Through the Line with Andy Bargery

A common challenge for agencies is finding new clients. We seem to be in a continuous new business drive - prospecting, networking, cold calling, starting conversations and pitching. At the same time, clientside marketers are struggling to find their ideal agency partner from the vast number of agencies at their fingertips. In the UK alone there are over 20,000 agencies - or so I'm told.

In this episode, I chat with Dan Ince, a freelance marketing gun for hire, about how he finds and recruits agency talent for his clients. We explore some of the best practices for agencies around pitching that will help them to look at this process through the lens of a client-side marketer. If you're looking for ideas for how best to approach clients and differentiate yourself in a sea of bland, vanilla looking, agencies, you should enjoy this episode.

We've never been more aware of our mental health. We're talking about it more than ever and HR are looking at it with increasing intent. After all, the marketing and advertising sector is plagued with mental health challenges. It's bound to be if you consider the ever-changing and stressful nature of our work and the colourful characters attracted to the sector.

But, just because we're more open about our challenges and employers are talking about it more, doesn't mean anything is changing.

Step in Aaron Harvey and his Made of Millions Foundation. Aaron is on a mission; to put mental health higher up the agenda at work. In his mindset, there is simply no excuse for not making the changes needed to address the growing mental health challenge in the workplace.

Business development is a constant challenge for marketing agencies. Most are on a constant hunt for new business and spend their time pitching to marketing directors, managers, heads of, CMOs etc. But in good old B2B marketing, we're forgetting about the other players in the decision-making unit. And the biggest players of all often sit in procurement. Particularly if you're selling to large brands.

It's worthwhile spending a bit of time learning what makes procurement managers tick then, right? To find out how they negotiate, how should you engage them, what personality types you might find in procurement teams...and so on. I thought so and invited ex-procurement lead and now agency advisor MIke Lander, to join me on the show. My word does he share some value.

If you want to learn how to better manage the challenges of selling to procurement pros, you're in the right place.

Patterns of consumer behaviour are changing; how we look for and engage with brands is changing too. Where we once used to look for features and benefits, we now look more for meaning. Where we used to want more blades in our razors, now we want razors made in a sustainable, ethical manner. We care more about the experience than the functional attributes of our products and services. But not every brand or marketer is adapting in time and we're seeing high profile casualties in all sorts of sectors.

In this podcast, market researcher, academic and brand expert Dr. Emmanual Probst joins me to explore how brands can engage in a quest for meaning to stay in touch with our changing times. In the podcast, we explore some of the core topics from Dr. Probst's fantastic book, Brank Hacks - How to Build Brands by Fulfilling the Human Quest for Meaning.

A critical part of working in agency land is business development. For whatever reason, most agencies are always on the hunt for new business; it's like being on a treadmill that never stops. But just like the plumber who's toilet doesn't flush, most marketing agencies are lousy at marketing themselves.

It's not that we don't know how...or is it?

In this episode of the podcast, I interview the formidable Katy Howell from leading social media agency, Immediate Future. Katy's a true professional, and it was great fun talking with her as we explored business cycles, the impact of Brexit and uncertainty in the market, JVs/partnerships and so much more.

If you want to learn about best practice when it comes to agency business development, how to build client relationships and what it takes to grow an agency from someone with 30 years agency experience under her belt, well then you're in the right place.

An essential ingredient of impactful marketing and communications is understanding your customer. After all, we're taught marketing is about putting the customer at the heart of your business. So how do you do that? That's where the 'insights' department comes in. These are the guys and gals that look at consumer behaviour and try to uncover some hidden gem marketers can latch onto — something to build products, services and communications around.

For Anthony 'Tas' Tasgal - an ad agency planner, trainer, lecturer, speaker and author - insight is the art of combining psychology and biology, blending it up with a bit of creative inspiration, driven by light bulb moments from here there and everywhere, and there you have it - insight. Well, not quite. There's a lot more to it than that. Such as making sure you don't rely too much on data, considering the context of your research, and getting the balance right between data and creativity. Not to mention the need for someone to challenge your assumptions.

If you are interested in market research, insights and creating high impact marketing communications, this episode should be right up your street.

Resources Tas Mentions:

The Inspiratorium and The Storytelling Book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anthony-Tasgal/e/B00QUG86MM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1564496235&sr=8-1

Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Everybody-Lies-York-Times-Bestseller-ebook/dp/B0711Y3BVG/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=everybody+lies&qid=1564496340&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

How to Contact Tas:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tastasgal/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/taswellhill

You've probably heard about as much about 'millennials' as you can take, right? You've heard for years how the world is changing because of millennials, how they think and act differently, and what this means to you as a marketing professional. TV no longer works, radio's old fashioned and outdoor, well, forget about it. Millennials don't look at adverts. Well, yes and no. Millennials are interested in adverts, just not the feature led product promos we're all churning out these days.

If you want to connect with millennials, you need to understand them and to do that you need to listen to Somi Arian. Somi and her Smart Cookie Media team have been exploring and understanding this world and what it means to marketers for years. Millennials have grown up as digital natives, and the next generation will be AI natives. This access to digital means they've had more choice, available more quickly, with more information than ever before. It's time to evolve or die, as traditional marketing approaches will soon go the way of Blockbuster, or Topshop, or HMV, or any brand that hasn't changed quickly enough to advances in digital.

Resources mentioned in the podcast:

The Millenial Mindset Documentary

https://smartcookiemedia.com/the-millennial-mindset/

The 10 Factors that Drive Millennials' Consumer Behaviour https://smartcookiemedia.com/the-millennial-mindset/

Ray Dalio's Principles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9XGUpQZY38

To contact Somi:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/somiarian/

https://smartcookiemedia.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9k0Dn01-ZQ3xaHA8b1l6oQ

According to the PRCA's recent census, 89% of communications professionals in the UK are white, and 67% are female. In an industry tasked with creating impactful communications to reach an increasingly fragmented audience, that's not a particularly diverse pool of professionals to draw on. There are lots of commentators suggesting that building a diverse team is essential for injecting some much needed fresh thinking, which in turn delivers performance.

In this episode, I talk with Rax Lakhani - a long time PR man and also Co-Chair of the PRCA's Diversity Network. We chat about why agencies need to think about diversity and the practical next steps for how to make a change. We cover starting at the top with the business plan to steps like blind reviews of CVs to identify new talent. It's clear there are significant commercial drivers for communications teams to think about diversity, which go way beyond box ticking exercises.

Resources mentioned in the podcast:

PRCA Census 2019:

https://www.prca.org.uk/sites/default/files/PRCA_PR_Census_2019_v9-8-pdf%20%285%29.pdf

Mckinsey's Gender Diversity Study:

https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Business%20Functions/Organization/Our%20Insights/Gender%20diversity%20a%20corporate%20performance%20driver/Gender%20diversity%20a%20corporate%20performance%20driver.ashx

To contact Rax:

rax.lakhani at gmail.com

https://twitter.com/raxlakhani

https://www.linkedin.com/in/raxlakhani/

Podcasting has been enjoying a renaissance in the last few years. There's been an explosion in the number of new shows - some good and some bad. It's easy for marketers to think podcasting is a low-cost media, but in reality, a good podcast takes time, effort, skill and budget too. It might be better for some marketers to treat podcasts as an advertising medium rather than try and become a radio on demand production machine.

In this show, I talk with Howard Kosky, CEO and Founder of 4DC, a strategic podcasting consultancy based in London. Howard and I explore what makes a good podcast from a production point of view, but also how brands should approach this medium. It's not as easy as putting six shows together and expecting to get listeners - if you build it, they might not come and probably won't unless you spend enough resource on the project. Listen and enjoy. Howard shares a ton of great thinking and ideas for podcasters and marketers. Whether you're producing a show or are a brand wanting to explore this channel, there's something in here for you. Howard is a real expert in this space.

To contact Howard:

Howard 'at' 4dc.co.uk

https://www.linkedin.com/in/howard-kosky/

Running a marketing agency of any flavour requires grit, determination, some serious smarts and of course, persistence. Without these ingredients, you will do well to survive, let alone thrive. But what if your ambitions are loftier than simply survival or running a lifestyle business? What if you want to grow your agency and achieve some scale so that you can exit with a decent earn out?

Well, that's a challenge that a lot of agency owners tackle and with varying degrees of success. But if you're on that road, you'll enjoy this podcast episode with Kristin Luck, the founder of a growth consultancy called Scale House. Kristin is a serial entrepreneur having sold multiple market research businesses before setting up her consultancy. In this show, Kristin and I talk about the key ingredients of growing and scaling an agency business, from getting the founder out of the way, to systems, processes, culture and more. If you're interested in growing your agency business, there should be some good ideas in here for you to enjoy.

Here are the resources mentioned in the show:

Masters of Scale Podcast

https://mastersofscale.com/

How I built This with Guy Raz

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this

Growth IQ by Tiffani Bova

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525534407/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_E5x3CbXA8AY9C

Sell with a Story by Paul Smith https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GW9XH84/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_n6x3CbDASEVWS

To contact Kristin:

https://www.scalehouse.consulting/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinluck/