Brilliant, Actionable Thinking From A leading Advertising Agency Search Consultant I had the great pleasure of working with Michael Keeshan who was President, COO of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising New York, global Cheif Strategic Officer of Saatchi and managing director of the agency search firm MagikBox. MagikBox managed Fortune 50 agency searches. um, like AT&T and Novartis. Michael was always the smartest and funniest guy in the room. I did this interview in 2006. It covers how advertising, digital, PR agencies, you name it, should manage their business development process and pit ..read more

Who better to discuss the appalling lack of diversity within advertising and marketing universe than Wil Shelton, the CEO/Founder of L.A.'s advertising agency Wil Power Integrated Marketing. Wil Power is a unique independent African-American market expert agency. The power of Wil Power comes from its work at "Harnessing the power of word of mouth in the African American market through Urban Beauty Salon and Barbershop marketing."   In this interview, I asked Wil for his thoughts on what I consider the totally lame state of African-American representation within leadership at the major adv ..read more

A company or brand name, especially for an advertising agency name, can make or break you at your launch or over time. This podcast explains how to name a brand. Company and brand naming is both science and art.  The right brand name adds value and drives sales. Here is a blueprint based on naming conventions to get there. Consider whether your advertising name is a: Neologism Current usage word Hybrid Acronym Founder Name Your advertising name can make or break your first impression. How To Name Your Advertising Agency Article. Leading Independent Agencies. TheNetworkOne A nice t ..read more

So, You Want To Grow Your Advertising Agency - Much Faster. This just might be one of the smarter interviews about how to grow your business I've listened to (and I am less than 1/2 of the conversation). I interview Joe Koufman of Setup an Atlanta based marketing consultancy that is all about marketing client to communications marketing agency matchmaking. The kind of dating that that leads to love that every agency should want. Lots of detail in this show that will help you to get out there and win more accounts. Joe on LinkedIn Setup Hypnotism coming: Remember to subscribe to Advertisin ..read more

OK, The Smartest? Well, This Is, In Fact, Arguably The Truth.  And, Michael Moszynski  Does Have An English Accent To Boot. Michael and his Creative Director business partner  Alan Jarvie built what is arguably the world's greatest global ad agency out of, get this,  just one office in London. Oh, and they named it London Advertising. People, this is a learning experience. Put the headphones on and go for a walk and a listen. London Advertising The London Advertising Advertising program. Yes, they used advertising to promote the agency. The case study. The Saatchi ..read more

Would You Like Your Advertising Agency And TV Commercial On The Front Page Of The New York Times? Not This Executive Creative Director. Not This Time. Let's just start with 1988's The New York Times headline: Cigarette Maker Cuts Off Agency That Made Smoking-Ban TV Ads Patrick Peduto was the ECD and I was the Management Supervisor on Saatchi's Northwest Airlines account. We were just doing our jobs, even super well, when unbeknownst to us, RJR Nabisco simply got pissed off at one of our Northwest Airlines commercials. More show notes about this story including the New York Times story about ..read more

Peter Levitan’s Advertising Stories delivers unvarnished stories from glib advertising agency creative directors, account managers, CEOs, media geniuses, and even agency big brand clients.  We’ll talk about creating ads, trying to sell them, not selling them, making the logo bigger, my dad likes this idea better, how I lost that account, plus ad agency hijinks across six continents.  Peter’s friends are a globe’s worth of glib, over-educated storytellers that have delivered really important cultural messages like, “Taste The Rainbow”, “What’s In Your Wallet”, “Where’s The Beef” and U ..read more

Test Your Website Page Speed. Fast Is Good. Here are three tools. There will be more tools and tips coming in Advertising Stories' new section 'advertising and marketing school.' Google PageSpeed Insights.  Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. If you are like me, over 20% of your website visitors are looking at you on a mobile device then you better make sure that they are digging how fast your website loads. BROWSEO. helps you view any web page like search engines see it. Here is Peter Levitan. A nice thing for me… Feedspot has already recognized Advertising Stories as being a top 15 adverti ..read more

How Do You Win Webby Awards? Super Strategic Basic 'Agency' And CEO Matt Faulk Are Not Remotely Basic. Here is some insightful inspiration for you and your agency all the way from California. Hear how Basic, a winner, wins notoriety, the trust of leading clients, and the industry...  should help you grow your own agency - and career. Meet Matt Faulk, the CEO of Basic, a multi-office branding & digital design & experience "advertising" agency that works with uber-creative clients like Google, Airbnb, Patagonia, Apple, and Beats by Dre. Check out our conversation about the agency ..read more

Nancy Berger Discusses The History Of Fashion Marketing. Has any category been as disrupted as fashion marketing? Not many. Nancy knows. She ran sales and marketing at Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Valentino, and Dolce & Gabbana. Plus she consulted for Conde Nast. Wow. Today, Nancy runs Grace Group, a leading global fashion marketing consultancy. I talked with Nancy about the past, present, and future of fashion and luxury marketing. We covered magazine advertising, PR, fashion shows, and the move to social media and, importantly, Instagram. Fashion marketing has been... well, very disrupted ..read more