by Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) NEW YORK: It seems that everyone is having a good year and feeling positive — this is what I found out on Sunday night, 5 October 2014, when I met up with most of my consultant colleagues (about 30 of us) for our pre-meeting for the 2014 AdForum Worldwide Summit in New York City, 5–10 October.
This summit is a “by-invitation-only” programme for agency search and management consultants, and global agency CEOs.
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.
Anyway, this little-known agency — which is Korean, with Samsung as its main client — is starting to reboot and create new awareness on a world-wide basis.
Six key trends in digital were identified:
- Brands are still in control
- Shopability — every screen should be an opportunity for commerce
- Snackable content — use of emoticons
- Data drives mass-personalisation
- The internet of everything — ecosystems, connectivity, functional integration
- The sharing economy eg Uber and similar.
Cheil is a worldwide agency of 5000 people and 45 offices.
IRIS Worldwide
Next up was IRIS Worldwide, a strong fully integrated agency with great activation and digital skills. It sees itself as a problem-solving agency that is very much focused on business solutions.
An excellent case study was presented about its client Philips, with reference to “return on involvement” — a different ROI.
A great premise, too, is that participation brands outperform others due to the emotional involvement of consumers.
Work&Co
After that was Work&Co and its co-founder, Gene Lieber. Based in Brooklyn, this agency started up 18 months ago and is highly successful already.
It produces digital products for clients such as Google, Chase, Virgin etc.
Brand development, page development, digital development. Extraordinary people.
Panel discussion
Monday afternoon we had a panel discussion: “Advertising and Public Relations — Compete or Co-operate?” Speakers from Edelman, Hill & Knowlton, Weber Shandwick and J Walter Thompson were moderated in this discussion by The Holmes Report.
Key points:
- Social media has had a huge impact — the rise of the conscious consumer.
- We are all able to publish now, whatever and whenever we want. Storytelling is at the core of campaigns. It is the thinking that wins.
- PR is moving into creative content and starting to hire creative service directors — from ad-agency traditional backgrounds in order to meet the needs.
- Measurement needs to include “shareability” ie will the campaign be shared by consumers, and this needs to be built into the analytics. Lots more to report on regarding this topic — will send more detail on my return.
A great discussion.
Project: Worldwide
Then we met Project: Worldwide’s CEO Robert Vallee, who showed us his New York ad agency and hosted us for dinner. Originally George P Johnson, founded in 1914, this is now a collection of owner-managed experiential agencies, with six main agencies in the group — lively, interesting and great atmosphere.
While the agencies are all over the world, including Kenya, they’re not yet in SA. Agencies include:
- Argonaut
- Partners+ Napier
- George P Johnson
- Spinifix
- Pitch
- Motive
All of them work with each other on the various clients and each also has its own client lists. This is a successful ESOP ie the employees own the businesses — a fascinating business model and some brilliant work — more to share on my return.
And that was a packed day of learning. More later!
Best
Johanna
@jomcdowell
#adforumsummit
Johanna McDowell is managing director of the Independent Agency Search and Selection Company (IAS), which stands at the forefront of the complex world of agency selection in South Africa, and she is one of the few experts driving this mediation and advisory service in SA and globally. Twice a year she attends AdForum Worldwide Summits as an international consultant, which helps her lead the SA advertising industry forward to keep in line with international trends and remain competitive. Follow her on Twitter at @jomcdowell.
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