Word on the Street

Procurement has long been overlooked within the marketing sector, but the recent global shutdown and the - almost - overnight change in how we do business showed just how important it is to be able have a speedy and agile procurement process in place. And who better to explain just how vital the specialism is for the marketing world than Tina Fegent who, with 25 years experience, is one of the countries leading experts.
Tina established many of the first Marketing Procurement teams in the UK and there isn't a category of marketing that she hasn’t procured. In 2006 she set up Tina Fegent Consulting to offer a Marketing Procurement Consultancy service to clients. Recent clients have included Amazon, SSE, PepsiCo, Halfords, Imperial Tobacco, Checkatrade, P&O Ferries and Aldi.
This episode covers:
* Why procurement is such a vital part of the agency ecosystem
* If you pitch marketing agencies - you need to target procurement as part of your sales strategy
* How procurement usually works within agencies
* How to approach procurement in order to sell to them
* The power of creating specific events if you're looking to open doors with procurement teams at agencies
* What shifts procurement is seeing now that the focus of protecting business from the pandemic is calming down
* Why recent situations have shown that speed and agility are right at the top of the procurement essentials list
* What will happen if clients are going to expect work-from-home overhead reductions to be reflected in agency pricing
Word on the Street is sponsored by Kulea.ma, the default Business Development and Marketing Automation platform for agencies and their clients. To learn more about Kulea’s Business development and marketing services and technology, visit www.kulea.ma
Links & references
Katie Street: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiestreet/
Tina Fegent https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-fegent-fcips-2103573/
Tina Fegent Marketing Procurement and Consulting https://tinafegent.com/
Get in touch: [email protected]
"The press didn't help sometimes because you did see some poor action, which was then exemplified and you had people jumping on the bandwagon, but everyone has learned from it [11:30]
Procurement is a target market for new business and also for long term growth as well [12:05]
I think procurement is going to play more of an important role as we go to better ethics, which is what sustainability is about; looking at your supply chain and D & I to make sure you've got that balance
[15:30]
Sometimes the problem with procurement is we just see the tactical end of marketing, we don't see the other steps
[20:50]
Doing a little bit of market research makes all the difference. If you're looking for a procurement person, why not look them up on LinkedIn, it's such an obvious thing. It's those things that do make all the difference
[25:40]
There was a study done by Accenture last year which said that procurement, as a whole, has been really slow to adopt digitisation
[27:55]
There's lots of systems out there, I think you'll start to see consolidation of those [29:15]
I think on the on-going management of suppliers and agencies you'll start to see more AI and technology being used
[30:35]
Profile, that's what a lot of agencies fall down on
[35:25]

On this episode of Word on the Street Podcast we are joined by Leon Milnes, Co-Founder of We Are Adam, who are considered sector leaders in helping ambitious businesses find great people! The award-winning digital recruiters have a great tagline which is “We want to get to know you from Adam” ...and they’re not just saying that. Their focus as a business is on building long-standing relationships and partnerships, not just their database. Why is this important? Well, as agency owners and senior teams will know, your people are your biggest asset and that understanding starts at the very beginning of the staffing process as you bring new team members into your organisation. Obviously building a strong team has always been essential to overall business growth, but given the times that we now live in - especially when you take things like remote working and the complexity that creates for building culture etc. - into consideration, recruiting should have even more of a focus than ever for agencies.

On this episode you will learn:

• Top tips for agencies to attract the best talent
• How to turn heads when recruiting
• New business pipeline vs the talent pipeline
• How to win amazing people
• Best practises for working with remote teams

Links & References
Katie Street: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiestreet/Leon Milns https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonmilns/

Series 5 of Word on the Street is sponsored by Tanba, The Agency New Business Academy, is a brand-new initiative aimed at equipping agencies of all sizes with the knowledge, content, partnerships and opportunities needed to accelerate agency growth by optimising their new business 'engine'. Tanba is an on-demand and affordable solution for agencies looking to upskill their team via training courses, content and insights delivered by our panel of industry experts, leaders, and partners.

The academy is all about empowering agency teams to get noticed, attract opportunities, increase conversion rates, and reduce the costs associated with the sales process. Visit https://tanba.io/ to find out more and start empowering your agency.

“I think what the last 18 months has taught us all as business owners is that people are very much our greatest asset” - Leon [18:39]

“The proposition has to be great, the culture has to be great...” - Leon [20:45]

“We marketed our business well and that’s why we’ve grown, it’s obviously helped us attract new business, but it has helped me attract talent” - Katie [22:23]

“Agencies forget to do their marketing, they get too busy doing other things” - Katie [23:48]

“The tap has to be on 100% of the time” - Leon [24:25]

“You’re magnetising new talent to come towards you” - Leon [25:27]

“It’s really hard to find amazing people” - Katie [27:20]

“The playing field has now become completely level” - Leon [31:10]

“Agencies that are maybe founded by creative or a developer or even a strategist sometimes, they don’t invest in the new business in the marketing” - Katie [36:54]

“A good new business person will do what we do for clients” - Katie [39:43]

“How many networking events have you and I been to, where someones literally on the front foot just selling” - Leon [45:39]

Steve Wiideman is the President - SEO Consultant/SEO Expert of Wiideman Consulting Group.
Specialising in strategic planning for multi-location and franchise brands, Steve considers himself a scientist and practitioner of local and e-commerce search engine optimization and paid search advertising. He is the author of SEO Strategy & Skills, a college textbook through Stukent. Wiideman has personally played a role in the inbound successes of brands that have included Disney, Linksys, Belkin, Public Storage, Honda, Skechers, Applebee's, IHOP, Dole, to name a few. Many of the mentioned projects had an emphasis on strategy, planning, and campaign oversight.
While serving as an adjunct professor at UCSD and CSUF, Steve’s also building the Academy of Search, while volunteering time to help improve transparency and industry standards as an agency trainer.
This episode covers:

• SEO strategies
• Creating reports and baselines
• Building tasks and taking action
• How to get ahead and do better for your clients
• Easy wins for your business
• Attracting people to your business and website
• How to be consistently relevant

Word on the Street is sponsored by Tanba.io. Tanba empowers agencies to grow their revenue, by giving agency leaders and their teams all the training, support and content they need to attract and win more new clients. To learn more about what Tanba.io can offer your agency, visit https://tanba.io/Links & references:

• Katie Street: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiestreet/
• Steve Wiideman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seoexpert
• SEO: Strategy & Skills Textbook: https://www.stukent.com/higher-ed/seo-strategy-skills/
• Academy of Search Course (Use SEOSTEVE for Complimentary Access): https://www.academyofsearch.com/
• Location Page SEO Study & Infographic: https://www.wiideman.com/location-pages-for-seo
• Sample Content Marketing Template: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19OPQtL78NJ1VfQhgwGo7aguPf3nu_2MJG0_MbafSX98/edit#gid=8
• Sample KPI Tracker for SEO: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-vQp0ODGzWyUVy45ryNnsZzUWgBSkgc8DFk3M6G1M_8/edit#gid=1951363969
• SEO Cheat Sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BOPjZ7ImDwCdsP1b7orL-mn1tQQj_yMQ/view
• Local SEO Sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-rKahLBaMRH8aO6w1fPW9nFGh0vOMYvy/view ​

Get in touch: [email protected]

Marketing is always seen as a fast-paced, constantly shifting and always innovating sector and the recent few years that we’ve gone through in business has sped up the velocity of change even more. The marketing and comms sector is always on the cutting edge of the latest practices and the newest ways of working but recent times have seen the entire agency model shift significantly and who better to discuss this than someone who has been deeply involved in the space for over two decades. In this show we are in conversation with The Drum’s Managing Director of Events Lynn Lester. From only getting a job for being able to type fast, Lynn has climbed the ranks of media and marketing and now has over 24 years worth of experience and knowledge, 18 of those years have been with one of Marketing’s most respected publications The Drum, helping them become one of the largest industry titles in the world.

In this episode we discuss:

• The impact of Covid and pivoting to survive
• The benefits of moving into the virtual world
• The big problems marketers are facing
• A shift towards hybrid events
• The importance of submitting for awards

Links & References

Katie Street: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiestreet/

Lynn Lester https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnlester/

“There’s 25,000 agencies out there, so to get noticed is not easy” - Katie Street [22:09]

“Be concise and tell a story in the right kind of way” - Lynn Lester [22:55]

“Share financials in the appropriate way” - Lynn Lester [23:57]

“Make sure your testimonial is very skewed to what you’re actually talking about at that moment in time and don’t have it just general” - Lynn Lester [24:57]

“You need to write it for the award you’re entering” - Katie Street [26:11]

“If you’re in the vicinity and there’s a hybrid going, make sure you get to the live contingency of it” - Lynn Lester [29:57]

“The world has changed and in lots of ways, for the better” - Katie Street [31:40]

“Once you’ve got that content, you can really push it out” - Katie Street [35:22]

“You’re a winner until you’re a loser” - Lynn Lester [36:04]

“I think agencies have to get a bit smarter, to an extent, brag about what they’ve got up their sleeve” - Lynn Lester [26:39

“Just when you’re a nominee or a finalist, that’s enough” - Katie Street [37:15]

“I think at the moment a lot of marketers are looking for, I guess, less retainer and more project lead briefs” - Lynn Lester [38:49]

“Any agency worth their salt, really understand the data game” - Lynn Lester [40:00]

“It feels like a really scary move because so many agencies don’t do that, but I definitely think because the world has changed so much that now there is an actual opportunity” - Katie Street [41:35]

“A lot of the brands are actually looking for experts in a lot of these agencies to go in and do more consulting” - Lynn Lester [42:44]

“Be aware, some clients you think will say nice things, won’t say nice things” - Lynn Lester [45:00]

“You have to push the content, it won’t just miraculously get to your audience” - Lynn Lester [47:23]

“Personally, I would much rather use budget when I’ve got something really exciting to talk about” - Katie Street [50:39]

“I think people are going to be a lot fussier on what they go to now” - Lynn Lester [55:04]

“Are you collaborating with other people? Are they crediting you?” - Lynn Lester [55:34]

“I think where it will become really valuable is the niche events” - Lynn Lester [1:00:54]

On today’s episode of Word on the Street, we bring you a shorter episode where Katie speaks to Kate Hutchinson, Founder & Managing Director of the award-winning events agency The Secret Event Service - An event management and consultancy business that specialises in the engagement and experience of event attendees through virtual and live events.
Kate founded SES 18 months before the pandemic began, which ultimately changed the future of the company, as what they were first born to do became temporarily illegal. Adapting quickly to the changing marketplace, Kate and Team SES developed their skillsets to the world of virtual and hybrid event delivery and are now one of the leading agencies in the Hybrid event delivery market. Kate works with global clients on a whole range of events and platform solutions and has recently been awarded the ‘Emerging Entrepreneur’ Award at the Northern Leadership Awards as well as making it onto the events industry initiative Tomorrow’s Talent list for 2021.
In this episode you will hear:

• In-person vs virtual events
• Event protocols and best practices
• Pre and post-event must-dos
• How to create a great new business event

Links & references
Katie Street: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiestreet/
Kate Hutchinson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-hutchinson-9b7757a0/
Our Sponsor
Series 6 of Word on the Street is sponsored by Tanba, The Agency New Business Academy, is a brand-new initiative aimed at equipping agencies of all sizes with the knowledge, content, partnerships, and opportunities needed to accelerate agency growth by optimising their new business 'engine'. Tanba is an on-demand and affordable solution for agencies looking to upskill their team via training courses, content and insights delivered by our panel of industry experts, leaders, and partners.
The academy is all about empowering agency teams to get noticed, attract opportunities, increase conversion rates, and reduce the costs associated with the sales process. Visit https://tanba.io/ to find out more and start empowering your agency.