the intelligent new business seminar: 

Fattening the Goose

27^th January 2011

4pm, The Groucho Club, 45 Dean Street, London W1. We look forward to welcoming you to a discussion on:

"Securing a value for your business it deserves"

For many of our clients, the first time they really start to think strategically about business development is when their thoughts turn to shaping their business for sale. Others come to us having recently sold a marketing business, and now keen to maximise their earn-out. If ever there was a time to worry about reliable profitable returns, this is it!

The next Rainmaker seminar is aimed at people who are considering selling their agencies, now or in the future and who want to be as match fit as possible for the big event. Via a panel of experts we will discuss the issues, share some experiences, highlight best practice and forewarn on the common pitfalls. We look forward to you joining us - please respond by email to geraint.jones@rain-maker.co.uk if you would like to attend.

The panel will be: -

Mark Madsen, Senior Consultant of Madsen Consulting

Mark is one of the best-known M&A specialists in the UK marketing services community. The variety of deals he's undertaken has given him unparalleled breadth of knowledge on deal structuring, exit planning and valuations and he has been involved with a large number of transactions for groups including: Chime, Cello, Engine, Huntsworth, GCI and Grey.

Gareth Dixon, Seminar Facilitator & Founder Rainmaker Consulting & Pearlfinders

Gareth has worked with a host of agencies going through corporate transactions, directing new business programmes that help them build up a business to make it as attractive as possible to potential buyers, or help to maximise the potential of an earn-out. A founder of the UK's largest and most influential new business consultancy Rainmaker, and planning director of new business campaigns for over 100 marketing agencies over 14 years, Gareth has an unrivalled grasp of the practical realities of reliable and successful new business development activity.

Mark Smith, Chief Operating Officer and Finance Director of Chime Communications plc

Mark has been a Chartered Accountant since 1978, having qualified with Touche Ross & Co. (now Deloitte LLP).  Following two years as European Finance Director at RCA Records, he joined Good Relations Group plc in 1984 and became its Group Finance Director in 1985.  In 1986 he became Finance Director of Lowe Bell Communications (now Bell Pottinger Group) and Finance Director of Chime communications at the time of the management buyout in 1989. His corporate experience includes a reverse takeover of a listed company; over 30 acquisitions, one of which was a quoted company; and several disposals.  Mark is responsible for the financial control of Chime as well as being actively involved with most general management issues. Mark is also a Non-Executive Director of Holiday Extras Holdings Limited, a successful private company

James House, CEO of 5one

As a founding partner of 5one, James has over 15 years experience in leading marketing, CRM and insight agencies. He has in-depth marketing mix knowledge spanning the strategic development and implementation of direct marketing, loyalty programmes and CRM strategies within retail and FMCG businesses across the world. Since launching 5one in 2002, James has led 5one's international expansion in Europe, South Africa and the rest of the world and was integral in managing 5one's sale to the LaSer Group in 2007. At 5one, James has global responsibility for 5one group operating companies in the UK, France and South Africa.

Thursday 4th February, 4pm at JWT, 1 Knightsbridge Green, SW1

...Tactics for digital agencies to organically develop their portfolios

One of the most frequently mentioned objectives we hear from digital agencies is the desire to move from project-based work to longer-term relationships, or retainers. Digital marketing is no longer a new phenomenon and consistently outstrips all other disciplines in terms of growth in spend. Increasingly, it also a lead discipline for a brand's marketing strategy. Brands are therefore welcoming overtures to transform relationships for the longer-term, but only if the agency handles its approach correctly.

Rainmaker's annual Intelligent New Business Surveys since 2002 have indicated that positive referrals and recommendations from colleagues are critical influencers in new business situations. But while some appear to effortlessly grow new clients, others struggle. Many purely focus on delivering on the initial project with little thought about what happens next.

So how do you achieve the holy grail of taking a client from projects to AOR? Should it be down to the account team or the new business team or both? Is it a question of pouncing when opportunities arise or adopting a structured approach? How do you avoid being pigeonholed? How do you balance proactive outreach for business versus the delicate politics of existing relationships? And is it possible to take anything from traditional ad agency techniques or is digital completely different?

To solve these and other questions, we would like to invite you to join us and a panel of experts at JWT's offices at 1 Knightsbridge Green, London, SW1, on Thursday 4th February at 4pm.

Expert panel

The format of the event will be an open discussion led by the panel members: -

Gareth Dixon, Seminar Chair and Founder of Rainmaker Consulting, Pearlfinders & Blossom 

A founder of Rainmaker and planning director of new business campaigns for over 100 agencies over 14 years, Gareth has an unrivalled grasp of the practical realities of successful new business activity. He has advised digital and integrated agencies including: i-Level, Agency.com, Profero, Steel and Digitas on all aspects of proactive revenue generation, including client development.

Chris Cowpe, Founder of The Caffeine Partnership

A founder of The Caffeine Partnership, Chris was joint CEO of DDB London where he oversaw the rise, fall and rise again of what is today Tribal DDB. He has advised digital and integrated agencies on organic business development. He's co-author of How to Win Friends And Influence Profits (the art of winning more business from existing clients). The Caffeine Partnership's key function is to advise companies, brands and individuals on growth strategies. 

Paul Kirkley - Business Development Director at JWT

An account man for 15 years, Paul became Business Development Director in 2007. Since then the agency has won new business from companies including Nokia, Baileys, Royal Caribbean, Debenhams, and Baxters. Paul is also responsible for organic client development and during his tenure the agency has won additional business from clients including J&J, Unilever and Mazda.

David Hart - Managing Director of Codegent and vice chair of BIMA

Codegent is a digital agency who works with clients including the BBC, Nickelodeon, Swarowski, Barclays and American Express. At BIMA David is committed to promoting the idea of the UK being a world-class centre for digital innovation and to bring more benefits to BIMA members in the areas of publicity, networking and education.

Mark Clark, Consultant, jfdi - Mark currently works with a wide range of agencies, across all disciplines, with the sole objective of helping them win more new business. As part of this remit, he created the jfdi® New Business Academy programme which gives client-facing agency teams the skills to grow new business from existing clients. Prior to jfdi®  he worked at both small and multinational agencies in client service and management roles, latterly as a Senior Vice President for Europe, Middle East & Africa at McCann Erickson. 

For more information

For more information about this seminar, for advice on best practice communications with marketing procurement departments, or for any other area of proactive new business activity, please contact Charlotte Fletcher or Gareth Dixon at Rainmaker Consulting, on 020 7837 1122.

Welcome back to a new year. While we've been away we've been looking at our archive of agency propositions (yes, we have an archive of them), which over the last ten years or so includes hundreds if not thousands of agencies across the UK, Europe and North America.

When we plan client campaigns we evaluate the market, and in the process carefully look at their competitors to confirm the client has a distinctive and compelling message. Our record of the headline messages of many hundreds of UK agencies (of all disciplines) goes back 10 years. To help new clients understand how an agency uses effective messaging in practice, we decided to look at our data with fresh eyes, and then judge what we felt to be the best message deployed during that period, in terms of proactive new business activity.

Of the hundreds we looked at, one stood out. First appearing in our agency message monitor in September 2002 but dating back to 1995, their public message remains essentially the same today (Jan 2010)...

"M&C Saatchi is founded on the principle of Brutal Simplicity. Brutal Simplicity is at the heart of everything we do. From creative thinking to creative work. From how we are structured to the systems we use. Brutal Simplicity runs through the culture of every single one of our offices, all around the world." "As the world gets more complicated communications must become more simple." (Maurice Saatchi).

Firstly, we should stress this company has never been a client of ours and that this piece is not intended as a plea for them to be so. Rather, we wish to be objective. And in this spirit, and although we feel this company probably doesn't have to do much itself in the way of proactive new business, this messaging concept ticks all the boxes. Why?

Firstly, there is an uncluttered, central, organising thought; the world is getting more complicated so communications need to be simpler. The presentation to the market is that this is the reason the agency exists - to solve this problem. 'Brutal simplicity' defines how it does this and becomes the message. It's what you are buying. For new business, agencies require compact distillations of longer arguments for why their agency is better than the others in their set. 'Brutal simplicity' also adds character, valuable for establishing a memorable, living and breathing agency brand across audiences.

And critical too is its relevancy. For those buying marketing services in 2002, and especially today, this message is wholly appropriate.

And then there is the activation of the idea. 'Brutal simplicity' informs all the communications M&C make, and there is a sense that it directs every behaviour and action of the business too. As a marketing device, this is not news to you or to us, but it is rare that it is applied within the organisation of an agency with much more than lip service, and especially rare across a network or group.

The application of the concept is consistent over time. They have the confidence of people that know they got it right first time, to continue to stick to the plot (in this case for at least 7 years).

Then notice how they roll this idea out to the delivery. A glance at the inaugural APG Strategy Agency of the Year Award, which they've just won for their work on Lucozade, demonstrates this. It's not nicely presented lip service. It's more than that.

The majority of agencies are essentially breakaways from others. Many appear to struggle to brand their own businesses much differently to those of their former employers. Fixated on what they do, they fail to focus on what they stand for. M&C Saatchi's positioning phrase does not describe their service category or market expertise. Rather it addresses their power to solve any client's problem, and the particular way they go about doing this. It is a universally applicable message that is discipline and specialism neutral. It is also the perfect seed idea for a network or group, as functional for deals and business development purposes, as it is for new business.

In its industry, the 'big idea' has been at the root of most messages. It is refreshing that M&C Saatchi has one for itself as well as for its clients. An agency with the courage to stand for something empowers not only its new business staff, but also every stakeholder to understand it and be able to promote it.

I've just been reading the discussion notes from Creative Review's Click New York conference http://bit.ly/ynLiu and found some entertaining ideas from agencies including R\GA, Ogilvy and Poke NY. The most striking thought was from Ty Montague, Chief Creative Officer at JWT North America who suggested (only half jokingly) that agencies should outsource their creative departments. The thinking being that with campaigns being so complex they cannot possibly handle all the elements to the same quality as specialists and that agencies should concentrate on developing strategy.

The other ad bods in the room laughed nervously and poo-poohed the idea but it certainly has legs. Many of the services an agency needs to function are now outsourced. Our clients outsource their new business and marketing to us for example and we outsource our accounting and IT.

Those nervous agencies should start thinking about a time when the traditional copywriter/art director team gives way to a more fluid model. It's certainly not as crazy as it might seem.