Creative Agency Secrets

Peter Eckert, projekt202

Chris Bernard, Microsoft

Kevin Flatt – Tribal DBB [agency of the year]
Brooke Nonberg – Pixel
Garrick Schmitt -Avenue A Razorfish
[I came because this session is supposed to be about the intersection of the traditional agency and the new online agency and how they and clients transition].

PE - if you are nimble it’ll be easy to move to this new paradigm.  The culture is changing and the internet is becoming mainstream and so this is the key for agencies with specialisations that fill a niche but others will find it hard to move out to this space.

CB – Any creative route or client if you don’t understand it you will risk falling behind and your voice stops being heard.  Step out and learn – recipe for continued evolutionary success.  

PE -it is going to be very hard to stay up with all the new social media outlets / trends…
BN – it comes down to ideas, she has seen powerful things from unexpected agencies.  There are wonderful things out there.  Either you have the client relationships and ideas or you let politics get in the way.   The team works hard together.
KF – Tribal was born out of DBB and the changing environment.  Because it is part of an organisation with a long history there was a lot of learning, transferred over.  Our medium is digital but we aren’t ignorant of the wider world of advertising.  Across all our offices we can see digital and all forms of communication.    The most interesting are the agencies that forget about the medium but focus on the communication and the engagement you seek.
GS – Creative ideas – you need a mastery of the data and the understanding of a user interacts with touchpoints and the influence of each.  How to change message and campaign structure to adapt to each one, and what people are saying online and on Facebook etc.  This medium is still evolving, data and how to make the judgements against it is native to the net and this platform and it will be harder for traditional agencies to apply their skills over to it.

BN – the net is just one channel not ALL the digital channels – there is so much.  The blood will be where people think it’s just about email or a website…. the consumer is moving through all these things all the time, they don’t stop.  There won’t be one single answer.  Authentic conversations within social media channels?  It is a dangerous space to push inappropriately into these channels – social media is something that you need to have a reason to be in… Insights come also from watching what they do as well as data and conversations with real people.   Take the tone and attitude and recognise it’s about sharing freedom of speech not pushing adverts.  

(more…)

Reading the holiday edition Economist, they add in a load of great "wider reading" articles including this one on Beauty and Success entitled "To those that have, shall be given".  Sub titled, ‘The ugly are one of the few groups against whom it is still legal to discriminate.  Unfortunately for them, there are good reasons why beauty and success go hand in hand.’

They surveyed salaries for men and women in a range of countries and found that beauty has a premium and ugliness is penalised around the salary norm. 

China:
men -25% and +3%
women - 31% and + 10%

Britain:
men - 18% and +1%
Women - 11% and +1%

USA / Canada:

men - 9% and +5%
women -6% and +4%

Quite telling!  But what made me laugh was that Dr Daniel Hamermesh of the university of Texas studied Dutch advertising firms and showed that those with the most beautiful executives had the largest size-adjusted revenues - a difference that exceeded the salary differentials of the firms in question. 

And so the lesson for 2008 is that if you want to grow your revenues, hire beautiful folk to work for you!

I have had three potential new customers approach me recently asking to work with me "for free" in order to try out what it may be like.

I am in two minds about this.  One of the difficulties about being freelance and working as an external consultant is that personalities matter and your customers generally like working with people they like.  Until they work with you they don’t know your style, the detail of your techniques or whether they like you.  [One of the difficulties is that what I do is not unique…. the base service is provided by many people-like-me but my expertise and experience is what delivers the unique service to my clients.  It’s hard to persuade everyone that this is the case and that it supplies them with better outcomes.]

And so to the freebies.  To do or not to do? 

I don’t have an answer.  To date I have said yes to two of the enquiries.  I facilitated a session for a City Law Firm and now have been asked by a listed PLC PR firm to give an hours talk to their business development teams. 
If I’m honest, both sessions have grated a bit.  But what do you do?  It is all about confidence. 

when you are building up your profile, sometimes you have to give a bit free (or just for expenses) in order to gain an audience.  But, once you are well known or more confident, a fee is entirely appropriate.

I have sliding scales of fees with different charges for large and small organisations and contra-deals for those who can offer me something in return that I value.  It’s worked well to date.

But back to the question.  Are they being cheeky?  Is this me being ignorant and taken advantage of?

P.S.  One has offered me a full list of internal department contacts who might buy my services with the understanding that I can pitch them afterwards.  This might be a useful contra that I can take up.

Designers will tell you that ‘themes’ emerge from different places at the same time and it is not unusual to see several similar designs arriving in the public domain simultaneously.

But have a look at the Skype adverts on the free London newspaper and  my client, Gabrielle Shaw Communications’ website…… uncanny?

Here’s Skype

        and here’s GSC - well the back of my business card.  And their website
- just click on the links nad see the "tree" develop and flow into new images at the margin.

BL Ochman has a lot to say about oneline marketing, but picking up on my earlier threads on the Deathe of PR she ably demonstrates where sheer bloody-mindedness is hampering some in the trade from moving with the times.

My favorite comment of the night, from a woman who works for Biz Bash and who refused to give me her name (What are you going to do? Write about me?"):

"people who read blogs aren’t very educated."

The bottom line on the meeting - there is still
discussion going on at high levels about whether and how PR and
marketing can work together. And whether or not bloggers are
journalists, or idiots. And about whether corporations should blah blah
blog.

Dear New Media consultants: any time you start to think that new
media is making inroads into corporate settings, think about these
fossils …. er, folks.

Now maybe that’s a strong position to take.  And she is in US.  But it resonates closely with what Richard Stacey and I were discussing in the lobby after the London Social Media Cafe prototyping meeting…. Some PR company clients will continue to buy old world PR.  There is a role for it.  Many will move onto other forms of online and offline communication - some DIY and others using broad marketing communications specialists [who may be PR agencies or other more integrated agencies].  But we both agree that everyone needs to research and consider the new social media world before making a decision on whether or not to participate.

Brave Lloyd and his motley crew met this morning to ‘prototype’ the London Social Media Cafe idea that’s been discussed a bit.  The idea is Space to Meet : Socialise : Work.  that’s it.

we met in the unlikely attic of a Baptist Church in Bloomsbury - fantastic group…
and we discussed the key things needed to make the project fly:

• governance and organisational structure
• location and space
• money
• constituency
• Projects to do there

I joined the governance / money group….

we need….

1. legal / accountancy advice about how to structure the entity [any offers?]
2. We think we know some funders / sponsors who want to get (PR, Branding in the space, sponsor an event, meet the members, opportunity to understand social media, be within the buzz)
3. space - short let offices, lease-endings and possibly approved squatting rights
4. Business plan for our vision and values, statement of aims.   

that’s it for now… a Google Group has been set up.  Join if you want to contribute.

Mark McGuinness and I are hosting a breakfast event on November 22nd in central London.

It may be of interest to anyone who has to go and win new business for their agency.  Here’s the detail.

These days winning a pitch is harder than ever – more agencies, longer ‘short’ lists, time delays. You need every advantage to ensure your pitch gets the best possible chance of succeeding.

One of the factors that may contribute to success is an awareness of the personalities on the client team – so that you can play your presentation to appeal to their comfort zones and core instincts. Your pitch can also be more effective if it appeals to the values at the heart of the client’s company and brand.

Come and hear respected Business Coach Mark McGuinness, in conversation with Rebecca Caroe, talking about the Enneagram system of personality types and core values – and how this can help your team win more pitches.

Breakfast on 22nd November will be at Piccolino, Heddon Street, London W1B 4BG Arrive from 7.45 and we’ll start promptly at 8 am and be finished by 9 with networking until 9.45.

Hosted by Rebecca Caroe, the event will be a conversation during which the issues of successful business development and personality typing will be discussed – followed by your questions. To register e-mail  And we’ll send you all the info, plus Mark’s e-book An Introduction to the Enneagram to thank you for your interest.

If you can’t come but would like a free copy of Mark’s e-book please e-mail us and ask for a copy.

Please feel free to forward this invitation to any agency friends or colleagues who may be interested.

Download enneagramflyer.pdf

[the event invitation]

Mark McGuinness works with agencies to get the best out of their people. Mark is a poet and a business coach specialising in the creative industries. He is a qualified psychotherapist and holds an MA in Creative & Media Enterprises from the University of Warwick. His areas of expertise include creativity and managing and developing creative teams. He uses the Enneagram to help clients with a range business issues.
Mark’s coaching blog

A recurring theme in my blog posts.  This time the criminal is Haymarket, the principal publications owner for our industry.

For some reason, trying to read Charlie Hoult and Rory Sutherland’s blogs on the Brand Republic Site this morning… Apparently my login is no longer valid.
Curious.
My print subscription still arrives.

Then it says send a password reminder…. not working either my email is not recognised.

Recognising there’s an issue coming up the site suggests

This email address is not currently registered with Brand Republic.  Please check you have typed it correctly

This is bollocks as I’ve been online on BR for years.  Same email address, same password.
No link to an email for the mythical administrator, no link to a contacts page, no apparent means of contacting.  GRRR

on Contacts page I get a long list of people (mostly in ad sales) NONE of which are administrators for everything.

I am tempted to email Rufus Olins, the Managing director of Haymarket Brand Media

When you see what you think is a holding page on a website what do you think?

Take a look here

and here

Which looks like a holding page and which is just crass arrogance?  How gorgeous and famous do you need to be in this world before you don’t actually need a website at all?

Are they courageous, confident or blind?

These are things I enjoy and so do well.  I’ve done most of them many times and can give you references, if you need.

In no particular order….

1 - Mentoring and coaching anyone with business development responsibility or who has to collaborate with biz dev to do their job better and get results

2 - Moving the whole company to an Enterprise 2.0 operation.  This is a more open relationship with its customers and prospects though using web 2.0 techniques (for yourselves not clients) and creating the open culture internally that enables outsiders to recognise the ‘personality’ of the agency - bypassing traditional outbound communication methods

3 - Facilitating an away day for a client or your senior team

4 - Improving your new business methods and, particularly, pitching

5 - Running a training session on "New business for non-new biz people"