The New Business Dingo

The following pledge (Stop The Adness) from Carton Donofrio Partners raises some interesting points about the current state of advertising - take a look at www.stoptheadness.org

"AN OPEN PLEDGE FROM PEOPLE WHO ADVERTISE STUFF TO PEOPLE WHO BUY STUFF", Carton Donofrio Partners

Doctors have the Hippocratic Oath, REALTORS® take the REALTORS Pledge and heck, even lawyers …

» Read on...

Reading New Business Intel this week, Todd Knutson raised an interesting point about the role of direct mail in this digital age for new business. I'm sharing his post below, and I'd have to agree that given the right circumstances, a highly targeted and relevant message, traditional direct mail can be highly effective as a part of a larger communications / …

» Read on...

Just in time for the holidays, and as you craft out your witty, insightful, results driven prospecting emails for 2010 comes the De-Jargonator.

We're all guilty of it in new business... using jargon to fit the conditioned mould around our peers and prospects alike. I found this in my inbox this morning and thought that the creators at Methodologie were onto something. 
 
Corporate communicators want engagement. Marketing communicators want to stand out from the competition. Neither will get what they want if their …

» Read on...

I’ve posted plenty of thoughts around the ongoing new business challenges that agencies face, but there is none more frustrating to hear each day than the one that is so simple to identify and ultimately to solve – ‘right fitting’ people for positions.

Agencies spend tens of thousands of dollars with recruiters and placement services to find new creative directors, copy writers and account directors. They spend hours upon hours scrutinizing …

» Read on...

I just got off my third call of the day where an agency principle stated that they’ve stopped all of their new business prospecting for the year because of the holidays. I beg your pardon?

Catapult’s clients and account teams know firsthand that this is one of the best periods of the year to be prospecting –

“What’s that? Oh you need to spend the remainder of …

» Read on...

Jim Smith, Chairman/Chief Cook & Bottlewasher of Ground Zero Advertising wrote a great Adweek article about navigating and advertising in this brave new digital age. He brings up some valid points that you can apply to both your clients, and future new business pitches. Enjoy.
 
Landing at JFK this week, I hopped into a spanking clean taxi, courtesy of that nice Mr. …

» Read on...

It's sometimes hard enough to lead new business directors who work a few feet away, let alone outsourced contractors with a different end game and who are in many cases hundreds, if not thousands of miles away. Such is the experience of a distraught agency owner who contacted me last week.

This agency owner had just terminated a contract with another outsourced new business agency after just six weeks and needed our help.

Why?

 “They …

» Read on...

I see my fair share of new business teams, both the good and one's that provide an opportunity for improvement… most days. So you can imagine my pleasant surprise when I sat in on a talk titled "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: How PJA Built a Three-Year Winning Streak (in Good Times and Bad)." at the Mirren New Business Conference back in April.

What I loved about their speech was the fact that they knew exactly who they were, …

» Read on...

I finished a call last night with one of our most successful clients, and during the call the CEO asked a very interesting question,
“Why are we seeing more success with Catapult than your average client? We appear to be exceeding the norm curve.”

Now, of course I’m thrilled to be asked the question, and my initial response was to suggest that the higher levels of success are due to a highly defined offer and positioning to the target audience, ongoing planning, and the …

» Read on...

You wouldn’t ask a Jackaroo* to provide legal advice, so why do agencies continue to force fit account managers into new business roles rather than hire trained professionals?

It’s no secret that most people fear that black box on their desk when it comes to using it as a new business tool, especially ad agency account people who’ve been tasked with the role of new business due to their recent decline in …

» Read on...

There's certainly no disputing that there are mixed emotions from agencies regarding the role and practices of search consultants.

We work with a wide variety of agencies nationally at Catapult that continually comment about the amount of resources required to participate in a search consultant run review. They also seek recommendations in terms of the types of filters that they should apply to each review that they're offered an opportunity to participate in.

Yesterday's article in Adweek, » Read on...

We’ve all heard of the “4 Ps of Marketing:” Product, Price, Placement and Promotion (and I would also add Positioning to this mix). Barry Lawence of BrandCottage would like to suggest that there are “7 Ps of Social Media Relations.” I think that these can be applied to ad agency new business, so I’ve edited them to be a little more relevant.

7 P’s of Social …

» Read on...