Monthly Archives: September 2012

Ideally, any agency you bring on board will treat every day like the first day of a new relationship. They’ll be strategic leaders for your business. They’ll forever be bringing new ideas to the table. They’ll be passionate and enthusiastic about...
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A question that often comes up from Marketers looking for new marketing agencies. Do we look for one firm that can do it all, or should we get firms that specialize in particular areas (like digital) so we have a...
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Just sat through an afternoon of two pitch presentations by two different agencies.  Third one is today. No Advantages Given Prior to the presentation, all three agencies were given very specific requirements that they needed to address during the presentations. And prior...
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Nobody ever likes switching out marketing agency firms. In our surveys, marketers tell us it’s one of their least favorite things to do. Takes up a lot of time, they really don’t know where to turn, and they’re never quite...
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“I only want an agency that has all their capabilities in-house!” An oft demanded requirement of marketers when looking for a new marketing services firm. Problem is there aren’t that many firms out there that do an excellent job of...
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“Digital at the core” “We’re 360 degrees in our focus” “We are media agnostic” “We are fully integrated” All things I’ve heard many hundreds of times when talking with agencies across the US. What does it mean to integrate?  And...
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How is your agency doing? Earlier this year we launched the Marketing Agency Benchmarker – a tool that Marketers can use to determine how well their agency is or is not delivering relative to other agencies in the market –...
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What really makes a good marketing agency GREAT? Is it expertise? Is it their location? Is it category experience? Is it how many awards they’ve won? Is it how fun the agency principals and staff are? Is it because they always...
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Started my career working for DDB Needham in Chicago in 1985 (oy, that was a long time ago!). The agency had the Sears account. Could have been a great account had they gotten their act together inside their stores. Needham...
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I just returned from a speaking engagement at Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing Convention where I discussed the importance of marketing agencies putting on their sales hats if they have any chance of winning your business. They have to stop operating like agencies...
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