15 Years Strong Driving Agency New Business
We at RSW/US celebrated our 15th birthday this past week!
15 years of helping marketing service firms find and win new business. Been quite the ride for sure!
Recession. Recovery. The Digital Coming of Age. Data and Analytics. Marketing Technology Explosion. In-House Agencies. Big Consulting Firms. Rise in Independents. Social Media Evolution.
I’m dizzy just thinking about all the change we’ve seen over the past 15 years.
While all that changed around us, we stayed our course.
We’ve remained focused on marketing service firms. We have focused on creating an organization driven to add value. One focused on building a solid technology platform to support our new business programs. An organization that values philanthropy. An organization that hires people that want to serve their clients and see them win.
When I started this company in 2005 it was a bit of a used car sales like environment.
Not much has changed. Clients regularly tell me about the crazy emails they get from other people trying to play in our space.
Not only are there people out there promising the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but there are firms out there that churn through staff….which can’t be good for agency clients.
Having a great tech stack is one thing, but what really wins the day is a solid, tenured staff PLUS the right technology tools to get the job done. Technology can’t save the day in this very human world we live in.
The tenure of our New Business Director staff is 8 years. Our average client tenure is 2.5 years. We have about a 3rd of our clients that have been with us for 4+ years.
I’ve seen major players in the outsourced agency new business space with average tenure of about a year and turnover at the top that makes a CMO’s tenure feel exceptionally long! Companies like this are either burning through agency clients or these agency clients are changing New Business Directors almost every year!
When I started this business I wanted to bring in all the things that were good about the companies I worked for in the past and leave out all that I thought was bad.
We’ve been forthright in how we operate. We’ve been hon
est and respectful. And we’ve put our clients first. I can go to bed at night feeling good about the job we’ve done for the people we represent and the people we work with.
Thanks Clients and RSW/US!!
Looking forward to the next 15!
Mark Sneider
Mark is a 30-year veteran of the consumer packaged goods, advertising, and marketing service industry. Mark started his career at DDB Needham in Chicago prior to earning his MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Business School at Northwestern where he majored in Marketing and Economics. Prior to starting RSW/US in 2005, Mark was General Manager for AcuPOLL, a global research consultancy. Sneider worked in Marketing for S.C. Johnson and KAO Brands. Sneider has been invited to speak at numerous Agency events and network conferences domestically and internationally including the 4A’s, Magnet, NAMA, TAAN, and MCAN. Sneider has been featured in prominent industry publications including Adweek, Media Post, e-Marketer, and Forbes. When not working (which often seems like not often), Mark likes to run miles, go to church, and just chill with a hard copy issue of Fast Company.
