The Innovative Agency

Successful marketing hinges on the principle of asking enough questions and asking the right questions.  Think about it.  We can all remember marketing campaigns that went sideways because the wrong questions were asked, and as a result, not enough relevant information was available to get it right  Matt Seltzer, Market Researcher and Founder of S2 Research, is an expert at asking the right questions, and in this episode, he offers his insights on the topic.  We discuss:  - The importance of research in marketing  - How to move past roadblocks  - How agencies and clients evaluate ROI  - How agencies can level up their research game  Resources mentioned during the podcast:  - The Creative Catalyst: How to Create Better Marketing By Asking (And Answering) Better Marketing Questions  - Reach out to Matt at Matt@s2research.com  To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.  Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Innovative Agency in your favorite podcast player.

Do you remember when running an agency was fun? The emergence of digital tools has led to a focus on measurement and metrics, but it has come at the expense of process innovation and creativity—and that, ultimately, has led to a lot of uninspired work. It’s time to rediscover the fun of the creative process. Paul Charney, Founder and CEO at Funworks, joins the show to talk about using fun to help you achieve your agency’s goals—both creative and financial—and spark new ways of achieving business results for your clients. We discuss: - How the dawn of digital stripped the fun out of the advertising process - How improv comedy fundamentals can shake up the creative process - Why focusing on the voice of the customer means you no longer have to guess what’s inside your client’s head - How to bring joy back into the creative process Reach out to Paul: paul@howfunworks.com To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website. Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Innovative Agency in your favorite podcast player.

All executives have an online presence, and that presence matters. It matters to the individual, but it also matters with respect to the reputation of the business—because in a digital world, every individual who works for a company represents that brand. Bant Breen, Founder & Chairman at Qnary, explains how agencies can empower their clients to embrace reputation management as an important pillar of overall brand strategy. We also discuss: - Why reputation management is often not given a seat at the table - How agencies should advise their clients on executive reputation management - When to focus on reputation management vs brand management - The evolution of LinkedIn as a reputation management tool To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website. Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Innovative Agency in your favorite podcast player.

Content marketing has been around since the original Michelin Guide was created by a tire company over a century ago to get more people to drive to restaurants.  The concept behind content marketing has not changed. What has changed is it has gotten harder and harder to do it well and to break through the noise.  Brad Smith, Founder & CEO of Codeless Interactive and CEO at Wordable, joins the show to explain what’s going on in the world of content marketing and what your marketing agency needs to know to do it well.  We discuss:  - The larger content marketing trends taking place  - The stair step approach to content marketing  - How to decide on the right mix of content  - The best way to use content platforms  - How to prepare clients for 2022 and beyond  To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.  Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Innovative Agency in your favorite podcast player.

Content is king. Accordingly, more and more brands are collaborating with micro influencers to create the sheer amount of content that is needed to gain traction today. But working with micro influencers can be complicated. In order to keep the machine in motion, an agency needs to wear many hats and stay in touch with many individuals. In this episode, David Morneau , Managing Partner and Co-Founder at inBeat Agency , digs into the details—the what, the why, and the how—of micro influencer marketing. We discuss: - The different categories of influencers - The content creation process - Managing disputes over content ownership - Safeguarding campaigns against negative associations To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website. Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Innovative Agency in your favorite podcast player.

Programmatic advertising: Every agency has heard of it. You might have even included it in a recommendation set for clients. However, not many agencies are fluent in it. In this episode, we take some of the mystery out of this high-tech digital marketing solution. Our guide, Lacie Edgeman, Partner at PrograMetrix, explains what programmatic advertising is and why the need to be in the digital space has never been greater. We discuss: - Misconceptions agencies have about programmatic advertising - Tips for how agencies should discuss it with clients - What you need in your Ad Tech stack - Picking a good partner for programmatic solutions Resources mentioned during the podcast: - eBook: Programmatic Agency Partnership Overview  To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website. Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Innovative Agency in your favorite podcast player.

When two people are typing in the same keyword, how do you identify which one is statistically more likely to become a paying customer for your clients? That’s the big question Jordan Bell, Founder and Chief Strategist at Agency Bell , wanted to answer. The answer lies in teaching the system to find things—behavioral cues within months of online behavior data—that we can’t see. That’s where artificial intelligence and machine learning come in. Far from something to be feared, they represent the future of marketing services. In this episode, we discuss: - Embracing technology, data pipelines, and automation in legal marketing - Managing the privacy implications of data within the system - Best practices for agencies looking to leverage AI Resources we mentioned during the podcast: - MAICON - Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference  - Contact Jordan at jordan@agencybell.com To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website. Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Innovative Agency in your favorite podcast player.

There’s a channel at the intersection of OOH, broadcast media, digital media, and mobile media, where you can garner the undivided attention of millions of Americans. It involves a unique moment in a consumer’s routine — a moment of consumer pause where brands can have a one-on-one conversation — and the messaging delivered at this moment has the potential to drive measurable results and create lasting brand impressions. Any idea what it is? Sean McCaffrey , CEO at GSTV, joins the show to talk about this unique media channel, a data-driven, national video network that reaches more than 1 in 3 American adults monthly when they fuel up their vehicles at the pump. We discuss: - How GSTV determines segmentation - Using attention as a metric - Partnering with agencies - The effect of the pandemic on consumer driving patterns To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website. Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Innovative Agency in your favorite podcast player.

Many agencies choose a vertical and use that to define who they are, what they believe in, and how they are positioned in the marketplace. But what if you chose to define your agency based on your core philosophy? How would that affect your services, your positioning, and your recruiting practices? Sue Kruskopf, CEO at KC Truth, joins me to share how her agency has taken the core belief of truth and incorporated it into every aspect of the business. We discuss: - Positioning based on a belief system - Translating a core belief into systems and processes - How a core philosophy can influence the physical space and recruitment To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website. Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Innovative Agency in your favorite podcast player.

There’s a lot of fear surrounding data regulations right now. No marketing agency wants to get caught holding the bag when new regulations come down the pike. There’s also questions around who should be responsible for compliance — the agency or the client? An agency that can navigate these complex waters — in a way that generates deep customer insights for both themselves and their clients — will have an immense strategic advantage over the competition. Phil Case, President & Chief Client Officer at Max Connect Marketing, shares why investing in first-party data is the key to gaining that advantage. We discuss: - Creating a product that helps clients understand data and data privacy laws - Why it’s important to invest in gathering first-party data today - Moving from targeting individual users to categories of users To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website. Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Innovative Agency in your favorite podcast player.