Agenda
2018 Sold Out. See You Next Year!
Speaker Recordings + Handouts
Four Pillars of Agency Growth
Over the course of the two days, the agenda is broken into four sequential tracks. Each morning and afternoon we address one of the pillars of agency growth: Model, Operations, Marketing, Leadership.
Within each pillar, you’ll select from several breakout topics. Each of the four tracks will end with all Summit attendees coming back together for a facilitated group discussion.
Pre-Summit Workshop + Networking Reception
Evaluating Your Business Model:
Identifying Services & New Revenue Streams to Drive Growth
All Access Pass Only
Date: Monday, November 5
Time: 3:00 PM - 7:00 PM CT
Location: R/GA (217 North Jefferson Ave, 1st Floor, Chicago, IL 60661)
Here, you’ll work through a number of exercises to identify business opportunities for your agency. You will be provided a framework with which to evaluate the growth potential of your current service offering, while identifying new opportunities for growth.
Ultimately, this session will take a step-by-step look at how to diversify your offering. You’ll learn why you need to take a more methodical and client-centric approach to identifying, positioning and launching new services. In fact, you’ll quickly see that with the right approach, numerous profitable opportunities start to appear.
This workshop will help you to:
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- Identify your current offerings with the most growth potential
- Identify new offerings with the most growth potential
- Better predict which new offerings will most succeed (or fail)
- Confirm whether you should build it internally or partner with another firm
You will leave this workshop with next steps you can immediately put into action.
See Bio >
See Bio >PILLAR ONE: MODEL
Improve your top and bottom line by driving faster innovation of your capabilities and service offering.
Keynote – The Ever-evolving Marketing Capability Model and the Impact on Agencies
See Bio >Lessons From an Acquisition: Building for the Future Without Killing Culture
See Bio >
See Bio >4 Agencies. 4 Models of Innovation & Growth
Four innovators reveal key insight behind their new models.
Laundry Service + Cycle: Content Development & Distribution
Content development and distribution is one of the fastest growing areas of the agency business. And these two sister operations have nailed it. They were named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2018 and they’re on AdAge’s Agency A-List, the last 2 years running. Ultimately, they have an uncanny ability to create and distribute culturally influential content that drives business growth for clients such as Amazon, Nike, ESPN, Beats by Dre and LG. All in-house, they have strategy, creative, production, distribution, and talent management.
See Bio >
Ansira: A Look at How Data & Analytics Are Driving Our Growth
With data, analytics and technology at their core, Ansira specializes in marketing programs focused on CRM and customer acquisition. In fact, they were just named in The Forrester Wave reports as a “Leader” in Through-Channel Marketing Automation and a “Strong Performer” in Customer Database and Engagement – the only agency to be named in both categories.
Most importantly, they deliver measurable business impact for a client roster that includes Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, Ford, BMW, Chrysler, Volvo, Microsoft, Nestle, Wendy’s and FedEx, to name a few. With a 96% client retention rate and Net Promoter Score 3X that of the industry average, they continue to drive consistently high growth rates.
Trae and Andy will take a look at their progressive method with clients and how they believe the agency industry ultimately needs to continue its rapid evolution.
See Bio >
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See Bio >Barkley: A Model of Specialization & Growth
Now at more than 400 people strong, Barkley orchestrated a complete reinvention and drove remarkable growth by building out multiple areas of specialization.
In a world of growing marketing complexity, clients are urgently looking for more specialized agency partners to help them achieve business growth. Experts capable of designing integrated, end-to-end, omnichannel customer experiences are in demand.
To grow, agencies will have to get their business model more focused to develop both:
1) Deep knowledge of specific markets and audiences 2) Practice areas and centers of excellence.
Jason Parks, Managing Director of Barkley, will share their journey of developing and marketing a more specialized agency offering. He will share their journey of becoming a recognized leader in modern consumers and well as the process they’ve put in place to develop specific centers of excellence.
See Bio >4 Agencies. 4 Models of Innovation & Growth (continued)
The Engine is Red: A Radically Simplified Model
Three years ago, The Engine is Red completely rebuild their model to focus on simplicity and transparency. They got rid of client contracts, SOW’s, timesheets, most meetings, and all admin associated with these functions. They published their rate card and changed to sprint-based production model. Everyone works on only 2 or 3 projects at a time and concludes by 5:30pm each day.
And ultimately, revenues jumped. And their employee happiness has increased significantly. Chris will share how he was able to orchestrate such a dramatic change.
See Bio >Phenomenon: A “Small Agency of the Year” & Their Vision for the Agency Model
Just named an AdAge Agency of Year, Phenomenon focuses its model on consulting, product and service innovation, design and communications. Based on the measures of impact, innovation, growth and leadership, they were also named the 19th Most Entrepreneurial Company in the World by Entrepreneur Magazine.
Erica will walk through where she sees the agency model headed and how they’ve built Phenomenon to best capitalize on those opportunities.
See Bio >
See Bio >PILLAR TWO: OPERATIONS
Build a back-end infrastructure to support (and fuel) faster growth, particularly in a project-based world.
Revenue Growth Through More Effective Compensation Strategy (Lunch Working Session)
Time: 12:30 PM – 2:15 PM CT
This is a special double-length session. Here, you will join fellow CEOs for a structured dialogue and working session that reveals some of the most effective ways in which agencies are improving their fees. The goal is to move you beyond an unprofitable reliance on commissions, retainers, cost-plus fees and hourly rates. Working together with other CEO attendees, you will collaborate on ways to improve your agency’s compensation. See more >
See Bio >Leveraging Operational Systems to Manage Client Risk and Improve Business Growth
Seth is currently the Head of Client Risk for Publicis.Sapient. He has played a key role in building the back-end operations and infrastructure to support the agency’s tremendous growth.
In this session, he will share best practices to help agency CEOs more proactively identify operational issues that can threaten client tenure and profitability. The goal is to put systems in place that more automatically uncover challenges that can threaten your client relationships.
In fact, regardless of size, scale, or organization complexity, you can use simple education, workflow and dashboard analytics to improve how you address client performance threats. You will learn how to put simple systems in place to identify and prevent these critical issues – providing your teams with the insight they need to ensure all client relationships are strong and profitable.
See Bio >Using Finance & Operations Data to Drive Profit
In our rapidly evolving and increasingly project-based industry, our ability to leverage meaningful, readily available financial and operations data is critical. This enables us to make sound business decisions, foster accountability, and take the calculated risks which drive our long-term financial health.
In this session we will explore how finance and operations teams and systems come together to deliver the data and insights to make smarter business decisions that fuel profitable growth.
See Bio >Building a More Robust Data & Analytics Offering
Mike will provide new insight on how to build out a more robust data and analytics offering, with the goal of generating more revenue for the agency.
Today's customer journey is much more complex than ever before and so the tactics, metrics and technology required to help agencies deliver an improved customer buyer experience for clients has become far more complex.
Mike will review how to: align around analytics to provide clients a more data-driven engagement; integrate regular data, analytics, insights and reporting; and position a new customer journey model with the critical data, analytics and dashboards associated with each step.
See Bio >Making Your Projects More Profitable: Five Methods to Increase Your Efficiency & Margins
This session is designed to provide critical insight into methods agencies are using to operate their client projects more predictably and profitably. Ultimately, the goal is to drive greater margins from your project based work. Hear from Matt Schlessman, VP of Advisory Services at Mavenlink, as he shares the biggest challenges he's seen working with hundreds of successful agencies – and how they’re addressing those challenges to better hit their margin targets.
See Bio >Potential vs. Profit: How to Leverage Opportunity Cost to Better Achieve Financial Growth
Over the last decade, Vanessa and her specialized team at Creative Performance have helped over 100 marketing services firms through complex organizational change. They specialize in balancing the needs of People, Process and Technology in a manner that drives sustainable growth for agencies.
During this session, Vanessa will introduce the concept of Agency Financial Potential and why simply focusing on “profitability” is a legacy mindset keeping you from realizing the full potential of that profit. She will illustrate how Opportunity Cost is the true enemy, a critical metric ignored by most agencies. Finally, she will walk through which operational areas to focus on for the greatest impact – while revealing a set of practical next steps to reclaim your agency’s financial potential.
See Bio >The High Growth Categories that Need to Be on Your Agency’s Radar
Particularly geared for agency leaders, Mintel's session will reveal insight behind several high-growth industries that have the most potential for growth and innovation, thus presenting agencies with fresh opportunity. Within each of several categories, Mintel will spotlight several broader shifts currently impacting the course of business as we head into 2019.
See Bio >
See Bio >Cocktail Reception
Join us and network with your fellow CEOs as we wrap up from the day's sessions and connect over cocktails.
Hosted by:
PILLAR THREE: LEADERSHIP
Keynote – Leading Your Agency Forward: Never Beg. Never Borrow. But Always Steal.
Michael will address leading an agency through the complexities of today's sophisticated competitive set and new client demands.
He will focus in on why you need to place client outcomes and stealing share ahead of everything else – having this permeate all aspects of agency operations. Only with this foundation in place, can you then improve your own growth strategy. In fact, if you want to convert more new business, here’s the key shift: focus on the client's “business over brand” versus “brand over business.”
See Bio >Orchestrating a Successful Succession Plan
Succession is always a delicate maneuver in any agency. In founder-led agencies there is an additional, emotional element involved. When founder/owners decide it’s time to step back and transition leadership, what are the key elements of a successful transfer?
In this session, Greg will walk through the seven stages he led BSSP through to execute an effective succession plan for the agency. He will share the business, functional and emotional intricacies of his transition at this Ad Age Small Agency of the Year.
See Bio >Talent Strategy that Drives Capabilities Innovation
Allison will share data on the current state of industry talent – based on 6 years of gathering data from the most successful agencies in North America. There are some alarming trends that reveal new insight into some of the biggest challenges facing agency leadership.
Allison will provide a detailed talent strategy roadmap and lead you through an interactive session to help begin investing in talent development in a way that evolves your internal capabilities, increases retention, and transforms ways of working to match new client demands.
See Bio >New Business Alliances: Identify Opportunities with Other Agency CEOs
Agencies are continuing to partner in large pitch opportunities, seek out complimentary offerings, and share new business leads. In fact, many of the largest pitches now involve a team of multiple agencies.
Meet other agency leaders who need support in other regions of the country, access to complimentary offerings, and partners for large pitch opportunities.
See Bio >Strengthening Your Teams for More Effective Performance
This session is about team performance, having them more effectively achieve the results you need. In this interactive session, Amy Hohulin, a trainer and coach who began her career in account management at Leo Burnett, will share The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team, a tool based on Everything DiSC® and Patrick Lencioni’s book: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
You will learn more about the behaviors that drive results: using vulnerability-based trust as a foundation for relationships, engaging in productive conflict to make better decisions, building commitment among team members and using peer feedback to boost accountability across the team. Exercises during the session will have you apply the concepts directly to your key teams – identifying where and how to improve their performance.
See Bio >PILLAR FOUR: MARKETING
How We Use Social Media & Content Marketing to Fuel Our New Business Pipeline
We all know the power of social media and content marketing. We even preach about it to our clients. But why do so many agencies completely fail with their own attempts?
In this session, Jeff will walk through the approach that R/GA applies to deploy a social media and content marketing program that pulls in leads and generates business for the agency. He’ll share the best practices to make this work in an industry where the goals are big, but resources are tight.
See Bio >The Methods We Apply to Convert More Business
Kyla is the global new business chief for TBWA. She works with their agency teams around the world, including their smaller offices with more limited resources.
In this session, she’ll share how she guides her smaller and mid-size offices to compete more strategically and effectively – particularly when up against larger competitors. Get new insight into the methods of larger agencies that can be applied to those dealing with the reality of pitching business on more limited resources.
See Bio >Creating a Culture of Assertive Organic Growth
Organic Growth is the single most profitable source of new revenue for an agency. The door is open, you have a relationship, and you have a base understanding of the client’s business.
However, most agencies are being held back because their account teams have not evolved. The role of account management has shifted. Significantly. It used to be just about keeping the client happy – delivering the agency’s work on spec, on time, on budget.
This is no longer the case. In fact, there are now two types of account managers: those who passively manage their accounts and those who proactively lean in, lead the client, and drive the growth of the account. This session will review how to empower your teams to be more proactive and effective – without feeling like salespeople.
See Bio >Crafting Proposals that Generate a Higher Fee
Applying best practices from Mirren’s new business training, we will address how to structure your fee proposals in a way that preempts client and procurement tactics – ultimately securing a higher fee (and margin) for the agency. You will learn the most important methods to better tie your fees and staffing plans more directly to client business outcomes – thus creating a compelling business case to approve your proposal.
Simply put, this session will have a direct impact on your ability to secure more revenue from your clients and new business opportunities.
Audit & Benchmark Your Agency’s Pitch Effectiveness
Applying lessons from training the best agencies in the business, Brent will walk you through a framework by which you can assess your agency’s approach to Competitive Reviews/RFPs.
You'll be put to work as you confirm your strengths and your constraints – those issues most holding back the effectiveness of your performance. You will evaluate your agency across several key elements, while comparing yourself to others. Gain insight into where to focus your efforts as you continue to improve pitching business in 2018 and 2019.