Archives for October 2010

Prophetic Words from David Ogilvy to Ad Agencies, Sell or Else

A lot of agencies are out of tune with the business of advertising and that is disastrous for new business.

David Ogilvy, often called, “The Father of Advertising,” In 1962, Time called him “the most sought-after wizard in today’s advertising industry.” In this video Ogilvy offers some prophetic advise to ad agencies that is very relevant for today.  A reminder that we are in the business of selling.

Ogilvy & Mather was built on David Ogilvy’s principles, that the function of advertising is to sell and that successful advertising for any product is based on information about its consumer.… Continue reading

Filed Under: Agency Leadership Tagged With: , , , ,

Content Marketing: Use the Inverted Pyramid Style of Writing

Inverted pyramid style of writing

The inverted pyramid style of writing works as a guide to consistently produce appealing online content that creates new business leads.  

This is a journalistic style of writing which shows how information is prioritized and structured in a text. The most important information is placed in the lead paragraph, with the additional information appearing in an order of importance. Besides being a common practice among news writers it is adaptable to other kinds of writing such as blogs.

… Continue reading
Filed Under: Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Content Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Ad Agency New Business: 7 Traits Event Organizers Need From Speakers

Speaking at special events, seminars and conferences will provide positioning as a thought leader and a boost to new business opportunities for your agency.

To facilitate more of these opportunities its important for you to understand and meet the needs of event organizers. Here are 7 traits that event organizers need and will appreciate:

1. Promote the event. Event organizers will be more adapt to invite you as a guest speaker if they see you how you promote other events.… Continue reading

Filed Under: Agency Leadership, Agency Presentations, Best Practices, New Business Trends, Special Events

How to launch a blog for ad agency for new business — fast!

launch ad agency blog fast

Agencies can’t afford to wait 6 months for social media to help generate new business, they need the business now.

An agency blog serves as the central component for your agency’s social media strategy.  I’ve compiled my suggested best practices to help you to get your agency’s blog up, focused and running quickly as well as rapidly building your agency’s credibility within this space.

An agency blog is like fishing. You want to fish for a particular fish, with a particular bait and you want to get the bait away from the boat so you don’t scare off the fish.

… Continue reading
Filed Under: Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Content Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Copeland Communications: Best Ad Agency Blog of the Month

Congratulations to Doug Brown, Steve Dagg and their team at Copeland Communications, Victoria, BC. Their blog, “We Make It All Better“, was selected by Fuel Lines’ readers as the Ad Agency Blog of the Month for September with 66% of the votes cast.

“We labor over our blog to offer you our knowledge and share our passion. Perhaps it’s this that led us to be nominated for Agency Blog of the month, or perhaps it’s our love of Zombies?”

… Continue reading
Filed Under: Agency Blogs Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

CNN Study: Commerciality of social media fast becoming apparent

CNN’s inaugural global research study (POWNAR) reveals important benefits for advertisements attached to news stories that are shared in social media.

“The commerciality of the social media space is fast becoming apparent and this study means that for the first time, we are able to substantiate the value of shared news from an advertising perspective” -Didier Mormesse, SVP, Ad Sales Research, Development & Audience Insight at CNN International

Here are a few of the interesting highlights of the study that should be of interest to ad agencies:

  • What content is being shared?
… Continue reading
Filed Under: New Business Trends, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design That Hurt Ad Agency New Business

ten website mistakes

Usability is a critical success factor for websites. If yours isn’t easy to use it is a very poor reflection of your agency and prospects will simply leave it.

I’ve written this often, a good creative rational for your agency’s website is that it should become your agency’s online brochure. It is he place where your work resides along with your agency’s capabilities and credentials. It must be user-friendly.

Web design expert, Jakob Nielsen states that, “Web design is not a matter of taste or aesthetics — it’s a matter of science … what we actually know from our studies is that the average user experience on the Web is that of failure.”

… Continue reading
Filed Under: Agency Blogs, Best Practices, Digital Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

25 Ad Agency Blogs, Choose the Best that Understands Social Media

Review and decide which of these 24 agency blogs best understands and utilizes the popularity of social media.

The following agency blogs have been submitted to Fuel Lines. Review and vote for the best agency blog-of-the-month. The winner will be featured in Fuel Lines article and included in the voting for agency blog of the year.

Cast your VOTE by Clicking Here

The agency blogs submitted for the month of September:

  1. 5 to 9 Branding, Cameron Christopher Thomas Advertising, Denver, CO
  2. B2B Ideas @ Work, MLT Creative, Metro Atlanta, GA
  3. Bill’s B2 Blog, Mintz & Hoke Communications Group, Avon, CT
  4. Digitally Approved, Fanscape Inc.,
… Continue reading
Filed Under: Agency Blogs Tagged With: , , ,

10 Ways to Create An Ad Agency Blog That is Reader-Centric

A key to your agency’s blog success for new business is to put the user’s experience ahead of your own.

People don’t have time to work hard for their information. You must be prepared to do some work on their behalf if you want to grow your blog’s traffic and generate inbound leads.

Success on the Internet depends on multiplying the number of people who will visit a home page times the proportion who actually enlist your services –the percentage who become clients.… Continue reading

Filed Under: Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Content Marketing, Inbound Marketing, New Business Trends, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

5 Tips for Handling Social Media Negativity for Ad Agency New Business

You can’t let a few negative people dictate how you use social media for ad agency new business.

Unless you are Rush Limbaugh, most of us don’t enjoy having others say negative things about us. We have a desire to be liked. But please know that if  you participate in social media you are guaranteed to get some negative comments. The larger your followers, the more negative comments you can expect.

Some of this negativity can be very rude and nasty.… Continue reading

Filed Under: Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, Social Media Tagged With: , , ,