A Week At Slingshot 17th October, 2013

We get up to a lot at the Slingshot offices, so we thought we’d give a bit of insight into our daily goings on. Our very own Jamie Dey willingly offered his services. Having joined the team four months ago, Jamie has a fresh take on Slingshot’s agency life; so here’s a week with Jamie.

Monday

Having spent the weekend in Cornwall which was subsequently followed by the mandatory slog along the A303 late into the night, Monday started with a coffee firmly by my side. It doesn’t take long, however, until I’m off and going with a diary update to see what lies ahead.

With the cobwebs swiftly shaken, the first task is a catch up with the Slingshot team, which gives everyone the chance to catch up with one another’s business – more often than not this turns into an open forum with everyone contributing on strategy and areas in which campaigns can be improved upon (very ambitious for a Monday morning, indeed!).

The rest of day is filled with analyzing new business requests, and looking at what future projects we can get involved in. Each proposal is sent around the team, we offer advice on every inquiry no matter how big or small, it’s important to feedback on every request as you never know what it can lead to.

Tuesday

The day starts briskly by jumping straight into talking with brands that are looking to sponsor the What Car awards? The awards themselves have been a real success over the past two years, and the platform has developed considerably, making it a great account to work on.

Brainstorming possible activations for brands gets the blood pumping and definitely an area of the job I enjoy, this takes up the day and with progress made, the week is looking good. It’s great to see new clients coming on board and the process which is involved from inception – the run up to Christmas looks busy!

Wednesday

Wednesday is dedicated to on-site duties for Silverpop at the Festival of Marketing, this is a chance to get out of the office and see how our work is doing in practice.

Our work with Silverpop as a B2B brand keeps me on my toes as it goes away from our usual consumer focussed platforms. This broad range of experience has really helped me look at each account with an open mind; this is one of Slingshots strong points and has made the agency dynamic in its approach within the industry.

Thursday

Hump day is gone and it’s the back part of the week – that said, the day is spent sitting in on one of Slingshot’s key services, the sponsorship Bootcamp. The Bootcamp is a one or two day service which aims to provide organisations with an insight into the sponsorship industry with a focus upon developing sponsorship proposals and approaching and securing sponsorship.

Today’s Bootcamp is tailored around an international TV show, which I worked directly on alongside our MD Jackie Fast. Presented by Jackie, the Bootcamp seeks to give insight but most importantly to spark inspiration and discussion, which it looks as though we’ve done! The month’s work prior to today has been demanding, but it’s great to see my strategy warmly received and to know that there is a high chance of it being implemented.

Friday

The morning is spent going through sales and prospecting for Digital Unite and their Spring Online event next year. This has proved a real success over the past 18 months and a fantastic example of a well engaged campaign that is making a significant difference across the nation.

The Friday ritual starts early with Tina Turner howling from the office speakers, giving us all the motivation to finish off our weekly progress reports in time to make a dash to the pub.

Why Big ATL Agencies Can’t Crunch Numbers 5th April, 2013

Walking into a fabulous advertising agency the other day, I will admit, I was envious. Envious of the beautiful office building, elevators, stairwell, art work, great tea – even the receptionist wooed us with her timely wit. There were whispers of “…and they also have a free cafeteria!” when we entered the large doors into a reception area that is bigger than the entire Slingshot office. It was hard not to be smacked in the face by success the moment you walked through the front door.

And yet, the meeting with over 15 bright young things – planners, account managers and creatives left me feeling slightly underwhelmed when it came to brainstorming ideas for driving additional revenue to a project and it got me thinking about sponsorship and the future of the agency model (which I will also be discussing at the ESA Summit, read more here). Now I am not saying that all creative media and marketing agencies and the people that work in them can’t understand sponsorship – many of them can. The point really is that they don’t have to. They don’t spend an agonising amount of the day working client budgets to meet targets through multiple revenue streams. They don’t spend hours on the phone negotiating media rights and convincing brands to provide free products in order to drive the event forward. They don’t have midnight calls with overseas clients on how to then find a way to pay for the distribution of said product. Unfortunately, this is my job. Again, cue my envy.

Yet envy aside, I have come to the conclusion that the thousands of hours I have spent agonising over a successful route has inevitably given me a very strong aptitude for understanding how to generate revenue – effectively and sustainably. These hours spent have gifted me the ability to valuate a platform fairly quickly, just by a call, because this is what I do – day in and day out.

I can whole heartedly admit that I cannot come up with the creative idea. I cannot even draw stick people properly. Of course, I recognise the huge value in the idea and implementation – but I think the tables are turning.

The Mad Men days where creativity is king is difficult to validate in an era where ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ has over 520 million views. Where budget cuts, the economic recession, and overall increased scrutiny on budgets continues to rise. I think it is time to recognise that it is now the era of ROI.

As I am in the business of ROI, I am sure you’d expect me to say that. However, look around you – it really is everywhere. From the daily Groupons, to free content on ITV player, value is something we are all looking for and delivering that value can be a difficult challenge.

I truly believe the way forward is through building partnerships – creating true synergies between organisations, understanding all parties objectives, and working together to reap mutual rewards. The shift has already begun with major brands pulling funding out of the major kit deals in favour of smaller, more integrated campaigns and partnerships. It can also be seen with the huge success of our own agency, which has doubled in the last year purely through the increase of new incoming business. People are beginning to recognise (whether forced or not) the value of building lasting commercial partnerships.

Now I am not claiming that I am the next Sir Martin Sorrell, David Ogilvy, or William Bernbach – but I do see a future that features free meals for Slingshot employees.