Oystercatchers Club

Takeaways

Shaping the new brand/agency model October 2014

Oystercatchers Club: Shaping the new brand/agency modelTo what extent have clients and their agencies found a workable model to cope with rapid technological change?

Our Oystercatchers Club event, hosted by Oystercatchers’ Co-Founder Peter Cowie, debated this hot issue with some of today’s brightest marketing leaders.

Interesting insights and salient trends emerged....

The Panel

Abigail Comber Head of Brands and MarketingBritish Airways

Ben Fennell CEOBBH

Ian ArmstrongGlobal Marketing Communications DirectorJaguar, Jaguar Land Rover

Philip GladmanOutgoing Marketing & Innovation Director AfricaDiageo

Peter Cowie Founder PartnerOystercatchers

Chair

Takeaway 1: Marketers will struggle with agency specialisms As channels and agency specialisms multiply, the job of the marketer becomes akin to that of ringmaster.

“Marketing departments struggle with the proliferation of agency specialisms that result from technology-driven marketing . It’s unfeasible for marketers to manage five to six agencies on one brand”. Philip Gladman: former marketing and innovation director Diageo, Africa

Takeaway 2: So less is more...

Last year Abi Comber, British Airways’ head of marketing, went further than just thinking agency consolidation is inevitable.

She initiated a seven-month review of the airline's marcoms strategy.

This led to all BA’s advertising, loyalty and CRM work being bundled to a single agency: BBH.

“We were not getting integrated thinking and I wouldn’t [expect to] get it if I briefed multiple agencies. We used to spend a lot of our time bringing everybody together rather than on the actual issues … now it’s far more about ideas, not advertising.” Abi Comber, head of marketing, British Airways

Takeaway 3: ...but don’t clients still need the specialists? “Connected specialisms’ is the answer to the client conundrum of having to choose between agencies that offer in-depth specialisms or wider, integrated offerings.” Ben Fennell, CEO, BBH.

To win BA’s consolidated business, BBH had to absorb a raft of new skill sets by creating a joint venture with digital CRM specialists Seven Seconds.

What did Ben learn from the experience?The value of “acknowledging what your core competencies are, what you can change and what you can’t. We failed at lots of things over the years, usually when we’ve tried to do everything ourselves without partnering with brilliant people.”

Takeaway 4: Agencies should have ‘skin in the game’

Billionaire financier Warren Buffett coined ‘skin in the game’ to encourage senior management to invest their own money in the companies they worked for...

“Should agencies do likewise?”Lizzie Penny, managing partner and managing director Futureproof

“Yes” Ian Armstrong, global marketing communications director, Jaguar, adding that his company’s individual and group performance remuneration process “forces the agency system to be self managing”.

Takeaway 5: The ‘in-house’ agency: is arms-length is best?At Hovis, Philip Gladman has gathered a team of former Diageo planning and shopper strategists to help "jump-start” marketing and deliver "breakthrough innovation opportunities” in the bakery category.

Jaguar’s dedicated agency Spark44 has been firmly embedded in the business since launch in 2011.

A joint venture, Spark44 is a separate legal entity, based externally. “It’s like a normal agency relationship ...we push hard on both sides and challenge on both sides” Ian Armstrong, global marketing communications director, Jaguar

Takeaway 6: Clients can ignite the ‘burning platform’

Philip Gladman: clients need “more burning platforms” to speed up the pace of change.

Ben Fennell: clients themselves are often the agents of that change. “There is a boldness in terms of how you reinvent when you’re in lose-a-huge-client-back-against-the-wall situation”.

Ian Armstrong on the need for agility: the marque’s relationship with Spark44 has been “fine tuned when it needs to be” with “challenges on both sides,” not least the handling of local client needs, given the overarching brief from Jaguar Land Rover’s CEO, Ralph Speth, to “help shape our organisation”.

“But we try and remain agile enough to move [the model] where it needs to move”.

Takeaway 7: No one model fits all

As far back as 2010, business analysts Forrester concluded :“No type of agency is perfect for the new era’.

Stephen Maher, Marketing Society chairman and chief executive of MBA: there will never be just one client-agency model.

And the panel agreed.

Ben Fennell wrapped up: client-agency models ‘ set up to collaborate and not to compete’ would win through.

Written by Noelle McElhatton. Journalist and former editor of Marketing magazine

Who are Oystercatchers? Oystercatchers are experts in accelerating marketing performance, providing a wide range of specialist consultancy services to deliver the optimum model for marketing excellence.  Our Services : We provide a wide range of consultancy services and transformative insight, born from unrivalled industry expertise.  Marketing Model:We recommend the brand / agency model that will deliver the best marketing results for your business.  Partnership: We improve and retain your current agency partnerships through OptimiseTM, our proprietary evaluation methodology.  Pitch: We ensure you receive the optimal agency partners to accelerate marketing performance.  Ways of working: We help you to achieve optimal ways of working, through efficient processes and rigorous financial analysis.  Training: Our faculty of inspirational trainers transforms people who work in marketing into marketing practitioners who work in centres of marketing excellence.

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