Tom Salmon and his team at Agency by Agency are modern-day marketing Magellans, charting the contours of the communications sector in the UK.

Along the way, they’ve uncovered so many useful and fascinating facts about its agencies.

This indispensable show is an exclusive look at the way we all view ourselves, what helps us stand out and what hurt us by making us all look the same.

Unbland your agency with Agency by Agency’s world first unbiased UK creative sector survey.



Show notes:

Tom's LinkedIn profile

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomsalmonleeds/

Agency by Agency web site

https://agencybyagency.com/

Andy Farmer’s Spotify page

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2ynC1enfcKUTRzfh7bcVdW?si=gHZ623PfSHSJK6bmRZMWEQ



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Tom Salmon - Welcome to Agencyland!

If you want to keep your agency thriving, you’d better do everything you can to understand your audience.

75% of regular, everyday buying experiences are emotion-driven and Rob Harrison-Plastow’s company SourceNine has created a tool called the Empathy Framework. This tool helps companies build customer engagement strategies that foster trust, deepen loyalty, enhance satisfaction, and create connection. If you understand your audience, everything you learn after that will make sense. This show helps you understand how to put yourself in your client's shoes and generate empathy, which will help you get those deals over the line.



Show notes

Rob's LinkedIn profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-harrison-plastow-12314228/

Source Nine web site here: https://www.sourcenine.co.uk/



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Rob Harrison-Plastow: Sales Revelations

When is your dream client going to hold a pitch?

Richard Robinson, Executive Director of Ingenuity+ and one of the ten most influential Leaders in Digital & Tech is here to help us understand how to navigate the incredibly complex marketing, advertising, digital and PR agency landscape.

It’s a science - and science needs facts.

Richard Robinson knows pretty much everything there is to know about the science of agency pitches and the ebb and flow of the factors that influence them.

The Ingenuity+ Pitch Predictor research will help you and your agency understand all the moving parts that are going to help you put a point on your new business.

What is a pitch? Understand what clients define it as and how agencies view them.

How to build a pitch process for the 21stCentury.

The value of chemistry and the investment needed, how to allocate marketing spend and creative budgets.

The independent agency scene and how to break the holdco domination.

The two ingredients you need to pitch against the big agencies.

How much does it cost to pitch?

The top 3 comms disciplines being pitches in the next 6 months.

Are there still ‘Big Swing’ adverts?

The value of operational discipline in agencies.

Bad briefs & confessions of an advertising expert

 

Links:

Richard's LinkedIn profile here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rprobinson/

Ingenuity+ web site

https://ingenuitylondon.com/for-brands

The Tennent's Lager wall of fame

https://www.tennents.com/us/heritage/our-story



Our new theme tune! Musician Andy Farmer's Spotify page here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2ynC1enfcKUTRzfh7bcVdW?si=E9KdueGxSYmhYx9valpsvw



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Richard Robinson: The Game Changer

Web design using no code software. Learn how to make your digital brand campaigns sing, soar and smash by listening to the wisdom of Hannah Springett – founder and CEO of HLabs – a trailblazing no code design studio that counts some of the world’s biggest companies as its clients.

 

No code is what it sounds like, it uses visual interfaces to replace lines of code, meaning that the aesthetics take priority over the function.

 

In this show, Hannah explains her strategy for lightweight marketing ideation for publishers and how to bring the subscription model into the 21st century using her proven methods.

 

Find out why constant innovation is critical and why over-servicing clients works for client retention.

 

Hannah explains the difference between luck and opportunity and how to network for new business.

 

HLabs is proud to have a diverse, remote-working team and Hannah explains how  this can work in today’s agency world.

 

We hear about how to avoid death by PowerPoint and get some great tips for pitch decks, using visuals.



Show notes

Some examples of HLabs' no code work:

Agency Example

(Brand & Website): Plastic Pictures 

https://www.plasticpictures.tv/

 

Publisher Example

- RedBulletin Magazine (Webby Winner): 

https://redbull-trinity008.netlify.app/rbop-trinity-rodman/index.html

 

Branded Content / Advertorial Example (Illustration & Animation): Wired x

Microsoft 

https://www.wired.com/sponsored/story/empowering-ai-innovation-with-data/

 

Brand Example

(Editorial, Illustration, Design & Build) - 11th Hour Racing's Composting

Guide

https://composting.hlabs.co.uk/ 



Hannah's LinkedIn profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahspringett/



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Hannah Springett: HLabs - What's the Story?

Can the world’s richest man - Elon Musk, get away with treating the US government like a startup, throwing out Nazi salutes and behaving like the citizens of the world are under-performing employees in one of his  companies, with no damage to the Tesla brand?



How much damage can one man cause for his shareholders and does he really care?



Rachel Konrad, Esben Pedersen and Craig Davis were all early employees in Musk’s fledgling Tesla business. They knew him in the early days, before most of us got to know him.



So has he always been the computer game end-of-level boss we

all know now?



Is there a charming side to Elon, or is he a 21st century Bond villain through and through?



How much hurt can moving fast and breaking politics cause to his companies and does he really care?



Three experts give their opinions on what he was like, how he won them over, and how he’s screwed us all over and made Tesla one of the most toxic brands in the world.



Most importantly – they suggest how Elon can get things back on track.



This is an incredibly revealing show that everyone who defends the man should listen to. It’s got all the facts you need to make a sound judgement on whether they were really Nazi salutes, whether he’s hell-bent on efficiency or self-enrichment and most importantly whether he has

ours or his own best interests at heart.



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

The Survival Guide for Noligarchs: How the wheels came off at Tesla

Creative agency procurement expert Tina Fegent explains how her process helps CMOs navigate their marketplace and get the right solution and the best value.

 

We discuss the power of independent agencies and how they can compete against the big HoldCo agency networks.

 

Why diversity is an agency superpower, how to increase the odds of getting on the short list, the importance of creativity, how procurement solves business problems, agency remuneration models, whether public sector work is worth chasing and the efficiencies of artificial

intelligence.



Tina’s LinkedIn profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-fegent-fcips-2103573/

Tina Fegent Limited: https://tinafegent.com/

Tina Tells – latest edition:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update urn:li:activity:7311144893765087233/ [https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7311144893765087233/]



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Tina Fegent: Eat the Pitch

Keeping the conversation going.



New research – and evidence from hundreds of thousands of client and creative agency pitch processes, shows that it can take up to 21 months for a pitch to take place from the initial meeting of a prospect.



So what tips can you learn to help keep the client engaged, other than sending them annoying

“Just checking in” emails every few weeks or risking being accused of stalking them at their kid’s school plays?



The PRCA – Public Relations and Communications Association, recently held its inaugural

New Biz Fest conference, where hundreds of new business experts and those thirsty for knowledge gathered together to share their tips and experiences.



The Fuel podcast was there and I invited my friend and RockstarCMO Ian Truscott on for a live podcast, where we discussed what tactics work best when you’re trying to hold a client’s attention over this incredibly long journey.



Ian shared his best practice advice for anyone working in PR agencies on how to turn the

initial spark of a meeting into a flame that burns brightly and longly.



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Keith Smith & Ian Truscott: PRCA NewBizFest'25

We are on the cusp of a fundamental shift in the role that journalism plays in our lives. Terms like “Fake News” exist to downplay scandal, social media has unchained hate and negativity and allowed those with the most money to have biggest voice and to punch down on anyone who speaks out against them.



Public Relations stands at the vanguard of democracy right now, defending free speech, diversity, climate change and exposing hypocrisy and cruelty.



As Chairman of PRovoke Media, Paul Holmes is the figurehead for the world’s public relations business.



If you need to know what’s what in the increasingly influential world of public relations, anywhere in the world, then you’d better speak to Paul.



Show notes:

Paul Holmes’ LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-holmes-4255475/

Provoke Media: https://www.provokemedia.com

The Ivan Fernandes LinkedIn article: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ivanfernandes1_strategy-wpp-accenture-activity-7276729033378136064-3gVp?



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Paul Holmes: Thought PRovoking

Are you winning enough business? And when you do win business, is it regular enough and is it the right kind of business? Have you been ghosted? Are clients not revealing budgets until the last minute? Have you had your pitch ideas stolen? Above all – how do you know how much business to win?



All these questions and more are addressed in the new blockbuster PR agency new business report from the PRCA. ‘Pitch Forward’ is an astonishingly detailed survey of PR agencies around the UK on the critical issue of new business.



The report gets up close and personal with PR agencies on their new business habits and more importantly, those of their clients and prospects.





Debbie Little is the PRCA’s ambassador for growth, heading up its Matchmaker service which helps clients find the right agency partner and in conjunction with 3 Gem Research & Insights and PR Software company Muck Rack, Pitch Forward covers every aspect of the pitch process and analyses what works, what doesn’t and how to make sure that you pitch to the right companies at the right time, regularly.



This is a fascinating journey through one of the most secretive aspects of agency leadership.

 

Show notes



Muck Rack: https://muckrack.com

3 Gem: https://www.3gem.com

Debbie Little’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiejackson2017/

PRCA’s new web site: https://www.prca.global/



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Debbie Little: Better pitching for PR Agencies

Everything you need to know about how to target, grow and thrive in China and the Far East with expert consultant Domenica Di Lieto of Emerging Communications agency.



You’ll learn how important it is to develop a bespoke approach to planting and growing your business in a market governed by a completely different value system.



You’ll hear predictions for business in the Chinese New Year of the snake and learn about the incredible speed of change in culture and business infrastructure.



Learn some of the common business assumptions and why it’s so important to know your new customers and your competitors.



We discuss how the sales process works in China and how the consumer mindset works.



We also discover how the work from home and the 886 culture works as well as hearing about all the new growth opportunities in Asia.



Show notes

Domenica’s LinkedIn profile here: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/domenicadilieto



Domenica’s company web site here: https://www.emergingcomms.com



Free handy documents about doing business in China

https://www.emergingcomms.com/guide/china-b2b-marketing/

https://www.emergingcomms.com/guide/china-marketing-strategy/

https://www.emergingcomms.com/guide/chinese-student-recruitment/

https://www.emergingcomms.com/webinars/chinese-social-search/

https://www.emergingcomms.com/webinars/china-brand-localisation/

https://www.emergingcomms.com/resources/chinese-influencer-guide/



Healthcare white paper

https://www.emergingcomms.com/blog/chinas-healthcare-evolves-opportunities-for-more-innovative-product-growth/



https://www.emergingcomms.com/blog/livestreaming-for-pbsa/



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Breaking China: Domenica Di Lieto

Interviews with leaders of companies from all areas of business on how they generate sales. What tactics do they use for their particular industry and how can you learn new tricks for your industry - all delivered with a jaunty perspective for your listening enjoyment!

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The Fuel Podcast