Marketers: Take Digital Out of Your Vocabulary
“Going digital” isn’t a passing trend. Companies are learning — and proving — that building a flexible, integrated agency with a digital emphasis is essential. And that lesson is still being learned the hard way, even at the world’s most prestigious [...]
Small business advice: Surviving Spiking Health Insurance Costs
Small business owners have a lot to consider when it comes to employee benefits. Health insurance costs have been rising steadily, and with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, many small firms may see a further increase in their premiums. [...]
Attention CEOs: Accomplish more by doing less
Most CEOs are doers. They’ve built their businesses from the ground up and revel in the satisfaction their successes bring. But they can’t do everything themselves, and that’s OK. So, what should these doers actually do? When do CEOs delegate, [...]
A Solution To The Agency Talent Dilemma
In a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, 4As President and CEO Nancy Hill commented on the talent crisis in the agency world that Unilever’s Keith Weed mentioned at Cannes Lions. Hill argued that top talent can’t afford to work [...]
How to Intentionally Build Your Company Culture (Rather Than Leave It to Chance)
Culture is like a hairstyle: Everyone has one, even if they’re bald. You can either pursue a style that accurately reflects your personality, or you can pretend it doesn’t matter and end up looking like Edward Scissorhands. If you haven’t been [...]
What Makes an Effective Leader
Organizations that don’t have a set of guiding principles find themselves struggling to be consistent and to always be moving towards their bigger picture goals. A lack of defined expectations also makes it difficult for your team to understand what [...]
How CMOs Should Combat The Disintegration Of The Agency-of-Record Model
Like the Don Draper three-martini lunch, the agency-of-record model is becoming a thing of the past. Big brands like General Motors and PepsiCo are building agency teams rather than trusting one agency to handle all their creative needs. Back when [...]
Why Agencies are Notoriously Bad at Wooing New Business
New business isn’t something most agencies worry about — until it’s too late. Unfortunately, “too late” is often the moment after you’ve lost your biggest client. Every agency owner dreads this moment. After receiving the call, he rallies the leadership team [...]
Accelerate Agency Vision by Getting on Your Soapbox
Agencies are beautiful, chaotic places to work. The nature of creative client work means the agency is always in a state of flux, growing and pivoting as clients do. The ability to adjust quickly is critical to survival, but it [...]
Types of Agencies: What Kind of Agency Do You Want to Build?
Agencies face all sorts of challenges as they struggle to decide what kinds of clients to serve and what kinds of deliverables to offer, and there are many different types of agencies you can be as well. For this special [...]