagged: Advertising, McGraw-Hill Research, Recession | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Fuel for Thought: Ad Agency Clients Expect Leadership

January 12, 2009

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.

For the latest agency new business updates subscribe to FUEL LINES by Email

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

Leave a Comment » | Fuel for Thought | Tagged: ANA, ational Advertisers, Barbara Bacci Mirque, Michael Gass | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Fuel for Thought: Time Management

January 1, 2009

The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.
Stephen R. Covey

Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only timewe’ve got.
Art Buchwald

Time is money.
Benjamin Franklin

The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.
Michael Altshuler

The great dividing line between success and failure can be expressed in five words: “I did not have time.”
Franklin Field

Leave a Comment » | Fuel for Thought | Tagged: Art Buchwald, Benjamin Franklin, Franklin Field, Michael Altshuler, Michael Gass, Stephen Covey | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Fuel for Thought: Brand Babblers

December 19, 2008

Branding

Excerpts from The Ad Contrarian … Bad Days for Brand Babblers

“In these times, clients expect their advertising to actually sellsomething. When it doesn’t, they get cranky.

Some years ago the ad industry decided that it no longer had to bother itself with the mundane task of selling. Instead, advertising could focus on the much more civilized practice of branding — whatever the hell that means.

The most effective, in fact, the only way to build a brand is to sell someone something.

It often comes as a shock to ad people when we find out how little the marketplace cares about our cleverness and our hipness. Apparently, consumers are more concerned with their own self-interest than with our brilliance.”

Bob Hoffman, ceo of Hoffman/Lewis advertising in San Francisco and St. Louis. Author of the blog, The Ad Contrarian

Leave a Comment » | Fuel for Thought | Tagged: Ad Contrarian, Bob Hoffman, Hoffman Lewis | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

How Can I Make FUEL LINES More Useful for You?

December 13, 2008

My very first blog post: New Business Resolutions for Agency CEOs

FUEL LINES was started to help small-to midsize ad agencies and PR firms with their new business practices. New Business tips, tools, tactics and trends that help give them a differentiating strategy, a competitive advantage, a higher-profile reputation, and an improved ability to attract and win the kind of clients they really want.

December marks the first year anniversary for FUEL LINES. I ask for your input on how I can make my blog more useful to you?

Here are some areas you might like to comment on that I might improve upon:

Topics - are there topics (specific or general) you’d like covered in the coming months? What are the main new business issues that your agency is facing as we approach a new year?
Types of Posts - reader questions, tutorials, case studies, short tips, guest posts, tool reviews…. have your say about what you’d like most/least
Posting Frequency - too many posts, not enough, just right?
Design - before initiating a redesign – your comments and ideas would be helpful at this point
Blog Features - what would make your reader experience better?
Community - do you feel you connect well with other readers? Are there features that you’d like added to help connect more?
Services and Tools - what could I offer you to help you improve your agency’s new business?
What Frustrates You about FUEL LINES? What is Best about it?
Other Ideas and Feedback - anything goes, big or little.

The ‘Rules’ - Any feedback, suggestions or ideas that you have are welcome. I make a commitment to you to read anything you have to say.

All that I ask in return is that you be honest, courteous and constructive with your feedback.

So it’s over to you. Feel free to either leave your feedback in comments below or to share them privately with me via my Contact Page. Your input is very much appreciated.

For the latest agency new business updates subscribe to FUEL LINES by Email

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

2 Comments | Fuel for Thought, New Business Trends | Tagged: ad agency blog, Blogs I Recommend, FUEL LINES, Michael Gass, midsize ad agencies, small ad agencies | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Fuel for Thought: Social Media/Ad Agency Innovation

December 13, 2008

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.

Leave a Comment » | Fuel for Thought | Tagged: ad agency innovation, ANA, ANA blog, Association of National Advertisers, Barbara Bacci Mirque, Blogs I Recommend, Michael Gass, midsize ad agencies, small ad agencies, Social Media, The Frito-Lay Company | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass