branding creative agencies

Self Surgery: Branding Creative Agencies

The most important thing about a point of view is to have one.

Nothing Harder With all deference to other industries, branding and marke=ng professional services is among the toughest. I have held senior posts at Price Waterhouse, Interbrand, and DDB in marke=ng and corporate communica=ons. Along the way I have consulted to tens of consul=ng, design, accoun=ng, architecture, and law firms. Posi=oning crea=ve and intangible services is no easy task. Recently I gave two webinars for the Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario. The aHendees were crea=ve and design agencies. The first webinar covered Branding and Posi,oning and the second was more granular detailing Prospec,ng and Pitching. The sessions were well aHended with many great ques=ons. Following those events I received twelve inquiries reques=ng more help. This proved to me two things. First, agencies who help their clients stand out need help branding and marke=ng themselves because self surgery is extremely hard to do. Secondly, webinars can be an effec=ve new business tool. I took the webinar content along with resul=ng conversa=ons and produced this paper. Hopefully it provides insights and ideas to beHer profile your business and put it in the first considera=on set of prospec=ve clients. Standing Out Means Being Outstanding There are just three things to remember when branding your agency. The first is that one unique differen=ator is elusive. Everyone tries very hard to get that beau=ful posi=oning, that succinct statement, the cocktail party explana=on of what they do. What makes anything unique is actually a mix of aHributes, talents, and accomplishments. So while it is great to be clear and concise, I never recommend oversimplifying or dumbing down the complexity and value of what you provide.

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The second point to note is involves drive and direc=on. Many of my clients start off conversa=ons with tac=cal queries. Should I be on Facebook? Are print brochures s=ll relevant? Or they want to pen the most elaborate and expensive marke=ng program untethered from the business strategy. Those who actually win at marke=ng demonstrate a constancy of purpose that allows flexibility in strategy and tac=cs. I borrowed that phrase from Benjamin Disraeli who said, “The secret of success is constancy of purpose.” I have seen this expressed another way by Andrew Rolfe of the quick service food shop Pret A Manger. He said, “We're not concerned about having consistency of brand so much as about a constancy of purpose that flows throughout the whole organiza=on. It doesn't actually maHer what we write on the napkins or say through adver=sing, all that maHers is that when you go into a Pret shop you get that set of experiences that describes Pret.” The third point is nothing is sta=c. Brands are never fully built. Marke=ng is an ongoing experiment meant to an=cipate and sa=sfy the goals and objec=ves of our clients. If you are a crea=ve agency you are communicators, designers, social media experts, marketers, adver=sers, and media professionals amongst others. Unfortunately that means each and everyone of you are providing a commodity service. You are one among many. There are ten providers in front of you and ten behind that offer what you offer and may do so at a lower cost. So how you posi=on and market yourself is the truest demonstra=on of your abili=es. Your posi=oning and marke=ng needs to do express relevance, establish credibility and highlight differen=ators. The best way to begin the process is to understand how clients evaluate and engage professional services. In the past twenty years I have worked with firms ranging from KPMG to Baker & McKenzie to Dentsu. This gave me a catbird seat to observe and note commonali=es in client decision-‐making.

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What do clients want? What do clients evaluate? What do clients decide on?

Solutions

Enhanced business performance

Return-on-Investment

“Help us make a gain or avoid a loss”

Reputation

Relevant experience (clients)

Relevant expertise (practices & specialties)

Proven approach

Client list

Size

Geographic reach/ability to service

Team member’s abilities, chemistry & rapport

Understanding of problem

Differentiated point-of-view

Capability to deliver on promise (speed, deliverables, etc.)

Trust

Empathy

Confidence

Integrity

Price

First, clients are looking for solu=ons that will enhance their business performance. The services you deliver must provide a clear return on investment. Clients want us to help them make a gain or avoid a loss. What gets you to the door is everything in column two. Your business reputa=on, experience best expressed through the work you have done with clients, specific exper=se, how you do what you do, client roster because you are judged by the company you keep, your size which is not a determinant of quality but it s=ll communicates an aHribute many clients evaluate, and your ability to service clients where they compete. The third column is the most important. It shows that the decision gets more personal and emo=onal though tangibles like price are s=ll very much a factor. This is a rough idea of what is important to prospec=ve clients when they are looking to engage or re-‐engage crea=ve services. It is provided to help you understand their mo=va=ons. To further set the stage there are seven challenges facing crea=ve services today.

Over Supply Even during the contrac=on in the global economy professional services grew. Corpora=ons that purged employees sent very talented folks out into the workforce and they set up their own businesses or freelanced. The U.S. in the 2000’s saw the following:

4,600 new accoun=ng firms Execu=ve recruiters increased 54% to 20,490 70,200 firms provided technology consul=ng 3,300 adver=sing firms created US freelancers are too high to count

This has made selec=ng a crea=ve agency more difficult and has had impact on quality and pricing. Commodity There is pressure on providers of professional and crea=ve services to give more away while geing a lot less in return. What had once been differen=ators for many businesses are no longer. A good example is technology consultants who give away strategic business advice to sell-‐in large new systems. Differen=a=on There is the challenge of how we package perceived differen=a=on. Everyone sounds the same and mostly looks the same. A collage of adver=sing agency websites or accoun=ng firm websites would astound in their similarity. Jaded Clients are really and perceive an abundance of short-‐lived and benefit-‐berek services. They also view most crea=ve services as commodi=es with one agency always happy to quickly replace another. True rela=onships are flee=ng at best.

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Long standing differen=ators are no longer own-‐able

or relevant.

Freshness There is a need to be fresh all the =me to stand out. This actually discounts the tried and true. It has created an interes=ng situa=on. It either has agencies and consultancies changing too frequently so no one knows what they stand for or it creates a paralysis where communica=ons are stagnant. While I headed communica=ons at DDB, we would evaluate our core compe=tors and were shocked to see that their websites and social media sites would go unchanged for months at a =me. Hardly a best prac=ce. Secret Sauce One response to these challenges is to an aHempt to dazzle clients with complex methodologies. These are overwhelming, unfathomable and most importantly, clients don’t believe that anyone truly has a secret sauce that is repeatable and applicable in every situa=on. Parity It is tough to be different when the underlying business model, strategies, and missions of everyone are the same. These challenges lead us back to the primary subject of gaining more clients and growing our businesses. I am generalizing a bit but suffice it to say that there is a very common cycle in crea=ve agency business development. When =mes are good, we drink it in and celebrate the arrival of new clients or add-‐on work. When =mes are bad, we run around in highly reac=ve modes wondering what went wrong. We are poor at smoothing out the peaks and valleys of business development. Business development suffers because our means of ar=cula=ng a differen=ated posi=on and communica=ng it through various marke=ng approaches is no longer working. We are too tradi=onal and play it incredibly safe.

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Most of us follow a very familiar approach. We go through a linear and pedan=c exercise of iden=fying our strengths and weaknesses, talk about past work, float a tagline like “The Most Crea=ve Crea=ve Agency”, and we compare it to compe=tors to stay half a step ahead. We then develop a mostly tac=cal communica=ons plan comprised of a website, e-‐newsleHer, a breakfast seminar series that ends aker two aHempts, and other generally accepted means of marke=ng.

We sit back and wait for the phone to ring. But it doesn’t.

We Make It About Us Why? Because we made it all about us. We forgot that clients buy for their reasons not ours. We have taken this approach to illogical extremes. Ninety-‐nine out of one hundred crea=ve agency websites will have ‘About Us’ and ‘Who We Are’ as their naviga=on and content. Brochures will be the same. White papers are devoid of real content with half of them talking “about us”. They are thinly veiled sales pitches. So we end posi=oning ourselves as the “Irrelevant Expert”. Instead of ‘about us’ it should be ‘about you’. Clients are buying solu=ons that will improve their business. We think they are only buying us. It is a subtle but important point and that is why posi=oning crea=ve services is so difficult. Take a moment and recall your best experience with someone offering a professional service. Was it an execu=ve search person who not only found you a job but was empathe=c and suppor=ve during the process? Was it the interior designer who instantly ‘got you’ and came in under budget? Or was it, as in my case, an accountant who miraculously whisked away a tax problem that had kept me up at night.

About Us About Us About Us About Us About Us About Us About Us About Us About Us About Us About Us About Us About Us About Us About Us About Us

Who We Are Who We Are Who We Are Who We Are Who We Are Who We Are Who We Are Who We Are Who We Are Who We Are Who We Are Who We Are Who We Are Who We Are Who We Are Who We Are About You Who You Are

I am confident that whatever experience you remembered two things happened. The provider of that professional service did all the func=onal things you expected. They solved your legal or accoun=ng or business problem. That was your simple expecta=on. What differen=ated them was how they delivered their service and solu=on. It is how they made you feel that you remember. That is what your clients actually expect from you. Yes, they want a great logo, a fantas=c marke=ng plan, or ad campaign. That is their ‘need’. Their ‘want’ is a great experience they will remember long aker the project is concluded. You want that too because it is going to bring you more business. It is not about you. It is about your clients. It is about the problem you are trying to solve. Professional and crea=ve services took a wrong turn in the 1970’s when management consultants became rock stars, crea=ve directors became divas, designers became brands, and lawyers became celebri=es. Focus on the client became subservient to the idea that they needed us more than we needed them and that has never been the case.

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Your posi=oning answers one ques=on. What problem are you trying to solve? This is your uniqueness, your differen=a=on. Do whatever exercise you need to ar=culate it. If you answer it authen=cally and crea=vely it will help iden=fy who are your most desired clients. It is the start to an approach that I believe will help you aHract and retain those desired clients.

We lost our way when management consultants became rock stars, crea=ve directors became divas, designers became brands,

and lawyers became celebri=es.

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WIN

DELIVER CAPTURE

Win new business based on credibility, relevance and

differentiation.

Deliver the promised benefits and an outstanding experience.

Capture and disseminate what was learned and use it to win new

business.

I want to propose a a way to get back to what makes sense and what works. It is a consistent approach to marke=ng and business development. This does not mean a rigid strategy or predictable tac=cs. It means following a model that provides both consistency and flexibility. This is a model I developed while at Price Waterhouse and applied to the consultancy’s marke=ng and customer management prac=ce. I have since used it at Interbrand and DDB while advoca=ng its adop=on at many clients. It helps you stand out, grow revenue and manage marke=ng. Having the model does not guarantee differen=a=on, implemen=ng and using it on an consistent basis does. There is no start or finish to it but for the sake of illustra=on lets start at the top with Win. This shows that an agency, business, or freelancer has won a piece of work based on credibility, relevance, and differen=a=on. Then hopefully the client is delighted with the work you Deliver. What was promised happened and it was an experience that was mutually beneficial. Then it is up to you to Capture all of the learnings from that engagement. What were the insights related to the solu=on that could be used on other client work? What addi=onal lessons did you take away from working with the client? These are not just the tangible lessons but also the very human ones in working with people. This is where 99% of crea=ve services miss the boat. They do not capture the proprietary learnings from their client work that will actually differen=ate them in business development. This amazingly unique stuff gets chuffed away or forgoHen. Which is a huge loss because this is where the value is.

Creative Agency

So everyone ends up marke=ng themselves with the same industry motherhood material instead of the unique content they developed on real engagements. This content is available if you actually take the =me to collect, package, and market it. Let me give you an example. Cool Legal Lessons I recently completed a marke=ng strategy for a North American law firm. Social media played a huge part in it which was refreshing for the legal category. Most law firms are only teasing around with social media while this client was commiHed to exploring the relevance and poten=al. During the engagement I was consciously documen=ng what I was learning and plunking them into three buckets. The first bucket called ‘Reinforcement’ contained the lessons that reinforced what I had previously known or experienced. These are worth collec=ng because they show trends and remind you of common problems and situa=ons so you do not recreate the wheel on every engagement. The project reminded me that social media is oken seen as a must do by many clients, that for law firms the very nature of their work is a concern in social media, and that given the subject maHer social media cannot be lek to a non-‐lawyer from the marke=ng department who simply retweets legal ar=cles. The next bucket contained ‘Insights’ or actual new things that I learned along with the client. I discovered that lawyers love to know that someone has done it before. Precedent in their business is comfort. These folks work by the hour so they do not want to do anything that sacrifices billing and this firm needed more thought leadership material to pump through social media.

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North American Law Firm Marketing Strategy: Social Media Focus

Reinforcement Social media is seen as a ‘must do’ Law firms are concerned with the dialogue aspect of social media This cannot be left to a junior marketing associate

Insights Law firms like to work on precedent The billable hour conflicts with the investment in time needed for social media Social media requires strong thought leadership

Promotable Content If you choose to go for it, really go for it Authenticity is critical Ensure you have a plan that keeps enthusiasm up past the launch Social media is all about the details

From the two I dis=lled real, tangible and promotable content that makes my agency and I unique. I liked the law firm’s desire to really go for it and recognized that all clients need to have that drive, that authen=city of content is a must, and that we needed mechanisms in place to ensure this did not peter out aker a couple of months. We know people buy for their reasons not ours and that means being in the right place at the right =me by being in contact with the right people. This was proven in a study by Broderick & Associates. This firm consults to professional service clients on marke=ng professional services. A few years back they conducted a chunk of research that put the number seventeen into my head ever since. Broderick found that it takes upwards of seventeen “touches” for a client to be predisposed to your services. That is, they will have to be touched by an e-‐mail, a blog, a phonecall, a visit to your website, seeing you speak at a conference, hear that you are working with one of their compe=tors, see you quoted in an ar=cle, hear someone speak favorably of you at a cocktail party.

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Touches E-newsletter White papers Free workshops Lunch Shared charity

Touch Plans Touch calendar Proprietary & promotable content Client benefits

Revenue Targets Recurring annuity Incremental/existing New/new required

Desired Clients New/new New/existing

That seems daun=ng enough but the more important implica=on is that even with the seventeen touches, a client must have a real need for your services. They will not give you work out of the goodness of their heart but you have a beHer chance in being the first considera=on set if you do this well. Here is how I apply the seventeen touches into posi=oning and marke=ng. The best way to think of this is to work backwards. It starts with iden=fying a manageable number of desired or target clients because you are going to spend some =me geing to know them. This includes absolutely new clients and clients you once had or want to retain. The next task is part of any good business planning process and that is seing financial goals for what you want in revenue from each of those targets. It is then a ques=on of determining the unique content you can share with those desired clients to create a dialogue. This includes the frequency of contact laid out on a six or twelve month calendar. This leads to the decision of what “touches” to use. These are the tac=cs for marke=ng your business. The beauty of working backwards is it becomes both a client acquisi=on strategy and a marke=ng plan. Most of us get this wrong, we start with the tac=cs and get lost in the op=ons.

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So many of my clients come to me and want to talk about their touches without dealing with objec=ves and the proprietary content that would interest clients. Working backwards establishes in order the objec=ves, targets, content and communica=ons. Lets revisit the example of the law firm I recently worked with. How did I use this captured informa=on in my marke=ng and how did it impact my posi=oning? I took the informa=on from the law firm social media work which was absolutely proprietary to me and I packaged it into a blog post with the headline and insights about the detail required in such efforts. It could be a case study, a paper, or even a print ad but I went that route. I posted it on my site and posi=oned it on Business2Community. It was then picked up by Yahoo and Tweeted several hundred =mes. I received a request to write an ar=cle in an industry publica=on, gained a speaking engagement and received two client inquires.

The four tangible conversa=ons that came out of this all men=oned that the content was honest, relevant and valuable. In other words, it demonstrated what problems I actually solve. The prospects men=oned that the language was clear and was free of jargon. My law firm client thinks it is all awesome. It forces me to check how I am talking about my own business. Given I appear in media and oken public speak, I have to make sure that I am not talking about me and break one of my own principles.

How do you use cool stuff inven=vely from client

engagements to make your brand stand out?

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You can see if this is all done right, it can produce many benefits. It can increase revenue, allow you to command a premium price, is more efficient and effec=ve, and con=nues to refine your posi=oning appropriately. Prac=cal Tac=cs Here are some =dbits or smaller best prac=ces for your considera=on. These can be immediately implemented. Not all of us want to write or speak or burrow into other’s conversa=ons at cocktail par=es. Yet we all have unique stuff to share. Definitely at a bare minimum recommenda=ons you receive on client work should live on Linkedin and your website. But this assumes you are even on Linkedin and that you are asking for recommenda=ons. Pease do both. The projects and job opportuni=es that I have been approached with through Linkedin have surprised me by their quality. If you do not want to write blogs or papers then at least comment on them where you have an opinion. Add your two cents. This worked for me when I wrote into McKinsey Quarterly on a marke=ng piece that prompted a phonecall from the author. The same happened in Harvard Business Review. Next up is to discover and use MailChimp. If you have under 2,000 e-‐mails you intend to send to it is free. I send a monthly publica=on out called The Brand Intelligencer. MailChimp makes it professional, easy, great looking, and it is replete with metrics on opens and click-‐throughs. Frequently, I am asked about social media and where a professional service should be. You can really blow your brains out trying to be everywhere. So determine through the approaches highlighted today where your desired clients are most likely to frequent. There are so many considera=ons depending on your business that I cannot be more specific. However, think of it as a tradeshow or conference, you may not get a ton of new business from being there but you will lose business if you are not. And you never know what will take off on social media. I posted a print campaign for Waterstone’s bookstore on Tumblr and it has been reblogged over 3,000 =mes. That blog highlights my website so a few of those people were prompted to check me out further.

One point I have not made is the need for face-‐to-‐face in your marke=ng. Most ideas here have leveraged other communica=ons channels. I cannot stress enough the need to personally network, aHend conferences, teach, public speak or hold your own events. These ac=vi=es communicate more personally what problems you solve and shares more about the person you are. I was just reading about the Via Group of Portland, Maine, where “Once a month, founder-‐CEO John Coleman organizes a get-‐together of eight to 10 marke=ng execu=ves to discuss topics such as technology’s role on the evolu=on of society and culture.” These can work very well. If you consistently deliver them you will become a connector between businesses. A last =dbit is a print piece from public rela=ons firm Weber Shandwick that is par=cularly strong. They made this available on their site as a PDF which is not the most progressive form of media but acknowledges the comfort zone and technology of their audiences. It is a clean piece that uses clever copy to describe how they do what they do. It features a series of fun rules that are direct in message and vibrant in image. It is not the stodgy, dated PR firm look that one is used to seeing in that industry. I love that in it they actually say “Hire Us”. Wrapping Up There is much in this paper to consider so let me leave you with a succinct summary. Take the =me to define the problems your crea=ve agency solves and make all of your branding and marke=ng about the clients you would love to serve. Remember your brand is not sta=c. Brands are never fully built and marke=ng is an ongoing experiment. Enjoy the ride, have fun with it, and experiment with confidence.

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Rules of Engagement

2 Get Over YourselfYou are not in control of your brand or message anymore. Today, you share it with your audience. They shape your story, how others see you, what people say about you. They’ll even write your advertising. In short, they can make or break you. So don’t talk at them. Have a conversation instead.

Hire UsIt’s the Engagement Era and we practice what we preach. While it’s an uncertain time for many marketers and agencies, it’s one we’re very familiar with: Engaging audiences is what we’ve done since the beginning. When you engage, you converse. When you engage, you inspire advocates. When you engage, you create movements. It’s actually what we’ve always done. And always will.

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Jeff Swystun President and

Chief Marke=ng Officer 416.471.4655