Tag: Operations

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Agency Operations: Top 10 Keys to Success

As a follow up to the Agency Operations Overview article, below are 10 keys to success to effective agency operations:

Grounded in Efficiencies

The whole point of operations is to increase efficiencies. This is the north star. Anything that doesn’t help improve productivity and efficiencies is wasteful. Efficiencies ranges from increasing the profitability of the agency/projects, improve the speed of projects, and decreasing the overall pain of getting work done by eliminating inefficiencies and thereby improving overall agency morale.

Openness to Change

Change is hard. There can be a natural resistance to it for many reasons from just an overall preference to rely on what is been done in the past, change-averse, feelings, perceived as difficult and/or just don’t want to invest the time. But to be successful, there needs to be a full team openness to try to change/improve – from leadership to the overall agency. Without this openness, you won’t reach full potential.

Create an Operations Plan

A thorough plan is needed to tackle operations. I compare it to a business plan that’s created for starting a new business. It starts with:

  • Objectives: what are realistic measurable goals you want to achieve. It could be project speed, financially, morale, etc.
  • SWOT Analysis: do an analysis of the current state of operations – what’s working and why, what’s not, etc.
  • Financials: include a financial analysis of the investment today and budget moving forward.
  • Stakeholders: identify the key team members involved. From primary (core team) to secondary (influencers).
  • Timing: identify how long you have to accomplish.
  • Recommendations: the solutions that address the current weaknesses and threats identified in the SWOT analysis.

Don’t Over Complicate

Much too often unfortunately operations gets in the way rather than helping. For some reason there is an inherent tendency to over complicate – whether it’s to justify a person’s position, a control issue, lack of understanding of the value of operations or just the enjoyment of inflicting pain (ha), but not sure. This view is counter to improving operations.

Don’t recreate the wheel

If something has worked in the past and it’s still the best way to do it, stick with it. There is no need to solve something that doesn’t need to be solved.

Be on the Pulse

Our space changes constantly from new tools and technologies launching to new features being introduced. Continuously monitor so that you can incorporate the latest into your operations plan.

Create a Rock Star Task Force

Must be led by team members that have a true passion for wanting to help and be representative of the collective agency. The best route is having a representative from the five groups (strategy, media, account, creative and production). The more diverse the better. Identify one point person that helps organize and helps ensure progress is being made. Remember, most likely this isn’t their primary job, so need to use their time as efficiently as possible.

Have a Continuous Improvement Mindset

Everything can get better. Nothing is perfect. This approach is helpful when approaching operations. Once an operations enhancement is made, monitor it. Get feedback from those that are involved in using it on a day-to-day basis. Always be looking to improve it.

Training, Training, Training

Much too often the launch and leave mantra happens in our space. This includes operations. Once an operations foundation is established, there is a huge need to educate the expanded team on how to use it. Given the workforce is always changing, a reoccurring training program is best. Make sure to ground it in the value for them when launching new changes.

Have Fun Along the Way

Operations isn’t glamorous. It doesn’t win awards. But it can drastically help improve the overall agency – from morale to profitability. Make sure to carve out time to celebrate the wins.

If you or someone you know is looking for operations support, feel free to reach out at: brianphelps10@gmail.com.

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Agency Operations: Overview

Overview: Operations is a personal passion of mine. I’m not sure if it’s due to starting in engineering before switching to marketing early in my career. Or maybe it’s due to living in the automotive capital and learning about the assembly line (patented in 1901 by Ransom Olds; first moving assembly line for the Ford Model T in 1913) at a young age. But I have always enjoyed mapping out the optimal way to do something and then working on continuously improving it. I take this mantra when framing up agency operations.

To some, agency operations sounds like a vague term and doesn’t feel like a real thing. One challenge is that it doesn’t neatly fall within one of the primary five agency departments: strategy, creative, account, media, and production. But agency operations are truly key and should be engrained within the agency culture.

Below are my thoughts on why operations matter and its key components:

Why Agency Operations:

The importance of operations continues to grow, driven by:

  • Financials: client budgets continue to decrease while having increasing expectations for efficiencies and discounts.
  • Competition: the amount of competitors continues to increase with consultants, specialized agencies and in-house agencies growing in popularity.
  • Projects: continued decrease use of the AOR model with more clients choosing to do project work and jump balls.
  • Speed: the space has always required agencies to move quickly but the growth of real-time communication it’s even more important.

What are the Benefits:

Operations should increase “efficiencies”. The value can be seen in several forms – increasing the profitability of the agency / projects, improve the speed of projects, and decreasing the overall pain of getting work done by eliminating inefficiencies and thereby improving overall agency morale.

Who is responsible for Agency Operations:

It really should be a shared responsibility across the entire agency. But without a dedicated focus of having a team oversee, it can fall through the cracks. Some agencies dedicate a separate group, usually laddering up from within production or account groups. Having a non-biased lead that is focused on what’s best for the agency will have best results.

What makes up Agency Operations:

Below is what I feel are the primary components of agency operations:

  • Processes: Documenting how the work actually gets done. This includes reviewing the existing workflows by channel and capturing the process. Once defined, collaborate and determine if there are ways to improve. Then ensure that the process is top of mind for team members and embedded into the training curriculum for the agency.
  • Tools and Technology: Analysis of each tool and technology that is being used within the agency. This is wide-ranging including internal and external tools: routing, copy edit, and communication tools to servers, team computers, and asset sharing technology. Need to evaluate if they are helping the team as much as possible, understand the competitive set to see if other options are better and stay abreast of the latest updates/new functionality of the existing tools and technology.
  • Resource Management: this area overlaps with human resources and finance and includes:
    • Organizational structure: Is the way the agency is structured preventing it to be as efficient as possible. How can it be improved?
    • Financial modeling: project analysis that reviews the volume of resources used and effectiveness.
    • Training: What is being done to help existing workforce continuously improve.
    • Analysis of existing employees: A transparent review of the current workforce through the lens of operations. Do they have an operations mindset?
  • Infrastructure: This includes the physical space of the agency – from the building itself to the employee work stations and even bathrooms.

So that’s a high level overview of operations. Next up is what are they key learnings of doing agency operations.

If you or someone you know is looking for operations support, feel free to reach out at brianphelps10@gmail.com.

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Traditional agency vs. in-house agency

Interesting to observe clients bringing their advertising development in-house. Based on my experience, agree with Digiday’s analysis below regarding the pros/cons. But I believe there are three keys to success:

1. Passion: Being able to replicate the agency’s tenacity to deliver. Agencies bend over backwards to deliver on behalf of clients. The key is matching this passion to deliver when it’s done by co-workers rather than a partner.

2. Talent: ability to recruit diverse creative talent to work in-house and breakaway from agency background.

3. Management: having excellent oversight that helps inspire, prioritize and provides new and innovative opportunities to continuously stay driven.

Per Digiday article:

https://digiday.com/marketing/moving-marketing-house-control-speed-not-worth-hassle/

For in-house:

  • Greater speed and efficiency
  • Reduced costs
  • Control

Against in-house:

  • Talent doesn’t want to work on just one brand
  • Media buying is time consuming
  • Agency have more insights
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10 Keys to Successfully Onboard Client Business

New business is truly a roller coaster. The ups and downs. The uncertainty. With it comes competing against the best of the best. The need for game planning. The endless determination to be victorious. It’s the lifeblood of our business. Without it, your business will not thrive. Not much is sweeter than getting the call that the hard work you invested, paid off.

And then once you win, you have that moment of:

Oh crap, now we have to bring to life what we just pitched…and quickly. 

I’ve been fortunate to be on the winning side of several pitches and had this moment, both large and small accounts. Two things are constant – they are a lot of work and each one is different. But they are so worth it as it helps growth and brings new opportunities to the organization.

Thorough, fast and smooth.

I define successful transitions as those that are thorough, fast, and relatively smooth. Clients are satisfied with the experience and it serves as helping build confidence in your ability to manage their business. Internally they don’t cause a ton of disruption to the organization. Based on my experience, here are the 10 keys to onboarding a new client:

1.  “It’s not personal. It’s business.”

As they say in the movie You’ve Got Mail (20+ years old already, wow!…), it’s not personal. It’s business. But it’s really hard to put emotions to the side during transitions. Jobs are directly impacted. Questions abound wondering what the losing company could have done differently.

If you just lost the business, you are most likely frustrated, mad and fluctuating between the 7 stages of grief. Remember the decision was not personal.

If you just won the business, be empathetic and not judgmental. If you are in the business long enough like me, you’ll be on both sides. Not to mention you probably need some level of support from them to help ensure a smooth transition. 

2. Onboarding foundation.

It’s key to have an overall approach to onboarding business. What is your organization’s overall onboarding process, who is involved, what agency templates are used? It should not be dependent on a specific type of business. It serves as the foundation and can be used in pitches and then needs to be customized to the specific pitch you are working on.

3. Strategize on how to win.

As you progress through the new business process and get closer to the decision, you should be thinking about what it’ll take to onboard the business. Carve out time to take in what you’ve learned through the new business journey and customize the plan to the client’s needs. What are the expectations on timing, on resources, on the process, to what stays constant from the previous agency? Start with the end in mind. And work backward on the steps to get there. I recommend collaborative whiteboard sessions to map it all out. 

4. Establish a core team.

Establish a diverse team that will lead this account and reflective of the groups that will be on the client business such as account, creative, media, strategy leadership roles. This is a team that has experience doing transitions and have been in some way a part of the pitch. These team members need to be hardworking and dedicated. They need to be empowered to make broad decisions across the entire business and comfortable having transparent/direct conversations.

5. Establish a support team.

This is representative of who the core team will be regularly interfacing with to move the account forward. This includes Human Resources, Finance, Project Management, office logistics lead, etc. They are helpful, understand the urgency and importance and able to move quickly.

6. Prioritization.

Break down everything that needs to be done into digestible pieces. Attempting to tackle everything at once can feel extremely overwhelming. Identify what projects are immediate/must-haves, nice to have, and lastly a category of in a perfect world. Put your best and fastest resources on the immediate needs. Do the same for the new positions. 

7. Talent is key.

The pressure to hire talent quickly is a given. It’s easy to give in and fill the holes. Don’t do it. I’ve hired a couple times due to pressure and it has never worked out. It’s better to explain the situation and why it is taking longer versus filling it with the wrong person. “Cross interviewing” is recommended where team members from other groups interview the candidate as well. For example, if it’s an account opening, have the creative and strategy team members represented in the interview. When hiring, don’t forget about the team members that helped you get there and see if they would be a good match for the new positions. It’s a great way to acknowledge existing internal resources. 

8. Hot huddles.

No one wants more meetings but I recommend daily huddles with the core team and a couple times a week with the support team. They are 15 minutes max so you need to go fast and are in the morning to start the day. Document the discussion to include: 

    – Client understanding 

    – Timing 

    – Process

    – Key Projects

    – Resources 

    – Logistics 

9. Progress tracker.

Keep an ongoing tracker that documents the progress being made on a daily/weekly basis. This will help show clients the hard work being implemented and what is remaining. It can also be used to communicate with the broader agency to help energize the collective team.

10. Have fun.

Remember that winning business is a good thing. It’s hard to see the forest through the trees but your hard work and dedication are positively impacting others. Carve out moments along the onboarding journey to thank team members and show appreciation.  

 If you or your business are going through a transition and need guidance or have questions, feel free to reach out to brianphelpsconsulting.com. 

Good luck!

Wikipedia contributors. (2019, June 26). You’ve Got Mail. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:17, July 4, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=You%27ve_Got_Mail&oldid=903559829

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