Three Books CMOs & Agency Leaders Should Read in 2021
CMOs and agency leaders have much in common. A shortage of free time and difficulty adding to their own skillsets is one of those similarities. To help, here are three books that we think all senior marketers and agency execs should read early this year. how not to plan by Les Binet & Sarah Carter […]
Turn Your Biz Dev Efforts Upside Down for Growth & Profit
Agencies everywhere are finding business development to be a greater and greater challenge. Unfortunately, the business development strategies of many agencies are not up to the challenge. Unattainable growth rates are often needed to achieve agency growth objectives The investment required and the low odds of winning pitches is debilitating The stress on organic growth […]
Another One Bites the Dust: Modern Agencies Fail to Differentiate
WPP announced a few days ago that venerable agency Grey would be folded underneath AKQA. Another one bites the dust. Grey – founded in 1917 – isn’t the first historic brand to be purchased by a holding company and eventually retired. Just a sampling of agencies that have disappeared or been merged into other brands […]
Strategic S̶e̶l̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ Dating for Agencies
“I hate selling.” I hear that so often from agency owners and agency leaders. I especially hear it from junior agency staffers. I think the key to moving away from “I hate selling” is to move to “I love helping others succeed.” As I think about agency success, it’s my experience that the most successful […]
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. […]
Jeff Goodby on Art Serving Capitalism
Jeff Goodby needs very little introduction! Jeff wrote for the Harvard Lampoon before working with Hal Riney at Ogilvy & Mather. Jeff and his friend Rich Silverstein started GS&P in 1983. Since then, the two have won just about every advertising award imaginable. And yes, Jeff was the guy who originally wrote “got milk?” Jeff […]
A Prospect-Centric Approach to Pitch Prep That Wins
At Mercer Island Group, we have had the privilege to sit in on hundreds of agency pitches. We’ve seen first-hand what works and what doesn’t, and how clients evaluate and select agencies. So often, the agencies lose the clients less than ten minutes into a pitch. Why? The focus is on the agency and not on the […]
A Winning Written Proposal
Written proposals. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: if only prospective clients knew how much time and effort agencies put into these babies. The sad truth; they have no idea. And, honestly, many clients don’t read them all the way through. At the same time, however, a written proposal or written RFI response […]
Before You Pitch, Pick the Right Team
Prospects hate bait and switch, where an agency sends a pitch team full of senior, experienced and talented presenters who, after winning a piece of business, are never seen again. Several years ago we saw “the largest media agency in the country” send the same pitch team to three different clients in six months. The […]
Bringing Your Case Studies to Life: The 5 Sections
Written by Barry O’Neil and Lindsay O’Neil Case studies can be among the most important pieces of any written submission to an RFI/RFP. At MIG, we always ask for case studies in written RFI responses, and collectively they carry the highest point total in our grading. We’ve seen our fair share of case studies over […]
