Media agency staff prepare for a Unilever Christmas
Starting to wind down for a lengthy Christmas break?
Onya, but spare a thought for the teams at Initiative, Mindshare and PHD.
I hear that the media pitch for Unilever – with a spend of $40m at stake – means that the holidays will be short indeed for the staff, with a key deadline early in the new year. Most will be lucky to get Christmas Day and Boxing Day, I gather.
Earlier in the year, I talked to one agency boss – not from those three – who said that if a client called a pitch over Christmas this year, he’d decline to take part if it meant ruining his staff’s break one major break of the year.
But once that invitation comes from Unilever, it is, I suspect, impossible to say no.
Tim Burrowes
Linkedin
Clients really can be mofos. No doubt the marketing team at Unilever will be enjoying a very relaxing Christmas break. My heart goes out to the poor saps at Initiative, Mindshare and PHD.
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Wouldn’t it be fantastic if all three agencies had the guts to say no thank you, our staff are too important.
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So UM have thrown in the towel?
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it’s a test …
How much will you love the client if you win the account? Will you sacrifice family, friends and any form of life to serve the client…
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And once they’ve reamed you ‘you know where’ they get to do it all year long.
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Shouldn’t the client/agency relationship be based on respect for each other?
To honour that let’s start with asking agencies to present at the start of Jan and see who jumps…
Good luck to the lucky winner…
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Wouldn’t it be fantastic if all three agencies [MDs] had the guts to [call each other and agree to] say no thank you, our staff are too important.
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Bon, it may be ‘fantastic’ but it would also be illegal and would get the ACCC very interested in collusive trade practices.
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(Edited by Mumbrella for legal reasons)
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2 of the 3 involved need a win pretty bloody bad so if I was a staffer involved I’d be fine with working during the break.
Sure beats coming back from the break and wondering if your role is still needed.
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The people at Unilever global in Blackfriars London are ex agency.
I don’t believe that they would condone this.
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This is par for the course for big FMCG accounts. Earlier in 2010 Reckitt Benckiser set pitch deadlines that were designed to have people working over weekends…briefed late on Friday, delivery due back early on Monday. And Unilever have been manipulating their agencies this way for years. Urgent meeting at 4pm on Friday, in North Ryde to discuss the fonts? Oh sure. Not only do they condone this treatment, it’s by design. Whoever wins the account should get used to it.
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The usual agency sledge fest.
You don’t think clients read these columns and are left with confirmation that agency types think it’s all about them? No wonder so many clients are bringing agency services in house!
So thanks Addy for your comments! I know there’s little relaxing in the Unilever camp at any time, let alone Christmas. Your comments just brings the advertising industry into disrepute.
Unilever work on a Jan to Dec financial year globally. So it probably makes business sense to start new from the beginning of a financial year. I bet all media agencies involved had a choice and have known about this for a couple of months.
I’m agree with ‘Realists’ comments
Better coming back from a break to a job. Working through or even working hard, it’s just life in the world of business, something a lot of creatives would be better off getting acquainted with before the mumbrella sledge fest leaves us all out of work!
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@Zed Elliott
Many of us understand that big Overseas companies don’t have the days off over Christmas that many people enjoy here in Aus. The expectations in other markets is often different in terms of working hours over the holidays. However, there is no way possible a pitch as big as this will be resolved *over* Christmas so to say its got anything to do with the financial year structures is just plain wrong. To say media agencies have a choice shows you don’t have a lot of experience in how these large pitches run. It’s put up or shut up.
There aren’t a lot of media people in Sydney worried about their jobs at the moment. It’s a pretty buoyant labour market. If they can choose to work for clients that have a sense of empathy versus those that don’t, the big clients who espouse silly rhetoric like ‘your bonus is you get to keep you job’ are going to miss out on talent and servicing.
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Hey ‘been there done that’ , before you get too condescending, ooops too late.
I’m sorry, I obviously dont know anything.
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@Zed if its condescending to point that your arguments are flawed and show lack of experience…then I’m guilty as charged. I didn’t say you don’t know anything…but on this subject, you clearly have some gaps in your knowledge.
You sound just like the defensive, inexperienced and arrogant clients we all enjoy working over Christmas for.
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fight fight fight
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Zed Elliot’s exactly right. As a client i’m gobsmacked by the self-pitying egocentricity of many of the comments on this thread. I’ve been on agency side myself and as a client have been consulted to by other professions like law, mgt consulting, accounting and PR – and none of them possess the same aura of self-importance that ad people seem to. Other professions just get the job done, when it needs to be done. If ad people want to be taken seriously in the business world they need to quit whining and behave professionally.
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Sven, I think you have inadvertently hit the nail on the head with “other professions just get the job done, when it needs to be done”. I’d like to reflect on tthe “when it needs to be done”. Would slipping the whole process back a couple of days, maybe even a week, have materially damaged Unilever’s business? Not one jot I would suspect. Were these timings “needed” or is it all part of the pitch game being played?
Sure there may be some ‘self-pitying egocentricity’ in some of the comments, but just maybe that is a backlash against the self-aggrandising egocentricity of the timings that surround this pitch.
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I’ve been on the agency side too – now a client.
It’s pretty much a low act requiring people to prepare to pitch over the the Xmas new Year’s eve period .
Sure you can get people to do it, but hey you get people to do anything for money or fear of losing their jobs-doesn’t mean its right.
Unilever is not being a good corporate citizen if that is the case – see the blurb below from their website – still i guess they are talking about their staff not their suppliers, but ethical companies treat their suppliers ethically.
“People are our greatest asset. Unilever is committed to the long-term health and well-being of all our employees and supporting individuals to achieve sustainable work/life balance. We have in place, a number of company-wide health initiatives, social and community activities and flexible working policies that underpin the value of our people to the success of our business.”
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the above comments (no. 20) sourcing Unilever’s website probably refer to salaried employees, not disposable service providers.
i can’t imagine unilever loses sleep if their paper manufacturer has to get its team to work overtime. the reality is their media agency is probably at the same level of importance.
they would value their employees. same value wouldn’t apply to suppliers. it’s the same way most businesses run, inc. media agencies.
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lazy aussies
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