| Agency name: | |
|---|---|
| Linhart Public Relations | |
| Your name and title: | |
| Kelly Janhunen, Account Director and Partner | |
| What is your background, in terms of agencies, accounts, and client-side experience? | |
| I have nearly 12 years of experience working only on the agency side. My account mix is focused on consumer brands and primarily restaurants. | |
| Do you have a sense of what your agency offers of value, that no other agencies offer? | |
| Yes. We offer big agency experience in a smaller agency feel with most top-level executives bringing both agency and client-side experience to the table. We regularly compete with the big agencies for the same clients...and often win. When we do, it's typically because we'll give more attention to the client because of our size and our fees tend to be more in line with what clients feel comfortable spending. And, we have top executives truly spending time on accounts, something else that makes us different. | |
| Please list the services your agency offers its clients. | |
| Strategic counsel Crisis communication Media relations Digital media Employee engagement Reputation planning and management Media training | |
| If applicable, what has been your role in the new business efforts of the agency? | |
| Leading and assisting the team in responding to RFPs, preparing for in-person presentations to prospective clients and delivering those presentations, too. | |
| If applicable, what Organic Growth initiatives have you played a role in? | |
| Proposing new ideas/programs to existing clients during annual planning; offering new services and projects throughout the year in response to what might be currently happening in the client's business; inviting existing clients to talks/presentations delivered by some of our specialists (specifically surrounding employee engagement and digital media) to give them a true sense of who our specialists are and what experience they bring; overall, trying to identify and sell in new ideas/programs to clients on a quarterly basis | |
| In your opinion, what qualities and characteristics make for an effective account management executive? | |
| Strong strategic thinking, planning and project management skills Effectiveness in building, growing relationships with clients and teams Ability to lead teams to effectively and successfully service clients Ability to understand and participate in agency financial matters | |
| What should account management executives be held accountable for? Not held accountable for? | |
| Should be accountable for: Retaining clients, maintaining high level of client satisfaction Growing and developing new and existing business Keeping overservicing in check Reducing employee turnover - to some degree | |
| Would you describe your agency and your account management department as more proactive or reactive as it relates to managing and growing accounts? Please explain. | |
| I believe we are extremely proactive in managing and growing accounts. Starting at the account supervisor level, we are evaluated in our annual performance reviews on regularly identifying and selling in new ideas to existing clients and growing existing clients' budgets. Growing accounts is a core component of how we all work accounts...we know from experience it's much easier to grow an existing client than to win a new one, so we're very focused on delivering top-notch client service and surveying clients annually to be sure they're satisfied and to learn where our areas of opportunity are. | |
| Knowing that everyone is terribly busy, what do you wish you were able to do more of in terms of being more proactive? | |
| By doing less day-to-day client work, I think I would have more time to stay on top of trends, industry developments and what competitors are doing to recommend more new program ideas to clients that are strategically spot on. | |
| Typically, what are the objectives that clients provide in your work for them? | |
| Most of my clients are looking for achievements against media relations objectives that can be tied to business results like driving restaurant traffic, increasing sales of a particular menu item, or increasing guest check averages. | |
| How do your clients typically measure success? How should they measure success? | |
| Clients typically measure success by: Increased news coverage year over year that can be connected to measureable business objectives like increased restaurant traffic or increased sales of a menu item. Some also like us to connect news coverage to increased engagement from a new target audience, postive anecdotal feedback from guests and/or GMs, new relationships with key reporters or bloggers, possibly in key restaurant markets, etc. | |
| How would you define a "Consumer Insight?" How would you define its role in terms of developing strategic initiatives for your clients? | |
| Consumer insight - Feedback from a consumer that defines/explains a behavioral pattern or attitude that, when listened to, can effectively shape a PR initiative to ensure you're engaging with your key audiences in a way that could truly drive them to action. We probably don't consider consumer insights enough when developing strategic initiatives for clients. Eager to learn more about the role of consumer insights in developing new programs and how to go about measuring and/or guaging these insights. | |
| In summary, what does your agency most need to improve at to be more effective at growing your accounts? | |
| We most certainly make the effort to grow all accounts at key points in time all year long; however, I'd love to see our percentage of "wins" at doing this increase. So, we know we need to be doing this and we're constantly working to sell in new ideas...but are we selling in the right ideas in the right way? Are we missing a key piece of this process, like more thoughtfully considering consumer insights to ensure our recommendations are strategically in line with clients' business goals? Should we be presenting our new ideas differently? Why aren't we even more successful in growing existing accounts, given our committment to the task? | |