Agency trends from across the pond
(Paul Philips - Managing Director AAR UK )
Reflections from the 2014 New York AdForum Summit You might think the idea of spending five days in back to back presentations from agencies, including breakfast and evening engagements, is your idea of hell but that’s exactly what I was doing last week in New York at the annual AdForum Global Summit. Intermediaries and pitch consultants from across the world gather every October in New York to meet a range of communications agencies for updates on their latest thinking, trends and, of course, to see the work. What follows are five key themes picked up from over 30 meetings and presentations.
1. It’s no longer about digital: it’s about technology The relentless pursuit by the established agencies to put digital at the core, and 21st century agencies offering digital within its DNA, appears to be over. Any agency that makes a point of its digital credentials now looks off the pace as consumers and brands are already fully engaged in relationships that are powered by technology. Two themes to support this were offered up by Peter Kim, Chief Digital Officer for Cheil. First, today everything is shoppable with full convergence and interplay between off-line and on-line as retail channels. And secondly, we have become a sharing economy where brands such as Uber and Airbnb are the natural way of the world rather than a niche fad. Between clients and their agencies, it’s the application of technology that’s a real driving force for customer engagement.
2. Content is the playground where agencies are spending a lot more time Content is not a new concept. Advertising agencies have been producing it for years, just in a relatively small number of formats compared to the plethora of opportunities available today. As have PR agencies and, more recently, those specialising exclusively in creating content. But the time has come for agencies, consultancies and publishers to give more specific definition and focus to this all encompassing term. It’s not dissimilar to the idea of integration that was all the rage a few years ago. Once all agencies raised their hand to being integrated, the smarter ones recognised there were different forms of integration that addressed differing brand needs. These agencies quickly stood out from the crowd of hand-raisers, all of whom claimed to do integration. Tweets, vines, email, blogs, 30” spots, 60” spots, even 90” spots, long copy advertising, YouTube, AFP’s (advertiser funded programming) and customer magazines are all content opportunities that fulfill different roles in brand marketing. The best agencies demonstrate what client challenges these opportunities are best suited to address and, therefore, what aspects of content they are best placed to create and curate on behalf of their clients. Worthy of a mention is the role that media agencies are taking on behalf of their clients in the debate around content and OMD can claim, with some justification, to be the most creative of the media networks, according to The Gunn Report rankings.
3. Evolving ways of working and the AOR 2.0 A newly launched agency can set fresh new ways of working that match the client’s (and the agency’s own) expectations for delivering the best the agency has to offer. Launched in 2013, Work & Co. is one such example of a new digital product design and development company that espouses an agile process based on specific measures of success, collaborative design, rapid prototyping and continuous testing and improvement. It requires senior client involvement with the benefit being a speed to market that measures in weeks rather than months. But the AOR (agency of record) client agency relationship is not redundant. It is, however, evolving through force of necessity. An always on/always paid for model may no longer suit a clients’ needs of their AOR. Witness the increasing presence of a de-coupled production model (where the UK appears to be in a more advanced state than the USA) and the beginnings of creative origination not simply adaptation by companies such as TAG and Hogarth. Speed of response is becoming increasingly important as successful brands need to work at the speed of culture. Arthur Sardoun, the newly appointed global CEO of Publicis, shared how the agency is evolving in its ambition to become the preferred creative partner of their clients’ digital transformation. One example in North America is the Publicis Newsdesk, a strategic hub that connects all aspects of a clients marketing; PR, media, search, community management, social strategists, traditional creative talent and client representation. The Newsdesk concept is to be extended into other markets. Another is the soon to be launched Publics Drugstore in Tech City that will connect large brands with tech start-ups. Not the first example of this evolved way of working but real evidence of a heritage agency doing something different.
4. Great storytelling continues to have a big role to play in building brands Storytelling has never been out of fashion and some agencies have an expertise in telling a brand’s story particularly well through a specific medium. Two rather impressive exponents of different ways agencies can tell their clients brand stories came from Story Worldwide and DDB. Story Worldwide help brands tell their stories through entertainment, information and engagement, guiding audiences through non-linear journeys that can encompass multiple platforms and channels. You could look at it as content, but there’s a lot more to it than this one superficial word suggests. (See point 2) Mark O’Brien, President of North America DDB Worldwide, shared the agency’s view that creativity is the most powerful force in business and emotion the most powerful force in life. Combining these two thoughts, he then demonstrated the agency’s skill in storytelling through a reel of advertising commercials from across the network that, as a body of work from one agency, was unsurpassed all week. The naysayers may criticise that it’s only TV advertising, which may be so, but what DDB shared with us was work of the highest standard that our industry has to offer. TV work from Lowe and Partners, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and The Martin Agency also offered a timely reminder that 30” advertising still has a central role to play in creating a brand’s personality and telling its story. 5. All change at the top Six of the major advertising networks have appointed new global CEO’s within the last two years, four of them in 2014. Harris Diamond at McCann in November 2012, Arthur Sardoun at Publicis in October 2013, Andrew Bennett at Havas and Troy Ruhanen at TBWA, both earlier this year, with Gustavo Martinez taking up the role at J Walter Thompson at the end of 2014 and Robert Senior assuming responsibility at Saatchi & Saatchi in January 2015.
What does this mean? Inevitably with new blood come new ideas, change and an injection of momentum. Some of this has already been put in place (e.g. Publicis Drugstore in London) and no doubt more will quickly follow, undoubtedly once Robert Senior (not known for maintaining the status quo) is officially in place at Saatchi’s next January. It was encouraging to hear the heritage agencies in optimistic and buoyant mood and creating some great work at a time when clients’ expectations of them continue to grow, an ever expanding new breed of agencies continue to challenge and change is a constant.
So what conclusions can be drawn from the week? Just like brand businesses, the communications industry is grappling with the challenges and opportunities that all pervasive technology is demanding. Why? Because the consumer demands it from brands to which they are going to commit their attention, time and money. As ever, there’s no single right answer or approach and new ways of working are constantly developing, with Hollywood now appearing to have as much influence as Madison Avenue (together with a large dose of Silicon Valley). Success will come to those agencies that are the best at what they do, continue to add value, demonstrate a return to their clients business and deliver a quality of creativity to their brands that only agencies can.
(http://aargroup.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Agency-trends-from-across-the-pond-reflections-from-AdForum-2014-V2.pdf)
The view from Madison Avenue
by Jeff Estok, Managing Partner of Navigare,
The AdForum Worldwide Summit in New York is a unique and highly focused ‘by invitation only’ event that Navigare has had the good fortune to attend for the last twelve years.
This year, 31 leading consultants from ten countries around the globe descended on New York in October to meet, and interact with Agency network CEOs and management from all disciplines. In total, we saw presentations from nearly 30 Agencies over the course of the week.
Last year, a sharper client mandate emerged – help us sell more stuff. Agencies were being held more and more accountable for that Client-deliverable.
A year on, that mandate is even stronger. And the Agencies that appear to be succeeding are those that have moved beyond merely building brands, to helping transform and grow Clients’ businesses. With technology altering Clients’ business models, so too is it changing the Agency focus – “We need to bring our Clients transformative business Insights.”
There were plenty of other great soundbites which summed up the trends we saw, and here are some of our favourites:
Digital isn’t a skill set, it’s a mindset. So marks the death of digital marketing as we used to know it. Today, it is about marketing in a digital world. And while it may appear to be a simple case of symantics, nothing could be further from the truth. It’s never been a tougher time to be a marketer, given the proliferation of channels, but the Agencies that help Clients ‘think digital’ before they ‘act digital’ will continue to become increasingly influential.
Everything is shoppable. Every screen should be an opportunity for commerce. Following on from last year’s mandate to sell more stuff, Clients are increasingly moving beyond ‘omnichannel’ to ‘commercial omnichannel’, realising that every opportunity to tell should be an opportunity to sell. This has never been more important than it is with today’s millennials, where among this group, 80% find brands, whereas Brands find a mere 20% of them. And when they do find you, with their credit cards in hand, why miss the opportunity to convert?
We think of ourselves as an audience development firm. We saw a huge explosion in content, but the real winners are those that recognise that what really matters is the strategic use of it to build, and keep, large audiences. With a staggering 50% of the $5 billion invested in youtube generating 1,000 views or less, you can understand why Clients are seeking greater accountability from their content providers. And we saw great strides in that area, with big data and real-time social monitoring now helping Marketers and Agencies pinpoint relevant content needs.
Moving at the speed of culture. There is no doubt that the days of the 14 week tv production cycle have gone the way of the horse-drawn carriage. More and more, Agencies are delivering finished productions in as little a week (and occasionally in a day!), to capitalise on events of cultural significance. This is only made possible by Clients upping the ante on collaboration and eliminating the barriers to approval; and becoming part of the creative process, rather than distancing themselves from it in an effort to play it safe.
The internet of things. As one Agency put it: “Our role is to create products, services, and communications that help grow our Clients’ businesses”. This ‘maker culture’ is also not only providing growth for clients, but growth for Agency revenues and profits as well. They are marshalling their resources to jointly own products and IP with their clients, truly making them partners in Clients’ businesses.
While we would argue that Agencies will never truly be ‘partners’ with their clients in the purest sense of the word, the distinguished leaders are those who are rising to the challenge of partnering business growth with them.
Which is striking a responsive chord with the Client community.
Original content published on Campaign Asia
A week in the life of AdForum 2014
by Peter Cowie (co-founder of Oystercatchers)
The co-founder of the British marketing firm Oystercatchers says the recently concluded AdForum Summit was all about content creation and distribution, technology, "maker" culture, and results
Fresh off the plane from New York, I’ve just spent a week with our American colleague Russel Wohlwerth at one of the more interesting events on adland’s annual calendar: the 14th AdForum Summit.
Leading pitch intermediaries (or search consultants, if you like) from across the world met 30-plus super-smart and charming U.S. and global agencies for a glimpse at their predictions for the future of marketing.
Some delightfully refer to the AdForum Summit as the ad industry’s version of the fashion catwalk. It could well be. Intermediaries review new directions that agencies are taking, and observe firsthand who’s innovating best. From our front-row seats, we've been asked to share a few thoughts on this year’s show.
Last year it was all about storytelling and being nimble in a changing marketing world. Last week, the focus was on content creation and distribution, technology, "maker" culture, and results. It seems that marketing's insatiable need for content has spawned a whole new ecosystem of providers, with Hollywood gaining a new relevance.
Many agencies have concluded that they can't do it all in a multichannel world and are trading in the full-service model in favour of collaboration with a range of partners.
Agency attitude has changed, too. Creativity is king, but agencies are more business-like, sharply focussing on solving clients’ business problems and obsessing, quite rightly, over results.
Maker culture is the future
Digital is at the heart of everything. Every agency, from creative to PR, to media, to design, claims its business is built around a digital core and that digital is part of all they create.
Content is king. The 30-second TV spot maintains its role and relevance, but agencies are re-engineering their production models to feed the proliferation of content required to roll out ideas across multiple touch points and fuel conversation, often in real time.
Advertising that gets talked about. It’s getting tougher to get noticed — demanding better and bigger ideas for consumers to engage with. We watched campaign after campaign led by the TV spot, followed by viral content and then social, with a cut to morning news shows with Mr. or Mrs. Anchorperson laughing or weeping, sometimes both, over the latest trending work.
Search for talent. With digital a part of life, and with pressure building to produce great campaigns that get talked about 24/7 in a multiplatform world, the biggest challenge for every agency leader is how to attract and retain top talent.
Technology/innovation. Without doubt, our biggest thrill during the week was to see glimpses of the advertising model changing. It is moving from one of hourly charges, with the hamster-wheel machine continuously producing creative ideas to build clients’ businesses, to a model that uses strategic and creative skills to develop digital products and services in specialist partnerships with clients, with shared ownership and IP. Clearly, the maker culture is the future.
Quotes of the week
Curated by Navigare's Cam Carter:
"Everything is shoppable. Every screen should be an opportunity for commerce.”
“You need snackable content.”
“Data drives mass personalisation."
"We think of ourselves as an Audience Development Firm."
“When procurement opens the negotiation saying they want a win/win for everyone. I say: 'Fine. So you want to win twice!'"
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast."
"The only way to be first is to know what's next."
"Let's get past the lobotomy-level stuff first."
"All the consumer sees is the work; so we've got to focus on the work. And love the work."
"I've never seen a PBR model that isn't a disguised revenue reduction model."
Original content http://www.campaignlive.com/article/week-life-adforum-2014/1317147#fUWRqaByJlTXwrGz.99
The Ad Agency Is Dead. Or Is It?
by Michael Lee - Founder Madam ww
The demise of the ad agency appears all set. A tombstone prepared. The obituaries written. The lilies artfully arranged.
Which is a perfect time for the AdForum 2014 Summit.
The “Summit” is where a gathering, gaggle, school or pack (choose your own plural) of the world’s leading pitch intermediaries (or search consultants, if you like) spend five days in NYC meeting with a mix of global advertising networks like Lowe, DDB, JWT and Publicis, (including an appearance by Chairman and CEO Maurice Levy), digital powerhouses like Huge and RG/A, media giants like OMD, international agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, The Martin Agency and CP&B, smaller shops Story, Work & Co, Brooklyn Brothers, and experiential ones like Iris.
Also during the week we’d get presentations from the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) and some perspective on newer industry developments such as production decoupling.
Basically, the week is a microcosm of what the agency world has to offer clients, brands and products; the state of their business, what clients are thinking, demanding and buying, and what’s new in terms of agency talent, practices and capabilities.
What better way to get a swift temperature check on how agencies are feeling these days, and their predicted demise?
So what did I pick up?
Five things seemed to strike a chord and find a place in my memory banks.
Brands Require Culture and Talkability
Culture and talkability: two words that were a key phrase during the week.
We all know it’s not just enough for a brand to prattle on about what it does and what formats it comes in. Now, each successful brand needs to have a POV about what’s going on in the world and engage fully in it.
So I couldn’t agree more with the sentiments of agencies who preached the “culture” initiative.
Brent Smart, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi NY spoke enthusiastically about moving brands “beyond reason into culture.”
Richard Pinder CEO, UK and International of CP&B spoke about working at the speed of culture and the desire to make CP&B work “the most written about, talked about and outrageously effective work in the world,” highlighting the thought that “99% of all work is not talked about” and wanting to focus their work in that other 1% space.
The Brooklyn Brothers also “want to build brands a share of culture, not of category.”
Marketers Love Makers
As I wrote in a previous post, http://tinyurl.com/lngfjza marketers want to get closer to people who make stuff. Being able to come up with ideas is the one thing agencies have traditionally been paid for. But now the ability to build the prototypes, write the code, create the content, produce the events, get them to market tomorrow, and all within the agencies four walls is becoming paramount.
The maker culture is a big one, and a huge opportunity for agencies to show off the variety of talents that lives inside the company.
Agencies Need To Be Business Transformers
Of course the best ones always have been. Or certainly have helped their clients in that objective, Ogilvy and IBM being the classic example.
But digital and social capability and thinking are transforming the way communications is used in business transformation. Saatchi NY is helping transform Walmart’s tricky reputation as they invest $250 billion in American job creation over the next 10 years. CP&B transformed the reputation of how a Domino’s pizza tastes with their handling of the “cardboard pizza” crisis, and transformed the fortunes of American Express small-business clients with the introduction of the remarkable Small Business Saturday initiative.
R/GA is transforming how we use McCormick’s range of flavors and spices, introducing an idea called “FlavorPrint,” a sort of Nike+ idea for food, and updated us on their Accelerator start-up program.
All remarkably smart, business-transforming ideas, creatively executed.
Don’t Talk About Digital Advertising Anymore
It’s all price of entry now. Anyone talking about being “born digital” is standing on an empty platform staring at the back end of the train. Digital, social, mobile is embedded in everything a successful agency needs to do. It is not a separate skill that needs to be highlighted.
Finally, we’ve moved beyond talking about digital this and digital that.
Any agency that spends time outlining its digital capabilities and how remarkably integrated they are, clearly isn’t.
It’s all price of entry now. Anyone talking about being “born digital” is standing on an empty platform staring at the back end of the train. Digital, social, mobile is embedded in everything a successful agency needs to do. It is not a separate skill that needs to be highlighted.
R/GA, with founder, chairman and CEO Bob Greenberg and EVP, Chief Growth Officer Barry Wacksman specifically, led us through their thinking on the next steps for R/GA by introducing the concept of functional integration and the connected age, why it’s worked for brands like Nike, Google and Amazon, and why it’s important for any brand to build a digital ecosystem.
All very important developments for agencies and brands.
But the thing that struck me above all these was that all the doom and gloom about agencies appears rather premature.
That the people we met with are not the lumbering agencies of the past. They are bright, modern, fully aware of the world brands live in and are offering marketers a huge variety of new talents, skills, knowledge, savvy and crafts, all delivered with an energy and passion that combine in ways no other offering can.
It said to me that for all the talk of the demise of the ad agency, it’s certainly not a fait accompli. They’re not going to go down without a fight. There’s simply too much talent, passion, commitment and savvy for clients to ignore.
Where else are they going to get that—a management consultancy?
Agencies are re-inventing, re-working, re-engineering, re-emerging and not taking any talk of demise lying down.
The Summit presented me (and the gaggle) an opportunity to re-assess the ad agency of today, and I came out thinking that there’s a huge amount of talent and energy that is ready to be a great ally for any brand in any fight, from purely survival to stunning success.
All a brand needs to do is to find the right ally.
this article first appeared in Forbes
Adforum Summit confirms marketing sector in deep transformation.
by Stuart Pocock (manager Roth Observatory International)
Members of the Roth Observatory team attended the ADFORUM summit in New York this month. This was a chance to meet with key stakeholders from global marketing communications agencies and suppliers. The continuing impact of digital was a hot topic with key discussions around:
- generating value for clients through digital transformation
- content marketing and how to produce and localise content at high speed
- how agencies should respond to increasing technology needs in marketing communications.
ROI attended the New York ADFORUM summit gathering every year more than 25 marketing management consultants from all around the world.
by Florence Garnier (Senior Consultants at Roth Observatory International London)
This opportunity to meet with the industry key stakeholders allows getting a deeper knowledge of the agencies and an overview of the industry key trends globally. This year the summit has gathered: 6 network, 6 independent, 3
global digital, 4 PR and 1 media agencies, 4 leading production companies and has welcomed Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Lévy. Hot topics where: generating value for clients, producing content, programmatic marketing.
Generating value for clients Digital is deeply transforming the companies’ business models. The “Internet of everything” calls for complete reinventions of business strategies, as the technology enabled “sharing economy” keeps growing… Part of Interpublic, R/GA one of Manhattan biggest agency, has now broadened its offering from a digital agency to a digitally led consulting company. They now support their clients (L’Oréal, Dr Dre, Nike…) in product development, innovation and digital transformation. The product development space is certainly considered an opportunity by some agencies to reposition, as Brand differentiation is rooted in R&D. Independent agencies or holding companies creative agencies such as The Martin Agency, DDB Adam and Eve, or Crispin Porter+Bogurki still believe their added value is to bring ideas and meaningful content to their clients. As talents tend to get on the client side in order to support brands in reinventing themselves: General Mills has just announced the hire of a Chief creative officer (an ex Fallon), Diageo, and some others have hired strategic planning resources and creative people, agencies have never been so challenged...
Producing content Marketers now switch from buying channel-orientated communication to digitally born content. As a consequence, producing and localising content at high speed is one of the advertisers’ key challenges. The offering on the market can be quite confusing to clients as a lot of stakeholders operate in that space. Content is creative agencies main purpose but they are challenged in their offering. Although they claim not to be in the business of creating the content, media agencies like OMD, position themselves as enablers, using their partnerships with media owners to produce relevant content for their clients. PR agencies are also creating a lot of content for the social networks, as copywriting is at the heart of their skills. Last but not least, under the name “decoupling”, production companies such as TAG, Craft, Hogarth, Prodigious, also claim not to be in content production though they deal with the main part of the client’s production budget in order to transcreate, localize and broadcast the assets globally. Clients have plenty of choice to create their content but could find it difficult to know what their best options are.
Programmatic marketing Software now deals with a part of marketing operations; this trend is referred to as programmatic marketing. Programmatic marketing relies on data’s in order to plan and improve performance of targeting and actions. The media space is the first part of the industry to use marketing automation. The Real Time Bidding allows media agencies to buy inventories for their clients at the best price. Now the market is structuring itself and media agencies invest in Data management platforms. “DMP” are aggregating the access to the numerous ad exchanges. WPP has invested 15% in Appnexus, Omnicom and Havas have chosen embrace all solutions (Sociomantic, DataXu, Invite Media, Media math, Turn) and aggregate them. As stressed by Maurice Lévy, the communication agencies industry has to accelerate its implication in marketing technology in order to resist the competition from consulting and high tech companies.
At the heart of creativity, humanity and technology, marketing has never been so complex, for this reason clients will need the support of marketing management consultants to build the model of the future as never before.
The AdForum Worldwide Summit : Day by Day summary
by Johanna McDowell (managing director of the Independent Agency Search and Selection Company (IAS))
Day 1 - We started the day with Cheil : On Monday morning (6 October), the weather was sunny and crisp, and before heading out on our special coach, we had our first opening meeting with Peter Kim, chief digital officer of Cheil. This was the first time that Cheil has joined the AdForum lineup of agencies; in fact, this year we have a number of agency groups joining us whom we have never met before, making things very interesting... Read more
Day 2 - Big day for us, as we saw three industry leaders during its course: Maurice Levy, CEO of Publicis Groupe, Arthur Sadoun, CEO of Publicis Worldwide and Gustavo Martinez, global CEO of J Walter Thompson. Read more
Day 3 was a spectacular day where we, as consultants, were exposed to work of a world-leading quality in our industry. It is extraordinary how talented the advertising community is and how adaptable....Read more
Day 4 - Breakfast with Lowe and Partners was how we began Day 4 of the 2014 AdForum WorldWide Summit in New York City. CEO Michael Wall, informed us of the renaissance that Lowe is going through, as well as the various structural changes in the work....Read more
Day 5 - The 2014 AdForum Worldwide Summit in New York City is done and dusted, and the highlights from Day 5, Friday 10 October, 2014, include the news that R/GA is to open in Cape Town!... Read more
Stephanie Pitet (Fondatrice associée - Pitchville)
2015. BE PREPARED!
(ce que vous ne pourrez pas éviter l’année prochaine)
Deux fois par an, et toujours à New York en octobre, les « pitch doctors » de la planète ont le plaisir de se réunir dans le cadre de l’irremplaçable Adforum global summit. Le principe est simple : 25 consultants et conseil en choix d’agences de tous les pays, partagent le même hôtel et le même bus pour aller à la rencontre d’une trentaine d’agences new‐yorkaises (autant dire global agencies !) et écouter les équipes qui les animent nous raconter leurs fiertés d’aujourd’hui et leurs combats pour demain.
PITCHVILLE, membre du réseau AAR et partenaire d’Adforum, reste fidèle à sa volonté de chercher toujours plus d’alchimie entre Annonceurs et Agences. En participant à cette folle semaine, nous entretenons et partageons notre connaissance du marché afin d’identifier les bonnes pratiques à venir.
Tous les membres du réseau AAR présents à l’Adforum global summit : Johanna McDowell (Afrique du Sud),
Lisa Colantuono (New York), Stéphanie Pitet (Paris), Leslie Winthrop (New York), Paul Phillips (Grande‐Bretagne).
Mesdames & Messieurs les ANNONCEURS,
à quoi vous attendre en 2015 ?
Ne dites définitivement plus que vous cherchez une agence 360 – même en mimant des guillemets – vous seriez étiquetés « historien de la communication ». Dites plutôt que vous recherchez une agence full service marketing pour transformer votre business dans un monde digital (@Huge) ! Et assurez‐vous que votre partenaire est bien en phase avec la technologie.
Maîtriser la technologie
C’est en effet la nouvelle étape à atteindre (après le « client au centre » le « digital intégré » et les « big data ») pour mettre en place les dispositifs efficaces qui vont créer l’engagement des consommateurs. Et que mettre dans ces dispositifs ? Du contenu bien sûr. Le content est la version aboutie de l’ancien storytelling (oui, désolés, il faut vraiment mettre ses fiches à jour). Le terme n’est pas nouveau, mais ceux qui en revendiquent la paternité ainsi que les moyens de le diffuser ont en revanche considérablement proliféré.
Produire du contenu
Toutes les agences ont aujourd’hui vocation à produire du contenu.
Le challenge est donc de :
• Nourrir spécifiquement tous les points de contact (de Twitter, Vine, Pinterest, etc. à YouTube en passant par le spot TV et le point de vente), …
• En fonction de l’usage du destinataire (bien souvent du « snackable » content @Cheil),…
• Et qui plus est en temps réel ! parce que les Annonceurs doivent se transformer « at the speed of culture ».
Sur ce terrain, les agences RP historiquement légitimes, peinent à se faire une place sur le terrain digital/social, les agences de pub brandissent toujours l’arme fatale de l’idée créative et les agences média gagnent du terrain. Par leur connaissance fine des cibles, leur pratique des médias et leur approche évènementielle de « producteurs » de contenus, elles sont des partenaires crédibles pour les Annonceurs afin d’accompagner leur « audience through a non linear journey » (Cf. la belle démonstration @OMD emmenée par Mainardo De Nardis).
On parle même de blockbuster Branding (@BrooklynBrothers) pour désigner ce contenu « clé en mains », inspiré d’Hollywood, que l’agence conçoit, produit et diffuse avec succès.
Decoupling
À noter également la montée en puissance du « decoupling », les sociétés de production, indépendantes ou rattachées à des groupes (@Tag, @Hogarth, @Prodigious...) qui produisent, adaptent et délivrent le matériel, ajoutant à la fonction logistique première une touche de valeur ajoutée créative (« execution is the new strategy » ?).
Mais rassurez‐vous, toutes ces transformations sont toujours au service du business, car « everything is shoppable » et chaque écran devrait être une opportunité de faire du commerce !
Et lorsque Publicis @ArthurSadoun a pour ambition d’être « the preferred creative partner of our clients digital transformation », c’est tout un programme qui se concrétise derrière leur promesse « Lead the change ».
Et si malgré tout cela vous ne trouvez pas chaussure à votre pied, vous pouvez toujours recruter des créatifs ou planneurs d’agences, ou développer votre in‐house agency, c’est tendance (cf. Apple).
Et sinon, dans les AGENCES ?
On vous l’a dit plus haut, les clients recrutent chez vous, internalisent la création, le planning, la production (ou la délèguent) … et tout le monde est producteur de contenus !
Comment réagir ?
• En travaillant différemment – lorsque la maturité du client le permet – à base de design collaboratif, prototypage, tests & learn consommateurs, circuits courts et time to market raccourci, comme @Work&co une nouvelle agence digitale très prometteuse.
• En intégrant toujours plus de technologie pour servir efficacement les marques de la « sharing economy » (économie participative) qui vont se généraliser (Uber, Airbnb, ..).
En poursuivant la logique R & D qui amène à participer activement à la conception, au financement et à la diffusion de produits/innovations et services de ses clients comme l’illustre magistralement @RG/A dont la valeur ajoutée (et une grande partie des revenus) s’est définitivement portée sur du conseil stratégique (mais aussi opérationnel/créatif/media… à la différence d’un McKinsey) au service du business et de la croissance de ses clients (Nike, Samsung, Beats by Dr Dre, ..).
• En développant les relations avec des start‐up, jouant le rôle d’un supra incubateur. @RG/A on leur fournit tout ce dont un client a besoin : stratégie, business model, création, branding, networking, financement… l’agence se rémunère en prenant 5% de participation. Seule condition : apporter du « connected device » et faire progresser la catégorie. Pour prolonger la connexion et l’échange, @RG/A s’installe en 2015 dans de futurs et immenses locaux intégralement conçus comme lieu expérientiel, dans le nouveau quartier d’Hudson Yards à Manhattan. À surveiller.
Même idée @Publicis, où l’idée du Drugstore, lieu unique de tous les besoins clients, est réinventée et lancée à Londres et dans 20 grandes villes pour mettre en relation de grandes marques et des start up.
Et la création dans tout cela ?
Que l’on se rassure :
• Une belle et grande idée, même au travers d’un bon spot TV de 30’ c’est toujours un immense plaisir, surtout lorsqu’il vient d’@DDB Adam & Eve (Marmite, Netflix) @Crispin Porter + Boguski (Turkish Airlines...) @TheMartinAgency (Oreo), @Lowe&Partners (Scrabble...), @JWT…
• L’activation et l’expérience de marque sont encore au coeur des dispositifs @ProjectWorldwide @Motive, @Pitch, @Iris.
Le buzzword du moment
L’année dernière, nous vous parlions de big data connectées, d’agences agiles et de shopper marketing. Cette année, c’est une nouvelle génération de managers, d’agences et de clients qui construisent ensemble de la culture de marques, résolument digitale et pensée pour être vue, appréciée et partagée à travers les réseaux sociaux. Nous sommes donc définitivement dans l’ère des « makers », et ça tombe bien car il y a beaucoup de talents à connecter ! Conservons donc la « culture » comme le buzzword de cette semaine, et gardons le rythme car « culture eats strategy for breakfast ».
The AdForum Summit 2014: the Nordic Perspective,
Tuuli Kahma from Breezeway, Finland.
Is it worth flying to New York for a week’s summit if you are an agency search consultant in the North; Finland, Sweden, Denmark or Norway? The answer is a clear ‘yes’.
Meeting search consultant colleagues from all over the world and listening to the smartest agencies in the industry gives an excellent view on where the marketing industry is going and what clients should be getting.
This year’s programme was versatile and compelling: holding companies, independent companies, special digital top talents, media agency, PR agencies, content specialists, the most relevant top-noch resources in today’s marketing.
The scale of course is very different compared to the Nordics but there is a lot that can be learned and adapted to our Nordic circumstances.
The world of business is global. Most companies need the best talents available. Digital is at the core of everything. Peter Kim, Chief Digital Officer, was the person we met from Cheil, an agency we are going to hear more about in the future. Critical Mass is doing progress year after year in a convincing way. Huge has grown from seven persons to one thousand professionals in ten years’ time and can only recruit a tiny proportion of the digital talents sending in their applications. Work & Co. Impressive team, work that speaks for itself, product development definitely is part of the future marketing.
World-famous agencies, which belong to holding companies, had great presentations. JWT, Lowe, Y&R, DDB, Publicis. However, their interest is mainly in the growing markets. And their Europe is often made of the UK, Spain and Germany. Retail is facing big, big challenges. All screens have to be shoppable, people want snackable content, mass personalization is essential. Iris Worldwide, a modern, fresh agency with excellent delivery. Geometry Global, you are needed in the north.
‘We understand the mainstreams, we understand the consumer’, said Mark O’Brien, NA President DDB Worldwide. I liked his comment on ‘there is marketing that exists and marketing that works’. Creativity is still in the core but agencies are more and more like business consultants who focus on clients’ business problems. The valuable contribution to the business challenges is that these guys are able to use modern marketing in the most intelligent way. Maker culture is definitely the future. However, human beings still have a role in the world of marketing. Maurice Levy, CEO Pubicis Groupe, impressed us all in three seconds. His sharp intelligence and charm are incredible.
Quel avenir pour les agences ? Quelques pistes avec la transformation du marché américain
Par Xuoan D
Rencontre avec Fabrice Valmier, directeur associé de Groupe VTscan (cabinet leader en management pour les métiers du marketing et de la communication), qui vient de passer une semaine à prendre le pouls de Madison Avenue au contact de plus de 20 agences. Le marché américain de la communication est le 1er au monde, ses mutations sont annonciatrices de tendances globales… que nous vous proposons d’anticiper aujourd’hui !
Le modèle des agences de communication est-il menacé aux États-Unis ?
À plusieurs titres ! La redistribution des cartes est permanente.Tout d’abord, le développement des agences « in house » est devenu un fait concret outre-atlantique. L’agence intégrée d’Apple prévoit d’intégrer plus de 600 talents. C’est à dire la taille d’un réseau comme Gyro, ou d’une agence comme BETC Paris. Quid de la collaboration d’Apple avec des agences externes ? Le phénomène est tel qu’il existe même une association des agences intégrées chez les annonceurs, une AACC des agences « in house » !
Le découpling, ensuite, qui s’accélère avec la montée des services achats d’année en année. Avec une recherche de plus d’expertise et de spécialisation, versus une recherche initiale orientée coûts.
La fragmentation de la relation annonceurs-agences, enfin. En 10 ans, les annonceurs ont multiplié par 2 le nombre d’agences avec lesquelles ils collaborent. En parallèle, les géants du digital, les GAFA*, se rapprochent des annonceurs via des partenariats, créant un risque de désintermédiation pour les agences.
Comment les agences new-yorkaises réagissent à ces évolutions du marché ?
En montrant qu’elles sont toujours « in the game », en se transformant à la vitesse de la culture !
Une CULTURE que les marques veulent façonner. L’air de Hollywood souffle sur Manhattan, avec des agences qui n’ont comme objectif que de DIVERTIR et de développer de façon circulaire l’image des marques (vs la priorité à la création de trafic en France). L’expérientiel y est une industrie, où l’on connecte dès le départ Event, Publicité et Social Media. Côté production, des scripts originaux, des castings de stars, des avant-premières… tout est pensé pour lancer de nouveaux blockbusters au service de marques à leurs aises dans le grand bain de l’entertainment
Une ambition commune qui nécessite toujours plus de VITESSE. Les annonceurs sont soumis à plus de pression car leurs modèles sont attaqués. Ils exigent de la réactivité. Les agences développent alors de nouvelles propositions où l’agilité et le prototypage sont clés : UX, analytics, tests utilisateurs et fixings sont mis à profit dans des cycles de design très courts, qui peuvent être renouvelés à tout moment. Peu de certitudes en amont, les réponses apparaitront lors de l’exécution qui est en train de devenir reine face à la stratégie. Pour y parvenir, les équipe de gestion-client sont managées comme des équipes de pitch, avec un état de compétition permanent.
Les locaux des agences évoluent également. Et ce n’est pas un détail. Des espaces accueillent des startups que les agences conseillent, mettent en scène, financent ou aident à lever des fonds. Ce qui crée de nouvelles sources d’innovation… et de rémunération ! Le business de la communication change, décidément.
Et la data ?
Ce sujet est so 2013 à New York ! La data est évidemment à l’esprit partout. Mais on en parle moins. Place à l’action… ou non.
Et sur la rémunération des agences, quelles particularités ?
Le sujet reste sensible. Mais vu la taille du marché US, quand un annonceur confie une mission à une agence sous forme de mode-projet, cela devient immédiatement structurant pour l’agence vu la taille des budgets. Si on ajoute la flexibilité du monde du travail là-bas et la capacité de collaboration en réseau de ces agences, le système de rémunération fonctionne mieux et dans une vision « win-win » entre annonceurs et agences.
Quelles sont les nouvelles agences stars de Madison Avenue (ou de Brooklyn !) à suivre ?
Huge, Pitch, Motive, Project WW, Iris, Work & Co, The Brooklyn Brothers… sans oublier les stars confirmées que sont Crispin Porter + Bogusky, R/GA et The Martin Agency.
Original articcle http://lareclame.fr/113110-agences-new-york-fabrice-valmier
