So Wall Street has imploded. Banks are being sold. And the average American consumer is going to start to reduce spending. Bet on it.
What's an agency and it's clients to do.
Take advantage of it.
My friend Marc Goldstein, the CEO of GroupM (WPP's media buying arm) says that he doesn't see a great reduction is spending by clients because they have learned that down economic times are a time to grab market share.
"In the past, we have always recommended to our clients that in a
down economy they maintain ad spending so that they would not lose
market share and have to eventually spend more to reestablish their
brands," he said. "In the past, clients didn't heed that, but over
time they've learned their lesson. That message to clients today
resonates more. They really do recognize that if they cut back on
marketing, it will be harder to recover later."
http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i7e27e06b2dc444481c1a802ab1cc7cb0
I'm hoping Marc is right. He's a pretty smart guy and has been through the wars a few times. But if clients are truly going to take advantage of these difficult times (some say it could be five to ten years before we are out of this mess), then agencies are going to have to be able to deliver a different kind of thinking then they have been over the years.
This thinking needs to concentrate on two things: innovation and efficiency.
First, innovation. Never has the ability to tell a clients story, to inform consumers about the benefit of their brand, to engage the marketplace in a conversation about a brand been more closely tied to innovation and the use of many of the new platforms available to us as marketers.
The social web. Search. Online video. Technology platforms will play a huge role over the next few years. Why? Because I think we are now truly going to see a reduction in TV advertising. Marc is likely right, that clients have learned not to cut spending, but instead will put their budgets to use in much more efficient and targeted mediums like the web.
The question is whether your agency is ready to deliver ideas for these new channels. Do you have technologists and digital creatives at the table from the beginning of an ideation exercise? If not, now's the time to get started.
And while I mentioned efficiency in regard to innovation, the other issue I am speaking to is the efficiency that agencies need to bring to their clients in the way teams are built to service their account.
I think the other fundamental change we will see is clients moving much more rapidly towards the consolidation of their marketing partner relationships, in all disciplines.
Back when I was running the transition of all of the work WPP was taking on as a part of the global consolidation of the Dell business with the holding company, I was knew that one of the major promises made to Dell during the pitch was much greater efficiency in all of their relationships (Advertising, Media, Digtial, PR, Analytics, etc.). And that there would be tremendous cost savings.
The agency now called Enfatico, which was the results of those early efforts, has now built a structure designed to do just that. My firm, Y&R, has the ability to deliver tremendous efficiency for a client because we are part of Y&R Brands, which also includes best of breed agencies such as Wunderman, Burson Marsteller, VML, Landor, and dozens of others.
Across the globe we handle the consolidated marketing work for clients such as Campbell's, Colgate, Ford, Accenture, and many others. Over 150 global clients use over five Y&R agencies. We know how to build highly integrated teams, made up of best of breed practitioners, closely integrated so that the experience for the client is seamless. And it costs less. No redundancies in over site. One team. One leadership group.
So in the end, we are able to deliver tremendous efficiency, save a client money, all the while delivering world class ideas.
Clients are going to be under tremendous pressure to cut costs. Your ability as an agency to be able to tell them you can help them with that, while at the same time continuing to deliver best in class ideas will determine whether or not you will be able to come out of this tough period ahead of the game or in real trouble.
