Category: Entrepreneurship

If Agencies Were Like Football Teams

Posted on by Brian Lee

football coachI come from a sports PR background, and I’ve always found how football coaches are hired/fired to be unique. What if you tried the football model in the agency world?

First, let’s use independently owned advertising agencies. This means the structure involved with holding companies like WPP or Omnicom won’t be used in this example. A total of 32 agencies exist in the country.

Let’s say the investors/board represent the owners/GM, and the president/CEO is the head coach. On offense, the creative director is the coordinator, and the designers, copywriters, etc. are the position coaches. On defense, the head of client services is the coordinator, and the account managers, strategists, etc. are the position coaches.

Scenario 1: a team needs a new head coach

The agency conducts a national search. It is considering promoting its creative director, but in a surprise move, it hires the media buyer from last year’s top agency. In football, you sometimes see a position coach skip the coordinator role en route to becoming a head coach. However, it would be rare for a mid-level agency person to make the direct leap to company president/CEO, excluding starting their own agency.

Scenario 2: a head coach is looking to hire a position coach

The president/CEO knows of the good work an animator did for another agency, and without knowing anything about how he/she will fit in the current workplace culture, hires the animator over the phone. It’s stunning how often head coaches do this. And somehow, coaching staffs are able to work through their dysfunction (if there is one), at least for a while (see Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin).

Scenario 3: a head coach is fired and gets a job as a coordinator for another team

The president/CEO takes a demotion by accepting a creative director or head of client services position at another agency. You hardly ever see this situation in the agency world, but it happens all the time in football. For example, the Green Bay Packers’ two coordinators are former head coaches.

Scenario 4: a head coach reassigns the duties of position coaches

The president/CEO tells the media buyer that he/she will now be in charge of public relations. In boutique agencies, you may find more people with a wide breadth of experience, but the larger the agency, the more the staff members focus on depth of experience. Yet in football, it’s not odd for a quarterbacks coach to now coach the tight ends, or a linebackers coach to now coach the safeties.

Scenario 5: a head coach also serves as the play-caller on offense or defense (instead of their coordinator handling those duties)

Due to its size, a boutique advertising agency may see the president/CEO also serving as the creative director, but this scenario would be rare in a larger agency. Meanwhile, examples of this in football include the Vikings’ Mike Zimmer (defense) and the Wisconsin Badgers’ Paul Chryst (offense).

How Digital Affected Agency Staffing

Posted on by Brian Lee

Here’s my prediction for 2018: more and more companies will take social media and digital marketing management in-house.

Reason 1: the supply of people who can manage social/digital continues to increase. Ten years ago, that was not the case. Smart agencies hired people who had the skills or trained staff to learn. Some people even started their own agencies. In either case, agencies not only provided the social/digital consulting, they also provided staffing services to companies.

As supply catches up to demand, companies are able to hire their own social/digital experts (for cheaper and cheaper, as supply continues to increase) and rely less on agencies for staffing.

Reason 2: social/digital requires real-time engagement. For example, it takes too much time for someone from an agency to write a response on Twitter, get approval from a supervisor and then get approval from the client to post it. Companies can respond more quickly if social/digital management is done in-house.

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What does this mean for agencies? Our roles are evolving. We’re going to provide less staffing and more consulting. In other words, companies will hire us for our ideas but not to monitor @ mentions.

How to Create a Pitch Deck for Angel Investors

Posted on by Taylor Kennedy

INTRODUCTION

PresentationAcquiring investments in your company from angel investors can help your health tech startup take its first steps.

According to TechCrunch, investors spend just 3 minutes and 44 seconds on pitch decks. That’s not a lot of time to tell a compelling story.

Here are some tips on how to create the best angel investor presentation.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Unlike a venture capitalist, an angel investor is investing their own personal funds into a business opportunity, so they typically fund companies that appeal to them individually. This audience is more willing to invest in early-stage, pre-revenue companies, specifically during the last stage of technical development and early market entry.

Be prepared to answer questions such as risks your company faces, what milestones will this round of financing help achieve and how your company plans to scale in the next year. Plan to show angel investors a demonstration of your product or service as it will help answer lingering questions. Although some angel investors may not be as formal as VCs, you should still have a formal pitch deck. After you find out what they specifically want, you can tailor the presentation to their requirements and timeline.

One of the biggest differences in pitching to angel investors vs. venture capitalists is that you as the entrepreneur don’t need to know everything, but you do have to build trust with investors.

REMEMBER: LESS IS MORE

Avoid the minutia and other irrelevant details in your deck, as too many slides can make your pitch long-winded, and your audience may forget the most important information. Be simple and to the point and limit your pitch deck to 10-15 slides, as follows:

  • The first 1-5 slides should explain your company overview, mission, team, problem and solution. For example, how will IDNs benefit from your product or service, and what is the technical expertise of your staff?
  • Tailor slides 6-10 to your market opportunity and how you differentiate from competitors (e.g. use the beacon approach). Be sure to explain why healthcare systems would buy your product or service, show calculations and mention any competitive advantages, such as your IP.
  • The final 11-15 slides should go over your business model, financials and marketing efforts. Make sure you state what the angel investors will get with their investment (e.g. ROI). Although they will be relevant at some point, don’t worry too much about investment provisions such as liquidation preference, drag-along rights and vesting of incentive equity.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Revelation PR, Advertising & Social Media offers healthcare IT companies and startups services related to media relations, email marketing, investor relations, tradeshow marketing, content marketing and social media management. Please contact Brian Lee, brian [at] experiencerevelation.com or 608-622-7767.