| What has been your role in the new business efforts of the agency? | |
|---|---|
| Alexandra Peterson, Business Development Manager | Having only been here 3.5 weeks, its hard to say - at present, I'm developing and implementing a prospecting and lead generation plan in addition to pitch support and strategic oversight. |
| Nelly An, Business Development Manager, The Americas | Content and Pitch Management across 11 NA offices. |
| What is your background, in terms of agencies, accounts, and client-side experience? | |
| Alexandra Peterson, Business Development Manager | I recently joined MSLGROUP from Emanate, a mid-size PR firm under the Ketchum/Omnicom umbrella. Most recently while there, I was the sole person responsible for business development and corporate communications for the agency's four offices (NY, LA, London, Munich). Prior to moving into business development, I worked in traditional PR work, on account teams supporting Bank of America, Mattel, and Celebrity Cruises. Prior to Emanate, I spent a year and a half working in London for United International Pictures (UIP) doing movie premieres and promotions for feature films. |
| Nelly An, Business Development Manager, The Americas | Started off on the account management side, moved onto new biz |
| What agencies do you most admire? Why? | |
| Alexandra Peterson, Business Development Manager | Edelman has created a unique offering and is able to be out of the box creative. |
| Nelly An, Business Development Manager, The Americas | R/GA. They are innovative at the core, produce great work, people are happy and they win. |
| List the top few agencies that you do/will compete against most often. | |
| Alexandra Peterson, Business Development Manager | Ketchum, Edelman, Ogilvy, Weber Shandwick, Burson-Marsteller |
| Nelly An, Business Development Manager, The Americas | Though we do compete with like PR agencies like Weber and Ketchum, we are increasingly up against non-PR firm based on our offering, like digital and brand shops. |
| As if you were writing to a prospective client, describe the agency in no more than 3 sentences: | |
| Nelly An, Business Development Manager, The Americas | MSLGROUP is the flagship communications and engagement company in Publicis Groupe, providing clients with unbound creativity and value in the always-on conversation. |
| Stuart Elliott, who covers agencies for the New York Times, decides he is going to write an article about your agency. After spending a day at your offices, and then going back to write the piece.... what would the headline be? | |
| Nelly An, Business Development Manager, The Americas | Veteran PR Firm: Boundless at the Core |
| Now bring the agency to life. You have certainly been through this exercise, however applying it to your agency agency can be quite revealing in understanding more about your "DNA". If the agency were a car, what kind would it be? What color? Why? | |
| Nelly An, Business Development Manager, The Americas | A Chevy Blazer Compact SUV. We are big yet nimble, one of the first in its class and as the model suggest we set the standard |
| In the eyes of clients, what do you provide of value, that none of your competitors do? | |
| Nelly An, Business Development Manager, The Americas | scale, specialized services, and our role as true communications architects and master storytellers unbound by media or channel. |
| Are there any negative perceptions that prospects might have about the agency that could hold you back in new business? | |
| Nelly An, Business Development Manager, The Americas | we are still relatively unknown, and b/c of our relationship with P+G we can be known as the agency that only knows about CPG and Moms. We do much more, including much more social and digital capabilities |
| The following is a list of potential roadblocks that hold you back with your overall new business efforts. On a scale of 1- 10, rate each on how much it is a road block (1 being not a road block, 10 being a significant road block): | |
| Nelly An, Business Development Manager, The Americas | 1 |
| Bottom line, what do you think the agency most has to do to improve at new business? | |
| Nelly An, Business Development Manager, The Americas | we need a dedicated outbound sales director to focus on prospecting efforts, need better creative folks, better process for onboarding, need to go for bigger pieces of the pie |