Better! Faster! Cheaper!: 102 Tips for Improving Agency Performance

By Vivek Kuchibhotla

The Agency business has been struggling for the last decade and everyone is looking for solutions. In this book you will find 102 different answers. Some are big picture observations. Others are common sense tips. There are thoughtful observations and insightful approaches. Most of all, it is a call to go back to the nuts and bolts of the business in order to find a way forward.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468557015

Vivek Kuchibhotla

Vivek Kuchibhotla is the Founder of BFC Ideas, a Consultancy that helps its Clients to get to better Ideas, and to do so faster, and cheaper. Vivek has a unique perspective on the Ideas Business. He has been a “creator”, a “buyer” and a “seller” of Ideas. He has been an “insider” and an “outsider” at major Agencies and Corporations and has a keen understanding of the issues that surround the generation and implementation of Ideas. Vivek has spent the last decade conducting workshops and seminars with hundreds of different Agencies and Advertisers, and on four continents. He has worked with Agencies to help them strengthen their Idea Generation and Selling skills. He has helped them improve their Account Management function. He has helped them fine-tune their strategic thinking skills and their New Business operations. Prior to his work as a Consultant, Vivek spent ten years in Account Management at Leo Burnett, working on major Accounts such as Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s and Kellogg. He also worked on smaller local accounts in different countries. Vivek also worked in Brand Management at Unilever, Kellogg and S.C. Johnson. Vivek and his family live in Chicago, Illinois. He can be contacted at [e-mail] or through the www.bfcideas.com website.

Book preview

NEW BUSINESS

If you are not growing you are dying

In the Agency business you are always two phone calls away from a catastrophe.

This sounds paranoid but it is the truth. Accounts are lost constantly and for many reasons, some fair, some not. But every loss is painful.

Sometimes the Agency is struggling on the Account and you can see it coming. This allows you to plan for it.

All too often it comes as a complete surprise.

It can be caused by a gigantic merger that brings your Account into conflict.

There may be a change in Management at your Client.

Technology or geographic competition can wipe out industries.

Or it can be because one of your people really lost it and said or did something really stupid.

On the other side of the coin, winning new business is like advertising Viagra.

It makes you feel great and even though it brings its own set of issues, these are good problems to have.

It could be argued that nothing is more important for survival and growth than new business success. The issue lies in the fact that all Agencies know this and the new business wars are brutal.

Little things are often the difference between winning and losing.

So here are a few tips that can help.

Tip # 1: Beware the Credentials Template

Consumers are exposed to campaigns for Brands and the hope is that they will be persuaded that the Brand is the best in the category. Campaigns that are truly different and memorable have the best chance of working.

Agency Credentials are like a campaign for the Agency and the target is the new business prospect. The objective is to persuade him that this is the best Agency for his needs.

Unfortunately, too many Agency Credentials follow the same template:

Our Clients: Look at all the blue chips that we work with and the different categories we understand.

Our Proprietary Planning Process: It is a foolproof guide to winning ideas in all media. And none of our competitors has anything like it.

Our Case Studies: Look at how we have built many different brands in many different situations.

Our Network: We can seamlessly and quickly transfer learning across categories and geographies.

Local Agencies: We understand this market better than any multinational and we do not need approval from New York or London. Our Management has full authority.

Our Reel: We have lots of award winning spots but we also know that awards are not really that important.

If yours look like this, you are not helping yourself. After seeing three or four iterations, your Clients are slowly being convinced that Agencies are commodities. Since they are all the same, they may as well go with the cheapest one.

If you want your new business operation to take off, get off the credentials template and do something different, exciting and truly persuasive.

It is what you would recommend to your Client.

Tip # 2: Avoid the if only syndrome

Everyone has lived through this nightmare.

The pitch presentation is tomorrow. In the rehearsal something just does not feel right. The team works until late at night to get it right. At 4am you have a couple of options. None of them wows you but have no more time. You choose one and then go home to take a quick shower before the pitch.

In the pitch, you can sense that things are not going well.

If only you could have… You feel terrible about the whole experience and vow that next time it will be different.

And the same thing happens again.

Here is an easy way to make the "if only" problems go away.

When you are planning out the timetable for pitch preparation, plan for major changes of direction. Leave a full 25% of the time for rehearsals and revisions.

Make sure it is not negotiable.

This will ensure several things:

There will be sufficient time to fully develop that second round of ideas that come out of the first review.

You will be able to structure your presentation around the second set of ideas and do it properly.

If there are no changes of direction, this will give you even more time to rehearse and prepare. It is often HOW you present your work, more than the work itself that tilts the pitch in your direction.

Think of planning for the last minute changes as planning to win.

Tip # 3: Figure out what the real problem is

When the Agency is invited to a pitch it is usually given a brief and asked to come up with a Creative solution. The Team spends almost all of its time and resources to come up with a solution to this problem.

However, solving this problem might not be the real key to winning the pitch.

There are many reasons why an Advertiser might decide to move his account… And most often, these reasons are not written into the brief.

Here are a few potential ones:

Account Management is weak. There is no strategic leadership.

The Client’s business is declining. Business as usual is not working.

The Client’s business requires fast and cheap. The Agency is slow and costly.

The Client has one opinion on what Creative for his Brand should be. The Agency has another. He no longer wants to argue.

There are people issues. Key Client players do not like to work with key Agency folks.

Understanding the real reason for the move can help the Agency serve up its solution in the right way. While the Agency will explicitly present its solution to the brief, it implicitly, but clearly spells out its solution to the real problem.

The Agency that figures out and solves the real problem will normally win the Account.

Tip # 4: Drive home your differential benefit

When Agencies work on Client brands, one of the first things they ask their Client is-

What does your Brand stand for?

Typically the Client will offer up a couple of different things and this will spark a second request.

"Try to be single minded. What is the one thing your Brand stands for?"

The Agency will then build a complete marketing program based on this benefit.

This is the right way to operate but what’s good for the goose is also good for the gander.

So ask yourself the question—What does the Agency Brand stand for?

Here are some suggestions-

A great retail/CPG/durable goods Agency.

The most creative or strategic shop in the country.

The brand building Agency.

The most tech savvy Agency in the market.

The most service oriented Agency in the world.

There are many different positions in the market and the Agency can be anything it wants.

However, once it chooses what it stands for, it needs to build this into its new business program and drive it home in pitches.

It would do it for its Clients and it should do no less for itself.

Tip # 5: Unleash the power of focus

Psychologists and self-help experts understand the power of focus.

They will tell you that when you focus on making something happen, the chances of it becoming reality are much, much greater. People are capable of great feats if they set their minds to it or if they feel that they can benefit from it.

Men who have never run marathons do so all the time.

Regular people who do not believe they will get through Boot Camp become soldiers.

In an Agency there are usually only a small group of people that focus on new business. The President, the New Business VP, and maybe a department head or two are committed to bring in new accounts.

Everyone else worries about their existing accounts only. While this is good, it is not good enough.

You need to get everyone focused on New Business.

A good way to address this is to set a new business objective for every Account Director and Creative Director in the Agency who is responsible for a piece of business.

The objectives can be any of the following:

More revenue from existing accounts.

Another Brand from existing Clients.

A complementary account.

You can also make up others and let your people figure out how to achieve them.

Importantly, develop a bonus program for the Account/Creative Director for each piece of new business won.

You will get a lot of smart people focusing on new business and your chances of winning some will greatly increase.

Tip # 6: Pick your prospects

When Agencies work on Client brands, one of the first things they ask their Client is-

Who is your target?

Typically the Client will offer up a primary and a secondary target and this will spark a second request.

Try to be single minded. Who is the core target?

The Agency will then build a complete marketing program