New business agency blog

We all know new business is tough, yet it remains essential to the survival and growth of any successful agency. There are various ways of going out and getting it, but Alchemis are experts in the cold calling channel to find and create genuinely new opportunities. We’ll put you in front of the right people with the right budgets – it is then over to you.

Good new business development opportunities are hard to find. One thing is for certain though – if you think going on meetings and then sitting back and waiting for those briefs to come in is what happens, then you will be disappointed. All meetings should be followed up with a good contact strategy, which is stuck to. A proportion of meetings our clients go on will result in immediate opportunities, but by their very nature, if briefs are on the table, they are likely to be competitive.

How many times have you heard “we have an agency in place”? Rather than look on this as a negative, any company with an agency in place should be viewed as an opportunity – they have work and they have a confirmed budget. The next challenge is how to ensure you get a piece of their marketing pie.

You really need to maximise any new business opportunity you get to ensure you give the process every chance of being successful. We give realistic expectations that any return on investment is likely to take as long as six to twelve months or potentially longer, depending on your discipline and offer.

However, that does not have to be the case if you are prepared to take a few risks. We have recently started working with a creative agency. In reality, they don’t have a real USP. There is just great work, strong case studies and a really positive outlook (that description fits the vast majority of our client base). We are only three months into the campaign but only last week we received confirmation that the first meeting has converted into business.

This is rare, but the story behind this win is fantastic in illustrating what can be achieved. The prospect had agencies in place. However, the client in question really used that initial meeting to dig into the prospect’s problems, ambitions and requirements. Using that understanding, they pressed the prospect to allow them to present some ideas relating to their next project (despite being told that this was tied up with the current agency). They bit the bullet and invested time (and money) in photo shoots and creative work, whilst continually speaking to the prospect. The end result was the work they produced wowed the client and they are now undertaking the project in full (and being paid).

In reality, this is not always going to be the case and we certainly wouldn’t advocate this sort of effort in every instance. We know you have active, paying clients to service. However, where the prospect potential is right, the chemistry is right and you know you could do a better job than the existing agency, it is well worth thinking about what you could do to force their hand and get a foot in the door. In a number of cases, it will be a risk worth taking.

2010 has been interesting for a number of political, sporting and other factors. However, Alchemis is focused on advertising and marketing and the Guardian article (July 12th) was a great sanity check as it mirrors our experiences over the first half of 2010.

The article focuses on the recent Bellwether report, published by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. It has found that one in five companies cut annual advertising spend between April and June. This compares with 15% that said spend was increased.

It was as recent as Quarter One when the report announced that more UK companies raised their marketing budgets than cut them for the first time in two-and-a-half years.

Advertising took a knock, although big events such as the World Cup meant the dip in this area was not as significant as it could have been. Sales promotion was hit very hard, with the report recording “the third fastest downgrade to spending on the sales promotion sector in the Bellwether survey’s history”

It is not all doom and gloom. For those in the digital sector spend went up, although at a very slow rate. Internet advertising continued to grow, with social media remaining a major focus. With ROI crucial, digital media’s measurability is very appealing to company bean counters.

Despite all of this, as a new business agency, we (and our clients) should latch onto Rory Sutherland’s (IPA President) comments – “Although this indicates a less optimistic picture than previously thought for this year, marketing spend is still set to increase.”

In fact, we are optimistic at Alchemis. As I mention above, our experiences have mirrored the positive first quarter followed by a slower second quarter with the digital sector remaining the growth area. We, and our clients, entered 2010 with a bang. New briefs were plentiful and outstanding proposals suddenly got the green light. We had a record quarter for clients converting business in all disciplines. The feeling from the market and our clients felt positive. Companies and marketing departments had stuck two fingers up to the recession and the combined efforts of Alchemis and our clients over the last hard 12 months were paying dividends.

Quarter Two did see a dip, although in fact, there were and are still lots of opportunities out there for small to medium sized agencies and results from the second quarter still smashed the figures from 2009. I am not an economist, but there is no doubt in my mind that the uncertainty both before and following the election was a factor. Those are out of the way now and the one thing that has not waned is the number of marketing professionals who have wanted to meet new agencies. We have set record numbers of meetings in May and June. If times are tough, you need to look at quality, cost-effective solutions. I’ve waxed lyrical about it before, but our client base of small to medium sized agencies offer exactly that and the market is really open to approaches from them.

There is still much uncertainty out there and whilst commentators will have their opinion, what happens next is anyone’s guess. However, we know that you will need to be prepared for both a down or upturn. If your current clients cut their budgets, you need to have irons in the fire with new business. If, as we all hope, the second quarter dip is short lived, you want to make sure that you have got the introductions out of the way before those budgets are released and allocated.

The Lib-Cons will be there for a while yet, Germany has beaten us again, but who knows what the rest of 2010 will bring? All I know is that everyone in agency land needs to be prepared for any eventuality.

From a customer’s point of view, I had a certain amount of satisfaction reading about the outcome of the “Pinocchiogate” court case this week. I’m sure you would have heard it in the news, but the topline is that Ryanair ran some advertising in the press featuring Stelios Haji-Ioannou with a long Pinocchio nose and implying that Easyjet flights are usually late which is why they had not updated the “flights arriving on time” statistics on their website.

Having suffered numerous delays and other perceived injustices at the hands of both of these airlines more times than I would care to remember, the publicity surrounding this case made me smile for the following reasons:

Firstly, Michael O’Leary had to apologise “unreservedly” to Stelios for the slander (and pay him £50K plus court costs). That must be the first time Mr O’Leary has said sorry to anyone who has been wronged by Ryanair without adding words to the effect of “we’re the cheapest airline and Europe, so like it or lump it”. Must have been pretty hard for him to get those words out of his throat without choking I would imagine.

Secondly, even though Stelios won the court case, there may be a certain amount of negative publicity generated by the whole affair with people thinking “no smoke without fire” concerning Easyjet’s punctuality. My personal experience with them is that if you get the first flight of the day at 6am you’re generally going to arrive at your destination on time. If you get a flight in the evening though, well that’s another matter.

I’m now eagerly awaiting the next stage of their public relations war with bated breath.