Advice & Thought Starters

Hello there, agency CEO, president and/or agency new business development professional.

Who isn’t looking for new ways to generate revenue? You don’t need another guru preaching about all the change happening in our space. But you might need an innovative thought or two on how your agency can win given the new realities of this ever-shifting industry landscape (insert appropriate guru talk around all the changes.)

As you think about  news ways of doing business and making money, here’s one useful tip: look beyond our profession. By all means, ya gotta do what many call the three “Cs” – explore and analyze your company, your category and your customer.

But to me, there’s an opportunity to go a bit further. I think the best new thinking comes from some liberal borrowing from relevant and sometimes unusual sources. Steal a few ideas from other industries.

The job is made even harder should you be an agency leader at a large agency.

Which is why you should check out this article from the Harvard Business Review blog. Entitled, “Can Bigger be Faster,” it offers up a big picture thought on why bigger organizations can, in fact, be faster. The answer seen in the post: due to their networks. And then, they use the US Army, one of the largest organizations in the world, as an example. The article identifies four strategies that are an integral part of the Army’s own change due to…wait for it…THEIR ever-shifting landscape. Sound familiar?

The post is terrific reading, written by some smart dudes. And don’t be thinking, by the way, the thoughts are relevant for big agencies only. If you’re leading a ten-person shop, you should still check out the article.

It immediately made me think about how thinking about you can rethink your agency’s networks, establish a shared purpose; create a shared consciousness; and encourage dissent. (The article’s four strategies to company transformation).

However, the problem with articles like these is that they are too broad. While I applaud big picture, head-nod thoughts like, “build relationships” and “encourage dissent,” I would take this 30,000 foot thinking and bring it down to good ol’ main street. So read the article through an agency lens. Maybe you”ll see what I did:

Technology must be a part of any new solution

Whether you use technology to encourage communication between teams, warehouse category knowledge, or optimize work flow / project management, it can be a useful tool. It can also be marketable and might provide some differentiation in, say…a new business pitch. Or in crafting a new client/agency relationship paradigm.

A dose of “change management” thinking will also be needed

I barely know what “change management” means. Here’s a high level view. Or check out wikipedia. I think it means what you think it means. What’s interesting, to me, is that whatever new operating model or change you are considering, it will be important to consider HOW the change is implemented and that you take into consideration all parties. Staff, clients, suppliers, agency owners, etc.

Test and tweak the innovation first with clients

Avoid the “no proof” objection – a sure-fire killer in new business pitches – and consider trying out and then optimizing your innovation with clients. Not your biggest ones, of course. But someone that can offer you the right balance of risk / reward. Some positive results for a client or two – a case study for your news – can do wonders.

One could even argue that you could take a crawl – walk – run approach to anything new. You do, after all, have mortgages at stake. No matter how big your agency is. Crawl: small clients. Walk: a new business pitch. Run: more external visibility, more clients, etc.

Anywho, hope this gives you an idea or two that will help your business. Check out the article, do your other “C” analysis, and then get to innovatin’. Thanks for your time today.

photo credit: The U.S. Army Multi-national training via photopin (license)

Agency presidents, CEOs, agency discipline leaders and new business professionals are all interested in one thing: finding smart ways for agencies to grow. And because they want to make their bonus, ideally the growth is hockey stick shaped.

Last week, yours truly had an idea that it’d be fantastic to identify the fastest growing agencies and then suggest a few secrets to their success. And then wouldn’t you know it, Adweek introduces their first annual ranking of the Fastest Growing Agencies. Love it!

So check it out. The article features a nice little chart you can play with via Tableau. It’s pretty cool.

Not doubt as you spend some time on the list, you’ll find some inspiration. Yours truly quickly found five agency growth strategies. And here they are, along with agencies on the list that seem to illustrate the strategy.

Specialization

Specialization is a classic agency growth strategy. Agencies that caught my eye on the list include MMGY, which focuses on the travel and hospitality space. MMGY specializes in a specific category. But there are other ways agencies can specialize. They include an understanding of a specific target or brand marketplace condition.

But those are just two examples. Per the article, there’s another one on the Adweek list – Traffic Builders – that focuses on one thing: provide TV stations in over 95 U.S. markets with digital marketing products and services that these TV stations then sell locally. Their specialization is functional.

Origins story

Every agency has a story on how and why they were created. But how many of them use that story as the reason to believe their work is going to be better than the competition? Or why the work will work for brands? Check out Advoc8. Their founders are steeped in helping political candidates win. And in the fast-paced, instant reaction media world in which we live, they’ve equated that to helping brands win through events and experiences. Here’s a great quote from the Adweek story:

We know how to help brands take positions because, if you think about it, that’s what a presidential campaign is. Your brand is your candidate,” [a principal] explains. “The fact that we organically had those skills and saw the hole in the market has given us an opportunity for exponential and quick growth.”

Different capabilities / different revenue streams

What agency growth thinking doesn’t include an embrace of technology? Check out Bluewater Media, an agency seeing 225% growth. In part due to a proprietary tech platform they’ve built to “enable influencers to keep more traffic on their sites and monetize through the sale of over 5,000 products from some of the best brands in the world.” (Source: Adweek)

Or learn a bit more about Decoded Advertising — a shop with an impressive growth rate – that created their own direct-to-consumer yoga/wellness brand which generates $50,000/month. Oooof.

Different operating model

There are a few agencies on the list that are growing through another proven growth strategy: acquisition. So, not sure calling those out is all that inspiring. Seems like they craft a reason for their roll-up and market themselves under one, new banner. Or take one that is best successful and the smaller agencies gobbled up adapt that mantra.

But check out Firewood Partners, a women-minority owned business with seven offices in four countries. They have a service model that leverages a current trend: agency services embedded in client locations. Smart.

Moxie

Just like an origins story, all agencies have an internal culture and a general way about them. But do they leverage it throughout their agency? Through their people, place, positioning and surely other marketing Ps of a professional service business. Consider OKRP, a mid-sized Chicago agency, offering “big brand creativity; start-up ingenuity.” With principles like being nimble, prolific and quick, they’re cranking out some tasty work on enviable brands. I love what one of their reps says about the agency: “we have soul. It’s the difference between saying, ‘I’ll know it when I see it’ and ‘I’ll know it when I feel it.’” (Source: Adweek).

Finding the right strategy for your agency

No doubt, these are not the only secrets to these agencies’ respective success. I suspect the agencies growing the fastest – the ones with hockey stick growth – combine a few of the proven strategies.

But this list does give agency presidents, CEOs and other growth minded agency professionals a thing or two to ponder. And as you consider your own agency’s situation, targets, competition and agency brand qualities, an idea or two will present itself. And then maybe we’ll be reading about your agency next year!

Thanks for reading.

Other articles of interest:

• Adweek follow-up on their original story (4 CEOs talk pain and strategy)
• How to help CMOs create bigger impact (and grow agency revenue at the same time)

photo credit: TAZphotos Sunset Hockey via photopin (license)