Can We All Just Get Along?

Posted on | December 16, 2007 |

I read this week that in the US, the heads of two agencies (one media and one creative……..err, one called Carat, one called Ogilvy) had a public fight at a discussion on who is in charge of the communications process. With the breakdown of the single agency structure into specialist shops, this will continue to be an ongoing debate.

Recently I was in Japan – where most agencies are laughing at the western breakdowns – most clients produce all elements of a marketing campaign with a single agency, and are enjoying the consistency.While all this is happening , some new agencies are coming on the horizon – ‘Naked’ , as one example, have positioned themselves as a communications agency, sitting ‘above’ the creative and media agencies to ensure the right touchpoints are set from the beginning.So can’t we all get along and work together? Well, the reality is, great marketing is made through collaboration, ideas and inspiration, none of which is the exclusive proprietary of any agency type or group. The best work we see comes when all agencies find a way to work together and be effective.Recently we helped Coca-Cola start their own agency in China. Amidst cries of heresy, the gamble is working – because it relies on the best talents from the individual agencies, moving to a central location and working together on a single mission – to make Coca-Cola the number one brand for the Beijing Olympics. In the mix is the best brains from Starcom, Leo Burnett, Momentum, Isobar’s WWINS and a local outdoor agency. Five different agencies with four different ownership structures – collaborating for a common goal. No surprises now in research tracking, Coke is ahead of the sixty other sponsors in terms of awareness, purchase intent, brand values and promotional recall.From what we’ve seen there are a few key areas to driving greater collaborative marketing1. Leave the egos at the doorOne agency we met recently insists on involving the client during the creative process – literally sitting down with them and brainstorming. Not every creative person – or client – is open to this, but the best work is now coming out. Other clients we have shared this with are now trying this as a test project2. Good ideas come from anywhereRecently, an idea we saw from a local instore agency became the main piece of a massive regional campaign. Again, this was because all sides were open to the best thinking and ideas, and tapped into it. We’re always shocked when we meet local telco’s how little they and their agencies study the global marketplace. There’s now hundreds (maybe thousands) of individual local mobile and telco operators all working locally to reinvent their own marketing wheels. Too much cost and too much wastage.3. You can’t move what you can’t measure.We are still surprised that too many marketers have not learnt this core characteristic of P&G’s success. By investing in tracking and metrics at every level of activity, they never miss an opportunity to build and share learning. With the growth of online research, the cost of campaign measurement has also shrunk, creating new opportunities for all.Creating marketing has never been more complicated – involving more people internally and externally. Only through a real drive for collaboration will clients and agencies achieve decent integration and decent opportunities for business successGreg Paull is co- founder of R3, a consultancy focused on marketing efficiency and effectiveness

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