I wrote this post by the pool. Not by my pool — I don’t have one — but by a pool. It was 104 degrees. Since I recently left behind big New York agency life to focus exclusively on writing and consulting, I’m able to do that — work by pools. I can work when I want, how I want. And I’ve noticed I get more done, better.
You’ve heard this common theme repeated by your parents, your teachers, your managers … even your significant others: It’s up to you to take ahold of the opportunities presented and make something of them.
The problem is that opportunities usually equal choosing the hard thing. It’s much easier to stay constant on the current path, walking with the wind rather than against it.
When every new knick-knack on the block is labeled “disruptive” within an hour of its launch, how do we know if something actually breaks new ground?
Years ago, my Ammirati & Puris colleagues presented a final version of a television commercial we were creating for Compaq Computer (now a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard) to a gathering of client contacts.
The spot was good, but it was a bit dark, a point made to us by one of our lead clients. The possibility of a reshoot, at agency expense, hung ever so ominously in the air. That’s when one of the Compaq people we were working with, Jack Todd, spoke up.
Marketing agencies across the U.S. are in the midst of a revenue boom. In 2015, agency revenue increased 6.5% to a record $46.8 billion. This means more hiring, more promotions, and more new leaders trying to find their footing in the challenging agency landscape.
You’ve probably wished at some point that you had a pocket translator that could give you the real meaning behind a client’s vague, inoperative feedback. It shouldn’t feel like a high-stakes guessing game, right?
“Non-creative behavior is learned.” – George Land
In one of the most frequently cited studies on creativity, NASA-backed researcher George Land evaluated a group of kindergarten-aged children using a simple creativity assessment he’d designed to identity divergent thinking in engineers.
What he discovered continues to surprise people today.
New business is everything, right? Wrong!
While new business is obviously important, there’s something else you should be laser-focused on to drive more long-term revenue: retention.
What KPIs are other agency owners tracking? What should my profit margin be? How many clients do I need to make $X per year? What sources generate the most and best leads?
Marketers spend a lot of time trying to nail down abstract concepts. They’re tasked with turning brainstorming sessions and comments sourced during focus groups into campaigns that sum up everything about a brand’s identity in a neat, tidy, and most importantly, interesting way.
I’ve been writing proposals for over a decade, and it’s probably fair to say that I loathed the entire process for the longest time. I worried that I was just “making it all up.” I’d second guess every word I wrote, and of course, I was petrified of the inevitable rejection. Unfortunately, many creative folks feel the same: “If I’m not a veritable Shakespeare with the quill and ink, then I don’t stand a chance”.
Imagine yourself sitting across the table from a prospective client’s CEO at a coffee shop. She’s engaged, ready to listen, and apparently in a positive state of mind. This is a marketer’s dream situation; you feel that any question is fair game and honest answers will be forthcoming. If you could ask her just one question to qualify her business for your services, what would it be?
Every day, 112.4 billion business emails fly around the world. That’s 122 emails sent and received every day per person. Despite the growth of other online communication channels, email continues to multiply. Which means people (including client-type people) are searching for reasons to ignore emails that don’t need their attention so they can focus on messages and tasks that do.
Every agency professional knows that sinking feeling — you pursued what you thought was a warm lead for weeks, only to have them pass on your services. You don’t understand where it all went wrong. Your agency has a lot to offer, so why aren’t any of your prospects taking the bait?
