Differentiate your agency with your distinct POV with Derrick Daye

Speaker 1:

If you’re going to take the risk of running an agency, shouldn’t you get the benefits too? Welcome to Agency Management Institute’s Build a Better Agency podcast, presented by HubSpot. We’ll show you how to build an agency that can scale and grow with better clients, invested employees, and best of all, more money to the bottom line. Bringing his 25-plus years of experience as both an agency owner and agency consultants, please welcome your host Drew McLellan.

Drew McLellan:

Hey, everybody. Drew McLellan here with another episode of Build a Better Agency. Today we are going to talk about brand. Branding is one of the topics that I always love to talk about, both with my agency owner hat on and also with my AMI hat on. I think it is critical, I think it’s always been critical thing, it’s one of the few things in our world that has stayed consistent, and I think it’s very difficult today to survive and thrive if you do not develop a strong brand for your agency. And for many of you, I know that you spend a lot of time and energy developing strong brands for your clients as well.

So when I think about brand, one of the people that I think about is sort of one of the preeminent thought leaders in branding, and that’s a guy named Derrick Daye. You may be familiar with Derrick, in ’06, he launched a website called Branding Strategy Insider, which back then, back in the day, it was a blog, and still serves as a blog, but it’s also sort of the launching pad for Derrick and his company, The Blake Project. It’s where they launch research around branding, where they talk about sort of the best brands and what they’re doing. So it’s a great resource for agencies and client-side folks to really learn about sort of cutting edge thinking when it comes to branding.

So Derrick, if you’re not familiar with him, Derrick, before he launched The Blake Project, which is his company, he spent about 20 years in advertising. Worked for Saatchi & Saatchi and several other agencies, and then decided that he wanted to change his career a little bit, and he wanted to go on the consulting side of the business. So since then, Derrick has been working in many countries across the world working with national brands, he has worked with everyone from the White House press corps, to Coca Cola, to the national parks of New York Harbor, when they were sort of trying to re-think the Statue of Liberty and how it could continue to be an icon for tourists and for Americans, both when they’re traveling to New York, and also when they are back at home. So he’s done some really interesting work. But he spends a lot of time helping agencies figure out how to articulate their own brand, and how they can work with clients to sort of put together the strategy behind a client’s brand.

I’m guessing that Derrick and I are going to bounce all over the topic of branding, but what I do know for a fact is that Derrick is going to talk about brand in a different way than you’re used to hearing about and he’s going to get you to think a little differently about your agency’s brand and also the clients that you serve. And with that, I would really like to welcome Derrick Daye from The Blake Project to the podcast. Derrick, welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us.

Derrick Daye:

Thank you, Drew. It’s great to be here.

Drew McLellan:

So Derrick, I feel like we should confess to the listeners that you and I have known each other for over a decade. So back in the day when blogging was cool and there was only like 100 of us doing it, you and I were some of the first bloggers who were talking about marketing and branding, and I remember learning about you and reading your stuff and sharing your stuff, and as we were saying offline before we hit the record button, that was a time of great camaraderie and learning from each other. So I’m grateful that I’ve gotten to learn from you for over a decade, so it’s fun to have this conversation with you.

Derrick Daye:

Well, likewise, Drew. And yeah, I mean, that taught us all a lot of things about how we could work together, learn from each other and that this was really a time of kind of open source thinking where we could really lean on each other and be better for it. So that’s really what that kind of blogging movement did for me. And creating that mental profit that we talked about earlier, because that’s really what you were going for them, because you may get a question from people, “Well, how much revenue does this generate?” And you really wouldn’t have that answer, unless you thought about mental profit and what you had learned from others. So that spirit has kind of carried on with me as I’ve shaped my own business, and it’s helped me and I think it’s a worldview that can work for anyone.

Drew McLellan:

I agree. So tell us a little bit about The Blake Project and your background and history and how you came to be such an expert on the whole idea of brand?

Derrick Daye:

Sure. So The Blake Project is a brand consultancy, and just the real high-level elevator speech here, our four key areas of expertise are brand research, brand strategy, brand licensing, and brand education. We serve organizations in all stages of development, from startups to emerging brands to regional, national and global brands in those four key areas. My own background, I actually started out as a broadcast journalist a long time ago, and spent a number of years on the air, off the air, even getting into the advertising aspects of it. Then I transitioned to work with a few mid-sized agencies until being recruited to Saatchi & Saatchi where I was in the management tier there, I worked on strategy, but I also played a big part in new business development.

So that helped shape my path to think about strategy. So when I started this company in 2003, I knew exactly what I wanted to do, which is really kind of look under the hood of brands and think about how they could represent unique value in their own marketplaces. That was a great move for me, and I haven’t looked back. Because that’s an area where continuous… There’s a lot of change. I mean, every year you’re working with different types of clients, you’re working in different industries, and yeah, there’s just a lot of opportunity to learn.

Drew McLellan:

So for you, how do you differentiate between a brand consultancy and a brand agency? What do or don’t you do that a traditional, or a typical brand agency might do?

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, so as a brand consultancy, we really believe… I mean, we’re all trying to help our clients get to the same goals as agencies, as agencies do, and consultancies do. But consultants really focus on studying the mind of the customer first, and then focusing on those key things that can help that customers separate in the marketplace, that’s differentiating their brand, perhaps helping them think through complex marketing challenges where maybe their growth is stunted or something is not working in the process. And we bring our insight from the many different brands that we’ve worked with, where when you’re talking differentiation, most of the best ideas come from out of your space, we bring that to help them develop a strategy that moves them away.

An agency is great at taking that strategic work and bringing that to life. And that is the domain of agencies, that’s where having come from Saatchi & Saatchi, I know, that that’s where they did their best work. And there’s a real skill, as we know, behind that, taking some words on a paper and painting this picture for the target customer. And that’s why, rightfully so, ad agencies get all of the credit for amazing campaigns that are in our world today. They have the shiny object that they can put up there. So agencies create that value there. So I see a difference between the two in strategy and creative strategy.

Drew McLellan:

So for you, that’s where the handoff comes with a client, is you would in essence, at a certain point, take the strategy and hand it off to an agency to basically breathe life into that strategy, yes?

Derrick Daye:

Yes, Drew. I have to confess that over the years, we’ve had several clients that have asked us to go all the way and at times we have. We also have had about 20 agencies white label our strategic services because they understood that things like brand architecture is not something that they specialize in, and [crosstalk 00:10:03] bring us in for those kinds of things. But I think the key is in having worked as a consultant and someone in the management tier of a large agency, I think really knowing what lane you need to stay in is really good. Because what we all want to do is do our best work, and when we spill into places where we don’t belong, then the client is not going to get our best. That’s just the facts. So that’s kind of my… The way I see things.

The power of brands lies in focus, and that doesn’t exempt agencies from thinking that way. They need to focus on what they’re great at, and not just be good at a couple things or so-so at things that just helps land a client.

Drew McLellan:

Well, as you know, lots of agencies really struggle with… Even if they’re a brand shop, and they are good at developing brands further for their clients, lots of agencies struggle with how to differentiate their agency from all the other agencies. And I know that you have some thought around how to do that, or how to think about that in a different way. So I think it would be hugely valuable for you to talk about that for a minute in terms of how agencies can approach that task, perhaps differently than they have?

Derrick Daye:

Sure, Drew. I’ll give you as much as I can, because this is one of the biggest questions to answer in this age of disruption, right? I mean, it’s the question that every agency has on their mind. I think the way you have to begin in answering that is to first understand what are the table stakes, because you can’t differentiate with what’s already expected. So it’s not about the work, because that’s just the picture war. That’s who came up with the best picture. And every agency that is worth anything, they have good creative, and they show it. So creative is not going to separate you, even though there’s an idea that my creative got more awards than your creative. But I think that position is weakening, the whole getting an award thing is not what it once was.

Drew McLellan:

Well, and I think other agencies will hang their hat on a campaign, right? So I mean, I think we can think of some Wieden & Kennedy campaigns.

Derrick Daye:

Oh, yeah.

Drew McLellan:

It’s like that, right? But you can’t live on an old campaign forever, either. So I don’t care how creative you were three years ago, somebody else is creative today. And so you’re right, I think most agencies would acknowledge to a certain extent that’s a commodity.

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, I hope so. The other thing, it’s not about the people. You can have-

Drew McLellan:

That’s what every agency says, “Oh, we have the best people.” And my response to them is, “So every other agency has hired morons and boobs?” That’s what you’re saying.

Derrick Daye:

Well, I’m also saying that even if you have the most talented team, it’s not enough to differentiate yourself. Because that’s rarefied air, and a lot of people at that level, if I just kind of take a name out of the air, like Seth Godin, he doesn’t consult, his business is speaking and selling books. So that’s a different business. So what I’m saying, Drew, is it’s table stakes to have great people, that’s already expected. And that goes for consultants, too. I’m here too, I raise my hand on it here. I mean, it’s not just about having great people. It’s also not about the process or your methodology. Everyone has a process. Everyone has a methodology, and they really try to push that theirs is somehow superior. And you’re expected to have a process and a methodology. So that’s not-

Drew McLellan:

Yeah, it’s not that it’s unnecessary, it’s just that again, it’s a given, not something that makes you special.

Derrick Daye:

Right. Another place that I would say and this will only apply to a few of your listeners, but it’s not about the global network. It’s not about how big you are. And a little story here is I’m kind of going down the path of trying to help everyone answer their own differentiation question. When I started The Blake Project in 2003, I thought to myself, I said, “Okay, you were at Saatchi & Saatchi, that’s a global agency, 8,500 people behind you and a big history. How are you going to get business from global brands like you did there?” Which was my target customer. And my first call was with Bausch & Lomb, and I had worked with this client there at Saatchi 7 Saatchi. And we talked and she said, “This is really about a relationship for me, not about how big your organization is.” And my point on that is relationships win every time.

So I’m of the belief that how good you are at people skills and understanding people is going to directly coincide with any closure rate you have, any long-term relationship you have. It’s about people, and you’ve got to keep coming back to that. So you ask, Drew, you ask about, well, okay, so maybe there’s a lot of nice people at agencies, and everyone has nice people that are people people. But I think that could be true, but there’s a lot of agencies that aren’t putting that out in front. Instead, they’re putting out in front, “Look at the award I won for the campaign.”

Drew McLellan:

Right. Or, “Here’s our magic process,” or whatever.

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, yeah. So it comes back to the people. And I’ll drill a little deeper on brand differentiation. But while we’re just talking about an agency business, or consulting business, sometimes the answer is the obvious. And sometimes people discount the obvious. So they think that, “Oh, it’s a people answer, well, that’s obvious.” Well, then how come no one is, in your space, having stronger relationships, having that…” And the thing is, the best brands across the board are built from the inside out, and they already have a culture that connects with their target customer. And that’s what agencies have to do, right? It has to come from within. And we know there are agencies that are just all about the money, and they just… They’re not people people, and those are the agencies that I expect to have high turnover within and high turnover with their clients. So that’s just maybe a longer answer than what you wanted. But I also have some other thoughts that I can bring to just differentiation in general.

Drew McLellan:

So it’s not the process, it’s not the work, it’s not the people, in terms of their strategy or their smarts. And if it’s all about the relationships, then that doesn’t feel very differentiating, because everybody can invest in relationships. So I want you to peel that back a little further for us and say, “Okay, so then how does an agency truly differentiate for themselves? And how do they talk about it?” But first, I want to take a quick break.

I get this, sometimes you just can’t get on a plane and spend a couple days in a live workshop. And so hopefully, our online courses are a solution to that. Lots of video, hours and hours of video, a very dense, detailed participants guide, and all kinds of help along the way to make sure that you get the learning that you need and apply it immediately to your agency. Right now we’ve got two courses that are available. We have the Agency New Business Blueprint, and we have the AE Bootcamp. So feel free to check those out at agencymanagementinstitute.com/ondemandcourses. Okay, let’s get back to the show.

All right. Welcome back. I’m here with Derrick Daye from The Blake Project and we were talking about how agencies could differentiate themselves. So Derrick had just talked to us about all the ways kind of that agencies tend to lean towards when they start working on their own differentiation and sort of was pointing out that all of those things are table stakes. So at the break, what I said to him was, okay, well if all of that’s table stakes, and if it really is relationship based, then how do we, inside that space, how do we differentiate ourselves? And with that, I was mean and took a break and so now we’re back and I want to hear what Derrick has to say about that.

Derrick Daye:

Well, I think that one of the obvious things is to just kind of look within and say, “Okay, we’re in the business of ideas. So what is the most powerful idea for us? What is that idea that we can own, that makes us unique and compelling?” A big problem with agencies is they often don’t take the time, or nearly enough to think about themselves. They’re spending a lot of time on their clients, and-

Drew McLellan:

The old Cobbler’s children have no shoes.

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, and we know it, we all know it. And that really takes our business in a direction that it’s almost setting us up for failure, right? We’re not practicing what we preach, and that’s what we need to be doing, we need to put a stake in the ground that says, “Okay, this is what our brand essence is. And that’s going to be our North Star. And this is what our brand promises, and everything that we do, every decision we make, marketing or otherwise, we’re going to use this as a filter for these decisions.” It’s funny that as marketers, we can go out and make other people great brands, but we have trouble doing it for ourselves. And I blame a lot of that on not slowing down, stepping back and saying, “Wait a second, I need to think about myself now.” Especially in an age of disruption, where agencies are now seeing management consultancies deciding that they’re going to be the agency of the future.

So the landscape’s changing, and a favorite Peter Drucker quote of mine, which just nails it here is, “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.” And that’s what we all have to be doing to get permission to have a future. So if we’re going to earn a future, we’re going to have to do something different. So yeah, other thoughts? How can you change your world? What can you do? One idea that speaks to some human needs in a very simple way is what is it about your touchpoints, or your process that could be boring for your customers? Find a way to kill dull and to kill boring. That’s something, I mean, again, it speaks to human needs. What is it about your process that maybe makes people feel that this is just a transaction, and remove those barriers? And that’s where you can really, really get to a place where you can have meaningful relationship with your target customer.

Drew McLellan:

Part of what I’m hearing you say is that an agency’s brand is really about having sort of a strong point of view about the work or the way you work, but it is coming from a point of view, which is, we believe this to be true, whatever that may be, that is intrinsically the truth about the people at the agency. So is that what you’re saying?

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, it starts with an honest self assessment, what are the things that we’re really best at, let’s be honest? And then focus on those customers that would appreciate that value. It’s not about what is selling the most today, and how can we bend ourselves into some configuration that helps us close those deals? It’s really about the other ways, what is it that that makes us great? And then bring that out to the world. That’s really the key today. And again, if we’re really financially minded, then we’ll start missing the human element here that’s required to make these relationships. If I’m just focused on the numbers, I’m going to miss the opportunities to build emotional connections. That’s the way that I see it, and I’ve seen it and I’ve been around. There’s lots of opportunity for agencies today but it’s amazing, there’s not enough agency owners that are willing to be different, and to break away. And you need that too, I mean, you can have a great differentiating idea, but then you have to have the courage to execute it. And that’s a leader-

Drew McLellan:

And that’s not just agencies, right? So I’m assuming in your work with brands that you run into this same reluctance of… Because when you declare that you are about something or you believe something, it by default says, “And by the way, all this stuff that isn’t that, not for me.” So it really is about saying, “Instead of eating the whole pie, I’m going to carve out this one piece of pie, and this is my pie. And every time this is my pie, and I’m going to ignore the rest of the pie, because hat’s not for me.” Right?

Derrick Daye:

Right. Yeah, that’s the other thing. I mean, to get a strong brand, it requires the discipline to say no, and say it a lot. That’s hard.

Drew McLellan:

So how do you guys help your clients get there? Whether it’s an agency owner, or a business owner, or a board of directors, how do you help people get to the point where they have the confidence in where they’ve landed on their brand, and the courage to say no to all the things that don’t align with their brand? Because when I put on my agency owner hat, and we’re talking to clients about brand, what I say to them is, “This is where the rubber meets the road, when you’re sitting in a conference room sorting all of this out, that’s one thing. But when you have to say no to a prospect, or you have to say goodbye to an employee who no longer embodies the brand, now the brand gets real. Now you have to make sacrifice.” So how do you help clients, and translate this to how can agency owners help themselves and their teams be willing to be both confident and courageous enough to actually have a strong brand?

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, two really good questions. I think we agree, Drew, that the first thing you have to do is have a common ground, and that usually starts with speaking the same language. And in our process, that’s when the fourth pillar of our business really comes through, and that’s brand education. So what we do is, in everything we do, there’s a brand education component, because we know that that’s going to be the glue that holds everyone together long after we’ve left the picture. And that’s part of also our mission with Branding Strategy Insider, where we share the insights we have for so long when it comes to brand strategy and brand management.

So opening up with the idea that everyone here in the room, our clients are usually together in workshop formats, we talk about the best practices in brand management, but we also explained to them that, “Hey, this is an opportunity for us to be speaking the same language.” Because you can be working with clients where there’s marketers that have come from other brands, and they’re not even speaking the same language or having the same understanding about brands. And as we all know, there are over 10 accepted definitions of even what a brand is. So it’s a very fuzzy kind of world when it comes to thinking about brands to begin with.

So we level set there, and the way that I like to do that is to just really explain that brands need three things to lead today. The first is an emotional advantage, which is how customers feel about you. The second is a distinctive advantage, which is how customers recognize you. And that’s where differentiation really plays a role. And the third is a connective advantage, which is how customers engage with you. So that’s where the touch points come in there. Starting with that, and then usually in our work, the mission, it falls into one of those three categories, either all of them, or some of them, we’re asked to come in and help organizations at different points of their spectrum of the work in building a brand and sometimes it’s research, sometimes it’s strategy, sometimes it’s licensing, sometimes it’s training or education. So we start with that educational component as the foundation. Then in that process, I think we do a really good job of using examples that help people see how others found the courage within, examples-

Drew McLellan:

Right. And those examples allow them to see how they get to the other side, you think?

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, they do. Then also, I would say the difference… What’s that Dr. Phil quote? “We teach people how we want them to treat us.” You need to start there in the relationship you have with your customer, you need to have a candid open relationship with them. And sometimes it comes out in one on one interviews, sometimes it comes out in just talking one on one. So in those moments, you can help them get to that place where they can take this idea out into the world. An interesting thing, when I left the agency world and got into the consulting world, some things I noticed right away. First of all, I had access to the CEO, and I wasn’t stopped at the CMO or the VP of marketing level.

The next thing I noticed was that we were treated a lot different than they treat their agency partners. They treat us much better than, even coming from a global agency, which is too bad, everyone should be treating everyone the same with respect. But having that access to the top of the organization is absolutely key when anytime you’re talking about brand strategy and brand differentiation, as you know Drew, because the ultimate brand champion is the CEO, and everything has to flow from the top.

Drew McLellan:

I’m curious, from your perspective, having worn both the agency hat and now that consultant hat for as long as you have, why do you think CEOs see agencies and consultants so differently? Do we show up different? Is it the deliverables are different? Is it because consultancies tend to be more expensive? What is it that causes… Because you’re right, I hear agency owners talking about that all the time, “I want to get to the C-suite, I don’t want to be treated like a vendor, I want to be able to be participating in the decision making rather than only participating in the implementation.” So from your unique vantage point, what do you think causes that perception shift from the CEO’s point of view?

Derrick Daye:

I think there’s a couple of things. First of all, agencies are in a much bigger pond than consultancies. So you can throw a rock and hit an agency or someone that works at an agency. Unfortunately, and I learned this working in the agency space, what comes with creative is the burden that, at the very top levels of management, this is discounted as a skill that too many people do. It’s hard to be special there.

Drew McLellan:

Right, it’s commodity.

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, it’s commodity. So another reason that I think that is, is how the ad industry has shaped its role in business. It has kind of surrendered any position it could have had early on, and we’re talking probably 50 years ago, 40, 50 years ago, where they could have positioned themselves as the CEO has to lean on the agency to build their business. And that’s just not how things evolved. So out of traditional consultancies like a McKinsey, you then got brand consultancies. And so McKinsey was kind of… It kind of lifted up the brand consulting world, right? It was the McKinsey kind of thinking that was adopted, but I think… Or at least their business model that was adopted by brand consultants.

And here we are, so how does an agency today change how they’re perceived value is to the C-suite? And that’s really hard now because they’ve created this CMO role to shield themselves from the people that work in marketing, right? You’re supposed to be talking to CMO. It’s very hard but I think I… One thing I want to give your audience on this point is, look for ways to be strategic. If you’re all about pictures, no, that’s not enough. If you’re all about tactics, that’s not enough. You’ve got to find a way in the conversation to spend a lot of time flexing about your strategic know how, which, unfortunately, is different than perhaps the consultants that are doing the work, and perhaps it’s not your strong suit. But that’s where there’s an opportunity, I think that’s where there’s an opportunity for an agency is to try to differentiate themselves as not simply a creative strategy firm, but a business strategy firm, right?

Drew McLellan:

I think too many agencies default, because it’s easy to talk… Even strategically, but we talk about the work, the stuff that we make, as opposed to the business and where the business is trying to go. So we allow the conversation to sort of drop down into the tactical level, as opposed to staying at the sort of the business goals, objectives, level. Where I think consultancies, that’s where they live, and so that’s why they get to sort of stay at that bigger table, if you will.

Derrick Daye:

Exactly, Drew. Where I think the agencies need to go is, first of all, I would only put forward creative that had a story around… that had a strong ROI story, like, “Sales went up 55%, because of this campaign.” I would not put up a campaign just because you won an ADDY award for it. That’s not enough. You need to somehow show sales metrics. And those are hard to get, you got to stay in touch with clients, you got to watch the market. But how come we don’t have an ad agency award for most profit? I mean, that right there would go a long way to eliminate this notion that it’s just pretty pictures. So that’s just an idea.

Drew McLellan:

And post recession, I think that is even more critical. I think CMOS came out of the recession 2010, 2011, and finally had a budget again, but they were given a very different directive, which is, “You are now tied directly to sales.” I think marketing and sales were always sort of divided. And now they’re absolutely sort of crammed together. If they’re not the same person, they’re certainly working after the same set of goals. And so now all of a sudden, I think agencies are under even more heat to really be able to deliver and to measure ROI, even when the clients aren’t willing to share some of that data. So you’re right, it’s a challenge.

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, it is, it is a challenge. If agencies are going to stay relevant today, they really need… This is the time to look within and start thinking about your own brand, because in the next five years… If you’re not going to do that, then you need to think about what’s the best way to get [inaudible 00:38:25] to acquire you or some others? Because there is going to be a lot of that happening in the next five years and-

Drew McLellan:

Yeah, we’re already seeing it.

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, yeah. On differentiation, one of the thought on differentiation, Drew, which I really like this concept with speaking to clients and it may help the audience here, and that is to think about picking an enemy when you’re thinking in the context of differentiation. And I’m not saying pick an enemy in the way that maybe people have in their minds right now. Pick an enemy to me is look at the enemy that Toms Shoes picked, they picked children with bare feet, right, that needed shoes. So in that context, who is your enemy? Who is really your enemy? And it should be tied to something-

Drew McLellan:

Yeah. What are you fighting against?

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, yeah. And is it the good fight? Is that the fight that your customer wants to see you fighting? Help them in the fight. That’s where the real secret is.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah. That’s a great way to think about it, and a way to probably articulate it in more sort of common human language as opposed to the gobbledygook speak that sometimes people sort of put together when they’re trying to make themselves sound different.

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, you’re back at it with people again, Drew. Isn’t that right? Doesn’t that bring us full circle on differentiation? Because it’s about people, nothing else.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah. Speaking of people, I want to shift gears a little bit, I want to talk a little bit about your Un-Conference. So tell us about the concept of that and sort of what that’s all about, and what makes it different than a lot of the other offerings out there? I want to make sure my folks hear about that.

Derrick Daye:

Thanks. I just want to tell everyone that this is not going to be some boring pitch about a conference because actually, when I developed this back in late 2012, I knew then, just as I know now, the world doesn’t need another conference. There’s plenty of them. So hence, the name The Un-Conference. What I thought about was, okay, let’s take a look at the conference space. Why is it the way it is? I mean, everyone kind of… The focus is on selling tickets, everyone crams in as many people as they can into one room, and the emphasis is not on learning outcomes for people. It’s not the optimal way to learn. So I learned in my own research here, well, going the other way, you need smaller groups, we learn better in small groups, and that’s not as profitable.

So I went at this, putting profit to the side and saying, “Why don’t we just create something that’s the best learning environment and experience for marketers, and then see what happens?” So May 14th, through the 16th, in San Diego, California, we will be hosting our sixth Un-Conference at the Hard Rock Cafe. Basically, what we have is what we call competitive learning, which we have only 50 marketers can come. There’s 5 teams of 10. And they’re learning and working on teams together as we go through the most important concepts in brand management. And we’re also addressing some of the problems that they have. We know what those are because they share them confidentially in the registration process. Then that helps shape our program. Oftentimes, marketers are facing the same problems, like how do I differentiate my brand? So everyone learns as we go.

A couple other things that make this different. Our, what I call, speaker experts, when they share whatever topic they’re sharing, they’re either a judge for a team challenge, or they join teams and rotate through the team. So everybody’s in it together. Then one other point I should say is, we infuse skill, chance and fun into what we do. We developed this card game. Actually, I worked with Parker Brothers to develop this card game called [BrandDingo 00:43:07], the brand management safari, which helps teams score points, it’s another way they can score points, and it brings a center activity to the room, and actually, over the time we are together. So it’s very intimate. We spend a lot of time together, we all learn together and real relationships and it’s quite an alumni group on Facebook, and now we have people that come back. Last May we had folks from 11 different countries join us. So it’s a rich experience. I look forward to it every year, because of how much I get to learn.

Drew McLellan:

It sounds like there’s clearly a competition. So the winning team does what? What’s the-

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, so…

Drew McLellan:

It’s like they score more points, but what are they scoring points… So we win when we accomplish what?

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, so everyone is going to… I was just going to say everyone’s going to leave a winner because they’re there to learn.

Drew McLellan:

Sure, duh. Right.

Derrick Daye:

We do have [crosstalk 00:44:19] prizes, and this last…

Drew McLellan:

Yeah. I don’t mean they win trophies. I mean, like, I won a basketball game because I put the ball in the hoop more than the other guy, right? So what I’m saying is what do I have to do to win? So here’s ultra competitive Drew going, “Okay, well, so what do we have to do to win this game?”

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, a couple of things to get to the ultimate prize, which is clarity and confidence in the strategic direction of your brand. That’s the ultimate prize. But what you have to do to get there is score points based on the cards that you were dealt and how you match those cards with other teams that have cards you need to trade for to get more points, so there’s a negotiation element during the breaks. That’s one way. And that also forces more interactions, so people like [crosstalk 00:45:13]. The other thing is there are three judges that judge the… Each team, when they complete a challenge, they have a team spokesperson that shares how they came up with it, and they are awarded points. So there’s a tally after each team challenge and at the end of our time together, people cash in their cards and we know how much they scored with the judges and that’s how we’re able to come up with the winner.

Now, in the first four years we did something very different where someone on the winning team threw out the first pitch at a professional baseball game which was a complete surprise, no one knew that they were going to do that. They knew that we were-

Drew McLellan:

That’s be awesome.

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, they knew they were going to game that night, because we had a box and everything, but they didn’t know that someone on the winning team was going to throw out the first pitch. It was a name on the scoreboard and the whole works. Yeah, it was mind blowing. We moved away from that for the simple reason that people just weren’t into baseball like I thought they would be and-

Drew McLellan:

That’s just wrong.

Derrick Daye:

I know, what can I say?

Drew McLellan:

That’s bad and wrong. That should be on your intake form, if they don’t like baseball, they’re not [inaudible 00:46:30].

Derrick Daye:

I know, we shouldn’t take it there, Drew. But we’ve now done some other events which are more your everyone’s together, we do a team building, we have dinner [inaudible 00:46:42].

Drew McLellan:

So what kind of people show up at the Un-Conference?

Derrick Daye:

Well, there are client side marketers, we get probably 60% to 70% client side marketers that are senior marketers, then we get about 30% agency folks and consulting folks, they’re also typically senior marketers or senior position. But I want to point out that we also see other younger people that are trying to get out of their comfort zone and put themselves in a place where they can grow, so we don’t turn someone away. Actually, I had a student write me, she wrote me an essay, she was a 4.0 in marketing and a senior at a university in Texas and she said, “Hey, look, this seems like it’s for professionals and not for students, I get that, but this is my plea to you. Can I come? I have a 4.0 in marketing. Can I come? Is there any way that I can be a part of this?” And I said yes. And she became one of the real stars of her team.

We can learn from anybody. That’s the thing. So it’s not a place about titles, this is a place about contributions and it’s about participation, not observation. So if that interests you, then this is the kind of experience that you want to come to have. Your typical conference thing, if you’re just a regular conference person, then there’s plenty of those for you, but this is really about let’s have fun together but let’s also do something really meaningful that we can get tools and techniques that are actionable to serve our clients, to better ourselves. And that’s what we have to do, we have to get out of this comfort zone we’re in if we want to chance the future.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah, it sounds like a great interactive way to learn and to learn by doing and to learn by experiencing and observing other people as they’re sort of crawling through their challenges as well. So it sounds like it would be quite a memorable couple days.

Derrick Daye:

Well, I’d love to meet some people there that said, “Hey, Drew pointed me this way,” that would be great.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah. So if people want to know more about it, I’m assuming there’s a website they can go to, yes?

Derrick Daye:

There is. It’s actually if you go to theblakeproject.com, you’ll see a big banner on our annual event, you can just click on that banner. The other the other thing I want to point out is this is not… There is a lot of distance between The Blake Project and this event. This is not a place where The Blake Project sells its services. We’re there as participants to learn, certainly we’re the hosts, but there’s no sales pitch from us. I want that to be really clear. And actually, we have even our own competitors come to this and we share ideas there. So it’s very much open source.

Drew McLellan:

That sort of closes our conversation full circle, right? I mean, we talked about it in the beginning of the hour, that was sort of how we met was in this idea of collaborating and learning from each other and celebrating each other’s smarts and work, we actually learn and get smarter. So it does not go without notice that you’ve now created an event that sort of models that very attitude.

Derrick Daye:

Yeah. That’s really where we all need to be today. We have to remember, we’re in it together. And we got to think that way in helping our clients. So great, thanks for having me, Drew. I really appreciate the opportunity.

Drew McLellan:

Oh, I’m glad to have you. I hope to have you back. This was awesome. Derrick, if folks want to learn more about you… So I know you have lots of places where they can find you. But your thought leadership position and all of the content that you guys create, because you do a ton of research and you talk about the research with great depth, and you talk about brands, where can folks find that information?

Derrick Daye:

Brandingstrategyinsider.com, that is probably the primary place. Other places, obviously theblakeproject.com, I’m also on Twitter @DerrickDaye, and of course, LinkedIn today, we can… Derrick, D-E-R-R-I-C-K Daye, D-A-Y-E, that’s another way you can find me. Like everybody, I’m well connected, and easy to find.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah. Thanks very much, Derrick. This was fun, as I knew it would be, and I knew it would get people sort of fired up, and I’m excited for people to hear more about the Un-Conference, because it’s certainly a fresh way of learning and some professional development that people may not have known about. So I’m grateful that you carved out the time to be with us today.

Derrick Daye:

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it. So again, Drew, thanks.

Drew McLellan:

You bet. That wraps up another episode of Build a Better Agency. Hopefully you found it incredibly helpful and inspiring and that you are ready to go out and do some great things. I also want to talk to you about another tool that we’ve built, that I would love to offer you. So as you’ve probably heard me preach, I believe a lot of agencies chase after the wrong new business prospects. And I think we do that because we have not taken the time to clearly define who our sweet spot clients should be. The way you do that is by looking at your current clients and then developing out who your prospects should be based on your best current clients.

So we’ve put together a sweet spot client filter, say that five times fast, that I would love for you to take advantage of and for you to use inside your shop to figure out exactly who you should be targeting for new business. To get access to that free tool, all you need to do is text AMI, for Agency Management Institute, as you might imagine, AMI, text that to 38470. Again, text AMI to 38470 and we will get the sweet spot client filter out to you right away.

Thanks again for listening. If I can be helpful, you can find me as always at [email protected]. Otherwise, I will touch base with you next week with another great episode. Talk to you soon.

Speaker 1:

That’s all for this episode of AMI’s Build a Better Agency, brought to you by HubSpot. Be sure to visit agencymanagementinstitute.com to learn more about our workshops, online courses, and other ways we serve small to mid-sized agencies. Don’t miss an episode as we help you build the agency you always dreamed of owning.