Phil's Blog

Consulting For You -- A Fourth Anniversary

This blog celebrates its fourth anniversary this month. Hooray!

To celebrate, here is my very first blog post from November 2005:

“My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.” --Peter F. Drucker After I retired from 30 years at General Mills, Six Flags and, on the agency side, from Campbell-Mithun (Minneapolis) and my own advertising agency partnerships, I traveled, I relaxed and I taught for a semester at the University of Florida. But I became a little bored. What to do? I love capitalism and, especially, marketing and advertising. So I became a part-time marketing consultant, part-time retiree. In the first two years of this new consulting career, I have been hired to coordinate ad agency (and PR firm) reviews. I have also helped advertisers (aka "clients") to negotiate better, often less expensive compensation agreements. I love it. If you and your management want to improve your marketing, conduct an agency review, negotiate a better compensation agreement, please call or email me. Let’s talk. Thank you. Phil Schwartz

How Much Should You Pay Your Agency

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it." --Samuel Johnson In the last 2 years, I have helped negotiate and advised on over a hundred advertiser-agency agreements. Without exception, my advice is based on the surveyed experience of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). (Not available publicly.) While it is true that ANA members tend to spend more than $50 million annually in advertising, smaller advertiser contracts are following the same trends for compensation and other content in these agreements. Thus, my advice yields agreements that are fair, equitable and complete. If you are an advertiser that is happy with your agency but unsure of your agreement, I am available for a review of terms and compensation levels. If you are an agency that wishes to update the terms and compensation methods of your “standard” agency agreement, I can help as well. [Of course, I only represent one side in any (re)negotiation. While I advise at every point, I seldom do the actual negotiating.] Email me your number for a private review or initial discussion. I would be pleased to speak with you. Phil

The Absolute Best Ad Agency Web Site, Bar None

In many of the Business Building seminars I conduct for advertising agency management, I am asked what agency sites I admire and believe to be most effective.

I am careful to be objective, so I provide several examples, usually from agencies outside my principal geographical area of work. One who advises clients on their agency reviews must not show bias.

Since the agency whose site I hold in such high regard is not likely to compete in the reviews I do, there is no loss of objectivity. 

Please email me (including your name, title and direct business contact information). I will email you back today with the URL.

Phil

Coming tomorrow: The absolute best ad agency site on the Web.

You will agree. 

Tomorrow, I will reveal what is absolutely, positively the best Web site of any advertising agency in the United States, its possessions, outlying islands and much of the rest of the world.

But there's a catch. You will have to email me to get the link. See how lead-building is done?

Phil

To Be Digital or Not To Be

Report from the agency search front:

Lately, when ad agencies claim capabilities in digital products, the question is not whether you create iPhone apps. It's -- How many have you created / are you creating?

Phil

The Biggest Mistake Agencies Make In Reviews

"That guy impressed me and I am not easily impressed. Oh, look. A blue car!"

-Homer Simpson When competing for new business, advertising agencies make presentations to potential advertiser clients to win the business. Far and away, there is one mistake made that cinches they will not win. Selection committees sense it (even if they cannot articulate it) and vote in favor of another agency. Losing agencies receive the rejection without even realizing exactly why they were not selected to move further in the evaluation process. What's more, they are doomed to repeat the mistake again and again. What is this enormous error? What are other mistakes and overlooked items by agencies in reviews? And what can be added to current new business approaches to increase the chances of winning? For a flat fee, I offer a full day at your agency to conduct a business building discussion where errors and omissions of agencies in presentations, materials, RFP responses and more are revealed. Including the biggest mistake of all. E me. Phil

And Now For The Really Bad News

Agency hourly rates are dropping. Precipitously.

The latest ones that I've seen are between $30 and $40 per hour. Really. 

Sure, you can say you're better and, therefore, more expensive. However, put yourself in the client's seat. How much more would YOU pay?

For actual ad agency solutions to deal with this, e me.

Phil

Microsoft Chooses "Follow" Again

"Lead, follow or get out of the way." - Thomas Paine

Microsoft chooses "follow." As Microsoft and Yahoo announce their 10-year search deal, we are reminded again of the reactive, not innovative culture of Microsoft. 

Lead by a the uninspiring Steve Ballmer, the company achieves second place once again. Sometimes, they seem to shoot for third. 

They missed Search the first and second time around opening the door for Google and Yahoo. They copied the iPod five years to the month after it was introduced by Apple with Zune. They purchased Razorfish and droves of the Web's best minds fled that company. (Now it's up for sale.) X Box is not leading although they briefly benefited when competitors couldn't deliver more popular game systems to the market. And let's not talk about wistful Vista.

I guess the mistake is to assume that Microsoft wants to lead. Clearly, they don't. If you were Google would you be shaking in your shoes? Probably not.

So, to remind myself of their firm commitment to refrain from innovation, I shall apply that lower case style of so many digitally savvy folks and spell their name microsoft. Shh. Whisper it from now on.

Results of the Great Compression

"A penny saved is worthless."                                                                        - Dave Barry

It's worthwhile trying to figure out what the business world will be like after this economic downturn ends in 2012. (I always add two years beyond what politicians and economists predict since they're never right.) Other than runaway inflation, of course, here are some recent thoughts.

1. A.O.R. no mo. Agency of record agreements and agency of record-type relationships will vanish like agency commissions have. This has implications for new business efforts.

2. Acquisitions of Twitter and other social nets will become the inevitable result of not being able to monetize them. Google and others will package services and charge for the bundle.

3. Words such as "Sale" and "Special" will be largely ineffective in retail advertising. Companies must find some other way to compel consumers to visit stores. Did you know that in 2008, 8900 retailers closed their doors for good? That figure is likely to increase for 2009.

4. Many companies and agencies doing business as usual will soon not be doing business at all. There are ways to save them if the right steps are taken. Sadly, most are just treading water.

5. New Ways to Win Business will become my next business building seminar. Sign up for yours.

E.T. phone, er, Google home.

Welcome to Brand Central. We've got your number.

Google is hoping to revolutionize phone and messaging communication with an extraordinary new organization of mobile connections where one number fits all.

Like any new technology, it'll come in fits and starts. As a service to loyal readers, this is about the starts. Google will handle the fits.

So, are in good voice? Great. 

Are you in Google voice? If not, boys and girls, you should sign up here: Phil sent me and I'm glad he did.

Don't let someone get your number.