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Issue 92, 29/04/08
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Working with a range of marketing communication service providers, marketers are finding it increasingly challenging to get competitive companies working together for the common good of the brand.
In this edition of the P3 e-news, we look at the requirements of a collaborative environment and how it applies to marketing communications.
how to get your agencies to collaborate
With so many communications channels available, marketers are using a wider selection of service providers and requiring them to work closer together to provide a consistent brand communication. Some marketers are achieving this through placing all of their marketing communication requirements with one provider of one communications group, with mixed results. But more are choosing to select the best of breed in each category and then manage this themselves.
In her 2004 Strategy & Leadership paper “Collaboration with other firms and customers: innovation’s secret weapon”, Bettina von Stamm identified the five key requirements for having competitive companies work together:
1. Clear and well communicated rationale for collaboration
No matter how much people talk about being “committed” to the collaboration process, each of the companies working with you are competing with each other for a share of your budget. By maximising the share they can increase their revenue and profit. Therefore, the first step is to clearly articulate the objectives of the collaboration and define what success would look like with all participants.
2. Clear rules of engagement
One of the difficulties is that many agencies and other services providers maintain they provide a “full service” offering to their clients. Therefore when working with a group of similar companies there is often disagreement with who is best to provide or manage each of the various services required. To overcome this the advertiser needs to clearly define the services required and delegate the tasks to each party, with a defined process for making changes to these arrangements when required.
3. A win-win deal for all parties
One of the key drivers or measures of competition is remuneration. For collaboration to work the remuneration model should ensure that all parties win. Many remuneration models being resource or head hour based actually reward participants who are task or production focused and penalise those who are strategic or planning focused, where often real value is created. Often a remuneration model based on performance or results will overcome this issue.
4. Senior management support
When setting the scope of the collaboration, the terms and benefits of working together and agreeing the remuneration models, it is essential to garner senior management support in each of the organisations. Most marketers do this, but what they then fail to ensure is that this support is on-going, with all of the participating senior management meeting on a regular basis to discuss issues and look for ways to improve the collaborative process.
5. A focus on people not technology
Email has become one of the most common ways we communicate, yet it is increasingly the least effective way of collaborating. Effective collaboration requires effective communication and interaction. The focus should be on getting people together to discuss, share and explore ideas and opportunities. While this can be costly in time and difficult to schedule and manage, it is still an essential factor for realising the maximum value from the collaborative process.
Achieving a collaborative environment
While agency contracts and remuneration are a major part of the work P3 undertakes, increasingly P3 is working with advertisers to use these tools to help foster a collaborative environment between the many marketing communication service providers they engage, including creative and media agencies, public relations, digital, direct marketing, experiential, word of mouth, promotional marketing and the like.
To discuss how remuneration, contracts and process can be used to create a more collaborative environment for your marketing communication contact P3 in Sydney 02 8399 0922 or Melbourne 03 9682 6800 or email Darren Woolley to discuss further.
easther speaks in singapore
Fresh from adtech Sydney last month, P3Digital’s Russell Easther will speak at adTech Singapore on June 26-27, 2008.
Russell brings a wealth of international experience combined with a wide range of online marketing capabilities spanning across the full service digital offerings. He currently consults on a range of services from search engine marketing and online media, to online direct response and third party adserving. Russell also conducts training programs on behalf of ADMA and presents to marketing audiences regularly on the benefits and ‘know how ‘of digital marketing.
In Singapore, Russell will moderate an industry panel on Integrated Marketing Strategy & Planning. For more information on adtech Singapore, click here.
marketing negotiation tool
P3’s ‘Marketing Negotiation Tools’ have proved incredubly popular with marketing and procurement departments across the country.
They are ideal for:
• contract negotiation discussions
• marketing and procurement meetings
• supplier brefing sessions
• creative assessment and approval presentations
If you’re a current client of P3 and have not received one of these highly sophisticated tools, please email Georgia Suttie to arrange a set for your team to be delivered immediately.
download a range of resources
P3’s website at www.p3.com.au contains a range of valuable resources for you to download at any time.
Simply click on P3’s downloads page, to access:
• P3 brochures – P3, P3Media, P3Digital
• P3 Top 10’s – the entire range is now available
• P3 Bull#@*! Bingo – play today and win!
• AFA brochure – How you and your agency can reach dizzying heights
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