1. A community-powered service that helps marketing people get a job
1

2. WHAT I’M COVERING
• The problem: It’s hard to get a job at an
ad agency, and the churn rate is very high
• Solving the problem: Through a
community-focused job finding service for
marketing people
• Product development: Building &
launching an MVP, building a database of
user-generated content, then monetising
this database
2

3. THE SIZE OF THE OPPORTUNITY
• £17bn adspend
in UK in 2013
• 550,000
employees in
marketing
• 100,000 at ad
agencies
3
Source: Institute for Practitioners in Advertising

4. IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM*
“The model of the way we get jobs in this industry is fundamentally
broken.”
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
*Based on face-to-face interviews with nine current & potential marketing industry job applicants & a 28-
person survey
4
harder easier
- Ad agency employee
“If I had to sum up my job search in a single word it would be – despair."
- Digital agency employee
Is it harder or easier than the norm to get a job in marketing?

5. FINDING & RETAINING TALENT
• 28.1% annual churn rate in UK – market sizing: 28,100
5
“Churn rates at
agencies are very
high. This is
because of
salaries. You need
to move to get a
better one.”
- Ex ad agency
worker
Source: Digiday

6. MARKET SIZING
Individual Users
Marketing jobs in the UK: 550,000 (Source: AA)
Ad agency jobs in the UK: 100,000 (Source: IBIS)
Annual churn rate at ad agencies: 28.1%
Total: 28,100
(Sources: Advertising Association, IBIS, IPA)
Students in the UK: 1,682,145
Final year students in the UK (undergrad and
postgrad): 336,429
% of students studying business, communications or
creative arts:
Total: 46,427
(Source: HESA)
6
Corporate Users
Marketing agencies in the UK: 25,000
(Source: Marketing Quotes)
Companies in the market for agency services:
Number of companies in the UK: 1.9m
% of which with revs of £25m+ (& therefore large enough
to have a marketing budget): 1%
Total: 19,000
(Source: Office of National Statistics)

7. ADVERTISING PEOPLE: DIGITAL-FIRST
AND YOUNG
Advertising industry people’s participation in social media. Source: Heat/Fast Company
7
Ages of workers among IPA member agencies, 2013. Source: IPA

8. USER PERSONAE
JACK (28, living in London)
BACKGROUND
• Has been in his present role at an ad
agency for 18 months
• Time-pressed and cash-strapped
VALUES
• Tech-savvy, avid social networker
• Work/life balance is important to him -
but is a work in progress
• Liberal, cosmopolitan
• Wants to be seen as quick to pick up on
new trends
“I need a time-saving tool for finding my next
job opportunity, so that I can boost my
salary.”
JILL (21, studying in Kent)
BACKGROUND
• Final year marketing student, looking for a
graduate opportunity
• Overwhelmed with exam pressures and
information sources
VALUES
• Idealistic about the future
• Avid social networker (online and offline)
• Wants to make a difference at a company
• Wants to move to London
“I need in-depth and useful information so that I
can plan my job search more effectively.”
8

9. JACK’S EMPATHY MAP
What do they hear? What do they think & feel? What do they see? What do they say and do?
• He has his headphones on,
streaming music to help him
concentrate
• The office is quiet as most of his
colleagues are doing the same
• Friends outside of work tell him
often that he is unhappy and
needs to move on
• His boss (the head of client
services) and some of his clients
offer a lot of negative feedback
about his ideas and general work
performance, knocking his
confidence.
• He feels undervalued - and underpaid
- at his workplace. He has financial
worries: he spends over 50% of his
salary on rent, and a big chunk of the
remainder on essential costs
• He knows from his peers, fellow
marketing graduates, that one of the
best ways of getting a salary boost is
to switch jobs
• He has a couple of meetings with
recruiters and a second-round
interview scheduled for the upcoming
week
• But he’s so busy he doesn’t have time
to do proper research: while at the
office it seems impossible, when at
home he’s too tired to get motivated
• While he must keep on top of a lot of
things in his job, he wants to feel
switched-on, savvy and ahead of the
game - whether that means
anticipating any complaints a client
may have, or keeping abreast of new
tech and media trends.
• Crowded office
• Laptop filled with notifications,
upcoming meetings, new – and
still unanswered – emails: he
has three (very demanding)
clients
• He’s also checking his
smartphone on his desk
periodically for updates from
his friends – and always
somehow finds time to text
back/like or comment on posts.
He’s accustomed to
multitasking
• The brief is in an open Word
document – he is trying to
concentrate on it but keeps
getting distracted by incoming
emails
Pains Gains
• He’s generally silent until
spoken to in the office…
• …unless he is in a client
meeting, where he needs to be
extrovert and proactive. He
aims to be solicitous with his
clients and represent the
agency to them
• He does not share his
concerns with any of the
bosses at work - only with
friends on the outside.
Time pressure, negative and stressful atmosphere at
work, money worries
Quick answers, hope for the future, a competitive edge in
his hunt for a better job.
9

10. HOW MARKETERS FIND A JOB
Most popular research tools Most popular ways of applying
10
80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
Direct LinkedIn Monster Guardian
Jobs
Reed I was
headhunted
“We Googled the company,
emailed them – and they didn’t get
back to us. Then we found they
were happy for us to come in for a
chat, but we rarely anything back
from them afterwards.”
- Job applicant
Source: TechCrunch

11. AGENCY FINDER: BUSINESS MODEL
Partners Key Resources
• Database of company
information, aggregated
information from other
sources, UGC
• Website and app(s) –
presentation of this
information
Key Activities
Value Proposition Customer Relationships
Channels
Customer Segments
• Providers of comparative
ad industry company
data
• Providers of server
space
• Industry trade
bodies/clients/agencies
• Social media platforms
(social media feeds will
be integrated into my
platform + commenting
will be via LinkedIn login)
+ third party social feed
integration technology
1. Easy access to
hard-to-find and
exclusive info
2. A place to bring
jobseekers &
agencies
together
3. A place to talk
and share – a
community
Main costs Revenue
• People looking for a job
at a marketing services
company – whether they
already work for one or
are looking to get into the
industry
• Companies looking for a
new marketing services
provider
• Agencies looking to
manage reputations &
benchmark their
performance
• Email updates
• In-app notifications
• Social media profiles
• Face-to-face meetings
with corporate partners,
including trade bodies,
universities and data
providers
• Creating & designing
homepage, company
pages
• Getting user participation
in uploading comments &
data about agencies
• Getting participation from
the agencies themselves
• Engineers/UX designers
• Search ads
• Paying community managers to moderate comment & social sections of
service
• Paying freelance content creators for scraping & reusing information on
company pages
• Paying data providers for access to their datasets & republication fees.
• Owned: Website &
app(s)
• Earned: PR, social
media conversation
about the service
• Paid: Search
ads/keywords
• Live: Pitches &
presentations at industry
events
• Ad revenue from app/site banners; sponsorships/media partnerships
• Revenue from pro accounts
• Revenue from agencies/corporate clients via data-sharing
• Revenue from activating database via reports (eg, annual rankings of “top
agencies”
• Revenue from job listings
11

12. 12
NEEDS, FEATURES, BENEFITS
NEEDS
Finding a job in the industry is hard – and there is a real information gap when it comes to
finding out about potential employers.
FEATURES
• An online platform that offers insights & updates on marketing services providers in order to help
users in their job search.
• Searchable company pages with useful information, from its status in the industry, to key contacts,
a client list and information on what it’s like to work there.
• Pages are populated either manually, dynamically (via embedded social media streams) or with
UGC.
BENEFITS
• It makes companies comparable.
• It assists the jobseeker during the research process and gives them a cutting edge over their
rivals.
• It offers a community platform for sharing information.

13. PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE
DEVELOPMENT -
• Initial market research with different types of users for the
product: marketing students, people already at agencies
looking for their next move, clients looking to find the right
agency.
• Building the MVP/bare bones version of the product:
– MVP 1: Single company page, shared with key
potential users/influencers to decide what
information goes where on the page, viability of log-ons
& sharing information as a community
– MVP 2: Basic home/search page and functionality,
to determine which are the most searched-for
agencies
INTRODUCTION -
• Press release and launch of social media campaign
• Launch of multiple company pages, homepage, log-in
functionality
• Establish relationships with agencies tracked by the
product to build word of mouth further & offer data-sharing
GROWTH –
• Features added: follow companies, receive email
updates, get lifetime login when info is shared
• Seek out sponsorship opportunities with other companies,
such as academic institutions that run marketing courses
• Launch paid-for premium version for power
users/companies with more in-depth rankings and other
exclusive content
13
MATURITY -
• Content push with annual “top agencies” report &
associated collateral (trophies, events, print & online
versions)
• Add job listings functionality
• Launch international version of product
• Branch out into other industries such as PR & tech
DECLINE -
• Signals of decline: falling MAUs, subscriptions, job listings
posted
• Ways of preventing decline: adding additional rankings,
making paywall more permeable, activating content in
new ways

14. 14
FULL PRODUCT ROADMAP

15. Creation of
additional
company pages,
informed by
reaction to MVP
MVP: Sample
company
page
Homepage:
Searchable
by
company
In-page
requests for
Job listings
UGC Annual
Email
Login/sign-up
functionality
reminders
“best
agency”
lists
Refining and
expanding
the rankings
based on
UGC
Pro accounts,
launch of
paywall
TIME
TASKS
Initial MVP &
iteration
Building &
leveraging
database
Monetisation
15
PRODUCT ROADMAP
Redesign of
company pages,
informed by
reaction to MVP
Data-sharing
with
corporate
partners

16. Creation of
additional
company pages,
informed by
reaction to MVP
MVP: Sample
company
page
Homepage:
Searchable
by
company
In-page
requests for
Job listings
UGC Annual
Email
Login/sign-up
functionality
reminders
“best
agency”
lists
Refining and
expanding
the rankings
based on
UGC
Pro accounts,
launch of
paywall
TIME
TASKS
Initial MVP &
iteration
Building &
leveraging
database
Monetisation
16
PRODUCT ROADMAP
Redesign of
company pages,
informed by
reaction to MVP
Data-sharing
with
corporate
partners

17. SITE NAVIGATION
17
• Site nav is deliberately simple & flat, aimed at driving towards two user
actions: Exploring the company pages or logging in
• Once in a company page, they are encouraged to perform three further
actions
1. Search for another company page
2. Follow company
3. Add information

18. MVP
Release a single prototype “company page” that includes different types of
information about an agency.
Include a basic employee information form & comment function.
Share with contacts at the agency, track usage via Google Analytics.
18

19. HOW THE MVP WORKS
19
Hypothesis:
We believe that people will be
willing to contribute sensitive
market information
anonymously - issues that
could include salary and job
satisfaction.
Success criteria:
• Heatmapping via Google
Analytics to see which cartridges
get the most engagement
• # of user logins & # of users
leaving comments/adding
information
Features prioritised:
• Agency information pages
• Add info/comment option

20. ALTERNATIVE/ ADDITIONAL
MVP
A homepage with basic search
functionality
Success criteria:
• Review which are the top search terms to
inform which additional company pages
should be created first
• Retention: # of searches performed per
user
20
Hypotheses:
1) We believe that users are interested in
a broad variety of companies over the
course of the job search/research
process
2) We believe that users will want to
return to the site multiple times over
the course of the job search/research
process

21. USER JOURNEY
Rest of page
features:
• expanded product
21
“mission
statement”
• introductory
video,
• social media
buttons
• Email/phone
contacts.

22. 22

23. Creation of
additional
company pages,
informed by
reaction to MVP
MVP: Sample
company
page
Homepage:
Searchable
by
company
In-page
requests for
Job listings
UGC Annual
Email
Login/sign-up
functionality
reminders
“best
agency”
lists
Refining and
expanding
the rankings
based on
UGC
Pro accounts,
launch of
paywall
TIME
TASKS
Initial MVP &
iteration
Building &
leveraging
database
Monetisation
23
PRODUCT ROADMAP
Redesign of
company pages,
informed by
reaction to MVP
Data-sharing
with
corporate
partners

24. WHY COMMUNITY?
100.0%
90.0%
80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
“People are obsessed with giving their opinion. It’s not a shy industry.
Most people in agencies are high-energy. And you work on accounts
together in small groups for 10 hours, 11 hours a day.”
- Ad agency worker
24
0.0%
Company
culture
Salary Location Ranked against
peers
Headcount Employee
opinions
Financial
position
Corporate
structure
Perks
What are you looking for in an employer?

25. 25

26. BUILDING THE RANKINGS
26
• Simple multiple-choice
questions; optional text
comment at end
• Filling in the form gets
you free & full access to
datasets
• UGC generated via this
form is anonymised,
aggregated posted as:
• comments on
company pages
• aggregated into
agency rankings
UGC > user verified > database > indexing tool > dynamically-generated rankings

27. OTHER DATA SOURCES FOR
RANKINGS
All of the above are publicly-available rankings of ad agencies, data from which
could be used to supplement the UGC-derived ranking data. Click on an image
to see more information on each ranking product.
27

28. EMAIL ENGAGEMENT
• Users sent regular email updates by hitting the “follow” button on company pages. They have the option
28
to sign up for only certain types of agency information & frequency of contacts
• All emails feature clear CTA (link back to company page) to encourage return visits.

29. Creation of
additional
company pages,
informed by
reaction to MVP
MVP: Sample
company
page
Homepage:
Searchable
by
company
In-page
requests for
Job listings
UGC Annual
Email
Login/sign-up
functionality
reminders
“best
agency”
lists
Refining and
expanding
the rankings
based on
UGC
Pro accounts,
launch of
paywall
TIME
TASKS
Initial MVP &
iteration
Building &
leveraging
database
Monetisation
29
PRODUCT ROADMAP
Redesign of
company pages,
informed by
reaction to MVP
Data-sharing
with
corporate
partners

30. 1) PRO ACCOUNTS
• Full access to datasets = more granular
information (eg, salary ranges by job role,
rather than total average)
• Individual users: subscription fee of
£300/yr
• Corporate users: consultancy services to
agencies and recruiters (dynamic pricing
depending on company size)
30

31. 2) CONTENT
• Annual ‘agency of the year’ rankings
report
• Aim to achieve PR coverage, increasing
the fame of the service
• Activate such reports online, in print and
experientially
• £50 for online version, £200 for print
31

32. 32

33. 3) JOB LISTINGS
• Great revenue potential (going rate
£200/ad)
• Natural extension of service – users come
as jobseekers, so would want to apply on
the site
• Would require user engagement & trust,
back end infrastructure, so appropriate to
leave to a later phase
33

34. KPIs & METRICS
ACQUISITION
KPI
Market reach of
website
Metrics:
Number of MAUs
for website
(everyone who
visited at least
once)
Bounce rate over
time (growing?
Declining?)
ACTIVATION
KPI
Conversion rate of
users to registered
users
Metrics:
Ratio: # of
registrations/logge
d in users vs # of
MAUs (registration
= LinkedIn login or
filling in online form
to create an
account & receive
update emails)
RETENTION
KPI
Rate of customer
engagement over
time
Metrics:
Ratio of repeat
visitors vs MAUs
Proportion of
logged-in users
who engage further
(add information
via online form)
Open rate/CTRs on
emails
Performance in
user surveys &
NPS
REFERRAL
KPI
Rate of earned
media support per
user
Metrics:
% of referral
sources from social
channels, rather
than via google or
direct
Performance of
paid search traffic
vs organic search
traffic
REVENUE
KPI
Average revenue
per acquisition
Metrics:
Ad CPMs
# of job listings on
site (x avg. price) –
expected main
source of revenue
# of Pro Accounts (x
avg. price)
Overall value of
media partnerships
Overall value of data
partnerships
…divided by MAUs!
34

35. SCALING THE BUSINESS
• International expansion
• Mobile app versions of the service
• Idea of a community-focused job
information services scalable to other
suitable industries: PR, design, tech…
35

36. WHAT I LEARNED
1. The problem is real &
needs fixing
2. Big assumptions about
UGC – MVP crucial
3. Major & diverse
revenue opportunities
36

37. WHAT’S NEXT?
Selling it in to
my company.
Wish me luck!
37

38. APPENDIX: FINANCIAL MODEL
Assumptions Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Average monthly visitors 50000 100000 200000
Total # accounts 25000 50000 100000
Total # pro accounts 150 300
Revenue
Ad revenue
Display ad revenue CPM for online display = £2; 50k PVs Y1, 100K Y2 5200 10400 20800
User revenue
Subscription Subscribers paying £500 a year 75000 150000
Content revenue (reports) Y2, 150 online copies & 50 print copies sold, sales rising in line with PVs 17500 35000
Content revenue (job listings) Each job posted: £200. 10 jobs posted per week on average 104000
Partner revenue (sponsorship) 2 sponsorship deals in Y2 25000
Partner revenue (data sharing) Sharing datasets w/corporate clients 60000 120000 240000
Total revenue 65200 222900 574800
38
Costs
Technology
Use of cloud-based server (AWS or similar) price = Rackspace, based on average page weight
x monthly PVs, site works on Wordpress; social media stream tool (Tint) analytics (Chartbeat),
a/b testing (Optimizely) 1458 18116 23116
Marketing/sales
Using external PR for launch, hiring full-time marketer in year 2, assuming annual cost of
marketing collateral = £7500 3750 7500 37500
Staff
Full-time participation of 1x developer (on staff), 1x design/ux (freelance), 1x founder/content
manager (on staff), 1x sales/new biz (on staff), 1x community manager (freelance, post-launch),
freelance content creators (post-launch) 105000 220000 250000
Content production (reports) Print costs £10,000; online costs £5,000 15000 15000
General & Administrative
Working in shared office space (WBY, 300/month/desk), plus costs of taxes & HR, staff
equipment 10800 21600 36000
Total costs 121008 282216 361616
EPITDA -55808 -59316 213184

39. APPENDIX: USER STORIES (1)
Search function
• As a jobseeker, I need to be able to search for agencies via the homepage, so that I can navigate the
site easily
– create a homepage with a usable search box
– search box features auto-prompts of agencies as they type
Login
As a user who wants to share information and share with the community, I want to be able to log in to the
site so that I can…
• log in via LinkedIn (prioritise vs something else)
– log in via email address
– manage & change my password
• As an admin, I need to ensure that the login is safe and secure
– Tests to ensure password strength
Responsive site
• As a user who wants to use the service across screens, I want the pages to be easily readable on
smartphones as well as my desktop, so that I can have a better browsing experience
– Need to use HTML5 & CSS3
39

40. APPENDIX: USER STORIES (2)
Apps
• As a mobile user, I want to be able to access the service on my smartphone while on the move, so that I can make last-minute
40
checks
– working iOS (first) and Android (second) app version of the service
– App offers full search functionality but a cut-down/redesigned version of agency/company pages, prioritising info
sources that get the most engagement on the desktop version
• As a mobile device user, I want to be notified of changes and updates to agencies I’m interested in in a timely manner
– Push notifications to appear on users’ ldevices
Email updates
• As a busy user, I want to be able to get email updates and notifications on companies that I want to “follow”
– “follow company” buttons integrated on company pages
– individual logged-in users linked to “followed” companies on database
– this database then used for notification emails separate from general marketing emails
– emails must feature links back to the site
– in their preferences on the site, they are allowed customisability, e.g. how often they want to receive the emails
– unsubscribe capability
Social network integration
• As a busy user, I want to keep updated with companies’ latest work in a convenient way, so that I don’t have to track them
across various social media platforms.
– social media streams from companies integrated on company pages of desktop version of the site
– Position of streams to be determined by initial wireframes

41. APPENDIX: USER STORIES (3)
Job listings
• As a jobseeker, I want to be able to apply for jobs directly on the site, so that I don’t have to waste time by going to
another site!
– online form available to companies who submit job listings
– payments system for companies
• As a company posting a job, I want to be able to have access to a good pool of applicants – so I don’t have to deal
with time wasters!
– Only verified/logged-in users should have access to job applications
UGC
• As someone who wants to “pay if forward” and share information, I want to be able to easily give information about
companies I’ve worked for so that I can let others know what it’s like to work for these companies
– online form available to users who wish to submit this information
– assurances that all information will be anonymised and aggregated
– auto-login to pro account enabled for these users
• As the operator of the Agency Finder service, I want to ensure that people adding UGC are who they say they are,
so the information displayed on the page is credible.
– Verification needed through checking information submitted by a specific user is verified via their LinkedIn
profile
– If the user has logged on via LinkedIn, this needs to be manually (or, ideally, dynamically) checked against
their LinkedIn profile
– If the user has verified via email address only, their submitted name needs to be checked against LinkedIn to
ensure they really have worked at the agency, as they claim.
– Only information submitted by verified users should be included in the database from which the rankings are
derived
41

42. APPENDIX: STAKEHOLDERS
Engineers
• What they are getting from me?
• Strategic direction
• Timings for completion of
different features/parts of the
product (via the roadmap)
• The voice of the consumer –
market information
• What are they giving me?
• Building/developing product
features
• Bug fixes
• How often do I communicate with
them?
• Daily at least
• What formats do I use?
• Email, face-to-face meetings
(standups), shared PM
software, eg Trello, Slack for
backlog support.
• The roadmap
Sales & Marketing
• What they are getting from me?
• The product vision & timeline
• Sales targets
• Product performance vs KPIs
• Material to sell with, eg pitch
decks, information to use during
cold calls, etc
• What are they giving me?
• In their customer-facing roles,
reaction and feedback from
potential and existing customers
• Revenues via recruiting new
customers
• Revenue forecasts
• How often do I communicate with
them?
• Daily, whether virtually or face to
face
• What formats do I use?
• Email, Trello, Slack
• Conference calls, face to face
meetings

43. APPENDIX: STAKEHOLDERS
Investors Customers
• What they are getting from me?
• The chance to invest in a
scalable and (ultimately)
profitable product
• Initially, a pitch. Post-investment,
progress updates (feature
releases, performance against
KPIs).
• Updates on milestones and
achievements
• What are they giving me?
• Money
• Expertise/consultancy – direction
• Networking and connections
• How often do I communicate with
them?
• Via scheduled updates (check-in
meetings); I am also available
with answers to whatever
questions they have
• Address (annual?) board
meetings
• What formats do I use?
• Email, face-to-face meetings
• The product roadmap
• What they are getting from me?
• Market intelligence, increasing their
chances of landing a job (for individual
users)
• Benchmarking against rivals &
information about how they are viewed
(for corporate customers)
• Exposure to the company’s services via
job listings & application
• The opportunity to express their opinion
& share their experiences
• What are they giving me?
• UGC, in the form of filling in company
information about previous agency
employers & comments
• Ad impressions
• Adding to my database
• Feedback on features & bugs
• We create value together by building a
database with a UGC element
• How often do I communicate with them?
• If interactions with the site are not
counted (and only direct approaches are
counted) then weekly at maximum
• Vis social media (official Agency Finder
Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn accounts)
• What formats do I use?
• Email
• Website (requests for filling in
survey/adding information)
• Surveys

44. LIST OF SOURCES & RESOURCES
Market analysis:
• UK Advertising Expenditure Report
(AA/Warc)
• Advertising Pays 1 (Advertising
Association)
• The Graduate Market in 2014 (High Fliers)
• Agency cartoon
• Planner Survey 2012/13
• GOV.UK: Advertising market analysis
• IPA Agency Census 2013
• Agencies’ talent problem (Digiday)
• Number of ad agencies in UK (Marketing
Quotes)
• Number of ad agency workers in the UK
(IBIS)
• Glassdoor’s business model (CFO)
• LinkedIn’s quarterly earnings
• 4A’s statistics on churn rate in US
• Churn rates between industries (US data)
44
Third party tech used:
• LinkedIn logins
• Embedded Twitter timelines
• Tint: Social feed embedding
• Mailchimp: email infrastructure
• Wordpress: site & CMS
• Rackspace: servers
• Google Analytics: site metrics
Public Agency Rankings sources:
• Fintellect (overall financial performance)
• AAR (agencies’ new business performance)
• Campaign School Reports (annual grading of UK
agencies)
• The Gunn Report (ranking of creative awards)
• Warc 100 (ranking strategy/effectiveness
awards)
• The Drum Adverati (ranking people working at
agencies)
• Ad Age Best Places To Work (ranking US
company culture)