Leo Burnett lands Big W account from Saatchi & Saatchi with task of ‘repositioning’ brand

Hey mates Drop zone was made by Leo’s

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Jack, it’s Mumbrella, don’t encourage them to get their facts right; someone might mistake them for journalists.

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yeah that drop zone stuff pretty much sits in the same creative awesomeness space as “cheap cheap”…Leo’s definitely did that

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So the dogs bark and the caravan moves on yet again. What intrigues me about these press releases they invariably never tell the truth about cause and effect.

Did Saatchi’s stuff up? Possible of course, agencies sometimes do. However my experience with Saatchi’s over the years on the relationships I have worked with them on Toyota, St. George etc. it would be hard to imagine. Also especially since Rebelo has been leading and building the talent base with very bright and competent teams across all the disciplines,

So I ask myself were any, or all of the following factors at play?

Are the marketing team at the client the same that engaged Saatchi’s?
Clients generally turn over more often than agency people, and the first instinct seems to be in this market is…. ‘let’s change agencies’. Many clients seem to embark on that course of action to cover up some structural and fundamental business issues within their own businesses to buy themselves time to sort them out amongst other reasons.

Are the marketing team skilled & competent at all levels within the client?
Do they know how to leverage the best out of an agency?
Do they understand the sometimes the not so subtle differences between marketing and advertising?

Do the CMO’s actively encourage their own people and their agencies to do well commercially, and produce their best work that they are both proud of and sells product.? Some notable examples in this market that lead by example are Matt Tapper at Lion, Suncorp’s Mark Reinke, Toyota’s Brad Cramb, and Andrew Caie at Subaru. As indeed do many others whom have a realistic, fair and equitable view of their agencies.

Unfortunately though there are those that simply use their agencies as suppliers, as much as some agencies undoubtedly use some clients essentially for cash flow reasons. All doomed to failure.

With Retail for instance do marketing, merchandising and agency all work together to deliver to the overall business & results? A classic example where this is clearly evident is Officeworks where the well led, extremely capable marketing team headed by Karl Winther, has over the past three years built a strong collaborative relationship with merchandising, and a true partnership with AJF, to contribute real value & outcomes. This is unambiguously evident in the Westfarmers overall financial results. Many clients & agencies actively can, and do achieve this together.

Are there clear business strategies from the CEO down that are understood within the clients and agencies at all levels, that are stuck to? Which are reflected in the communications strategies, the briefs and ultimately the work. Then of course measured objectively against agreed strategies, targets and KPI’s?

To take nothing away from Leo’s at all, and we all understand how attractive volume deals appear to be, do procurement/marketing departments apply the same philosophy to their professional fee negotiations as they do when purchasing say 50,000 pairs of knickers from China? Which clearly is not a smart idea.

I’d urge clients and agencies to look at the excellent 2014 World Federation of Advertisers report on Global Agency Remuneration Trends and the use of performance metrics issued last year, available at http://www.wfanet.org to at least start a dialogue as to how to calibrate their remuneration arrangements more intelligently. Also to honestly ask themselves some of the questions above to see if they are on track to drive the best value and results for their respective businesses. At least the then hopefully the dogs won’t bark as often.

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