Mercer Island Group

01/17/2025

How do you create agency thought leadership content that makes a mark?

Learn from baseball's best blogger: Kate Preusser, editor in chief of Lookout Landing, a blog site devoted to my beloved Seattle Mariners (yes, I am biased). Kate and the other writers at Lookout Landing are committed to “service journalism.” To meet their “service journalism” standard, all articles are reviewed by asking three key questions:

1. Does the content inform, enlighten, or entertain?
2. What is the value-add in asking people to spend time reading this article as opposed to doing something else?
3. Who does this help, and how?

Putting this framework all together, great agency thought leadership content is:
- Written with a specific audience in mind
- Provides that audience with useful, valuable knowledge
- Is special in that it informs, enlightens or entertains
Try using these filters in your agency content and let us know how it goes.

And - once you buy into the above framework, you can put it to work best by reading one of the best books on agency content ever written: Sell with Authority by our good friends Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner.

Read more below!

There is much that agencies can learn from baseball. Talent matters. You need a balanced roster. There are more contenders than winners. Only one team can win the (pitch) tournament. And content matters. Great content connects you with your key audiences. It gives people a reason to pay attention. A...

01/15/2025

What are the keys to successful client-agency relationships?

1. Clear Objectives
2. Effective Communication
3. A Culture of Trust
4. Realistic Budgets
5. Routine Performance Evaluation Across Mutually Agreed Upon KPIs
6. A Long-Term Mentality
7. Keeping Strategy Fresh
8. Legal and Contractual Clarity
9. Keeping the Relationship Fresh

These approaches help turn agency partnerships into powerful growth drivers.
Read much more below.

Client/agency relationships only last if both parties succeed.Of course, it was much easier to write that sentence than for clients and agencies to achieve success in real life. Maintaining a highly effective marketing & agency relationship these days requires skills, expertise, and approaches that....

01/13/2025

Omnicom's IPG acquisition will massively disrupt clients, agencies & agency staff.

Realities like:
Layoffs: Likely 7,000-13,000 or more.
Agency consolidation uncertainty: With multiple media, creative and PR brands, consolidations are inevitable.
Omnicom/IPG agency staff disruption: Omnicom/IPG employees face months of distractions, impacting morale, productivity, and client support.
Omnicom & IPG client concerns: Clients may face uncertainty over their agency’s future, leadership changes, and potential competitive conflicts within the expanded roster.

That’s a great deal of uncertainty. What should you do?

Recommendations For Omnicom & IPG Clients: Safeguard your marketing efforts!
- Assess your situation now!
– Audit Contracts:
– Assess Options across your roster
– Strengthen Communication with “top to top” calls
– Seek Expertise: seek the advice of independent experts
– Prepare for Change: If the risks are too high, initiate an agency review now.

Recommendations For Omnicom & IPG Staff:
– Excel at Work
– Reconnect with Networks
– Refresh Your Resume
– Enhance Visibility

Recommendations for Omnicom & IPG Agency Leaders:
– Deliver Excellence: Do great work on behalf of your clients. This is the best insurance you and your people have of coming out of the merger in good shape.

Recommendations for Non-Omnicom/IPG Agencies and their Leadership:
– Leverage PR: Times of uncertainty are ideal times for earned media.
– Enhance Thought Leadership: Upgrade thought leadership that is helpful to prospects.
– Expand Digital Presence: Be easily findable. Increase your social media presence in thoughtful ways. Make sure your website is SEO and prospect-friendly meaning your agency is well positioned, and the site is content rich and easy to navigate.

The Time to Act is Now!
Whether you’re a client, an employee, or a competitor, waiting for the dust to settle isn’t a good option. Turn lemons into lemonade. Create a plan that works on your own terms and not wait to see the outcome of the merger.

Read much more in the Mercer Island Group report below.

It’s hard to believe that more than a month has already passed since the announced Omnicom acquisition of IPG. Much has been written. Much of it likely accurate! And yet, there are important topics that have not been well covered, like “what does an Omnicom or IPG client do right now”…

01/09/2025

How can your agency win more of the business you really want?

Join us and learn how to uncover and develop strategic insights quickly during a pitch process. Two fun days, using real client challenges, in a great place (Denver).

Agencies have used this approach to win nearly $200 million in AGI in the past couple of years. Get yours!

Details and registration below.

The biggest account wins and the best campaigns are often driven by the best strategic insights. We see this daily in our work with agencies and clients.But… compelling insights are rare.A data point is not an insight. It’s data.Analysis of data is not an insight. Analysis is interpretation. It....

01/06/2025

How can marketers get smarter in 2025?

Follow these folks!

Creative, Media and Marketing Effectiveness:
Billy Ryan
Dr. Karen Nelson-Field
Les Binet
Peter Field
Dr. Grace Kite
Andrew Tindall
Ian McGrath
Ed Cotton

Marketing Science and Strategy:
Professor Dr. Koen Pauwels
Dale W. Harrison
Mark Ritson

Transparency & Data Integrity:
Nick Manning
Arielle Garcia

AI:
Shelly Palmer

Podcasts:
The Uncensored CMO, Jon Evans
Build a Better Agency, Drew McClellan
On Strategy Showcase, Fergus O'Carroll
Soul & Science, Jason Harris
Sell with Authority, Stephen Woessner
The CMO Podcast, Jim Stengel

The Business of Advertising:
Brian Wieser

Heart:
Alan Quarry

Read much more below!

The world is changing at such a crazy rate that it is hard to keep up with changes in technology, marketing, media and consumers. Topics like marketing, creative and media effectiveness, transparency, AI and attention are just a sampling of the areas that are challenging for any one marketer or…

12/23/2024

Gifts marketers and agencies REALY want...

15 gifts for marketers; 15 gifts for agencies. What's your favorite?

Mine for marketers from agencies:
1. More proactivity
5. More transparency & less self-dealing (principal buying etc.)
6. Deeper customer, competitor and brand insights
8. Better trained staff
12. Ways to deliver more impact for the same budget

Mine for agencies from marketers:
1. A client-agency 360
5. Better strategic marketing written briefs
7. More time to do great work
8. A client team trained in how to evaluate creative, media & PR plans
10. Fair compensation

What are yours?

Read the entire lists below.

The year is about to wrap and pretty much everyone needs a break before diving into the new year and its challenges. Small gifts of chocolate, coffee and a spirit or two have been arriving at Mercer Island Group. So thoughtful and so unnecessary! Clients and agencies will often treat their partners....

12/20/2024

Running an agency review in 2025?

Mercer Island Group reviews are guided by clear principles. Try them! We:
- represent our client in a manner that reflects well on them and the industry.
- never charge an agency to be in our database, newsletters or to participate in a review.
- respect the agencies’ work, IP, and confidentiality.
- are readily available to agencies during a review & answer questions in a timely fashion.
- deliver consolidated tissue/strategy session feedback to agencies within 24 hours.
- provide agencies with feedback and improvement suggestions after the review.
- never invite an agency to “fill out a field”. The playing field is always fair.
- never run a review when the winner is predetermined.
- only invite a reasonable # of agencies (typically 10 to RFIs and generally 4 to RFPs).
- continuously research the agency marketplace to be sure we are aware of and familiar with as many agencies as possible. This is good for both our clients and agencies.

Year in and year out, roughly a third of marketers expect to change agencies. The result is hundreds of agency selection processes. About a quarter, mostly the largest, are run by consultants. The rest – the majority – are run by the clients. Some are managed by procurement and the…

12/18/2024

Run a better agency review...

21 mistakes marketers can avoid in their next agency review:
1. No clear objectives.
2. No clear process.
3. Frequent changes in direction.
4. The wrong field.
5. Too large, or too small a field.
6. Incomplete briefing.
7. No NDA.
8. No budget.
9. No SOW.
10. No MSA.
11. Poor Q&A and limited information sharing.
12. No work session.
13. Poor feedback.
15. Requiring finished work.
16. Buying the shiny object.
17. Forgetting about chemistry & culture.
18. Not checking references.
19. No thorough onboarding of the new agency.
20. No disciplined transition process.
21. No plans for an annual 360

Read much more below.

Your brand is in search of a new agency. You’ve initiated a review that you are overseeing personally and it’s proving to be considerably more challenging and time intensive than you initially anticipated. Heck, you already had a full-time job before adding this important added effort.And, while...

12/16/2024

Omnicom/IPG got you down? Need a new job?

Senior Executive Job Searches Are Different!

Unfortunately, there never has been a single great source of information for senior executives regarding how they should conduct a job search. Most advice and books are aimed at recent college grads and other less experienced executives.

There are little known tricks to finding "what's next" for senior marketers and agency execs. And because we love the industry, we've spent a couple decades collecting those tricks.

We've collected 17 fantastic tips for senior execs thinking about "what's next". They cover:
- networking
- the ideal networking targets
- resumes
- head hunters
- branding your self
- the job search paradox senior execs will face
- and more!

Get the tips below.

How does a senior agency executive or marketer find “what’s next”? Finding a job when you’re fresh out of college or have limited experience is a pretty straightforward task. There also is a ton of advice readily available including some really fine books. Alas, no such guidance is readily a...

12/09/2024

Marketers! Gear up for a great 2025 by being a great client.

Mine favorites::
Briefing: Great client briefing (NOT the agency's creative brief) is a lost art.
Routine Feedback: Teams that give constructive, effective feedback in the moment get better results... but few are taught how.
Agency Vows: Have you updated (or initiated) a set of client/agency “marriage vows” that define the principles and commitments that guide your relationship?

Which are your favorite approaches? See the entire checklist below.

Marketers have never been busier or had longer “to-do” lists. In such a stressful environment, it’s easy as a marketer these days to lose sight of some basics. And doing well at the basics can mean the difference between success and failure. Managing the agency roster involves a number of basi...

12/04/2024

Join Mercer Island Group's Robin Boehler for a terrific "biz dev & pitching" panel at the Own It summit January 30 in LA!

Hear topics like:
- state of the market
- pricing
- keys to winning & losing pitches
- how to work with search consultants

12/02/2024

Great clients get great work. The simple corollary to that statement is if you want great work from your agency, be a great client! Here is a list of questions that the best clients routinely ask their agencies.How can we be a better partner to the agency?What should we be doing more…

11/25/2024

A hearty "thanks" to the folks that support our industry and make it better every day!

Thanksgiving in the US is just a few days away and it is a perfect time to be grateful. There is much to be grateful about! The economy is essentially at full employment, inflation has subsided, and consumers have been spending. We can work from anywhere and often still enjoy the distinct…

11/18/2024

20 Great ideas for marketers & agencies...

What's your favorite?

Can you imagine working daily with the smartest, most successful CEOs, CMOs, and marketers? Or interacting daily with the very best agencies in the world – of all sizes and shapes – and across all disciplines (creative, media, PR, digital, etc.).That’s my job and I love it. I’ve learned a…

11/13/2024

Win more business by understanding the agency buyer journey...

To win more, you need to understand the client customer journey, just as you do for your clients’ customers. Their needs, behaviors and interests change as they proceed through their buyer’s journey. Since the prospects’ needs change as they move through their journey, the agency’s marketing strategies and tactics also need to change.

The steps:
1. Pre-market: the client is not looking for an agency
2. Trigger: a business or resource challenge
3. Plan: the client needs to find the right agency
4. Agency search: the search for the right partner
5. Select & close: found the right partner!
6. Post: client is in a rush to address challenges and see impact

A few years ago we noticed a serious gap in the approaches agencies were taking to guide their business development plans and activities: there was no documented knowledge base regarding the buyer journey for agency services.Significant attention had been paid to the study of customer journeys acros...

11/11/2024

Unhappy former agency employees can reemerge as clients.

This just happened during a Mercer Island Group review.

Several members of our client team were alumni of an agency that looked perfect on paper. These client team members had a litany of bad memories from working for this agency. This agency was a non-starter for our client.

That story follows...

The agency business is a tough business. Clients expect a lot. Agency economics are strained. And staff often move around for promotions. It’s hard to run a successful agency. In this tough environment, agencies that lose sight of one specific principle can doom themselves: this is a people busine...

11/11/2024

Marketers: want more from your agency?

Create opportunities for the agency team to experience, firsthand:
- the brand
- your products and/or services
- the company

You'll be glad you did. More below...

Every marketer wants their agency to live and breathe their business.Why not? The more your agency understands your business, brand, product or service offering, the more likely they will create impactful strategies and tactics. The results should be better. And good work should be easier to get to....

11/05/2024

Very few marketers are taught how to evaluate an agency proposal, whether it is a formal written response to an RFP, a presentation or some other format.We’ve reviewed thousands of agency proposals and are often with clients in “the room where it happens”. We’ve learned a lot and had deep…