This is a guest post written by my friend,  Peter Gerritsen, president of Transworld Advertising Agency Network better known as TAAN, the oldest and among the largest ad agency networks in the world, with 52 member agencies operating in 32 different countries.

Peter Gerritsen, president of TAAN

Not a single person in this business can truly say they do it all by themselves.  We all work with many different resources, vendors, staff, clients, media, consultants, friends, mentors, advisors…and the list goes on. Plus, in this age of exploding social media, we are connected to just about everyone imaginable. You are your own living, breathing network hub. We share just about anything with anyone.

But are you truly open about everything about your business with just about anyone on that infinite list? Do you share details about your business? Come on, answer honestly, do you tell your Twitter followers all about your struggles with balance sheet issues, or that confidential opportunity to secure that big client away from a competitor. You probably don’t share some of this inside info with your own staff, let along outside your office walls.

Internal versus external partnerships

You may be lucky enough to share your business with partners. When organized properly, it has huge merits for everyone. You, your partners, the agency. A strong relationship gives you a forum to share ideas and responsibilities. But what often happens is that the partners rely only on each other to look into the future for valuable evaluation. It will work for a while, but still needs outside stimuli to mix into the caldron of innovation that keeps you in front. You need to participate outside the agency to gather your mental ingredients.

You have to get out more

A number of years ago, I met a well-respected and very successful Founder/CEO of a great independent agency. I had seen him at a number of the same events I was attending. I also knew that he was a member of a network very similar to the one I belonged to. I asked him why he was away from his office so much traveling to all these meetings. He smiled and told me, “

My job is to run the business. But my most important role as leader the agency is to be the scout. I gather intelligence and new ideas, and bring them back into the agency and share them with my team. It is the only way we can best see what our future could be, and how we can get there.” 

His answer solidified what I think so many agency folks are missing. We all should invest in outside input from any and all sources. It isn’t only about sitting at a desk and reading, following, and searching the internet from the office. Attend conferences, workshops, and club functions.

Investing in the agency

There are essentially three categories of external learning groups that all have merit in building your success:

• Trade Shows and Industry Functions. Growing the agency by investing in client business knowledge and your work.
• Conferences and Seminars. Growing the business by investing in the agency and your team.
• The independent Network. Growing the agency by investing in the business and most importantly – you.

The club circuit

Industry Associations, Community Networks, Business Clubs, Professional Advisory Panels, and Trade Groups are all good and valuable. They offer plenty of networking opportunities. They are important for your agency, and worth your time and energy. But not necessarily for you – the agency owner/leader. These are organizations designed to find business, connect with resources, and frankly – make nice. And trade groups are for supporting the industry, pushing through key legislation, or defending business practices. These are very important for your business. But not always for you and the agency. Very rarely do any of these groups truly share the specific details of an idea. Why should they, after all the speaker is talking to a crowd of competitors.

The Power of a belonging to a Network

I believe every independent communications agency should participate in a network. There is power in sharing your knowledge and learning from others. Insights you will never get by reading books and blogs, or from attending trade shows and seminars. The concept of an open forum amongst your peers may sound as comfortable as going through a peer review for a master degree. But, if you are a part of the “right” group, it can be so valuable to you that you actually can’t wait until the next chance to stand up and open up amongst your “friends.” 

Sharing the Good, the Bad, and even the Ugly.

Be careful what you say, and to whom you say it. Opening up to a room full of like-minded entrepreneurs that work in your same profession tends to feel like a thousand fingers at the ready to tap out on their iPhones the inside scoop that will ruin you in an instant.

When good things happen to you, are you willing to give a competitor your confidential details as to why? Of course not! Then there is the sensitive subject of mistakes. We all make them. I’ve made my share of whoppers.

It quite the experience to sit amongst your peers and share in the pain of someone else’s huge screw-ups. Then to stand up and tell your own tale of stupidity. It’s cathartic to unload the bad stuff to your trusted friends in the business. They all understand your pain, because they share the same business issues. Each wants to help the other to not fall into the same trap. Plus, there is so much to learn from others – not only what went right, but also went totally wrong and how to avoid it.

Identify the network that fits you best

There are many different Communications Networks for you to consider. Financial focus, shared learning, Biz Dev groups, creative collaborations, management forums, collective capabilities associations. Then there is size of agency, ownership versus management, Local/national/global. There is one that fits your business, goals, and personality. All offer opportunities to make you better. You just need to determine your hierarchy of needs.

In my opinion, the most valuable network for the entrepreneurial marketing/advertising agencies owner has a combination of these attributes:

• Peer-to-peer interaction. Owners and leaders of agencies are active participants within the group. They are not the same as you, but share enough commonality of interests to offer you new ways to think.
• Shared capabilities and resources. The variety of size, type, location, skills, creativity could benefit your agency through learning and being a resource when needed.
• Expertise and Experience. Members know stuff you don’t know. Or have done things you have considered, but are not sure how to proceed. The group also values the expertise you bring to the mix.
• Leadership Counsel. There is an overall mission for the group, and seem to be driven forward in ways you want to go.
• Strategic Opportunities. Members have clients that may require your agency’s special skills, or you see in others the possibility to tap into their team to complement your work with a client.

Determine the mix that is right for you. Then ask yourself this question —  “ Do I like spending time with them, and feel comfortable enough to openly share?”

Belonging to a network is like a unique partnership. It’s the experience of interactions with people and challenging ideas with like-minded souls who care as much as you do about building something great.

As the owner of an independent agency, joining the right network is about investing in you.

Follow Peter and TAAN on Twitter and also Facebook

Additional articles about ad agency networks that may be of interest:

• A Global Network of Independent Advertising Agencies for New Business
• The Top 15 List of Advertising Agency Networks for New Business
• A Resource for International New Business for Ad Agencies
• MAGNET Global Network for Ad Agency New Business
• Small to mid-size ad agencies need to protect their own backyard

If you are a regular reader of Fuel Lines, you know that I am a big fan of Edward Boches, Chief Innovation Officer (formerly Chief Creative Officer and Chief Social Media Officer) at Mullen. Edward was among the few creatives to understand the importance of social media as an active practitioner. He has led his agency by example.

I’m honored to have Edward share a new social media platform through this guest post that will help your agency and your clients.

Over the last five plus years we’ve seen the emergence of numerous new social platforms change how we market, distribute content, and engage with our consumers. The smartest, most forward thinking ad agencies jumped in early. They introduced their clients to Facebook long before its users numbered in the hundreds of millions. They incorporated Twitter into marketing plans when most agencies were still asking, “huh?” And they did the same with Instagram and Pinterest long before they became the “app of the month.”

As a result, they successfully built their social business, added revenue and won new clients.  In some cases they built entire agencies around the idea of using the platforms, understanding their potential and educating clients in how to use them.

At Mullen, we did all of that and more. And as a result we now have a healthy standalone social media business as well as a digital offering that leverages all of the above, creating paid, earned and owned content across most of them.

Personally I am a huge advocate of trying out the new stuff. I play with it, use it, get inside it and think about how it might help both the agency and our clients. That thinking has recently led me to Springpad. (Note that I have been enamored enough with the technology for a few years now to the degree that I joined the board and am currently acting as interim CMO.)

Now that I’ve dispensed with that disclaimer, I’m here to suggest that you play with it, too.

Simply put, Springpad is a platform and app that that lets people discover, save, share and act on the things that matter to them:  movies, books, recipes, tasks, destinations.  Because its format is a “notebook,” Springpad makes it easy for users to record and access the content they save. Because it’s social,

Springpad lets people discover and share with others whose interests are similar. And because the platform automatically provides users with relevant information about everything they add to a notebook – alerts, offers, prices – it saves them time and money.

Perhaps of equal importance is that Springpad users are expressing both their interest and their intent, creating one of the first platforms where brand and marketing content will actually be welcome and embraced, able to be delivered only to those who can benefit from information or offers.

What does that mean for brands and marketers? A number of things. One, this is a platform where you can post content and it might actually be welcome. Better yet, you can use Springpad to demonstrate your expertise by sharing not only for own stuff, but useful information from other sources, organizing it all in a notebook that offers up a gift of knowledge for your users. That might help you identify mutual interests you share with customers. Or it might be a new way to get people interested in your brand. Ideally, should they express that interest, by “springing”something into one of their notebooks, they’ve essentially raised their hand and you have an invite to market to them. After all, if someone says they “want” to own a particular camera, or book or piece of furniture, chances are they won’t be resistant to receiving an offer or a price drop, both of which can be automated via alerts and updates that are far more user friendly than the typical email. The process saves you from spamming or targeting demographics or friends of friends who, just because they share certain characteristics with your existing customers, may have no interest at all in your products or messages.

There are other advantages, too. Platforms like Springpad assure that your content is persistent. Rather than disappear in the never ending stream, notebooks are always there — findable, searchable, usable and, of course, mobile friendly.

True, Springpad doesn’t yet have hundreds of millions of users.  But you don’t go there for reach, at least not yet. You go there to learn new and hopefully more effective ways to market using the interest graph versus the social graph. And perhaps to impress your current and future clients with your willingness to explore the new stuff while it’s still new.

Mullen is a four-time winner of Adweek’s New England Agency of the Year. In 2011 the agency was named to Ad Age’s A list as the third best agency in the country. In the same year, Fast Company named Mullen to its top 10 innovative marketing and advertising companies.

I would invited you to read Edward’s blog, creativity_unbound  and follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and  Springpad

Prospective clients are looking for chemistry and likability in their ad agency partners and it doesn’t have to be a crap shoot. 

“Our “score” in a pitch is thoroughly subjective, swayed by personal whim, politics and things that have nothing to do with objectivity or what’s “right.” Score matters little to me.”

photo credit: ghirson via photo pin

Why most agencies may be ready to ditch their blog and why they shouldn’t. 

Jack Marshall, a staff writer for Digiday wrote an article that is creating lots of buzz entitled, “Agencies Ditch Blogs.” He points to a study conducted by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, that reveals that only 37% of Fortune 500 companies now maintain a blog. That is down from 50% that was reported in 2010.

Jack makes an assumption that this is  that this is probably true of advertising agencies:

“It seems there’s a similar trend among agencies. Though many sporadically maintain blogs to highlight things like awards, hires and news, some have opted to abandon them altogether, recognizing that more often than not they do little to enhance their brand or image.”

Jack provides a couple of quotes from agencies to help back up his assumption. One  in particular from, Sam Weston, director of communications at digital agency Huge seems to have sparked a good debate. Sam says,

“Nobody reads agency blogs, and there are so many out there it’s impossible for people to keep up anyway. We put ours on hiatus while we figure out what we want to do with it. We do use Facebook and Twitter. We’ve figured out what works for us there.”

I wouldn’t disagree with Jack’s assumption nor would I disagree with the Huge agency’s decision to put their blog on hiatus until they figure out what to do with it. I think that is probably the sentiment of a good number of advertising, digital, media and public relations agencies. But I also believe probably they didn’t get the process right from the start.

Blogging the right way:

• Allows an agency to be more narrowly niched without the risk
• Provides a better focus for new business
• 24/7 top-of-mind awareness without interruption tactics, such as cold calling
• Pre-qualifies prospects
• Networking on steroids and increase in referrals
• Win business without having to pitch
• Eliminates the dating process
• Consistent new business pipeline that is sustainable when the agency is at its busiest
• A greater market area, with the potential for national and international new business opportunities
• A positioning of expertise that allows charging higher premiums and working with fewer clients that are a better match

Agencies were late even getting into social media. Most agencies didn’t get in until 2010. Then they literally “jumped in” with little to show for their time and effort. It takes more than a completed check-list for having an agency blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts to have any kind of success.

The “typical” agency blog has:

• No plan
• No objective
• No target audience
• No integration
• No consistency
• No value (self promotional)
• No traffic

Could this be why “nobody reads agency blogs?”

A blog provides agencies the perfect platform to create a niche that is appealing to a specific target audience, have a clear point of differentiation from their competition and a position of expertise. Agency owners know they need this kind of focus, but most are afraid to drive that stake in the ground. A blog allows an agency to be much more narrowly niched without the risks.

A blog has been the central hub of my social media strategy from the beginning. I write in an ‘evergreen’ way so that my articles have a long ‘shelf-life’.  Posts that I have written five years ago continue to generate traffic and provide a tremendous return on my time investment.

I’ve found success by consistently providing helpful “reader-centric” content. You must be willing to give to receive.  I do something that is counter intuitive to the way we tend to think as agencies. I give my thinking away. Yet, in doing so, it powers my new business. Self promotional content will lessen your appeal and negatively impact new business. Readers don’t care about the new creative director you’ve hired or the Best of Show Addy Award you won or your veiled self-promotional blog post on “How to Choose an Agency.”  

You don’t have to be a great writer to have significant web traffic. I’ve been around enough great copywriters in my career to know that I’m not one of them. But I do know how to create helpful content that is appealing. An example is a post that took me a mere 37 minutes to write, “The 10 Presentation Tactics of Steve Jobs for Ad Agency New Business.” That simple post generated over 94,000 page views in a short period of time.

A blog greatly enlarges my online footprint as it feeds and grows my other social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, and even Pinterest. I can’t imagine a social media strategy for agency new business that does not have a blog as its central component.

My posts are also highly optimized for search. This helps me to be consistently found through Google search because I maintain top search rankings. All of my posts are naturally optimized. I created a blog primarily on advertising agencies, about new business development. My key words, “ad agency new business,” are incorporated into 95% of my post titles. My point of differentiation from other business development consultants and companies is “Fueling ad agency new business through social media.” These things keep my writing consistently focused.

My content also feeds my bi-weekly eNewsletter. How long does it take to create your agency eNewsletter? Mine takes a mere 15 minutes. It is a process that is simple enough for an intern to do it with little instruction. I take the newer, higher trending posts and use those as the articles for the newsletter. This is just another way to reuse content and get more return for your time investment.

My blog has been the greatest professional enrichment tool I have ever used. As I’m being enriched with a systematic reading and writing program, I assimilate information quicker. Writing helps me to better articulate my thoughts. I have an educational program that will keep me from falling behind so I will not be surprised by the next Twitter or Pinterest.

Every morning I enter my classroom, I know my reading and writing assignments in advance. I’m even tested and graded by my audience through my analytics. My audience becomes my teacher. They help me to know things such as their greatest concerns, what content is appealing and what is not.  They actually help me to be their thought leader.  Besides all this, I have the fuel necessary that feeds my new business program.

Having been in new business development my entire advertising career, I can tell you from experience, a blog is one of the most efficient and effective tools for creating new business opportunities. I have yet to make a single cold call for any new business opportunities or speaking engagements. I’ve built national and international awareness for my services and have clients in almost all 50 states, Canada and in the UK from my “home-base” in Alabaster, Alabama, which certainly isn’t the mecca of the advertising industry.

Is a blog hard work? Most certainly. But it can actually make your agency’s new business program easier. The reward can be great if you are willing to provide the time and resources to do it the correct way.

Read Jack Marshall’s Digiday article, “Agencies Ditch Blogs”

Articles to help get your blog on track for new business:

• How to launch a blog for ad agency for new business — fast!
• A 70 Point Checklist for Jump-Starting or Tuning-Up Your Blog for New Business
• Study: 69% of Businesses Increased New Business Leads Through Blogging
• 50 Blog Post Ideas to Fuel Your Ad Agency’s Blog
• Ten Toughest Content Marketing Challenges for Ad Agency New Business
• 10 Ways to Create An Ad Agency Blog That is Reader-Centric
• 20 Top Inbound Marketing Resources for the Paradigm Shift in Ad Agency New Business

photo credit: Pensiero via photo pin cc

Tracy Wong, The Mirren New Business Conference

How to lose a pitch in front of millions of television views and the entire ad industry and still come out as the winner.

A good number of agencies depend upon the pitch as the primary way they win new business and grow. Some national attention and industry buzz has been brought upon the pitch process due to AMC’s new show simply called, ‘The Pitch,’  where two opposing ad agencies compete against each other for work for a nationally recognized brand.

‘The Pitch’ demonstrates the flaws in the pitch-for-business process. It is loaded with ‘land mine’s and it is the responsibility of those who are charged with new business to help the agency avoid these at all cost. The best strategy is often to walk away. An even better strategy is creating a new business program that avoids having to rely on the pitch for new business altogether.

At the recent Mirren New Business Conference in New York, Simon Sherwood, partner – group chief executive officer, BBH, said, “Avoiding pitching is the smartest new business strategy of all.“ I agree.

For those charged with leading the pitch team, you should  be prepared to help your team deal with an inevitable loss.

Losing is demoralizing, not only for the pitch team, but also for the agency as a whole.  And because agency pitches are often in a ‘photo finish’, it is even more disheartening especially for those who make it to the last round and then are eliminated.

But how demoralizing would it be to lose an agency pitch in front of millions of TV viewers?

That is exactly what happened to WDCW (Wong, Doody, Crandall, Wiener) agency. In the premier episode of ‘The Pitch,’ WDCW competed against and lost to the McKinney agency for an advertising campaign for Subway. This was a great opportunity to build awareness for their agency, but a tremendous risk. Because they didn’t just lose the pitch, they lost it in front of an international audience plus friends, family members and the entire advertising industry. Yet, it seems in losing ,WDCW won.

According to AMC’s own Poll – “Who Should’ve Won in The Pitch Sneak Preview?”, 68% of the viewers voted for WDCW over McKinney.

Sharing the reason, WDCW wasn’t afraid of being humiliated on an international stage, Tracy Wong, Chairman and Executive Creative Director  wrote,

“Being honest and real makes for the best client/agency relationships. Having those qualities revealed about yourself on national television, showing that you have nothing to hide, is some of the best publicity anyone can get.”

I knew the show would bring a lot of attention to the pitch process so I prepared to write a series of articles on the pitching for business process. It also proved to be a big draw to this year’s Mirren New Business Conference held in New York. Tracy and his pitch team, along with McKinney’s, had been invited to a panel discussion on the last day of the conference they talked about their experience from the show and what lead them to choose to take part.

I was surprised and honored to have Tracy attend my training session for the conference on agency positioning. I previously read a lot about Tracy as I gathered information to write about the agencies that agreed to participate in the show. The common traits people tend to voice about him is that he is such a nice guy and always respectful of others. 

Tracy provides the perfect example on how to create a winning agency culture despite a loss. 

Shortly after WDCW’s episode aired on ‘The Pitch,’ Tracy wrote an article for their blog, “When A Loss Is Not A Loss.“ Here are some of the highlights from the article, that include some great insights and tips for any agency pitch team:

• … it’s not about winning or losing, it’s not about the outcome.
• For us, that “practice” is our strategic rigor, our creative process, and the execution of our thinking. Our pitch is merely the culmination of what we’ve done the weeks beforehand.
• Most of the success of pitches is “ditch digging” – you have to understand consumers’ mindsets, what they need.
• Our “score” in a pitch is thoroughly subjective, swayed by personal whim, politics and things that have nothing to do with objectivity or what’s “right.” Score matters little to me.
• If you worry about what the other agency is doing for a pitch, you take your eye off the ball and off your game.
• Focus on what you can control. Focus on the team, focus on chemistry and culture.
• At WDCW, fundamentally, we are good team players. We treat each other with respect.
• No prima donnas. No backstabbing. No shouting. No scheming. No egos.
• Our “Democracy of Good Ideas”, however hokey or idealistic it may sound, creates an atmosphere where everyone contributes, because everyone needs to play a role in the strategic and creative process.
• We always say in pitches, “Go BIG. Or go home.”
• Our sole mission in any pitch is not to “win.” It’s about leveraging strong agency culture to produce the best ideas possible.
• It’s not about the win. It’s about the process. It’s about how good your pitch is.
• Tracy’s pitch philosophy is influenced by the legendary basketball coach John Wooden, “Success is peace of mind in knowing you did your best.”

You will be enriched reading Tracy’s entire article, “Being on AMC’s “The Pitch”: When A Loss Is Not A Loss.”

You may also be interested in some of the following articles on ‘The Pitch’:

•  The 15 Advertising Agencies Featured in AMC’s ‘The Pitch’
• The Pitch: Mad Men Pitching For Ad Agency New Business
• “The Win Without Pitching Manifesto” Blair Enns 12 Revolutionary Proclamations for Ad Agency New Business
• What “The Pitch” Left Out: Why Agencies Get Hurt By An Upside Down Approach To New Business, Avi Dan, Forbes contributor and former global agency business development director
• Interview with Tony Pace, Subway’s CMO, on their selection process: “Why They Won”
• Forbes contributor Will Burns interview: “The Pitch” Behind The Scenes: Tracy Wong, WDCW
• Tracy Wong shares Why WDCW Said “Yes” To AMC’s “The Pitch
• Getting Ad Agencies Into Reality TV, Stuart Elliot, New York Times advertising columnist

The best advice on where you should put your cloud content based on what you own and what your personal habits are.

The popularity of cloud based storage has soared in popularity. People’s appetites have dramatically shifted from having access to physical content to digital content delivered to multiple devices and that is good for those charged with new business because it has created a multiplicity of cloud based solutions.

People are more concerned about storing digital content. Plus they  want the ability to access it from any device or platform.  

In an online survey conducted by the Harrison Group for Deloitte:

• 51% of Americans have experienced a computer or hard drive failure losing photos, movies, or documents.
• 32% of respondents stated a desire to have an online media storage service they could access from any device.
• 43% of respondents said they want the ability to move content to any device and platform easily and effectively.

If you are charged with new business it often means you are “going out on the road.” To be sure you have all that you need to work while traveling can difficult if you don’t plan ahead. Even when you do, you can often end up leaving important digital content to which you have no access. An even worse scenario would be to have a hard drive failure or someone stealing your laptop along with ALL of your important files.

Theses are three steps necessary to create your “custom” online file access and management system:  

1. Know your goals, requirements, and what you are willing to spend
2. Assess your existing document storage and management system
3. Detailed cloud service vendor evaluations and recommendations

The multiplicity of cloud based storage solutions are great but can also be overwhelming.

The most helpful cloud service review and recommendations that I have found were from Dan Sung, online consumer technology journalist  and Pocket-lint features editor. Dan provides a helpful comparison of the five biggest and most popular cloud services: Amazon Cloud Drive, Apple iCloud, DropBox, Google Cloud Drive and Microsoft SkyDrive. He ranks them across a eight categories. These are the six categories that are most helpful to Fuel Line readers:

• Space: how much space you get with each.
• File Types: what you’re allowed to put into your allotted cloud space.
• Ease of Use: where it’s been done the simplest.
• Devices To Access from: how many devices you can access your files from and then there’s the question of how easy it is to do so.
• Offline Access: what if you have no internet connection and how synchronisation works for each.
• Cost: not only the actual pricing plans but the dollar-for-dollar value.

Pocket-lint’s ranking of each of the 5 cloud services in six primary usage categories:

Space

1st: Dropbox – 18GB free/1TB+ max
2nd: Amazon Cloud Drive – 5GB free/1TB max
3rd: Google Cloud Drive – 5GB free/100GB (16TB) max + Office + 20,000 songs
3rd: SkyDrive – 7 (25)GB free/125GB max + Office
5th: Apple iCloud – 5GB free/55GB max + Office + any iTunes purchases

File Types

1st: Amazon Cloud Drive – Anything
1st: DropBox – Anything
3RD: Google Cloud Drive  - Anything (10GB max)
4TH: SkyDrive- Anything (2GB max)
5TH: Apple iCloud – Anything

Ease of Use

1st: Applie iCloud –  Like falling off a log simple
1st: Dropbox – Genius
1st: SkyDrive – Copied genius
1st: Google Cloud Drive – As above
5th: Amazon Cloud Drives – Slow but manageable

Devices to Access From

1st: Dropbox – Any, lots of clients but no Windows Phone
2nd: SkyDrive – Any, lots of clients but no Android or BB
3rd: Google Cloud Drive – Any, lots of clients but no iOS (yet), Windows Phone or BB
4th: Amazon Cloud Drive – Android, PC, Mac, any Flash device
5th: Apple iCloud – PC, Mac,iOS

Offline

1st: Dropbox – Yes
2nd: Google Cloud Drive – Yes
3rd: SkyDrive – Yes
3rd: Apple iCloud – Yes
5th: Amazon Cloud Drive – No

Cost

1st: SkyDrive – Free to 25GB, then $0.50/GB
2nd: Google Cloud Drive – Free to 5G, then $0.60/GB
3rd: Amazon Cloud Drive – Free up to 5GB, then $1/GB
4th: Dropbox – Free up to 18GB, then $2/GB or $0.80/GB
5th: Apple iCloud – Free up to 5GB (except iTunes match), then $2/GB

Summary

Beyond iCloud I use Dropbox extensively and highly recommend it. I invite you to read Dan’s article that includes his ‘boiler-plate’ summary for each of these cloud services  plus his best advice to fully customize your own system for cloud storage,  “Apple iCloud vs Google vs Amazon Cloud Drive vs Dropbox vs Microsoft SkyDrive.”

Additional articles that may be of interest:

• 7 Ways to Stay Connected for Ad Agency New Business
• Validation for the World’s First Creative Ad Agency Built on Crowdsourcing Principles
• Vacationing for Ad Agency New Business
• 7 Tips to Find Time for Ad Agency New Business

photo credit: rwangsa via photo pin cc

‘The Pitch’ showcases why a “pitching for new business strategy” is not in your best interest.

The AMC hit television series, Mad Men, has received critical acclaim, winning fifteen Emmys and four Golden Globes. It was the first basic cable series to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series and won the award in each of its first four seasons.

AMC’s ‘The Pitch’ seems to be trying to capitalize on the popularity of Mad Men with a “reality TV” version that premieres following an episode of Mad Men. But Charlie Collier, AMC president and general manager, states that is incorrect. In a recent Business Insider article, Mr. Collier says,

“It wasn’t born out of ‘Mad Men’ at all.  It was born out of a moment that’s universal, when you have to come up with a great idea under pressure and sell it, lay it all on the line for what you believe.”

There are eight initial episodes of ‘The Pitch’ in this initial season. For each episode, two agencies will face off and go head-to-head for a marketer’s advertising project in a “win-the-pitch” contest that may or may not be turned into an advertising campaign.

I thought it might be of interest to have a list of the agencies that agreed to participate in The Pitch. Each has a brief profile, a link to their website and to their Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. At the end of these profiles, there’s a list of the 27 large agencies that refused to participate.

The following fifteen agencies agreed to appear on ‘The Pitch’:

Bandujo Advertising + Design

Location: New York, NY

Website: www.bandujo.com

Connect with Bandujo: Facebook LinkedIn

About Us

Bandujo advertising + design is a highly creative, strategically-focused, full service ad agency in New York City. Founded in 1993, we work passionately every day on behalf of an incredibly diverse range of clients — from JPMorgan Chase to The Walt Disney Company, The New York City Department of Health to WisdomTree Investments, the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts to Children’s Specialized Hospital, and many others.

BooneOakley

Location: Charlotte, NC

Website: www.booneoakley.com

Connect with BooneOakley: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

About Us

BooneOakley is an internationally-acclaimed advertising and digital agency that creates bold, culture-changing ideas for brands. Accolades include: Ad Age’s “Southeast Small Agency of The Year”, Google’s “Creative Canvas” and One Club’s “Best of The Digital Decade”. We were also recently featured in Forbes’ “Disruptors Series.”

Bozell

Location: Omaha, NE

Website: www.bozell.com

About Us

We believe anything is possible. That big, bold ideas, executed flawlessly, can truly transform companies, markets and change conventions. That by asking better questions, challenging conventional wisdom and overturning assumptions and prejudices that new possibilities are imagined and visionary ideas are developed. That’s why we think of ourselves as not merely marketing practitioners, but as transographers — actively engaged in the business of transforming markets to help our clients be more successful.

Our service mix is genuinely unique. Some of the big agency holding companies have divisions or properties that do much of what we do — but not all. And not in a truly integrated manner. We know because we were there. For over 80 years we were in the big leagues — as a large multi-national company. But it lost its attraction when focus shifted from clients to Wall Street. So we got back to our roots and have achieved the elusive goal of total integration because we genuinely understand that our whole is greater than the sum of our parts. With experience in the bigs and the heart of a start up, we work side by side with our clients to get results.

Conversation

Location: New York, NY

Website: www.convoagency.com

Connect with Conversation: LinkedIn Facebook Twitter

About Us

How does your messaging strategy translate to mobile? How can Facebook positively impact your bottom line? Are Print, TV, and Radio still relevant? These are the questions facing brands and marketers today, and Conversation is the full-service agency answering those questions. Our operations aren’t fragmented. We drive results from strategy to execution, utilizing an extensive mix of in-house resources. From emerging to traditional to non-traditional to media, we’ve got you covered. We call it “the new traditional.”

DiMassimo Goldstein (DIGO)

Location: New York, NY

Website: www.digobrands.com

Connect with DIGO: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

About Us

Digital. Direct. Different. Founded in 1996, DIGO Brands is a leading full-service brand, advertising, direct and digital agency, focused on helping our clients achieve brand-driven growth. You need to be able to pull all the levers of growth simultaneously, from product innovation to every facet of promotion. DIGO provides a total growth partner that is driven in the same way you are, market-tested and growth-trained over the past two decades by partnering on many of the legendary brand and business growth stories of our time. Our relentless drive to grow our clients’ businesses has led us to pioneer better research methodologies and the integration of word-of-mouth, buzz, and social media strategies into the total marketing communications mix. DIGO Brands makes things grow.

FKM

Location: Houston, TX

Website: www.fkmagency.com

Connect with FKM: LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

Founded in 1980, FKM is a national advertising, marketing and public relations agency, with capabilities ranging from brand development, interactive marketing, print and Internet yellow pages, to search, mobile, and media buying and planning. Headquartered in Houston with offices in Dallas and Austin, the agency reports $230 million in annual billings.

Jones Advertising

Location: Seattle, WA

Website: www.jonesadvertising.com

Connect with Jones Advertising: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn

About Us

Founded in 2001, Jones Advertising is an award-winning strategic and creative services advertising agency located in Seattle Washington. We are one of Seattle’s top creators of television and radio advertising. But traditional media is just the beginning. Jones Advertising develops innovative communication campaigns for Internet, out-of-home, social networks, and emerging media.

Kovel/Fuller

Location: Culver, CA

Website: www.kovelfuller.com

Connect with Kovel/Fuller: LinkedIn Facebook

About Us

Kovel/Fuller is more than just an ad agency. It is your connection to strategic insights and a behind the scenes look at why some ads work and some don’t. The folks at Kovel/Fuller truly believe that the only good ads are the ones that make their clients’ cash registers ring. Kovel/Fuller operates as your marketing partner and devote themselves to gaining a grassroots understanding of your business. The result is efficient, targeted marketing that resonates with the intended audience.

McKinney

Location: Durham, NC

Website: www.mckinney.com

Connect with McKinnery: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

About Us

About our clients & their customers & our people. Creative & strategic. Laid-back & intense. Online & offline. Reinventing the game & making time for a real life outside of work. Healthy egos & no assholes. Respect for proven ideas & a genetic drive to innovate. Space that encourages collaboration & looks cool, too. We put a lot of thought and effort into creating a culture of possibility. Our profound belief that no matter how good things are, there has to be a better way is at the heart of who we are and how we play the game.

 Muse Communications

Location: Culver City, CA

Website: www.museusa.com

Connect with Muse Communications: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

About Us

Ideas don’t care who their parents are. Nor do they care about culture or skin color. Great ideas only care about what thing: DO YOU HAVE THE GOODS TO BRING THEM TO LIFE?

At Muse, we believe every human being has the ability to be brilliant. Simply put, insight and ideas come to those that passionately seek them. Collectively we possess the intuition and expertise born of multiple cultures and social sectors giving us a unique and strategic viewpoint. Undoubtedly we’re Eclectic. Diverse. And Dynamic. That’s why after more than 25 years, Muse continues to prove that when insight, creative philosophies and inspiration are brought together, the best results are but a campaign away.

SK+G Marketing Communications

Location: Las Vegas, NV

Website: www.skgadvertising.com

Connect with SK+G:  LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

About Us

Ask any agency about its area of expertise. They’ll be delighted to fill you in. The strange thing is, by the time they finish, you realize: They “specialize” in everything.

At SK+G, we approach things a little differently. Well, a lot differently, actually.

We are not a jack-of-all trades. We are a master of one. Deeply versed in the comprehensive discipline of exclusive lifestyle advertising. Employing every form of marketing service you’ve ever conceived. And perhaps even a few that you haven’t.

The Ad Store

Location: New York, NY

Website: www.adstore.com

Connect with The Ad Store: Twitter Facebook

About Us

What We Believe 

Good ideas come from anywhere.

Consumers are smart.

Consumers want to be proud of the brands

they associate themselves with.

Consumers want to be spoken to like human beings.

What We Do

Solve problems.

Discover a brand’s voice — and then communicate it.

Connect brands with people.

Cultivate bonds emotionally and rationally.

Start conversations.

Sell.

The Hive

Location: Toronto, ON

Website: www.thehiveinc.com 

Connect with The Hive: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

About Us

The Hive is an independent full-service creative advertising and strategic marketing agency based in Toronto, Canada. Our clients include Coca-Cola, Cadbury, Rogers, Reebok, Molson Coors International, SABMiller, Ontario Lottery and Gaming and Brown Forman. We believe in inventing what’s right: right for the client, the consumer, the time and whenever possible, right for the world.

Recognizing the emergence of a new communication model based on brand conversations, we’ve focused primarily on developing the relationships between our clients’ brands and consumers’ core human values; values that transcend geography, demographics and culture.

WDCW

Location: Seattle, WA

Website: www.wdcw.com

Connect with WDCW: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

About Us

WDCW (Wong, Doody, Crandall, Wiener) is an independently owned agency founded in 1993 with offices in Seattle and Los Angeles. We have over 175 employees and specialize in multi-disciplinary brand building, including advertising, brand strategy, interactive, social media and retail design.

Not only are we the most decorated independent advertising agency in Southern California, but we’re also the largest independent agency in Seattle. We’ve been voted a “Best Place to Work” by both the Los Angeles Business Journal and Puget Sound Business Journal (which is in Seattle, for the record).

Womenkind

Location: New York, NY

Website: www.womenkind.net

Connect with Womenkind: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

About Us

Womenkind is a marketing and communications company built by women to engage women the way women really want to be engaged. Together, we bring more than 75 years of combined experience in helping companies successfully connect with the world’s most powerful consumer: WOMEN.

Womenkind expertly translates truth gleaned from our unique discovery process into innovative insight-to-execution solutions for clients who want to understand and motivate women.

Twenty-seven of the largest advertising agencies in the country were invited to participate in ‘The Pitch’ but declined. Here’s the list:  

• BBDO
• Leo Burnett
• DDB
• DraftFCB
• JWT
• McCann Erickson
• Ogilvy & Mather
• TBWA/Chiat/Day
• The Grey Group
• Deutsch
• Pappas Group
• Mullen
• Carmichael Lynch
• Gotham
• Hill Holliday
• Wunderman
• Bartle Bogle Hegarty
• Fallon
• Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners
• Arnold
• Mother
• Crispin Porter & Bogusky
• JWT
• The Martin Agency
• The Richards Group
• Zimmerman
• Pereira & O’Dell
• Saatchi & Saatchi

Click on the following link to read advertising columnist’s Jim Edwards article, Why Madison Avenue Is Boycotting AMC’s Reality Show ‘The Pitch’,

For the small to mid-size agencies a “pitching for new business strategy” is certainly is not in their best interest. I invite you to read“Blair Enns: 12 Revolutionary Proclamations for Ad Agency New Business.”

You may also be interested in some of the following articles on ‘The Pitch’:

•  The Pitch: Mad Men Pitching For Ad Agency New Business
• What “The Pitch” Left Out: Why Agencies Get Hurt By An Upside Down Approach To New Business, Avi Dan, Forbes contributor and fomer global agency business development director
• Interview with Tony Pace, Subway’s CMO, on their selection process: “Why They Won”
• Forbes contributor Will Burns interview: “The Pitch” Behind The Scenes: Tracy Wong, WDCW
• Tracy Wong shares Why WDCW Said “Yes” To AMC’s “The Pitch
• Getting Ad Agencies Into Reality TV, Stuart Elliot, New York Times advertising columnist

LinkedIn 277% More Effective for Lead Generation Than Facebook and Twitter.

In a study conducted by Hubspot, LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%, almost 3 times higher (277%) than both Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%).

200 million leads were generated on LinkedIn last year, according to their Advertising Chief, Jim Lister.

LinkedIn is an important social media platform for agency new business that helps you to:

• Re-establish older connections with past colleagues and clients.
• Find new connections and seek referrals.
• Request and share recommendations.
• Maintain top-of-mind awareness with prospects through status updates.
• Gather the right kind of intelligence to make better targeting decisions.
• Find and follow client and prospective clients using LinkedIn’s advanced search features. Your can find people or companies in your geographic location, or within a particular industry or niche.

LinkedIn has been the “dark horse” of the social media platforms. This is partly because it is a difficult platform to master and networking isn’t easy. But LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network,  is stepping up improvements.

LinkedIn attracts dedicated users who are serious about business. Here are 12 LinkedIn improvements that will help you connect:

1. More than two million businesses with company pages are now allowed to post status updates to their followers. Watch for prospect’s company status updates and engage with them.
2. Targeted updates enable you to target your company’s status updates to specific followers so they can deliver the most relevant content to the most appropriate audiences.
3. To help facilitate conversations, a new polling feature has been added to LinkedIn Groups that’s designed to get a quick read on an issue.
4. Users can now create a custom group, very similar to a regular group, except you’ll be able to customize a space on the right side of the page. You can add video, integrate your blog, Twitter feeds or other RSS feeds. You can also easily add a poll, from which you can ask your group members questions.
5. An option available with a premium account is the ability to send InMails, or private emails through the LinkedIn network. Whether you know a  person or not, you can contact anyone on the LinkedIn network, even if you don’t know them.
6. New Group Search helps you to find the right conversation faster among the 1.2 million groups.
7. The upgraded People You May Know feature makes it even easier to find and connect with people in your network.
8. LinkedIn Alumni makes it easier for you to tap into this important personal network and review relevant associations.
9. LinkedIn’s Follow Company button can now be added to their websites, making it easier for any consumer to begin following companies of interest.
10. Your LinkedIn Profile now puts more emphasis on Skills and Expertise. This means you can showcase your abilities to easily connect with people that have similar skills or with companies looking for specific expertise.
11. A new tab on your page called Follower Statistics, will add a new layer of reporting to the Page Statistics.
12. You can now embed a YouTube video on your agency’s service overview page as well as on each individual service page.

If you want to jump-start your use of LinkedIn for new business, Norman Wright Jr., Think Wright Consulting, offers a six-part paid course, “How To Get New Business Using LinkedIn” I found this to be helpful.

LinkedIn Quick Tip Videos:

• Discover People You May Know on LinkedIn
• Add a Follow button to your company website
• Create a 100% complete LinkedIn profile
• Round out your LinkedIn profile with additional information
• Rearrange the sections on your LinkedIn profile
• Start a conversation with LinkedIn Groups
• See who’s viewing your LinkedIn profile with Profile Stats
• Add LinkedIn to Microsoft Outlook

Belonging to an international network, agencies have instant access to a tremendous knowledge base, expertise and access to global creative.

This guest post is written by Cheri D. Gmiter, the executive director of Magnet Global Network.  She serves as the communications hub of this international network of independent advertising agencies. She has over 30 years of agency and broadcast experience.

Cheri Gmiter, Executive Director of Magnet Global Network

Advertising clients that once worked with one or two agencies to handle their marketing needs now may divide their work among 5 to 10 shops that specialize in media, design, digital, SEO and Social. Combine with that reality the world-flattening power of technology and clients demand instant knowledge and resources. Advertising agencies are faced with providing quick local knowledge base as well as strategic global thinking and are constantly searching for resources and opportunities that will help them.

MAGNET Global Network offers an effective and economical method of handling international client needs with the surety and confidence of local and regional input and supervision. By belonging to an independent agency network like MAGNET Global Network, agencies have tremendous knowledge, case studies, research, expertise and access to global creative at their fingertips in a couple short clicks.

MAGNET Global Network is one of the world’s most successful independent advertising agency networks made up of 38 independent advertising & marketing agencies around the world with locations in North America, Europe, Korea, Japan, China, Russia, Dubai, Australia and the Pacific Rim. MAGNET also has an alliance with a worldwide network called “thenetworkone” that supplies MAGNET members with global resources and contacts on a “on demand” basis for over five years.

Working with over 800 clients and 100 global brands with a combined marketing spend of close to $2 billion dollars, MAGNET‘s individual members have a higher billing performance than any other competitive independent network based on research of all international networks. The Network employs over 3000 marketing professionals, and operates in more than 50 major cities around the globe.

To deliver value to its members and clients, MAGNET’s promise is based on three pillars:

1. Content- continually learning from each member, discussing market trends, sharing best practices and access to proprietary processes and techniques.
2. Community – able to share experiences with peer-to peer network of marketing industry experts/ peers/friends from different geographies.
3. Commerce – collaborating to maximize current revenue streams with more new business and create new revenue opportunities across the membership.

If you are interested in a more valuable & cost effective alternative to the traditional wholly owned networks, contact Cheri Gmiter at cheri@magnetglobal.org or 412-366-6850. Follow her on Twitter @Magnetglobalnet

If you have an addition to the list of list of  agency networks, please add it in the comment section below.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

• The Top 15 List of Advertising Agency Networks for New Business
• A Resource for International New Business for Ad Agencies
• MAGNET Global Network for Ad Agency New Business
• 101 Insights from the 2011 Mirren New Business Conference
• Validation for the World’s First Creative Ad Agency Built on Crowdsourcing Principles

Real ad agencies take the veil off the new-business-review process and it isn’t pretty.

“The Pitch”, is a new reality show featuring two agencies, McKinney and WDCW, who are competing for a Subway assignment. The new business pitch is the way agencies win most of their business and grow.  The sneak peaks of The Pitch is an edited version of the creative process of both agencies that builds toward the pitch and then declaration of the winner.

Subway ends up choosing McKinney and CMO describes how he and his marketing team reached their decision. The program hopes to capitalize on the popularity of Mad Men with a “reality TV” version that will premiere following an episode of Mad Men.

Neil Genzlinger in his blistering New York Times article says,

“The ideas that multiple, fully clothed teams at the two agencies produce may leave you wondering why it takes so many people to come up with relatively unexciting stuff. McKinney’s biggest inspiration isn’t even its own; it plucks some home-made rapper off YouTube.”

From an agency’s perspective, the show vividly displays the inequities of the free pitch process. Avi Dan, former New Business Director for three global agencies, Saatchi & Saatchi, Berlin Cameron United, and Euro RSCG stated in a recent Forbes article,

“The worse thing about pitching is that agencies give away for free their highest value product – their strategic thinking. Attempting to make up for the financial gamble that participating in a pitch entails, agencies try to make a profit off implementation work. The problem is that the implementation is often a commodity. It reduces the client-agency relationship to a more transactional level, of buyer and vendor. And as time marches on and agency margins drop, the cost of doing business for the agency goes up, putting further strain on the relationship. That can be directly traced to the willingness of agencies, unique among service providers, to give their product away for free.”

Both principals of the winning and losing agency shared their thoughts after reading Avi’s article:

The Winner

“The only thing I take issue with is the notion that our highest value product is our strategic thinking. As much as we value strategy, it’s just a path to great work!

Short of dramatic changes to the anti-trust laws, there’s no way our industry can come together to battle the issues you outlined.

So your solution is the only viable choice: do as much as you can to qualify whether the prospect is worth pursuing, say no to those who aren’t and commit to win the ones you go after. It’s a formula that has worked well for us.”

Brad Brinegar
Chairman & CEO
McKinney

“Our agency was one of the competitor’s on last night’s peek of AMC’s “The Pitch.” I agree that the current pitch process is insidious. But the truth is this process won’t stop until all of the ad agencies in America unilaterally agree to stop giving their ideas away for free in hopes of gaining an advantage in a pitch. I spent my formative years at Ogilvy/New York and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners/SF. I know the game.

I also know that “The Pitch” is the picture you get when you edit dozens of hours of video footage into 42 minutes, not including commercial breaks. And that viewers want “drama.” The ad industry seems to be coming down a little hard on the show … we should all lighten up.”

Tracy Wong, Chairman, WDCW

The following fifteen agencies agreed to appear on ‘The Pitch’:

• Bandujo Advertising and Design
• BooneOakley
• Bozell
• Conversation
• DiGo
• FKM
• Jones Advertising
• Kovel/Fuller
• McKinney
• Muse Communications
• SK&G
• The Ad Store
• The Hive
• WDCW
• Womenkind

The agency pitch process is long overdo for an overhaul. It is no surprise that a considerable number of agencies are venting their repressed anger through social media channels, after the airing of the sneak peek of The Pitch. The show vividly displays the inequities of the free pitch process and how it devalues our thinking.

For the small to mid-size agencies a “pitching for new business strategy” is certainly is not in their best interest. I invite you to read “Blair Enns: 12 Revolutionary Proclamations for Ad Agency New Business.”

What are your thoughts about the pitch process? What solutions do you suggest? Feel free to share your comments below.

You may also be interested in some of the following articles on ‘The Pitch’:

•  What “The Pitch” Left Out: Why Agencies Get Hurt By An Upside Down Approach To New Business, Avi Dan, Forbes contributor and fomer global agency business development director
• The Real Reason The Big Ad Agencies Avoided AMC’s ‘The Pitch’, Will Burns, Forbes contributor and agency pitch consultant
• Interview with Tony Pace, Subway’s CMO, on their selection process: “Why They Won”
• Forbes contributor Will Burns interview: “The Pitch” Behind The Scenes: Tracy Wong, WDCW
• Tracy Wong shares Why WDCW Said “Yes” To AMC’s “The Pitch
• Getting Ad Agencies Into Reality TV, Stuart Elliot, New York Times advertising columnist

Follow on Twitter: Brad Brinegar Tracy Wong  McKinney WDCW The Pitch

Check out and vote: Poll: Who Should’ve Won The Pitch

In case you missed it: Season 1 Sneak Preview: The Pitch