Every economic crisis "thins the herd," wipes out agencies and picks the pocket of agency principals of all sizes. But some agencies know how to exploit the crisis - and knock their competition on its backside. When everyone else is suffering setbacks, YOU can steal customers and make more money then ever!

Many of our readers won’t remember “the good old days” when anyone who could keep the front door open could make a decent living.  When old fashioned, passive marketing was good enough.  When the high point of creative marketing was Yellow Pages, hang out at the Rotary and pray the phone would ring.  And, guess what, that was good enough.  A long time ago.  After all, back in those days, America boasted 80,000 independent agencies.  And a whole shipload of captives. 

But not anymore.  Most observers put us at about 37,000 independents.  And shrinking.

THIS economy should be a wake up call.  Like every other crisis, it will separate the varsity from the junior varsity.  And many agencies will end up with the dinosaurs.  On the waste heap of history.  A footnote of interest to no one.

The picture, by the way, is James  Worthy, basketball Hall of Famer.  He earned the nickname, Big Game James, because his performance and his stats got better the tougher the game and the tougher the opposition.  We’re playing the TOUGHEST opposition now.  NOW is the time to bring out your All Stars, not your bench.  I can’t believe how many agents I’ve heard talk about trimming their marketing budget when NOW is the time to deliver the best marketing they can get.  (Yes, if your marketing sucks, kill it.  But get obsessed about getting your hands on marketing that works!)