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If You Were an Animal…

How Inbound Agencies Fit Into the Marketing Services Ecosystem Jungle

John McTigue

Kuno Creative

Fun fact: Owner and Sanitary Manager of 2 horses, 1 donkey, 2 dogs and 5 cats…

@jmctigue

John MCTIGUE

1  It’s a Jungle Out There!

2  Lions and Tigers and Bears…

3  What Do Our Customers Want?

4  How Can We Survive, and Thrive?

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It’s a jungle out there!

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Welcome to the jungle!

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2 Lions and Tigers and Bears… Oh My!

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LIONS

Family Lovers Hunt in Packs Never Wasteful

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Tigers

Work Alone Selective Specialists Aggressive

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Bears

Eat Anything Top of the Food Chain Fun Loving, Playful

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Which species are you?

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Which species are you?

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1  Inbound Marketing Agency – Lean and Mean!

2  Specialty focus: industry, discipline, location

3  Creative is often outsourced, strategy insourced

4  We work alone – keep clients to ourselves on retainer

5  Growing, highly competitive sector, $1-10m revenues

How to Be a Tiger

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“We're 10 minutes outside of NYC and it seems like weekly we meet with big prospects and we go up against some of the biggest traditional agencies in the country for new business. I don't fear those agencies... I think they fear us.”

- Jason Diller, The DSM Group

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U.S. agency revenue increased 3.7% to $39.1 billion in 2013

- AdAge

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1  “Boutique” agency – do 1 or 2 things VERY WELL

2  Emphasis on creative

3  Go-to agency for one or more Bears

4  Often work together under Bear Management

5  60-100+ employees, $20-100m revenues

How to Be a Lion

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“I believe the [large] ad agencies do a tremendous job of creative and campaign ideation and as a smaller agency we can't hope to compete for that type of business. We have had a lot of success actually working alongside these agencies to help them quantify the campaign itself and how effective it was.”

- Drew Himel, The DSM Group

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1  Agency of Record for large brands

2  NYC, LA, Chicago, Miami, London, Paris…

3  Billions in revenues (Omnicon – $9.74b)

4  Clients come to you (or at least they used to…)

5  Lion Tamers!

How to Be a Bear

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“I have collaborated with several larger agencies - some traditional and broad-based, others that are very vertical in a particular channel - and if they're open to the idea of aligning creative product with business results, then they'll listen.”

- Ilene Rosenthal, White Space Marketing Group

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3 What do our customers want?

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Over 45% want more choice in agencies.

Source: RSW/US 2014

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•  Clarify your goals

•  Evaluate several agencies

•  Large or small agency?

•  Craft an effective RFP

•  See their work

•  Seek compatible work processes

•  Require references

•  Compare pricing & deliverables

Clients are learning…

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Over 50% rate agency specialty as very important.

Source: RSW/US 2014

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“Agencies lose their way because they don't know what business to say 'no' to. I think too often in our business a scarcity mindset exists and we say yes to crappy work. We have found that the more intentional we've become about the type of work we know we can hit out of the park, the more success we experience.”

- Tiffany Sauder, Element Three

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It used to be marketers sought advertising ideas. Now they just want ideas.

Maureen Morrison, AdAge

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4 How will we survive, and thrive?

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Maybe we need to change our stripes…

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Get your client service act together þ Know when to look it up; know when to

make it up

þ What happens when I screw up?

þ Respect what it takes to do great creative

þ  In a high-tech world, be low-tech

þ Be brief, be bright, be gone

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Results are more than numbers…

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Pitch and sell ideas, not programs þ Workshop to Get to Know You

þ Base Retainer to Hire You

þ Pitch New Ideas Each Month

þ Get Creative With the Pitch

þ Put Time & Money Into It

þ  Involve Your Sales Team

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" Think like a Lion or at least change your stripes!

" Reach out to other Tigers and Lion Agencies

" Get your client service act together

" Pitch like a pro – or learn how

It’s up to you…

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QUESTIONS ?

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