NEW YORK: The final day of the Adforum CEO Summit (9 October New York time) saw the clash of the marketing communication Network big guns stress digital integration.

David Jones, global CEO of Havas, provided an inspirational presentation on the power of agency networks to make a difference in the world through the support of the TCK, TCK, TCK campaign and the One Young World campaign.

This was followed by an address by WPP's global head Sir Martin Sorrell who gave a very honest and pragmatic assessment of the economic issues facing the industry. A clearer contrast and comparison could not be found anywhere.

But as the delegates - 28 pitch consultants from all over the world - sat to reflect on the five days of meetings, there was a clear theme emerging: the world has shifted through technology and that the industry is rapidly developing to address that change.

There are still many different responses and a multitude of solution in the market, possibly as many solutions as there are marketers looking for answers.

But the one clear trend is that the idea of digital as a separate speciality is dead.
Digital technology is everything and if an organisation still has a separate digital strategy to their comms/advertising strategy then they will be left behind.

Just as agencies that do not have digital as the platform of their offering will be left behind.

The time has come.

Story by: Darren Woolley
Adnews
12 October 2009

NEW YORK: Even here in New York City, the home of advertising, at the Adforum CEO Summit, agencies are talking about results and accountability but the reality is sadly lacking.

Today we met with two of the biggest direct marketing agencies in the world. And while they may talk heavily about their focus on ROI and results and while they demonstrate a heavy investment in metrics and data dashboards, when it comes to presenting case studies the results are lightweight.

Not because of the results, but the way they are presented. A 4% increase in sales, and a 20% lift in revenue may sound impressive; the question is on what base and against what spend?

Where is the base or objective or where is the ROI? While agencies bleat about their compensation and bemoan the value they create that they do not share in, the fact is that in most case studies this value is never proven.

Instead they appear to rely on hyperbole and rhetorical, supported by flimsy and flaky numbers. The excuse that the client is protecting their confidential information is fallacious at best. There are plenty of rigorous ways to present results in a meaningful context without providing actual spend figures. One way is profit or revenue ROI as a percentage of spend. But perhaps it is simply easier to rely on hyperbole than face the real numbers?

Story by: Darren Woolley
08 October 2009

NEW YORK: Five brave procurement professionals faced up to 28 pitch consultants on day three (7 October New York time) of the AdForum CEO Summit in New York City, but who came out on top?

Interestingly, every single one was a marketing procurement specialist with almost all having a marketing background or marketing experience.

Most had changed their titles from procurement to marketing services in recognition of the general negative perception of procurement in the marketing category.

The procurement people kept using the term "enlightened procurement" and in many ways they were.

The big issues discussed were:

1. How to move compensation from resource to value based - too hard.

2. How to provide incentive based remuneration - great idea, but setting the metrics and payment level difficult.

3. How to manage agency / client relationships for greater effectiveness -complex and not enough time or resources.

While the consultants had many solutions and suggestions for this, the enlightened procurement people seemed to believe they knew better.

And more interestingly they had no suggestion on how to make more procurement people more enlightened.

As the consultants walked out on to Park Avenue this afternoon (7 October, NYC time), one was heard to mutter "and to think these people are increasingly our clients".

Story by: Darren Woolley
Adnews
08 October 2009

NEW YORK: Today (6 October New York time) was the good, the big, the bad and the ugly at the AdForum CEO summit.

Presentations with Ogilvy, BBDO, Leo Burnett, Dentsu, 180 LA and Profero. I will let you decide which is which.

The fact is that while the industry change is being driven by technology it is not the bigger agencies that are being left behind. Investment and focus on technology and people seems even the bigger agencies expanding their game beyond television.

Of course, it is easy to cherry pick the case studies to support the rhetoric about their response to client demands. But that would be the cynical response to seeing 11 credential presentations in two days.

Having said that, some things stay the same. Creativity is central, the focus, all pervasive. The work, the executions, the ideas and the concept is king, no matter where it originates. Accountability, ROI and performance drives everything.

We may be global but we act seemlessly as one team. Totally integrated to what you need or we will collaborate with others.

It is good to see that the more things change the more they sometimes stay the same.

Story by: Darren Woolley
Adnews
07 October 2009

NEW YORK: The big talk among pitch consultants that have gathered in New York for the Adforum CEO Summit is that digital no longer exists as a speciality.

Apparently digital is dead as a speciality, because everything is digital, therefore everyone has digital capabilities, including or perhaps especially the PR agencies.
That was the opening day (5 October New York time) consensus among the 28 assembled pitch consultants from around the world.

So here is the new land grab for the lion share of the marketing budget:

Agencies are positioning themselves as the "lead" agency for the communications strategy. But it appears leadership means that they know best and so everyone else is to follow.

However, PR agencies are marking their territory around social networking, after all, they have had many years of influencing the influencers, so who better to understand and implement?

Basically the whole industry continues to be in transformation, and who ends up with what is still being battled out.

Also, the GFC has had an impact on everyone. Most consultants are reporting that the year was slow to start with but has picked up - unless you were in auditing in which case the GFC was a boon with many clients using the audit to add to the bottom line with refunds from the agencies, especially media.

Story by: Darren Woolley
Adnews
06 October 2009

In any pitch process for marketing services providers, being digital, media, creative, direct marketing or what ever, there are four essential stages. Often marketers will get one, two of three of these but rarely if ever, do they get all of them.

1. The list
2. The chemistry & capabilities
3. The remuneration
4. The contract

Here are tips for each step:

Continue reading "The four essential stages of the pitch process" »

I received an email overnight from Euro RSCG on:

Euro RSCG and The National Media Group Discuss
The Importance of Branding: The Cautionary Tale of the Bailout

Considering the global newsworthiness of this topic, Euro RSCG had seized the opportunity to make a valuable and relevant contribution to the discussion.

Many times when we are running agency search and selection projects for clients, unsuccessful agencies will ask for advice on how they can better position themselves with clients?

The answer is by being relevant, interesting and memorable. The Euro RSCG email reproduced below does all of that.

Continue reading "How to position your advertising agency as relevant to the modern world" »

Digital, online and interactive communications are increasingly important to marketers as technology becomes increasingly important to the way consumers communicate.

Yet in selecting the right digital, online ort interactive provider, advertisers are faced with a very clear choice: do you choose the company that has a technology base and has become a commuications company or do you go with a communications company that is adding a technology capability to it?

Continue reading "A digital company that becomes and agency or an agency that learns technology?" »

In The Australian today, Simon Canning has drawn attention to the Campaign Brief blog.

Campaign Brief is the national and regional magazine of the advertising creative community, often referred to in agency pitches to new clients because they publish a "creativity index" for agencies based on awards one against size (based on the out-dated billing metric). Mind you it is only agencies ranked highly on creativity (ie Have won a lot of awards - sometimes for the one campaign entered into multiple awards) that use this reference.

However, reading through the Campaign Brief blog it seems it has become a "slagging" match to see who can put down their competitors, all with the protection of anonimity.

It is a pity this creative energy could not be harnessed more effectiveness to build the reputation of the industry by delivering outstanding creative solutions. But perhaps it is just a reflection of how many creatives are more focused asnd obsessed by winning Awatds rather than doing great creative for their clients' business.

Author: Darren Woolley

Having managed and facilitated a significant number of media and creative agency reviews, it is clear that the agencies that position themselves in the prospective client's mind are ahead of the rest when it comes to new business. But what does it mean to position your agency?
1. Become a brand
During a pitch, the client, due to lack of time, wanted to hold eight credentials meetings in one day. After eight 45-minute meetings, the client had trouble distinguishing one agency from the next. Company names were forgotten. Individual names were forgotten. Instead they resorted to using the physical attributes of members of the agency team. "The tall, bald guy with the stripe shirt, white collar and glasses" became the functional discriminator for one agency. However, one agency, that went on to win the business, had left the client with a clear brand positioning. The client kept referring to them as the "Challengers" because their presentation focused on how they were driven by taking on challenges and winning. Not a bad thing to be remembered for.
2. Consistent is more important than correct
In building and maintaining our database of agencies, we spend many hours talking with agencies about their philosophy, attributes and positioning. Most can spiel off a huge list of attributes but few can clearly articulate a philosophy or positioning. Some have just not spent any time thinking about such things, while others are suffering from analysis paralysis. It is like the agency Christmas card, party invitation and credentials document, everyone has an opinion about what is should be, yet no-one can agree and so there is no focus or single point of positioning. But consistent is more important than unique or correct. In a market category as undifferentiated as advertising, any positioning can be better than no positioning. And it must be a positioning, not simply a functional attribute.
3. Prove your positioning
If you have a positioning for your agency brand, then you need to develop the resources to help prove and substantiate that positioning. To take ownership of that positioning, which will most likely not be unique, you need to develop proof of concept. Do this through the collection of case studies with existing or past clients, through anecdotes and stories and through reference to business and industry trends, theories and developments. This process anchors your agency brand in reality, it is not just a theory or concept you made up one day. While a client can emotionally connect to your positioning, they will need to have proof of concept to justify their choice.
4. Talk to your audience about your brand
Just as the builder has the unfinished home renovation, companies in the communications business can be notoriously bad at communicating. Often agency principals will say that they focus on championing their clients, and that is noble. So here is the solution - make your agency brand one of your clients. Appoint a marketer and then service the business as you would a client. Channel planning is the hot attribute - so look at all the channels that impact your target audience and make sure you have a consistent brand expression in every channel. It makes a powerful argument that you understand brands and channel communications when your number one case study is yourself. Likewise, it is completely undermining when you don't practice what you preach.
5. Have brand champions
It is not just enough to decide on a positioning for your agency brand, you need to actually make it happen. The ideal way to do this is to develop and recruit brand champions within the agency and outside the agency from amongst your clients, the trade media and other industry connectors. These are people who develop and propagate your positioning through the market. Think of them as that elusive and much desired communication channel - WOM (word of mouth). Most advertisers know three agency brands - the one they are with, the one they left and the one they want to work with. Your job is to try and cement your brand into that position.

Author: Darren Woolley

When reviewing their business many advertisers ask if they should include the incumbent in the pitch process? The answer to this is easy and based on the following:
1. Is it a review because the current relationship is damaged?
2. Has the incumbent be given several opportunities to improve?
3. Does the incumbent have no chance of being successful?
4. Has the incumbent demonstrated the highest professional integrity?
If you answer YES to each of these then you should not include the incumbent in the review process. Why?
1. It is a waste of their time and their resources will be further diverted from your business during the process.
2. Including them in the process will not ensure a smooth transition as at some point you will have to tell them they are unsuccessful and they could feel deceived.
3. Including any candidate just to make up the numbers reduces your opportunity to find the best supplier.
It does not seem too hard. But it is amazing how many people struggle with this.

Author: Darren Woolley

It amazes me the number of marketers that think of changing their agency like they change their underwear. Sure, this could be a sign of the level of disatisfaction many marketeers feel towards their agency, but changing horses does not always lead to a better ride home.

Author: Colin Haycock