How to Grow an Ad Agency: A Story of Vision, Culture, Reinvention

How to grow an advertising agency
edwardboches.com
@edwardboches
Hey Whipple, Squeeze This

Creative Director, Writer, Maker, Professor of Advertising,
Advisor to Brands, Ad Agencies and The Next
Generation. Boston University, Mullen and Beyond.
@edwardboches

Digital isn’t a thing; it’s everything
Change the mindset, the brief, the team
The art of earning attention
How customers become customers today
Surviving the tsunami
Social media is the new creative playground

Q: How does an agency grow from 12 people in a house, in
Wenham, Massachusetts to an Ad-Age A list global creative force?
population: 4356*
*Mullen/Lowe has 6000 + employees

1983
16 people
print
$2 million

1983
16 people
print
$2 million
2014
650 people
digital, mobile, tv, social
$125 million

what a brand strives to be and live up to:
its optimal and ultimate goal.
Vision

what a brand strives to be and live up to:
its optimal and ultimate goal.
Vision
what the brand does every day to achieve
that vision.
Mission

be one of the world’s best agencies: admired by employees,
respected by peers, sought out by great brands.
Vision
1983

be one of the world’s best agencies: admired by employees,
respected by peers, sought out by great brands.
Vision
create and produce work that will win awards regionally
and nationally and build our clients’ business.
Mission
1983

the world’s most creative and innovative agency: admired by
employees, respected by peers, sought out by great brands.
Vision
2008

the world’s most creative and innovative agency: admired by
employees, respected by peers, sought out by great brands.
Vision
hire and invest in digital talent, web expertise, social media,
new technology; win national and international awards.
Mission
2008

5
4
3
2
1
The brands will be ranked based on a composite score,
derived from the number of tweets about a brand as well
as the sentiment of those tweets.
The ranking of brands will be constantly updated.
Rolling over any brand will show its composite score,
the number of tweets about the brand, and the popularitythe number of tweets about the brand, and the popularity
of the brand.
Log in using your Twitter ID and tweet directly from the site.
(We’ll automatically include the #brandbowl hashtag.)
View and control the stream of tweets from everyone using
the #brandbowl hashtag.
You’ll also be able to see in-depth details on any brand:
a spark line, a sentiment index, and a word cloud ofa spark line, a sentiment index, and a word cloud of
the most popular terms in the brand’s tweets.
1
2
3
4
5
HOW

Without a vision embraced by partners and leaders, you don’t
know what you are trying achieve.

If you don’t have a vision committed to ink, ask your key team to
write down what they think it is.

Lesson
Aspire to the seemingly unattainable. Make it a stretch. Write it
down. Start doing it. Stay focused and relentless.

Shared values, attitudes, standards, and beliefs that
characterize a company and inform its behavior.

It’s also something you
can feel.

“Here’s your share of last
quarter’s proﬁts.”
Jim Mullen as he
handed me a check
for $5000 after my
ﬁrst two months.

Everyone is an owner
We succeed together

No separate proﬁt centers
We succeed together

We succeed together
Total transparency

We succeed together
Total transparency
Aggressive proﬁt sharing

Rights and responsibilities
Open and honest engagement

Willingness to embrace change

Passion for winning

Passion for winning
Work that mattered

“Our most valuable assets go down in the elevator
at the end of every day.”

…spreads the proceeds of
the sale to nearly all of
Mullen’s 200 employees.

Lessons
Better to own 50 percent of something big than 100
percent of something small.

Lessons
Don’t just create a place to work; inspire a company
that people actually believe in.

Lessons
Nourish your culture. It’s not a motivational email. It’s the way you
behave and what employees and clients know to be true.

small big
print digital and more

small big
advertising

small big
advertising pr, social media, products

small big
suburbs

small big
suburbs city

small big
suburbs city
independent

small big
suburbs city
independent holding company

small big
suburbs city
mullen

small big
suburbs city
mullen mullen/lowe

Change is hard. Usually we are our own worst enemy. DNA, muscle memory,
processes and people hold us back. Vision and culture make it easier.

Most companies talk about change but don’t.

Senior people, often creatives, resist.

They are fearful of being newbies, of being shown up
by the kids, of not being the expert.

You can’t talk about change. You have to do it.

the brief
the team
the space
the process

Acme Agency Brief
Client Name
Product
Job Description
Business Problem
Target Audience
What Do We Want Them To Think Or Feel?
What Is THE ONE THING The Advertising Has To Say?
What Are The Support Points?
Tone Of Voice
Mandatories
Due:
Approvals:
Job Number:

Acme Agency Brief
Client Name
Product
Job Description
Business Problem
Target Audience
What Do We Want Them To Think Or Feel?
What Is THE ONE THING The Advertising Has To Say?
What Are The Support Points?
Tone Of Voice
Mandatories
Due:
Approvals:
Job Number:
Acme New Agency Brief
Client Name
Product
Job Description
What problem are we trying to solve for our user?
Who is having this problem?
What is the best way to help them solve it?
What could we do or make?
What would make people share it?
How can they participate in the experience?
What is the context (where and when) for engaging?
Due:
Approvals:
Job Number:

art and copy art, copy and code

Problem: Help people get comfortable using Twitter. To gauge public opinion of Super Bowl ads, we created Brand
Bowl. By monitoring Twitter on Super Bowl Sunday, we were able to identify the most and least liked spots. And in doing
so, we made a statement about the power of social media, conversation and community participation.
Led to winning Zappos,
Timberland, Olympus, Jet Blue

Make: An interactive experience to augment a broadcast. For National Geographic Channel’s TV special “Live From Space,” we created
an interactive experience unlike any other. LiveFromSpace.com synced up with the International Space Station and allowed visitors to see
exactly what was happening down on Earth. Visitors could explore the top iTunes songs, YouTube videos, Twitter trends, Foursquare check-
ins and more in any country around the world. Explore a world with no boundaries and no borders – just like the astronauts.
Emmy Award Winner

Context/Experience: Tie into media event; make it experiential. To get people talking about Century
21, we created a Craigslist “for sale” post for the home of Breaking Bad character Walter White. We
peppered the property description with subtle, insider plot details, and included a working phone
number that connected interested parties with an outgoing message from CENTURY 21.
Cannes gold lion;
One Show gold pencil

Developers, social media strategists, UX designers, digital animation,
art and copy all working together, sitting near each other, being equals.

The days of having a creative idea then throwing it over the wall to
the dev and asking them to make it digital are over.

Ask:
Do you have the right people?

BTW:
You can’t hire change; but you can hire great.

Ask:
Has this person touched up against famous work?

Ask:
Where is tech, UX, social, digital production located in your agency?

Ask:
Who is at the kickoff session and where do they sit?

Ask:
What deﬁnes a creative idea?

Ask:
Do you have the right clients?

existing
existing
clients
services

existing
existing
clients
services
new
existing

existing
existing
clients
services
new
existing
existing
new

existing
existing
clients
services
new
existing
existing
new
new
new

existing
existing
clients
services
new
existing
existing
new
innovation

Instead of absorbing basic knowledge about all the other
skills beyond your area of expertise, ﬁnd one or two and
become an expert at those as well.
It will help you become more of a recombinant thinker and
increase your value to any action oriented creative
organization. Go learn about drones, augmented reality,
wearable technology or personal robots.
Become an expert at something other than art and copy.
You’ll make better contributions to open ended assignments
and be more sought out as a member of the new team.

Be the person; set the examples; take some chances.

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Moment
of Truth
TruTV will reduce
commercial time by up
to 47 percent next fall
Headlines: Press: 5 Months After Bill Simmons Le… TV: The Average Viewer of the Thir… Tech: Why Offering Self-Service Caro… Ads & Brands: This Lip Balm-Maker Takes Holi…
W
henever I start a conversation about Twitter with someone who doesn't use it --
or who tried it, but never got beyond the inane act of twittering some
insignificant detail of his daily life -- I get eye rolls, throat clearing and other
signals that suggest I should change the subject.
But if I start a conversation about Twitter with someone who has taken the time to use it, I
get the exact opposite response: an instant conversation about fresh ideas, emerging
thought leaders, newly revealed content and trends in social media that comes at me faster
than an overcrowded chat room.
I am in the latter camp. For me, Twitter is not another Facebook. It's not about connecting
with lost friends or letting your virtual posse know what you're up to. It's not simply a
source of breaking news à la US Airways Flight 1549. And despite the fact that it blows
Google away as a real-time search engine, even that barely begins to describe Twitter's true
potential.
Instead, I've found far greater benefits to incorporating Twitter into my life and onto my
desktop. Here's what Twitter's given me:
1. INSTANT ACCESS TO THOUGHT LEADERS in social media, digital
trends, technology and marketing in the new age of community. They're all here: the staff of
Wired, the lead strategists at the next generation of agencies, the pioneers of social media
itself. Not just the expected names like @crowdsourcing (Jeff Howe) or @johnabyrne
(BusinessWeek's digitally proactive editor) or @henryjenkins (MIT's director of comparative
media studies) or @jaffejuice (Crayon's Joe) but a new generation of even younger social
media enthusiasts. Most of them are remarkably generous with their knowledge, willing to
answer questions, share ideas, even give away their content.
2. AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIENCE CROWD SOURCING IN
ACTION. Conduct a brainstorming session in your own agency and you're pretty much
limited to the usual suspects. But on Twitter there are thousands of people willing to help
out. And because no one pays attention to seniority or title, new voices are more willing to
express an opinion that more often than not is both fresh and provocative. I'm constantly
surprised where the quote or thought or insight or example I'm looking for comes from. But
it's always to be found.
3. A NEW WAY TO CONNECT WITH MILLENNIALS. We live in a society
that does its very best to isolate generations. But because a Twitter relationship centers
around content, information and ideas, it erases differences in age. I'm now connected with
college students in New York, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta and Miami. Many of their
blogs are far more telling than another research report from Simmons or Forrester. And all
of them are willing to make me smarter about how marketing has to change if it's to connect
with a generation defined by community, collaboration and responsibility.
CONTINUE TO NEXT PAGE →
April 7, 2009, 12:00 AM EDT Advertising & Branding
By Edward
Boches
What Can Twitter Do for You?
Search

Subscribe to Adweek Adweek Blog Network: TVNewser | TVSpy | LostRemote | AgencySpy | PRNewser | SocialTimes | FishbowlNY | FishbowlDC | GalleyCat
The 2015
Finalists
Vote now, and help us
pick the winners of our
Readersʹ Choice Awards
Subscribe
to Adweek
Get a full year of print
and tablet editions for
just $99
Moment
of Truth
TruTV will reduce
commercial time by up
to 47 percent next fall
Headlines: Press: 5 Months After Bill Simmons Le… TV: The Average Viewer of the Thir… Tech: Why Offering Self-Service Caro… Ads & Brands: This Lip Balm-Maker Takes Holi…
W
henever I start a conversation about Twitter with someone who doesn't use it --
or who tried it, but never got beyond the inane act of twittering some
insignificant detail of his daily life -- I get eye rolls, throat clearing and other
signals that suggest I should change the subject.
But if I start a conversation about Twitter with someone who has taken the time to use it, I
get the exact opposite response: an instant conversation about fresh ideas, emerging
thought leaders, newly revealed content and trends in social media that comes at me faster
than an overcrowded chat room.
I am in the latter camp. For me, Twitter is not another Facebook. It's not about connecting
with lost friends or letting your virtual posse know what you're up to. It's not simply a
source of breaking news à la US Airways Flight 1549. And despite the fact that it blows
Google away as a real-time search engine, even that barely begins to describe Twitter's true
potential.
Instead, I've found far greater benefits to incorporating Twitter into my life and onto my
desktop. Here's what Twitter's given me:
1. INSTANT ACCESS TO THOUGHT LEADERS in social media, digital
trends, technology and marketing in the new age of community. They're all here: the staff of
Wired, the lead strategists at the next generation of agencies, the pioneers of social media
itself. Not just the expected names like @crowdsourcing (Jeff Howe) or @johnabyrne
(BusinessWeek's digitally proactive editor) or @henryjenkins (MIT's director of comparative
media studies) or @jaffejuice (Crayon's Joe) but a new generation of even younger social
media enthusiasts. Most of them are remarkably generous with their knowledge, willing to
answer questions, share ideas, even give away their content.
2. AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIENCE CROWD SOURCING IN
ACTION. Conduct a brainstorming session in your own agency and you're pretty much
limited to the usual suspects. But on Twitter there are thousands of people willing to help
out. And because no one pays attention to seniority or title, new voices are more willing to
express an opinion that more often than not is both fresh and provocative. I'm constantly
surprised where the quote or thought or insight or example I'm looking for comes from. But
it's always to be found.
3. A NEW WAY TO CONNECT WITH MILLENNIALS. We live in a society
that does its very best to isolate generations. But because a Twitter relationship centers
around content, information and ideas, it erases differences in age. I'm now connected with
college students in New York, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta and Miami. Many of their
blogs are far more telling than another research report from Simmons or Forrester. And all
of them are willing to make me smarter about how marketing has to change if it's to connect
with a generation defined by community, collaboration and responsibility.
CONTINUE TO NEXT PAGE →
April 7, 2009, 12:00 AM EDT Advertising & Branding
By Edward
Boches
What Can Twitter Do for You?
Search
ç

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Four lessons from Mullen’s first
Chief Innovation Officer
Back in June 2009, Edward Boches became the first Chief Innovation Officer at
Mullen, a Boston-based ad agency that works with household names like
JetBlue, Adidas, Google, and Zappos. Immediately, like every new CINO, he
set about figuring out how he could have the most impact. (Worth a read is his
post on that topic, “What does it mean to be a chief innovation officer?“)
We asked Boches to distill a few of the lessons he learned; he’d previously
been the agency’s Chief Creative Officer, reporting to CEO. When he shifted
over to the CINO role, he still reported to the CEO, Joe Grimaldi.
Cajole & inspire. “My initial objective was to get the company to pull its head out of its ass with regard
to digital and social media, encouraging people to use Twitter, and trying to inspire people to get
inventive with new platforms. We needed to make sure we had a leadership perspective on what
these things could do for our clients.” His team created Brand Bowl, a way to capture the public
opinion expressed on Twitter about Super Bowl ads. He circulated experiments like the music video
that Google made with the band Arcade Fire, to get the agency’s creatives to “understand what was
possible with these new technologies.”
Engage the young ones. Boches looked for ways to give younger employees a louder voice and
higher profile within the agency, since they tended to be the most enthusiastic adopter of new social
and mobile technologies. He created a public site called The Next Great Generation, edited by a
twenty-something Mullen employee and focused on the interests and concerns of the Millennials. All
of its textual and video content was crowdsourced from a network for college students and young
bloggers. A 2011 philanthropic project, Good Belly, was conceived almost entirely by the agency’s
twenty-somethings. The project invited diners at participating restaurants to snap a photo of their
meal using the Instagram mobile app, and mention where they were eating it. Every time they did
that, the restaurant would donate $1 to Unicef’s famine relief efforts in East Africa. “When you put the
25-year olds in a room, and don’t let their senior managers in, there’s much more experimentation
and courage and collaboration,” he says. “They were fearless.”
Acknowledge reality. “At every company, you are going to have people who are afraid, or who are
actively obstructionist. And that’s because in every business, your self worth is defined by being an
authority, the size of your office, your title, and knowing more about what you do than anyone else.”
So introducing new social media tools and technologies, Boches says, involved plenty of one-on-one
coaching — “making it un-intimidating, showing them how to log in, how to use a hash tag.”
Generate business. “There were really no metrics that we adopted” to illustrate whether Mullen’s
innovation initiatives were bearing fruit. “It was more about changing the culture and mindset.” But
Boches helped create new materials that spotlighted the agency’s growing digital capabilities when
its partners went out to pitch new business. “We ended up winning seven or eight new clients as a
result of that,” he says. “Our social media activities were one of the reasons we were on JetBlue’s
radar, and my own blogging and tweeting helped us get in the door with Google.”
As in every business, it never hurts to show that the innovation team can move the needle on revenue.
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interviews and pov

boches
Orange Falls to No. 17 Florida State, 45-21
Orange to Host Wolfpack in ACC Tournament First
Round Wednesday
Syracuse Splits Weekend Pair With 2-0 Loss To
Colonials
Mindful Monday Meditation
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Evidence from India'
EA and SAC presents: Dimitar Gueorguiev
Move It Monday Fitness Class: Fitness Fusion
Mullen chief innovation officer Edward Boches to visit Newhouse Oct.
26
How do we resolve the need and desire to control brands and messages with the equal need to let go and invite
participation? The ramifications affect how we change our mindsets, our company cultures, teams, briefs and creative
output.
Ask Edward Boches (@edwardboches), chief innovation officer with Mullen, who will visit Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public
Communications on Wednesday, Oct. 26, as a guest of the Newhouse Global Leaders in Digital and Social Media Speaker Series. He will speak on “The
End of Us and Them” at 6 p.m. in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse 3. His talk is free and open to the public. Parking is available in SU pay lots. Follow the
talk on Twitter at #NewhouseGLDSM.
Boches is one of Mullen’s four original partners. Over the last 28 years he has helped define the agency’s creative standards, established its public relations group,
integrated digital design and production into all of its operations and launched its growing social influence practice.
In 2010, he gave up his long-held position as chief creative officer to become chief innovation officer. In his new role he focuses on emerging technologies, social
platforms and changing consumer media habits to develop innovative ideas for clients and to influence the agency’s ongoing transformation.
Mullen is ranked third on Advertising Age’s “Agency A-List” and has created innovative integrated digital and social campaigns for clients like JetBlue, Zappos, Google,
Barnes & Noble and Olympus.
Boches is a frequent speaker on industry and consumer trends. His blog, Creativity_Unbound, is part of Advertising Age’s “Power 150.” He is a member of the board of
Boulder Digital Works and Spring Partners. He incubated and continues to support http://thenextgreatgeneration.com, a crowd-sourced Gen-Y blog.
The Newhouse Global Leaders in Digital and Social Media Speaker Series explores innovative digital and social media engagement from around the world. Speakers
represent leadership in thought and innovation in their fields.
For more information about Boches’ talk, contact Betsy Feeley at (315) 443-7401 or eafeeley@syr.edu.
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Lessons
The difference between doing it and not doing it is…
doing it.

Lessons
You can’t hire the solution. Change, innovation, reinvention needs
leaders from the top. And instigators from the bottom.

Lessons
Identify the people inside your organization who want to change
and create a small army to inﬁltrate and spread new ideas.

Lessons
Find opportunities where no one is paying attention:
small clients, side projects, tiny budgets.

Lessons
Identify the resisters; convert them or lose them.

Lessons
Understand momentum and inject all three points
on the wheel.

How to Grow an Ad Agency: A Story of Vision, Culture, Reinvention

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How to Grow an Ad Agency: A Story of Vision, Culture, Reinvention