Advertising Tools for the Industry’s “Convenience Era”
By Ross MacRae, Founder of Agency Source
We’re in the midst of a “convenience era”; not just for audiences, but agencies and brand marketers, too. Laser-focused on making the lives of consumers convenient–making advertising as easy to ingest as walking outside or going online–marketers don’t realize how many convenient tools they have at their disposal to spur their growth.
Between shrinking agency teams (or agencies merging with other companies), increased multitasking demands, disappearing agency roles, and shifting hybrid work models, producers, creatives and new business teams need to utilize all the tools at their disposal to speed up their workflow and make each busy day more productive. Tools that don’t add more work to the agenda–but which are time-savers whose goal is to foster ease and convenience.
A huge business hurdle for both agency and brand marketers right now is finding each other–which sounds silly, but if you consider the swelling number of production companies, agencies, and growing in-house brand marketers, it makes sense. Right now, the inner workings of agencies are a black box to production companies, and agencies are having trouble reaching brand marketing representatives. Since all of these parties predominantly work together, why would they keep each other in the dark? In actuality, all sides should be the most transparent with one another--to make the best business partnerships out of the gate and create the best work possible.
When it comes to simplifying the process of making crucial business connections, new business teams might hear the term “CRM” (Customer Relationship Management) or “Lead Generation” and mentally switch off. I get it; most generic sales platforms promise the world and deliver fewer results. But resources tailored to ad agency new business and production teams help both sides find what and who they need, quickly and efficiently. That’s the problem that I began Agency Source to solve–not to just provide accurate resources to producers and account managers, but to provide them with a quick and convenient way to speed up their day-to-day processes.
Taking what I’ve learned starting my business, these are the most pragmatic and productive tools and features for helping production companies and agencies bring enhanced convenience to their workflow:
- In-platform search and outreach
No Lead Gen platform is worth your time and effort without convenient, and complete, in-platform search and outreach. Look for accurate databases that link to websites, personal LinkedIn pages, company names and locations, job titles, and email addresses, without navigating away from that database–not even to send an email or LinkedIn DM. While this sounds like it would have been a struggle half a decade ago, it’s an achievable reality that new business leads deserve to streamline their workflow and make their lives easier (and their job performance more successful).
- Embedded websites and reels
How many times have you clicked to view a reel on a website, only to be shifted a tab over to Dropbox or Vimeo? Now try 30 searches later. What does your browser look like now? Agencies don’t vet ten reels; they might vet hundreds. They want to save their brand clients the headache of looking for the right director for their job and do the heavy lifting search in their stead, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have a more convenient approach. Pick a platform that allows you to view websites, vet reels, save favorites, and make your own “wish list” of creatives in ONE place. We want to keep your open tabs count to just one.
- Unlimited lists–for your own devices
There’s nothing worse than an un-exportable contact list from a platform to any device you choose…not in 2025. Your platform should let you make your list, then download it to your computer or phone of choice and share it on your preferred messaging service. (There again, the best CRM platform would let you message contacts in the platform, but in the event you have to share a list, a barrier to download is anything but convenient.)
- Timely–human-actioned–updates
The death knell of outreach is to feel like you can’t trust your CRM/Lead-Gen platform to keep up with who works where, and how to reach them. If production companies and agency new business teams can’t rely on accurate updates when they need them, what’s the point of working with that platform? Then you would just have to do your own research, which defeats the purpose of spending money on a resource.
Nothing short of fast, accurate updates are acceptable, and especially today, when you don’t know where or when a person or company will end up next. I still believe human-sourced updates are the most effective, and accurate. Experienced researchers are more accurate and more industry-savvy than automated tools…they can respond to outside input and feedback (not JUST LinkedIn notices of people starting new positions).
As agencies and production companies navigate the evolving advertising business landscape, efficient, streamlined workflows have never been more critical. Resources for in-platform search and outreach, easy-to-view embedded reels, unlimited targeted list creation, and ongoing updates significantly enhance the productivity of both agencies and brand marketers. By leveraging these resources, marketers can not only simplify their day-to-day operations but build more transparent and effective partnerships. How’s that for convenience?
Ross MacRae founded Agency Source, the most convenient resource for advertising agency production and new business teams with over 100,000 verified industry contacts. Discover more here: https://www.agencysource.tv/discover
