The Dendrocast

It seems every agency is doing a podcast these days.

This is likely because just over half of the U.S. population is now listening to at least one podcast. According to Edison Research, there are 62 million weekly podcast listeners in the United States alone. And those numbers are rising each year.

Agencies are following this trend. In 2020, more agencies will launch their own podcasts about the diverse work of the agency business.

On this episode, we ask a roundtable of agency podcasters: Do we really need agency podcasts? And what should agencies know about the pros and cons of doing them?

Joining the conversation are:

Mikey Goldenberg, owner of Fruit Sound Strategies and Executive Producer of The Woodshed; Jenny Gregorcyk, Managing Partner at Apron Food PR and co-host of Breaking Bad News; and Chris Bolton, Strategy Director at Murmur Creative and host of The Creative Agency Podcast. 

This bonus series from The Dendrocast Team gives a voice to young, emerging leaders in the agency business. Today's masterclass is with Tatiana Skomski, senior account manager at the boutique public relations agency Rebellious PR.

When does advertising become a form of free speech?

In today's episode, we explore age old questions about truth in advertising. We look at the challenge of regulating what is true and false in the ads we see on social media. And the grey areas of truth when it comes to advertising to both consumers and voters.

We also talk with Barry Lowenthal, CEO of The Media Kitchen, about his recent op-ed on Twitter's decision to ban political advertising.

Why do agency-client relationships end? 

Every agency will confront a reality: no client stays with an agency forever. Few know how to navigate the decisions that go into managing how and when a partnership should end.

So how can an agency assess if it's time to part ways with a client? And how do you ensure it's productive and doesn't damage the agency's reputation?

In this episode we talk to the team at McGarrahJessee in Austin whose recent decision to end a long-time client partnership made headlines.

Listen as founder Mark McGarrah, CEO Britton Upham, and marketing director Heather Snow explain how they manage one of the agency industry's toughest decisions.

The number of fully scaled, national advertising agencies in the U.S. founded by women stands at 0.1 percent. As of 2018, the number of female creative directors is barely 12 percent. 

This problem isn't limited to the agency business. Right now, women-owned start ups receive only 2 percent of all venture capital funds. 

In this episode, we profile how one woman-founded ad agency is working to change the trajectory of those statistics.

Michelle Cardinal founded the R2C Group in 1998. She has grown the agency into a powerhouse with nearly half a billion dollars in annual revenue. 

Listen as we talk with Michelle and Jane Crisan, R2C Group's President & COO, about SheScales, a marketing accelerator focused on helping women-owned businesses scale. And why they believe wealth is the key to female empowerment.

The rise of the in-house agency poses unique challenges to services firms in creative, media, marketing, and public relations. As more brands build their own agencies, the traditional agency is wrestling with where it fits in this new services model.

Today we talk with Steve Babcock, who is widely known as the Chief Creative Officer behind VaynerMedia. Steve recently left that role to start Made In House, a consultancy helping brands build and manage their own in-house agencies.

Listen as Steve talks about why he decided to focus on the in-housing wave. And why he thinks in-housing isn't the threat agencies think it is.

This bonus series from The Dendrocast Team gives a voice to young, emerging leaders in the agency business. Today's masterclass is with Erik Olson, founder and CEO of the strategic marketing and creative agency Fort West. 

It's official. 

Today marks one year since we launched The Dendrocast, the podcast about the disruption of the agency business. So, we're reflecting on some of the voices and moments we've collected across nearly 50 interviews - each tackling some of the most complex challenges facing agencies today.

Listen as we reflect on our first year of episodes in this special edition of the show.

Plus, we're giving a preview of some of the new programming coming in our second year.

Every agency needs to be profitable. Profit is what drives your ability to grow as a business. Yet many agencies don't know how to accurately evaluate profitability beyond how much cash is left at the end of each year. 

In an industry driven by unpredictable factors like the time required to deliver work, agencies need to rethink the core metrics that drive their profitability. In this episode, we ask the question: is your agency really profitable?

Listen as profitability consultant Marcel Petitpas, CEO and co-founder of Parakeeto, talks about common barriers to profitability and how you can run a more profitable agency.

Additional resources are available as part of this show:

Training on Core Agency Metrics

Downloadable Profitability Resources

This bonus series from The Dendrocast Team gives a voice to young, emerging leaders in the agency business. Today's masterclass is with Jennifer Luecht, co-founder and Managing Partner of the boutique agency Rile Co.