Four tips on building more effective client-agency relationships
The advertising business is a people business. Partnership and respect is the crux of this incredibly important, sometime volatile and often emotionally charged relationship. Smart clients and agencies keep communication lines open and clear while working consistently to keep the relationship on track. Strong partnerships between clients and their agencies produce the best work and […]
How to Fix Marketing Leader Tenure: Develop Effective Proxies
When SpencerStuart released their annual CMO Tenure Study earlier this year, we saw a continued decline in average CMO tenure. Average tenure declined to its lowest point since 2009, and median tenure fell to 25.5 months, the lowest on record. Source: Mediapost, 2021 And it’s not just CMO tenure that has been challenged. Major agencies […]
What CMOs can learn from Marvel’s Black Widow mess
Marvel’s Black Widow actress Scarlett Johansson recently sued Walt Disney Co. alleging that the studio breached her contract by concurrently releasing Black Widow in theaters and on Disney+. The suit argues that Disney’s decision cost the actor millions as her compensation for the film was based largely on box office receipts. The lawsuit led to […]
From Campbells to Starbucks to Zillow Group: key learning for marketers and agencies (The Aimee Johnson Story)
What can a modern marketer learn from CPG brands? From the Starbucks experience? From modern data driven marketing at Zillow Group? Aimee Johnson, CMO at Zillow Group, knows! She knows because Campbells to Starbucks to Zillow Group is her story. Aimee has been making quite a few waves recently. She was recently named to Ad […]
Key takeaways for CMOS and agency leaders from Salesforce’s State of Marketing 2021 Research
The team at Salesforce recently released their 7th annual State of Marketing research report. This eagerly awaited research covers the opinions of 8,200 global marketing leaders. The research is filled with interesting data and trends – and you can get a free copy from Salesforce at the link provided later in this post. And I […]
A Tip For CMOs as Agency Reviews Heat Up: Don’t Hire Agency Search Consultants if They Charge Agencies
We recently received an email from a major global agency with the following passage: “I wanted to reach out to talk about partnering with Mercer Island Group on a more formal basis. Do you have anything you can share around how you like to partner with agencies and how you structure the partnership fees?” How […]
Jae Goodman on What Marketers Can Learn From Entertainment Marketing
I first met Jae Goodman back in the early 2000s during his Hal Riney & Partners days. Jae was in his early thirties and was already ECD of that venerable agency. He and I shared a key client — the Sprint business. Sprint was a tough brand challenge in a tough market with a very […]
How P&G Execs Historically Role Modeled Customer Intimacy
Last week I wrote about how, as a young brand marketer at Procter & Gamble, word spread around the company that CEO John Smale would listen to tapes of consumer calls everyday in his car on his drive home in the evening. The. CEO. Listening to consumer calls. That was astounding! I wrote about how soon after, many Brand Managers were mimicking Mr. Smale’s behaviors. We found out that […]
CEOs, CMOs and Agency Leaders Should Role Model Customer Intimacy
When I was a young brand marketer at Procter & Gamble, word spread around the company that CEO John Smale would listen to tapes of consumer calls every day in his car on his drive home in the evening. John G. Smale, Former P&G President, CEO and Board Chair The. CEO. Listening to consumer calls. […]
Build a Better Agency Summit (Chicago, August 10 & 11, 2021)
Is your agency as successful as you’d like? Do you dream of more? There are thousands of marketing agencies in the United States. Advertising agencies, digital agencies, media agencies, PR agencies and more. Most are not growing as much as they’d like or making as much profit as desired. How can you stand out? How […]