Bruce Springsteen & Perfect Pitch(ing)

Written by Stephen Boehler & Lindsay O’Neil I learned the most important lesson about new business pitching from record producer Jimmy Iovine. In 2013 I was a proud dad sitting in the audience at the University of Southern California’s commencement ceremony. The keynote speaker was famous music producer and co-founder of Beats headphones, Jimmy Iovine. […]
5 Questions about CMOs & the C-suite with Huge’s Matt Weiss

Matt Weiss, President of Huge Brooklyn, has already put together quite a storied career and he’s still an up and coming talent. With a background leading global accounts at McCann like Mastercard, serving as chief of staff at KBS+ and global agency CMO at Havas, Matt has seen it all and stopped for a few […]
Dooley Tombras on Connecting Data + Creativity for Business Results

Written by Stephen Boehler Dooley Tombras is a lot of things: third generation agency leader; a magnetic personality; passionate marketer; and boundlessly energetic. Recently, we spoke with Dooley about the path that took him and his agency to a very distinctive, successful positioning. The Tombras agency has been one of the fastest growing agencies in […]
The Current Agency-Client Business Environment and the Opportunity Ahead

Lately, we’ve been asked a number of questions on the current agency-client business environment. Agencies are eager to hear what clients are currently thinking. We’ve also been asked numerous questions about filling the pipeline. So, to be as helpful as possible, we thought we’d share what we’ve been hearing in our conversations with clients, what […]
Mark Figliulo on Storytellers for the Information Age

Mark Figliulo is not only one of the world’s most decorated and accomplished creatives, he’s as thoughtful and nice as they come. His FIG Agency has been growing rapidly since its inception and is routinely an AdAge A List firm. We were lucky to pry a few minutes of his time to hear him talk about positioning his agency for success.
10 Agency Biz Dev Tips

For several years the team at Mercer Island Group has been contributing to an annual “One Piece of Advice” publication on the topic of business development. Here are 10 of our best tips collected in one place: Don’t Be Generic “Teaching new business development folks in agencies to sound just like everyone else in the […]
How to Position Your Agency for New Business Success

Written by Steve Boehler & Barry O’Neil Today we’ll be looking at creating an effective positioning statement for your agency. Three Critical Aspects of Effective Differentiation While it’s impossible to create a completely original positioning statement (that is still clear and effective), the differentiators your agency already has can be combined to create a powerful […]
5 Tips for Presenting Your Solutions in a Pitch

Written by Steve Boehler & Barry O’Neil So you fought your way through the RFP process and finally have a chance to show off your solution in front of the prospect. In the lead-up, you hopefully did the hard work of analyzing their business challenges, finding rich insights to leverage, and developing a winning strategy. […]
Elements of a Great Case Study

Written by Stephen Boehler & Lindsay O’Neil Putting together an effective case study can seem like a daunting task. Instead of seeing it as a spotlight on your agency’s success, imagine it as template in which potential clients can start to see you as a possible partner to address their business issues. Imagine all the […]
Preparing for Business Recovery: Ensuring Your Website Is Prospect Friendly

In the face of what only can be characterized as constant change, agencies everywhere are implementing their own contingency plans. One way to navigate this new landscape is to enhance your agency’s new business development readiness for the eventual economic recovery. A key aspect of that readiness is to ensure that your agency’s website is […]