New business is OUR business

As part of my series of one on one sessions, I had the privilege to meet Jeannette Mierow, the New Business lead here in Havas Chicago.

Working in a team of 1, Jeannette manages every single new business pitch that is funneled to the Chicago office. But of course she doesn’t do the work alone as she bring all the various specialists and relevant subject matter experts together to tackle each brief.

One crucial take out I got for Jeanette is New Business is everyone’s business. Why? Because you can’t win a pitch by yourself and every new win affects everybody. You can’t enjoy the rewards without putting in the time and effort, its just not fair.

Its a mindset that I feel our local office can aspire towards as its NOT just the front office’s problem to win new business, its EVERYONE’S business.

Here’s a quick peek at what I learned!

1. How do you stay informed regarding new business opportunities?

Sometimes its as simple as getting a note from Havas Global regarding an international pitch, or personal connections that senior leadership has.
(e.g. my buddy’s the CMO of Nike and…)

But most times its about working closely with pitch consultants to stay on up of the movements among brands and the opportunities available for Havas.

You’ve probably heard how much advertising money goes into the US elections, no? Well let me share. $1B USD was spent on paid media for the US elections in 2016!

So I mean, I’m a pitch bitch right, I had to know, HOW does an agency get to work on a campaign like that. Well, no secret here guys, you need to have strong connections with the candidates. To be honest, it makes sense, I wouldn’t trust a stranger with the fate of my career. Think about it.

Fun fact: Election ads that precedence over all other advertisers. For example, with TV, they can bump out any advertiser if there’s a clash in timebelts. Think of the biggest brand you know, now imagine them being bumped out of their long term spot. Yes, #realitybro.

2. Being such a huge and successful agency, I was curious where they turn down new businesses often and if they do, what were the reasons? Here’s what I learned.

For every pitch, the first thing that Jeannette and senior management does is estimate revenue calculations and create a brief staff plan. If that doesn’t work out, there really isn’t a reason to proceed is there?

She also does a sense check internally to make sure that there are no conflicts of interest with existing clients, and makes sure that the pitch can be supported by existing experts in Havas Chicago. If there are no category experts, this limits the odds of winning and resources should be put to better use. (This only works because the office splits teams by category)

Interestingly, its nice to know that Havas Chicago does look as softer factors such as business ethics of a potential client, and the consistency of their past agencies on record. Simple checks like these certainly help ensure Havas prevent unnecessary set backs in the future.

3. Hoping she would have some magic bullet approach to share, I asked Jeannette how she attacks each brief and if there’s a standard process that she sticks to.

Well no surprise there, EVERY PITCH is different and there is NO magic bullet. She shared that no matter how she tries to have a fixed process in place, she just can’t because every brief is essentially unique.

But she did share 1 important advise though, get as smart as possible, as fast as possible! This means learning as much as you possibly can by activating the specialists to gather data and insights.

Very briefly…

Strategy team reviews the competitive set and the pulls out ad spends across 5 years to spot trends and market positioning.They are also tasked to gather category insights and brand insights through all sorts of means such as executive reports, brand’s representation in media, news articles, C-level interviews, and even stock marketing trends.

Social team then takes the competitive set and deep dives into social listening to gather insights from sentiments, conversations, and trending topics.

Search Team similar to the Social Team, take the same competitive set and pull search trends, keyword trending using public and proprietary tools, while at the same time reviewing brand’s website for tags to determine how sophisticated their stacks are.

With this, she gets smart right away as she’s able to tell a story about the brand, where they stand, what’s trending for them, what’s threatening them, and what Havas can help to address.

Her ability to share all these top of mind just shows how seasoned and proficient she is at what she does. #inspiration

The above is taking into account you have the luxury of time. If time is your worst enemy, you can just focus on the following.
- Competitor insights
- Brand insights through brand website

4. As a new business lead, what are some of the greatest wins in the past few year?

Michelin is one of Jeannette’s pride and joy because its her first global pitch win in Havas, so winning it was an extremely special experience. Adding on to that, through this pitch, Chicago created such a positive impact in the Havas group that they now get more involved in global pitches. What an honor!

The other account that Jeannette’s super proud of is the Nando’s win. Why? Because this was her first win as a village! This is great to me because it now becomes a success story which can be used to position Havas Village for future pitches.

5. I was curious, being the only dedicated new business personnel in the office can’t be easy, so I asked what’s the greatest and worst things about the role?

‘Everything’s great!’…is not what she said. haha!

Essentially its a very people orientated role, and its all about managing different groups / types of people.

The good. She gets to work with everybody in the office. She’s the one person who has the opportunity to interact with almost everyone which is an absolute pleasure for social people like her. She also has the opportunity to bring people together as everyone, which is a nice feeling when everything works out.

The not so good. Well, the thing about people is that everyone has different quirks. In order to manage large teams of people properly, she needs to be aware of and keep track of everyone’s little nuances to ensure that everyone is able to function cohesively. This can be exhausting!

Thanks for reading, more fun and serious stuff coming up!
- Chintheman