What do Great CMOs Have in Common?
Download a print-friendly version here Great CMOs are amazing partnership builders. They create strong, long-lasting agency relationships that deliver unmatched work and results. By Bruno Gralpois Author/Speaker, Thought-provocateur, amplifying partnerships to create transformative value The advertising industry is known for its vast number of glowing award ceremonies that celebrate agency and advertiser talent alike, […]
Evolving How Marketing Executives Think About Managing Their Marketing Budgets and Driving Fiscal Accountability
Don’t work your “non-working” too hard. How much non-working spend is too much or too little? The most controversial topic among brand advertisers, C-suite executives and agency leaders is no doubt the infamous working and non-working spend ratio. It often makes the headline in investor calls when the CFO or CMO announces major cuts in […]
Top 10 Best Practices Successful Companies and Their Marketing Organizations are Putting Into Practice
Download a print-friendly version here Successful companies and their marketing organizations are putting into practice Articulate strategy to strengthen the company’s agency model Do you have the right agency strategy/model in place to support your marketing goals? Is the agency model and entire roster aligned to your organizational requirements? Is it structured to take you […]
Common Mistakes Advertisers Make With Their Agencies and What to do About It
20 Proven Ways to Drive Your Agency Crazy In “Love Is Dead,” I highlighted proven best practices that set apart highly successful relationships from failed ones, based on the hundreds of relationship and performance evaluations we conducted. Similarly, a number of client behaviors guarantee you will fail your agency every time. Those who believe that […]
3 Keys to Finding the Best Celebrity Endorsement for Your Brand
Featured on the ANA: — Read the published ANA article — Two years ago, the Lincoln Motor Co. needed help. Following a long skid, the Dearborn, Mich.–based luxury car company was coming off a reported 32-year low in sales. Once considered a leader of the American car industry, the brand had become an afterthought for […]
Managing (Agency) Mania
Featured on AdWeek: — Read AdWeek’s published article — If it’s news to you that the client/agency model has been in flames for years now, there’s also this new thing called the Internet that you might want to know about. Of course, there’s a big difference between just saying that the old setup is shot […]
What Will You Get Your Agency for the Holidays? The Gift of Stronger Partnerships
Download a print-friendly version here Thinking outside the gift box… The holidays, a time of both deep reflection and high festivities, are right around the corner. We pause near the end of each year to celebrate those around us, those we love and depend on, and to acknowledge their importance in our lives. In business, […]
How the Winner of the Mobile Grand Prix Cannes Lions Signals the Supremacy of Content and the Slow Death of Traditional Advertising
Download a print-friendly version here This Piece of Cardboard Will Take You Halfway Around the World Advertising is dead, long live branded content! Advertising was king. A new monarch is now succeeding it to the marketing throne: branded content. For the history aficionados, the original phrase (“The King is Dead, Long Live the King!”) was […]
What Great Clients do to Turn Their Agencies Into Powerful Growth Engines
What Will Make You a Kick-Ass Client Are you the kind of client that agencies desperately want to acquire and retain? Do you know what it takes to be a great client? In “Think Different,” I emphasized the unique qualities industry leaders like Apple exhibit with their agencies to get outstanding work. In “How Clients […]
The Uneasy Truth About Being a Client and What It Means to Building Lasting Partnerships in Today’s Cut-Throat Environment
Confessions of an Ex-Client I’d like to confess. Actually, I have multiple confessions to make. Four to be precise. No worries. This is not a remake of “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” (2002), so they won’t keep you up at night. But if you’ve ever been a client, you too would have much to say. […]
Top 5 Ways Brand Advertisers Can Foster Real, Sustained Collaboration Between Their Roster Agencies and Create Better, Faster, Stronger Work…Together
Download a print-friendly version here How Marketers Can Get Their Agencies to Collaborate The first part of “Ménage à trois” comes from the Latin mansionem, “dwelling,” and old French word that meant “management of a household.” The concept of managing and orchestrating a carefully assembled roster of agencies has been particularly popular among brand advertisers […]
How Can Advertisers Successfully Overcome the Inherent Complexity of Today’s Marketing Operations and Streamline Partnership Efforts With Their Agencies?
Download a print-friendly version here Discover five effective ways to overcome your company’s Cost of Complexity (COC). Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. That’s what Leonardo da Vinci believed, and I do too. However, marketing has never been more complex: advanced programmatic buying, social media engineering, behavioral targeting, attribution and purchase propensity models, mobile programming, complex […]
