Leo Burnett is one of the most enduring ad industry legends. He broke all the rules. Even after 40 years since his death he is still winning new business for his agency.
“The Burnett agency has accomplished something that has eluded so many other businesses: It has managed to keep the spirit and drive of its founder alive and well almost two decades after the founder himself passed on.“ Rita Koselka of Forbes
To celebrate Leo Burnett Worldwide’s 75th anniversary, Lobo, an animation and design studio, produced this animated spot. It is based on a speech given by Mr. Burnett announcing his retirement and leaving his staff with enduring principles for creating the fifth largest ad agency in the world.
The original film of Mr. Burnett’s speech is still required viewing for all new Burnett employees as part of their induction.
“We chose to create a short film that looked straight from the 50s/60s, the modern age of cartoons, from the graphic style to the slightly worn, flickering picture quality, to the jazzy soundtrack. The main character is a cartoon version of Mr. Burnett himself, who goes through the situations described in the speech, teaching a lesson not only to the advertising world but to every creative activity.” Lobo
Time Magazine included Leo Burnett as one of the most influential people of the 20th century creating some of America’s most memorable ads and advertising icons such as the Jolly Green Giant, Pillsbury Doughboy, Charlie the Tuna, The Marlboro Man, and Tony the Tiger. His Chicago-based ad agency became the 10th largest agency in the world and was one of the few not headquartered in New York City.
“Almost 40 years after the founder’s death, rival agencies complain that Burnett’s can still swing a pitch by showing a 50-year-old film of the master himself explaining his advertising philosophy”adbrands.net
Burnett revolutionized the advertising industry by developing a creative approach called, ‘The Chicago School of Advertising” as described by American National Business Hall of Fame:
“Leo Burnett had the rare distinction of leaving behind a new approach to the creative side of the advertising business. Burnett had developed a creative approach that many termed ‘The Chicago School of Advertising” It stressed finding the inherent drama in the product and writing the ad out of the drama, rather than using mere cleverness.
Burnett felt that Chicago was the Midwest — the heart and soul of the nation. In addition, he felt that the down to earth, wide-eyed perspective of Midwesterners facilitated their ability to create ads that appealed to the majority of Americans. Thus using his rare ability to see and use the dramatic in products and the acceptable perspective of Midwesterners, Burnett’s philosophy and style spread throughout the advertising industry.”
When television became mainstream in the 1950s, Burnett’s agency boomed because of this visual philosophy. Burnett said that television, “is the strongest drug we’ve ever had to dish out.”
When Burnett started his business in August 1935 he had one account and a staff of eight. The agency’s only client was a Minnesota canning company which had been a client at his old firm.
Burnett’s widow, Naomi, credited Leo’s hiring of Richard Heath as the turning point for the agency. Heath was responsible for new business. He promoted the agency and created opportunities for bigger accounts such as Campbell Soup, Kellogg, Pillsbury and Proctor & Gamble. As brilliant an ad man as Leo Burnett was, he still needed someone to sell the agency and create new business opportunities.
Here are a few of Leo Burnett’s memorable quotes:
Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.
When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.
A good ad which is not run never produces sales.
Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.
I have learned to respect ideas, wherever they come from. Often they come from clients. Account executives often have big creative ideas, regardless of what some writers think.
I have learned that you can’t have good advertising without a good client, that you can’t keep a good client without good advertising, and no client will ever buy better advertising than he understands or has an appetite for.
I have learned that any fool can write a bad ad, but that it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one.
Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.
An ad agency principal who is an example on how to use content marketing and social media to build awareness and new business opportunities for your agency.
I am a Bob Hoffman fan. I have read everything he has written, from his book The Ad Contrarian, to every ADWEEK and blog post article and now his new book, 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising.
Bob is the CEO of Hoffman/Lewis advertising located in San Francisco and St. Louis. He has created marketing strategies and advertising for some of the world’s most successful companies: McDonald’s, Toyota, Shell, NBC, Pepsico, Bank of America, Nestle, AT&T, Chevrolet, Dole, Blue Cross, Seagrams, Fairmont Hotels, Pebble Beach and others.
I was first introduced to Bob Hoffman through a cbsnews.com article, “Hoffman/Lewis CEO Can’t Stop Cursing and Swearing on His Blog”
Hoffman/Lewis in San Francisco and St. Louis promises on its website to “get beyond the fleeting trends, false goals, and dreadful jargon of contemporary advertising.” But a look at the blog of its CEO, Bob Hoffman(pictured), shows that ‘getting beyond the jargon’ seems to mean dropping the F-bomb as much as possible. The blog is titled “The Ad Contrarian; Cranky opinions and advice from the CEO of a pretty big ad agency.”
Hoffman has acreated a large online following as one fan recently wrote, “Your no b.s., take-no-prisoners approach to our business is entertaining, informative, and spot-on…”
Bob’s blog puts a face to the Hoffman/Lewis agency. He comes across as being transparent and blatantly honest. He’s not going to appeal to everyone but those who find him appealing they become ardent fans. They know that Bob will tell it like it is and cut through all the agency B.S. He’s not afraid to tell his readers what he really thinks.
This was very smart of Bob. With a little bit of work, he gets an even greater return on the time he originally invested in writing these blog post articles. His new book is already a best seller within its category.
The Kindle version is a great buy. Only $2.99, You will also find it to be an excellent, entertaining read.
Hoffman’s take on the advertising industry is refreshing, insightful, amusing and discerning. With the advertising industry in such a state of flux and upheaval, he will keep you grounded. I highly recommend it.
Here’s some additional reviews:
“Bob Hoffman’s perspective is terrific because he continually digs into various heaping piles of advertising hype to discover nuggets of truth. And if he doesn’t find any, he’s not afraid to say how bad it stinks.”
“I just love the way Bob thinks and writes about our crazy business and even more crazy world. This is take no prisoners kind of stuff that is just superbly written always.”
“Bob is one of the smartest guys in the business. His thoughts are not obscured by fads, what’s au courant or quotidian bs. He is a straight-shooter. Honest, to the point and fact-based. Qualities sorely missing in the world today.”
“This book is an insightful, hilarious look at what’s wrong with advertising agencies, with marketing in general, and maybe even the world overall. But it isn’t just for people who work in ad agencies. It’s for anybody who ever saw an ad that sucked and wondered how it got that way. It’s for anybody who works in any kind of job involving generation of new ideas. And yes, it’s for anybody who enjoys “Mad Men.” Bob Hoffman is smarter than Don Draper. He’s funnier than Don Draper. And he’s better looking than… Okay, like I said, Bob Hoffman is definitely smarter and funnier than Don Draper.”
“A funny, enlightening, clear-eyed look at advertising and marketing. Pleasantly didactic and cheerfully challenging of the fables and fantasies that pass for advertising principles.”
Bob shares some insights on the process of writing and promoting his book that I think you will find helpful:
Social media can end the anxiety of creating a niche and differentiation for ad agency new business.
John Sonnhalter, CEO of Sonnhalter, a B2B ad agency located just outside of Cleveland, OH, shares an example of an agency that found a way to finally “draw a line in the sand” and openly declare his agency’s area of expertise for a particular market.
John was able to first ‘test the waters before jumping in’ by creating a ‘niche blog’ clearly targeted to a very specific audience.
Sonnhalter’s primary ability was knowing how to reach the professional tradesmen better than most. John was able to show that knowledge by creating a blog, Tradesmen Insights.
This was blog is different from most agency blogs. It had its own unique URL and stood alone, apart from the agency’s website. It didn’t include any of the agency’s branding. It was John’s personal blog instead of a team blog approach and allowed him to become the face of the agency.
Here are John’s first steps:
Selected a title and subtitle that clearly reflected his intended audience.
He wrote a bank of 50 post articles within a few weeks before adopting a more realistic writing schedule of one to two posts per week.
He also rapidly grew his Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn followers from among his target group.
He leveraged a database of previously collected email addresses from his target group to share content through an eNewsletter that he sent every other week.
By paying attention to his blog’s analytics, John polished the appeal for his blog. He simply wrote more content in the areas his readership liked the best, the post articles that produced the most traffic.
Following a number of new business successes, driven by his social media effort, John was then willing to merge this narrower focus into the branding and positioning of his agency.
John Sonnhalter:
“We call our specialty B2T marketing. Business-To-Tradesman. We know the manufacturers that sell to tradesmen. We know their businesses. Their distribution channels. And the media they use to deliver their messages.”
We are in the B-to-B space, and typically, our clients are slower adopters of new technologies and trends. If you think back to 2008, there weren’t many agencies, big or small, that was participating in social media.
Our agency went through a re-branding process three years ago. Social media became an important part of this effort by allowing us to become focused on a specific audience, manufacturers who were trying to reach professional tradesmen. It also helped us sharpen our point of differentiation and appeal.
I can’t tell you how hard it was over the past few years to turn down opportunities because they were outside of our specialty. But it’s beginning to pay off!
Social media became a great way to generate new business opportunities.
It’s been almost three years later and here’s where we stand:
2011 was our biggest year for new business wins in several years thanks primarily to our social presence.
Our Blog, Tradesmen Insights, is the center of our promotions. We’re almost to 500 posts and we generate more page views on it than we do on our website.
We’re now recognized as an “Industry Expert” in the field of marketing within our space.
We get requests to do interviews, guest posts and take part in industry-related workshops and seminars.
Most our agency’s new business leads now come from social media.
When someone inquires, now it’s because they have followed our blog and like what they are hearing.
We don’t participate in any RFQs from these leads because they have already qualified us as experts.
Social media not only has been a good way to generate new business through thought leadership, it also helps us with current client relationships. It’s difficult to aid a client in the use of social media if you haven’t used it effectively for yourself.
Bottom line is that if your agency isn’t on board with a social program you will be missing many opportunities. We’re all trying to set ourselves apart. Social media, especially a blog, will help you do that.
Pinterest has great potential for ad agencies: storyboards, branding strategies, concept ideas, campaign ideas, design ideas, even organizing agency pitches.
Time Magazine named Pinterest one of the top 50 websites for 2011. It is one of the hottest new social media sites with enduring specialties that qualifies it as the next ‘Twitter.’ Its value through venture financing has soared from $40 million to over $200 million in only a few months.
Pinterest (pronounced to rhyme with interest) is a vision board-styled social photo sharing website and app where users can create and manage theme-based image collections. The mission statement of Pinterest is to connect everyone in the world through shared tastes and the “things” they find interesting. Wikipedia
A site like Pinterest helps provide a place for discovery, saving and sharing.
Pinterest is like a giant scrapbook of ideas. When you find things of interest, this new platform allows you to upload those images as Pins and place them on customized , themed Boards and organize and share them on any topic that you choose. Others can follow your Boards and add comments. You can also allow them to post to your boards.
A ‘Pinterest Picture’ is worth 1000 words.
People tend to be “eye-minded”. I think this is one of the primary reasons this site has become so popular.
Studies by educational researchers suggest that approximately 83% of human learning occurs visually.
There is a soothing quality in using Pinterest.
Once you spend some time understanding how it works you’ll find it fun and very addictive. I’ve personally spent hours on it.
Here is a listing of my boards, which include some that are business related and some that are personal:
Pinterest is still far behind site visitors comparative to Facebook, but it is making up for it in the amount of time spent on the site. An incredible 88.3 minutes was spent in November, according to comScore. This number is third only to Facebook (394 minutes) and Tumblr (141.7 minutes) and is also twice the amount of time that the average user spends on Twitter and 10 times the time spent on Google +.
Here are a some ideas on how to use Pinterest for your agency:
Showcase your agency’s brand in a unique way
Great potential for internal use with your agency’s creative teams – storyboards, branding strategies, concept ideas, campaign ideas, design ideas, even organizing agency pitches
Enhance visual thinking and planning
It has important potential for your clients’ social media marketing mix
A great way to keep tabs on what is hot
Potential for greater SEO (you can embed Pinterest to your agency’s website or blog)
Organize areas of focus of the agency – keep up and share what is hot within your agency niche or industry focus
Interact with your audience by testing campaign ideas and concepts
Having a search engine optimization strategy, or SEO, is important to support lead generation for ad agency new business.
Most agency business development directors have a marketing strategy and are becoming competent with an inbound lead generation strategy that has as its centerpiece – content marketing. Understanding search engines is an important part to content marketing and blogging. Therefore, it is important for business development directors to become familiar with how search engines work and keep up with what is going on.
Recent changes to Google’s search engine ranking algorithms are already having an impact. Google’s own site, www.blogger.com, has seen a 20% drop in search traffic.
How do you become more knowledgeable, reduce the impact of these inevitable changes and create an SEO strategy for new business?
1. By understanding Google’s bottom line. It is important that you be natural and authentic so you will be less likely affected by Google’s ongoing improvements to its algorithms.
Over 90 % of all Internet users are using search engines and they are the main sources of online traffic. The primary search engine is Google. Google’s goal is, they want their users to find specifically what they are looking for because if they don’t, they will be looking for alternatives.
“The perfect search engine would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want,” Google’s cofounder and CEO, Larry Page
2. You can also decrease the impact of these inevitable changes, as Google strives to get better, by focusing your content marketing efforts on the basic elements of SEO. These are the key elements of SEO that also will be less likely affected by Google’s changes.
Here are some basic blog SEO tips to help get you started:
Start with a benchmark. Know what your current page rank is and continue to monitor it with tools like Alexa and the Google toolbar.
Your blog’s theme/template can help or hurt your SEO, so review and choose carefully. Most designers are more concerned with good design and less concerned about SEO. The navigation structure of your blog’s template plays a critical role in how it is indexed and crawled by the search engines. Use a navigation structure that enables every page reached within three clicks.
Check your blog’s referer log regularly to track where your visitors are coming from and the search terms they are using to find your site.
Find your ‘niche’ key words. Choosing the most popular search terms will make it nearly impossible to get to the top spot in search. Instead use niche key words that are relevant to your target audience. Place these keywords throughout your blog site: your titles, content, URLs, and image names. Note: the title tag and page header are the two most important spots to put keywords. You can use Google keyword tool to find keywords relevant to your blog. Just be sure not to overdo by stuffing key words, a Black Hat SEO technique that search engines do not approve and will get your site penalized.
You should make it standard to build internal links back to your archives when creating new content. I invite readers to check other articles that might be of interest, at the bottom of almost every post article that I write. Also remember to always link back to sources cited in your post articles as it is bad etiquette not to do so. You will build quality ‘back-links’ by creating link-worthy content.
Choose a meaningful title and add a descriptor statement that is included in the metadata and under the description title. Mine is “Fueling ad agency new business through social media.”
Pick the right domain name. Try to pick a domain name that says something about your blog site’s content.
The single most important thing you can do is to consistently provide high-quality content on your blog. Google has become good at weeding out poor quality web pages.
Add URL to Google. Improve your site’s visibility in Google search results. It’s free. To get started, simply add and verify your site and you’ll start to see information right away.
Be sure and send a Sitemapusing Google Webmaster Tools. A site map is a page listing and linking to all the other major pages on your site and makes it easier for spiders to search your site.
Make your URLs more search-engine friendly by naming them with clear keywords.
Be sure to include the alternative text descriptions for all photos, images and videos. Spiders can only search text, not text in your images. Start with your image names: adding an “ALT” tag allows you to include a keyword-rich description for every image on your site.
Take the time to include blog post tags. Tags are one or two words that briefly describe what your article is all about. I also include any person, entity or publication mentioned in a post. Search engines use tags to index and find your posts faster.
SEO and social media marketing have become intrinsically intertwined so be sure you are utilizing social media. You should grow your social media community and using social media platforms and tools to ‘push-out’ new content and pull-in website traffic.
Your content should be fresh. Updating your content regularly and often is crucial for increasing traffic. The more recent Google update, dubbed the “Freshness” update, designed to rank newer content higher in search results.
Google has started adding Google+ brand pages in search results and some predict that Google will make it harder to do SEO without Google + . I would recommend that you get started by setting up your Google + account and take part.
It would be helpful for you to know how Google finds web pages matching a search query and determines the order of the results.
How new business is being acquired for ad agencies is currently undergoing a paradigm shift; instead of pursuing clients, it’s now more important for your prospective clients to find your agency.
I’m sure that you are well aware of the changing marketing landscape and the need to make fundamental changes to the traditional methods for business development.
Data Explosion - 90% of the world’s data was created in just the past two years. Content marketing has become a key element in building awareness for agencies.
Social Media Eruption - social media is now mainstream and is as a key engagement channel for prospects.
Channel and Device Boom - The growing number of new marketing channels and devices, such as smart phones and tablets, are quickly becoming a priority for reaching prospective clients.
Expanding Markets - Small to midsize agencies have a new window of opportunity to reach a larger market than ever before through new media. There are even international opportunities for agencies.
New business Professionals Struggle - Those who were once good at acquiring new business are finding it to be more complex and changing rapidly. Many are struggling. The interruption type tactics, which were successful in the past, are becoming less and less effective.
Unconventional times call for unconventional methods for ad agency new business.
For those charged with developing a new business program for a small to midsize ad agency, PR firm or digital shop, the following resources are for you. I’ve pulled together a list of the “best of” FUEL LINES agency new business articles based upon analytics of site visitors and their comments. These articles include some of the latest trends, tactics and tips for business development as well as articles that hopefully will give you inspiration.
Content marketing is the wave of the future for ad agency new business, but to have success you will need to make advance preparations to consistently deliver quality content.
I’ve recently written my 650th blog post article. I have a sense of jubilation mainly because I had been battling one of the most serious bouts of “writers block” since starting my blog. I had dealt with this dreaded writers malady in the past but I have never had this much trouble overcoming it.
Writer’s block is a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task at hand. At the other extreme, some “blocked” writers have been unable to work for years on end, and some have even abandoned their careers. Wikepedia
If you are discovering just how difficult it is to write and create quality content, you aren’t alone. Here’s a collection of notable quotes on the challenges of writing:
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Red Smith
“I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.” Steven Wright
“Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” Gene Fowler
“I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.” James Michener
“Every writer I know has trouble writing.” Joseph Heller
“When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.” Enrique Jardiel Poncela
“I do not like to write – I like to have written.” Gloria Steinem
“Writing is the flip side of sex – it’s good only when it’s over.” Hunter S. Thompson
“Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet.” Anonymous
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” Nathaniel Hawthorne
There is nothing mystical about writing, it is simply hard work. It begins with deciding on the purpose of your writing and who you are writing for. What is the benefit to your readers? What is the benefit to you? It’s also about making a serious time commitment and then grunting the work out until you get it done.
Here are some tips that I would suggest to make content creation easier:
Know your audience: One of the first things you MUST do is to identify who your audience is. Then you must focus your content toward their marketing challenges and needs. Use your analytics for instant feed back to know what content is appealing and what isn’t. Your audience will become the guide for your writing.
Keep your objective top-of-mind: You are writing with a purpose. Use content marketing to generate new business opportunities for the agency by building awareness, lead generation, referrals and positioning as a thought leader. If you don’t have a clear objective you will be wasting your time.
Commit to create original content: Many agencies are trying to take the easy way out by only curating the content of others. There is a place for curating content, but note that original content is in great demand. You will get the best return of your time investment if you are the one that is creating the content that others are curating. That’s where the gold is.
Develop a process for delivering content consistently: Small to midsize agencies should develop a content marketing team, but be sure to name the team leader. If everyone is responsible then no one is. A designated person should be responsible for setting up and managing the editorial calendar and edits as well as managing the content delivery process. I’m hearing from many agencies that have recently created a position of Content Director who oversees the creation of content on behalf of the agency as well as agency clients. I think this is a smart move. Agencies can also hire a freelancer to oversee and manage the process remotely.
Here are some additional articles to help with your agency’s content creation:
Keeping up with mobile technology and how it impacts consumer behavior is important because it inevitably effects how ad agencies will be reaching prospects in the near future.
“Most marketers are still struggling to figure out how to truly capitalize on the opportunities represented by long-form video and — more recently — social content. Now, a new imperative is clear, especially for those spending heavily on TV. Content and experiences that move seamlessly from one screen to another are an absolute must.” Jeremy Lockhorn, VP Emerging Media, Razorfish
Consumers’ use of emerging media driven by new technologies is moving at such a lightning pace that it’s difficult for agencies and the brands they represent to keep up. There is also the tendency for marketers to “over-focus” on things like television, mobile and social media as stand alone mediums rather than fully comprehending consumer behavior and creating a multiscreen strategy.
Emerging media and new technology also impacts business development for ad agencies. There is a need to understand how prospects are using new technology such as mobile and web-enabled devices. Plus there is a paradigm shift in business development for agencies from outbound new business tactics to inbound marketing. Agencies will need to be able to effectively reach prospective clients through a multiscreen new business strategy.
To better understand the impact of new technology and its rapidly evolving use of consumers here in the U.S., digital agency giant, Razorfish, partnered with Yahoo Mobile to conduct a study of mobile habits.
Here are some of the highlights from this study:
80% of respondents are mobile multitasking while watching TV.
70% of respondents who multitask do so at least once a week, with nearly half (49%) reporting everyday multitasking.
60% check their phones at least “once or twice” during the course of a TV show, and 15% stay on the mobile Web for the full duration of the show.
The top 5 categories for multitasking: 1. Reality 2. News 3. Comedy 4. Sports 5. Food
94% of multitaskers engage in some kind of mobile communication. In order — They are text, talking, email, social networking and IM.
60% of multitaskers are accessing additional content of some type.
44% is unrelated to what’s on TV versus only 38% related to TV.
Survey respondents were more likely to state that they frequently engaged in multitasking during TV ad breaks.
36% of multitaskers use their connected devices for looking up information on a commercial they just saw.
Click on the following link to read Jeremy’s article and additional information regarding the Razorfish and Yahoo Mobile Study: ”Forget Mobile – Think Multiscreen”
Turning social media into social media marketing for ad agency new business.
No Bullshit Social Media is a new book that I highly recommend for ad agencies. It is hype-free advice on how to use social media marketing for business and contains a wealth of statistics, illustrations and case studies. The books insights will be of practical help to your agency and clients.
The reason your agency needs social media is that it can drive real new business opportunities and will provide a serious step up on your competitors.
I’ve known Jason since starting my own consultancy back in 2007. He understands ad agencies having previously worked for Doe Anderson, a regional agency in Louisville, KY. Jason has built a successful and highly regarded digital and social media consulting service, the Social Media Explorer. He also authors one of the most widely read and well-respected blogs in the industry where he shares his insight at ExploringSocialMedia.com.
Erik was an early adopter of social media and has been blogging since 1997. He is the co-owner and VP of Creative Services for Professional Blog Service in Indianapolis. He has been a newspaper humor columnist for 17 years, and is published in 10 newspapers around Indiana. Erik co-authored Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself (Pearson, 2010). He also helped write Twitter Marketing For Dummies.
I love the following quote taken from the first chapter of the book. It sets the tone for the practical no-nonsense advice you are going to find in this book.
“Social Media Is for Hippies. Social Media Marketing Is for Business.”
That is exactly the mindset needed if you are going to generate new business through the use of social media. Jason and Erik, unapologetically, break from the way early adopters of social were using it. Their philosophy is more pragmatic by taking social media from the playground to the office suite to market your business.
“… the social media marketing world now knows that companies need business outcomes from their social media efforts, namely increased sales, profits, and market share.
A lot of preparation went into writing this book. Erik shared with me that he and Jason spent over 5 months on just the research for the statistics and illustrations on how businesses are finding success with social media marketing. These case studies makes a persuasive argument for social media’s potential as it continues to evolve and mature.
“If social media can help overthrow a government, what will it do for your company.”
Most agencies are accustomed to gaining new business through networks and referrals. Social media has the potential to take your personal networks to a whole new level. Jason and Erik provide you with rich insights on why and how you should do it.
The book addresses 7 major benefits social media marketing has for businesses and agencies.
Social media marketing can:
Aid in branding and awareness
Protect your reputation
Extend public relations
Build community
Drive customer service
Funnel research and development
Drive sales and leads
A reminder that you can’t measure your progress until you first define success. This book gives you a strategic blueprint to get your agency focused for new business success with social media marketing and some great ideas to help your agency become more of a social business.
PEOPLE want to work with other PEOPLE that they KNOW, TRUST and LIKE.
Order the book now at NoBullshitSocialMedia.com. I purchased the Kindle version from Amazon but you can also order it from B&N, Borders, Books-A-Million and Que.
TweetAdder is one of the most important tools you can use to build a targeted following on Twitter.
There are hundreds of 3rd party tools for Twitter, but one stands out above the rest as the most productive for using Twitter for new business.
You don’t want followers just to have followers. Inbound lead generation will only happen if the bulk of your followers are your agency’s best prospects.
TweetAdder is a software program that charges a one-time fee to download and use this tool to build a Twitter database of people to follow.
The program allows you to search by profile data, such as searching for a companies CMOs. Anyone with that title in their Twitter profile you can add to your database of people to follow.
Another important feature of TweetAdder allows you to follow everyone that follows a particular Twitter account. For example, you can follow everyone that follows the AdAge’s Twitter account and also follow everyone that AdAge follows.
It would be best to find and follow the Twitter accounts that have an appeal primarily to your target audience such as a Twitter account for an association or tradeshow. You will get more people to follow that are your true targets.
Here’s an example: The Littlefield agency in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has Casino marketers as a primary target audience. They wouldn’t want to follow everyone that follows the Isle of Capris Casinos, the better choice would be to follow everyone that follows the American Gaming Association’s Twitter account and all those that the American Gaming follows.
Another great benefit for using TweetAdder is you can follow all who follow your competition’s Twitter account and everyone your competitor follows.
TweetAdder also has filters to help eliminate Twitter accounts that are least likely to be true prospects, such as those which have no profile photo. No profile photo is an indication that a Twitter account isn’t very active.
TweetAdder also allows you to automatically Follow, Unfollow and Followback Twitter accounts. Doing this manually requires a great amount of time. TweetAdder simplifies these processes.
Once it is set-up, TweetAdder is easy to maintain. All you need to do is open the program each day and let it run in the background on the computer. To add additional prospectives to your database, when it runs low, is easily done.
This program is very simple to use, an intern or a college student could be trained to use it. This task could also be added to the responsibilities of your agency’s receptionist and would require mere minutes of time each day.
Click on the following link to review TweetAdder with a Free Trial Demo
Additional Twitter tools that I recommend for your review:
“It’s not the will to succeed, but the will to prepare to succeed that makes the difference.” Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant
It wasn’t until 2010 that most small to mid-size ad agencies gave up fighting against the social media tide and decided to dive in.
When most agencies finally jumped into social media, they had a check list that merely showcased how they were a bona-fide member of the social media community. From the get-go they were not prepped for success.
“We have an agency blog – check; Twitter account with the agency’s logo – check; Facebook Fan page – check; LinkedIn account for the agency – check!”
No strategy. No specific audience. No positioning and no appeal. Instead of using this new communication channel as an opportunity to showcase how they were different, they ended up looking just the same.
They are positioned online the same way they were offline – as a generalist instead of a specialist and once again following the “safe-way” instead of the “smart-way.”
Is there any wonder why most agencies are not having much success using social media to create new business opportunities?
As a new business consultant. I understand the need for acquiring new business NOW. But short-term solutions will not provide long-term results.
To be prepped for success using social media for agency new business, here are 7 tips that I hope you find helpful:
Identify and connect with a specific target audience. Face it, most agencies are afraid to put their stake in the ground and even identify their target audience. You would never recommend a marketing campaign for a client without first identifying who they are trying to reach.
Lead with benefits. Social media helps agencies to talk in a new way from the self promotional agency speak of the past. For success with social media, it’s about them not you. Your communication and content should be focused on your prospective client audience and be of benefit too them.
Differentiate from your competitors. You wont win any significant business by showcasing how you match up with the rest of the agencies. You must un-level the playing field. Set yourself apart. What would give a company a reason to fly across a number of states and over hundreds of other agencies, to do business with your agency? Social media provides a great opportunity for your agency to stand out.
Become a specialist instead of a generalist. Our world is becoming more and more specialized and the internet and social media allows you and your agency to become more specialized than you dared offline.
Create chemistry. Remember that social media is about people. You lead with a person, not the agency. People want to work with other people that they know, trust and like. Social media is the greatest networking tool in my lifetime. I’ve built my consultancy utilizing it; building a network with agencies all across the U.S., Canada, Europe and South Africa from my home in Alabaster, Alabama. How incredible is that?
Develop appeal. One of the great benefits for using social media for new business is the instant feedback from your audience. It allows you to easily test your message and hone your appeal. It forces you to give up the “agency speak.” Analytics will provide insight into the needs, challenges and objectives of your prospective client audience. Your community of prospects will let you know whether or not what you communicate is of value to them.
Earn positioning as a “thought leader.” Thought leadership is a critical component in using social media for new business. But you will never attain such status without a platform and focus. Social media provides a great platform. You much choose your area of focus if you are to have success.
This guest post is written by Bret Giles, president of agencyside, which offers training and consulting to sell and implement digital marketing services. It’s all exclusively designed for small to mid-size advertising, marketing and PR agencies. One of the premier agency side events is BOLO 2011, October, 9-11, Scottsdale, AZ. A discount for Fuel Line readers is available by using the code MGass. I hope you’ll plan to join me there.
Bret Giles
My backyard is afoul with these pesky rodents intent on ruining what I’ve spent so much energy planting. They just won’t go away; in fact, I fear they grow in number while their teeth become sharper and their devastation more obvious. They are invading my space and I’ve done little to prevent it.
Until now.
As an owner of a mid-size agency, I’m ready to passionately protect my turf and start a little invasion of my own.
Media companies are not agencies – they have hidden agendas and a distinct bias in media selection. Technology companies like Google are not agencies – they protect their valuation by positioning themselves as a technology to investors, yet they pretend to our clients they are creative strategists capable of pulling off complex campaigns. And unfortunately they have found a strong ally in procurement offices across American companies.
They are invading our space because their own backyards bear less fruit than needed to sustain juggernaut growth (or prevent death in the case of some media companies). They know that as marketing budgets are wrestled from people who look beyond the numbers, they will continue to win plum assignments and perform adequately to the expectations of the unsuspecting buyer.
As the story goes, the buyers commoditize our agency offerings and we are relegated to discussions of efficiency against the likes of Meredith, Hearst and Google. And yet we have some tricks up our sleeve, right?
By focusing our energy in owned and earned media we feed ourselves, as these media are mostly fee-based (money to us) rather than the media-based alternative of paid media. As an added bonus, we lessen our reliance on the very entities that invade our turf, thus cutting off their food supply. On top of that, we can infiltrate their backyards by becoming publishers on behalf of our clients. After all, conventional media no longer controls the media and conventional wisdom no longer holds value.
It’s time to protect our backyard and organize a small invasion of our own.
In addition to co-founding an agency, I also helped start agencyside, an organization dedicated to serving small- to mid-size agencies and the issues we face. We put on an annual conference called BOLO that will further discussions around the role of the small- to mid-size agency and where we can truly add value in a vastly changing backyard. There is actually tremendous opportunity right now and I think we’ve lined up some great talent to lead forums around that opportunity.
I hope you will join me and about 175 other independent agency owners and executives to further this discussion. You can get a full account of our agenda at www.BOLO2011.com.
Content creation is an important part of social media success for ad agency new business, but it is also difficult to maintain without a little help.
I’m going on my 5th year of creating content for my blog. I’ve found that my reading always seems to help fuel my writing and inspire ideas.
So first and foremost, establish a focused reading program that is centered around a specific target audience. When you do, finding resources and developing content becomes mush easier because it is focused.
Here are 10 additional idea starters, along with examples, to help keep you going:
Take non-relevant content and make it relevant to your audience.This is one of the most important tips that I can share with you. There is so much great information online. Most of it won’t be related to your readership but you can easily make it relevant as I did in this post, “When it comes to new business Ad Agencies are ADHD.” I was reading about multitasking and ADHD from a number of online resources, and knew this type of information would be very helpful for agency new business, particularly given the working environment and culture typical of most agencies.
Become a reporter at events you attend by conducting on site interviews, take photos and video. Compile a top 10 highlights’ post of the event. You probably will come away with enough material for several blog posts. I was able to interact with attendees of Ad Age’s first Small Agency Conference. From my social media interactions I wrote this article: 50 of the Best Insights from Ad Age’s First Ever Small Agency Conference. The amazing thing – I wasn’t there!
Create a bulleted list of things to avoid. I’m currently working on a list of “Top 10 Non-productive Office Traps and Solutions for Avoiding Them.”
Use a celebrity to enhance a top 10 list. One post that generates the most traffic to my site, “Steve Jobs 10 Presentation Tactics for Ad Agency New Business.” Be sure and connect the benefits to your particular readership. Make it specific to them and their needs.
Provide resources. Share resources that are specific to your readership’s industry. Here are a couple of examples of resources that I’ve shared: “10 Reading Resources for Ad Agency New Business” and “The Top 14 List of Advertising Agency Networks for New Business.” I wrote a post about agency networks because so many agencies were asking about them and I found very few online sources. I researched and grouped this information conveniently together for my readers. This also helped put me on the radar of many of these agency networks.
If you’ve been writing for a while, revise an older post and beef-it-up with current information, stats, etc. A lot of the information for this article, “3 Quick Tips for Developing a Consistent Program for Ad Agency New Business”, was gleaned from a post that I had written in 2008. I took some of the more important elements to highlight and expand upon in this post. It isn’t copying a pasting, having mirrored content. This takes some work but much easier and quicker than developing a post from scratch while still creating content that is of good value to your readers.
Conduct an industry survey. You can generate some great PR by conducting your own primary research and propagating the results through your social media network, online tools such as PRNewswire and PRWeb. You can generate a number of post as you expand upon pieces of the survey in various posts. Here’s an article that was written on a survey that I conducted, “Ad Agency Survey Finds Traditional New Business Methods Aren’t Working.” The survey became a magnet for a significant amount of web traffic to my site as other bloggers and columnist wrote articles based on my research.
Develop your own online contest. A great jump-starter for my blog’s traffic occurred when I conducted an Ad Agency Blog of the Month contest. Agencies submitted their blogs, readers would review them in a post I created and they would cast their vote of their favorite. A follow-up post announced and highlighted the winner from each month. At the end of the year, a blog synopsis of the 12 Agency Blog of the Month winners was created and vote taken for the Ad Agency Blog of the Year. Here’s a sample article from 2010, “Vote for Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Year.”
Set up an editorial calendar for guest posts. Solicit industry experts who are glad to contribute if you give them enough lead time. Guest posts’ can be a huge help and provide some relief during summer breaks and holidays and keep good, helpful content churning out for your audience. Here’s a guest post, written specifically for my audience, by Jay Baer, “Ad Agencies: Don’t Turn Your Back on Digital”
The content that you create will propel your positioning as an expert so it’s worth the price of your time investment.
Kelly was recently featured in a gaming industry publication iNTERGAMING in this New Technology Interview, because of her content development that is specific to the advertising/marketing needs of the gaming industry.
Additional content marketing articles that may be of interest:
Agency new business directors have one of the most important, as well as toughest, jobs in advertising – selling the agency.
Why is agency new business so tough? Primarily because agencies are notorious for their inability to sell themselves. Agencies desperately need an expert/specialist in the mechanics of new client acquisition, someone who has the sole focus and capabilities to bring“life-giving” new business to the agency.
“It’s just such a hard position to fill,” said Michael Zuna, New York managing director at Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi, “The Mad Men-rainmaker days — that doesn’t happen anymore. It’s a tough job.”
In my time in the trenches as a new business director for a number of agencies, I was often inspired by the writings, tapes, videos and presentations of Zig Ziglar, a fellow Alabamian. He is one of the most famous motivational speakers and authors in the world. He is also one of the nicest persons you’d ever want to meet.
Ziglar comes from a successful sales background and has a first hand understanding about the daily grind of being in sales and the need for motivation.
He once said,
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily!”
To help feed your daily motivational needs, here’s my list of Zig Ziglar’s most notable motivational quotes (I’ve paraphrased a few of these to make them a bit more specific to our industry). Hopefully they will provide you with a spark of motivation as you attend to one of the most important jobs of your agency – business development:
Motivating gets you going and habit gets you there . Make motivating a habit and you will get there more quickly and have more fun on the trip.
Stop selling and start helping.
Your agency’s most valuable asset is its reputation.
Prospects are perishable – handle with care.
Obstacles are the things we see when we take our eyes off our goals.
If you’re sincere, praise is effective. If you’re insincere, it’s manipulative.
The primary reason prospects will choose not do choose your agency is lack of trust.
New business is more than a profession, it is a way of life.
If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.
When we do more than we are paid to do, eventually we will be paid more for what we do.
A goal properly set is halfway reached.
Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.
If there were no problems, most of us would be unemployed.
Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.
Click here to heck out the official Zig Ziglar website for additional new business resources.
Research shows that the more you multitask, the worse you are at it and that can be bad for ad agency new business.
In some situations multitasking is deadly. I recently read of a well-known plastic surgeon who was killed when he accidentally drove his car over a cliff while sending a Twitter message about his dog. Most of us understand the dangers of multitasking while driving but many don’t realize that multitasking can be killing productivity.
The term “multitasking originated in the computer engineering industry, referring to the ability of a microprocessor to process several task at the simultaneously. Our ability to multitask is not as efficient as we might think.
On the surface multitasking sounds like it would boost productivity but studies show just the opposite happens:
Professor Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a leader in multi-tasking research, says, ‘People can’t do it very well, and when they say they can, they’re deluding themselves,’ he says. ‘The brain is very good at deluding itself.’
Psychiatrist Edward M. Hallowellhas gone so far as to describe multitasking as a “mythical activity in which people believe they can perform two or more tasks simultaneously as effectively as one.”
A study at the University of California found that multitasking impedes the brain’s ability to absorb information
Author of the book Distraction, Damon Young, says, “When we move from our job to an e-mail, it takes about a minute to recover our train of thought and then we get another e-mail, or an SMS, so our concentration is fractured. The result? We’re not really multi-tasking. We’re switching between tasks in an unfocused or clumsy way.”
Studies here in the US have shown that students who do homework while watching television get consistently lower grades.
“There is a cost to the way that our society is changing. Humans are not built to work this way, we’re really built to focus.”Russell Poldrack,UCLA psychology professor
Persons charged with business development for most small to mid-size ad agencies often wear multiple hats. That increases the likelihood that they do a lot of multi-tasking and are less efficient than they could be.
We are not made for multitasking and it actually hinders our productivity:
The time it takes to complete jobs increases significantly. People actually lose time rather than gain it. The brain has to restart and refocus. Switching attention is from one task to another, work may be faster but studies show that productivity is less.
Multi-taskers are prone to errors.
Multi-taskers are more easily distracted. The more they multitask the worse they are at it and the less they can focus on one thing.
Multitasking hurts relationships. Even though it isn’t intended, it makes clients, coworkers, friends and most importantly family feel unimportant.
Multitasking comes at a high price. It greatly increases stress, even rage in adults and learning problems for children. You need to ask yourself, ‘is this the way I want to feel? Is this the way I really want to live my life?”
If you want to be productive it’s best not to multi-task at all. There is no downside to it. Here are 10 tips to overcoming multitasking:
Embrace single tasking. Acknowledge the problem, “Hi, my name is Michael and I’m a multi-tasker.”
Manage your time better, do one thing at a time if at all possible.Schedule time to switch your attention from one task to another.
Look for ways to create silence. I turn off any distractions and even use a set of noise canceling headphones to help me get into a focused state of mind.
Turn off the cell phone and disable email alerts. Have set time to check voice mail and your inbox.
Distractions on the internet are abundant. To bring strategy and focus to your online reading, use an RSS Reader such as Google Reader.
Force yourself to disconnect. Take a break from social media and the internet.
Create a To Do List for the day. Plan your day in blocks. Set just a few primary objectives that you want to complete by end of day.
Begin at in the mornings to complete your most important tasks.
Amazing at how deadlines can keep things moving. Give yourself less time helps hyper-focus your attention on the project at thand.
Schedule in some periodic breaks during the day, such as going for a brief walk.
It is absolutely essential that every ad agency have a plan for their new business development initiatives.
I recently spoke to a group of ad agency owners. I was amazed to learn that none of them had a written new business plan. That’s inconceivable to me. If you have no plan you can’t measure what you’re doing, there’s no real strategy behind your new business activities, no focus or direction.
“He who fails to plan, is planning to fail” - Winston Churchill
If you want to build a consistent pipeline for lead generation and new business opportunities for your agency you must have a game plan in place.
Here are my 10 tips for creating a game plan for your agency’s new business:
It might be a helpful exercise to create a SWOT analysis of your agency: it’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Set realistic new business goals. I can’t tell you how often I hear “our goal is to take the agency to the next level,” but they have no clue what that level is or what it looks like. In my opinion new business goals should be obtainable.
If your goal is to double your RFP responses or double your pitches, you also must have the processes in place to handle the additional workload if those things are to come to fruition.
Identify your top category and audience you are going to target. You must have an identifiable target.
Know who is your primary competition and create a strong point of differentiation from them.
Follow the KISS method. Keep everything simple as possible including the plan. A one page plan can easily suffice.
Outline the new business plan through specific strategies: Public Relations, Social Media, Direct Mail, Digital, etc.
Establish benchmarks for the things you can measure. Have a review, update, make changes and refocus your efforts once a month.
Use a program such as Basecamp, an excellent, inexpensive online tool to help implement your plan. Set milestone dates, create an actionable To-Do List for keeping track of who is doing, what, when, etc.
The person charged with new business should be empowered to implement the plan as if this was one of your agency’s client accounts. The new business person must be like a rudder of a ship to keep the process moving in the same direction, no matter how the wind is blowing.
Additional agency new business articles that may be of interest:
If your agency’s social media participation isn’t generating traffic and new business leads, it is important to know why.
How can an agency help a client monetize their social media when it doesn’t have a handle on how to use it for itself? As more-and-more agencies jump on the social media band-wagon, clients are beginning to ask them,“what has social media done for you?”
Gone are the days when an agency can get by “talking the talk but not walking the walk.” Clients will be able to discern between the agencies that truly get social media from the ones that don’t with just a few clicks of their mouse.
100% of our clients are online and all they have to do is take a quick look and they can easily tell that most agencies have no plan with regards to social media. Agencies may have a blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, but those accounts often hide behind the agency name and tend to be blatantly self promotional with little value to an undefinable audience.
Used correctly, social media makes new business easier not harder. It is an incredible communication’s channel for easily generating new business leads and creating personal networks far beyond your local market.
No traffic + no leads = no new business. Here are 16 signs that most likely indicate your social media isn’t working for your agency:
No social media strategy, no plan. 60% of companies using social media have no plan. I would say from my own experience that is probably true of most agencies.
No clear objective for using social media. The first step in creating a social media strategy for your agency, you MUST have an objective. I suggest it should be for new business.
There is no focus on a particular target audience. The second step in creating in a social media strategy is to identify who you are trying to reach.
A lack of positioning for agencies. The FOUNDATION of an ad agency’s new business program is its positioning. “The common failing among agencies seeking new business is the inability, or unwillingness, to name what they stand for,”Bob Lundin, Agency search consultancy Jones Lundin Beals. Social media provides a great opportunity to showcase how your agencies are different.
Agencies using social media for blatant self-promotion. Credentials and capabilities belong on an agencies website but shouldn’t be the driving force of their social media program. Social media should be centered around benefits.
No integration between blogging, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. When the majority of agencies finally ‘jumped into’ social media, they just jumped in with a check list of channels. Yes we have a blog, Facebook Fan page, Twitter account and LinkedIn. But there was no convergence, bringing them together into a single social media strategy.
Agencies are waiting passively for prospective clients to them. If you build it, doesn’t guarantee that prospects are going to come.
Many agencies lack appreciation for those that are willing ambassadors for your agency. Zig Ziglar’s statement, “You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want.” His philosophy works well in the arena of social media.
A lot of social media efforts fail because of the lack of value/benefit for the intended audience. Your audience will be your judge and jury as to whether you have an appealing position, post titles that spur interest, content that is beneficial.
A lot of agencies obviously don’t care about anybody but themselves. To successfully build an online community, you must staf focused on the perspective and interests of your prospective clients. You have to genuinely care about their challenges and obstacles.
There’s no SEO strategy for your agency’s social media presence. According to Marketing Sherpa, 80-90% of business to business transactions begin with a search on the web. A CMO survey, 80% of decision makers say they found the vendor, not the other way around. “Content Doesn’t Win. Optimized Content Wins” – Li Evans, search marketing guru
Your agency’s social media ship has no rudder. Getting your staff on the same page and keeping them there is like herding cats. Empower the person charged with your agency’s new business to keep your social media efforts focused and directed.
Followers instead of leaders. Most agencies are still using social media the way the early adopters of social media intended. Instead of pressing the envelope for lead generation and networking for new business. This in no way means that you are SELLING.
A mindset of income first. Just like in our offline networks and referrals, it’s relationships first. People want to work with other people that they know, trust and like.
Attending offline events such as trade shows and conferences without inclusion in your agency’s social media efforts. Social media has transformed offline events and can maximize the personnel connections with prospective clients. Your involvement with blogging, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can change your whole experience.
No social media training for their staffs. According to a recent 4A’s and Arnold Worldwide survey, 90% of agency staff say they have to figure things out on their own due to the lack of training.
Additional social media + ad agency new business articles that may be of interest:
To fuel ad agency new business through social media, creating content is critical.
According to a social media study by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42, original content, both branded and expert, is by far the most employed tactic for social media.
And … “businesses (agencies) that blog, get 55% more website traffic than those that don’t.”
Creating valuable content increases website traffic that will equate into new business leads. But writing for web can be daunting, even for experienced copywriters. They are often the ones that struggle the most with making the transition from print to web.
“Content marketing is a commitment, not a campaign.” – Jon Buscall
It doesn’t matter how great you write if no one finds your content and if they do find it, there’s no benefit to you unless they read it.
You need to think carefully about structuring and formatting your online content to ensure your readers find it and read it. Here are my 10 tips to help you write better for the Web:
Provide a Reader’s Digest or Executive Summary version. Readers love bullet pointed and numbered lists. That’s why so many readers are attracted to post titles that offer 10 tips or 25 ideas, etc.The work you do on behalf of your readers to simplify will be greatly appreciated and keep them coming back for more.
Key words in every post titles. Write for SEO. It doesn’t matter how great your article is if no one can find it. A simple tip to help boost your rankings in Google search is to identify and use certain key words in every post title. 90% of my posts will contain ‘ad agency new business’ in the title. It helps not only for search but will also help drive ‘targeted traffic’ as your posts are repurposed through Twitter. With only 140 characters that you can use for Twitter, that’s not much more than your title and a shortened URL.
Lead with the conclusion. I advise that you begin each post by starting with the conclusion, a take-away or benefits statement. Just answer this question, ‘what is my benefit if I commit to read this post?’
Break up long paragraphs. A reader’s attention span online is much less than for print. Readers tend to scan instead of reading word-for-word. Keep paragraphs concise and short.
Be sure and provide hyper links to your sources. Don’t be afraid that you will lose your audience if they go to another source. Your blog should become a repository of helpful resources for your readers.
Make your content scannable to the eye. Use bold, italics, quotation marks, indention, etc. to make copy pop. A person should be able to quickly scan through your article and get the most important parts.
Write in an Inverted Pyramid style. Similar to the way a newspaper reported would write, the most important copy should be at the top of your post.
Use common language. This is an opportunity to do away with industry jargon and agency speak and write content that resonates with your intended audience.
Get to the point, quickly. Online readers are extremely impatient. If you wade into a story and it takes 3 or 4 paragraphs to make show how it relates, you will have lost your audience before you’ve made your point.
Make your post visually pleasing. I always include a nice photo or graphic to further drive home the main purpose of a post. Using them will create interest and help draw in a reader.
Here are some additional agency blogging resources that may be a help to get you started:
iCrossing helped SKECHERS use social to become a more connected brand — in this case through a partnership with celebrity Kim Kardashian.
This is a guest post written by David Deal who currently serves as VP,Marketing for iCrossing, a global digital marketing agency. I first met David when he was charged with business development for Razorfish. He was an early adopter of social media and is a skilled and creative digital marketer plus an all around nice guy.
SKECHERS has partnered with the socially savvy celebrity to encourage everyone to break up with our bad habits and get into shape (a campaign launched via a Super Bowl spot in which Kim breaks up with her trainer because she can do a better job with her own SKECHERS Shape-ups).
To continue promoting the idea of keeping in shape with SKECHERS, iCrossing developed a campaign reaching multiple touch points including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the SKECHERS website. The cross-platform approach helps SKECHERS share valuable content and keep its brand visible in an engaging way with new and current customers.
Using a feature called in-stream apps, friends of the SKECHERS Facebook page can watch the Super Bowl ad and take a poll to vote on a bad habit they would like to break, such as junk food. And you can get immediate results from all other participants in a single post.
All this functionality occurs within your Facebook news feed, where we spend most of our Facebook time, whereas typically the content would live in an engagement ad or a separate tab. (You can also drop bad habits on Twitter by using #BreakingUpWith.)
The SKECHERS page also offers exclusive promotions for Facebook fans to receive discounts from SKECHERS products on its website and a useful Fitness Shoe Finder (that helps you match the right fitness shoe for you), among other features.
SKECHERS has seen a 300% increase in its Facebook fan count since the campaign launched three weeks ago (compared to the prior three weeks leading up to the campaign). And engagement with the in-stream app has doubled compared to the normal volume of posts. The campaign runs through March 6.
Meantime, to get iCrossing employees involved, I’ve blogged about the work on one of the iCrossing company blogs, Tweeted about it, and encouraged employees to do the same. They’re doing their part to support clients by doing some basic actions that employees often overlook unless encouraged. I’m having fun collaborating with our people to tell our story.
To create new business opportunities for your agency, it is imperative to stay ahead of your clients and be aware of the possibilities of media in the near future.
It is the people who figure out how to work simply in the present, rather than the people who mastered the complexities of the past, who get to say what happens in the future.” Clay Shirky
Chris Brogan was an early adopter of social media. I learned a great deal from him when I launched my consultancy through social media back in 2007. I’ve watched Chris build his personal brand awareness through social media to become one it’s rock starts. He has created an interesting video, discussing the future of media that I thought would be of interest to the ad agency community. Chris shares 7 ideas where he things media is going for the future and invites your participation in the discussion:
Media will be Multi Touch
Media will be Mobile
Media will be Serial
Media will be Two-Way
Media will be Rich Data Mined
Media will be Subscription Based
Media will be Faster with Longer Burn
Chris Brogan consults and speaks professionally with Fortune 100 and 500 companies like PepsiCo, General Motors, Microsoft, and more, on the future of business communications, and social software technologies. He is a New York Times bestselling co-author of Trust Agents, and a featured monthly columnist at Entrepreneur Magazine. Chris’s blog,[chrisbrogan.com], is in the Top 5 of the Advertising Age Power150.
Click on the following link to participate in the conversation by sharing your thought on the Future of Media
Some additional articles as to the future of the ad industry that may be of interest:
Welcome to my blog, FUEL LINES: The best business development tips, tactics, practices and trends to help ad agencies, PR firms and digital shops create a more clearly defined focus and differentiating business strategy.
Click here to listen to my experience using social media from an ad agency new business perspective, BlogTalkRadio interview conducted by Trey Pennington
Posted by Michael Gass 
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