by Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) NEW YORK CITY: And so, at last, Day 5 of our AdForum Worldwide Summit trip on Friday, 9 October 2015.
TBWA
First up was TBWA\ Worldwide, and what a revelation! The Disruption Company has had something of a rebirth and has trademarked its disruption model as a result. It is interesting that we heard several agencies talking disruption but only TBWA ‘owns’ the word. The philosophy of disruption is now throughout the group and the more it practices it with clients, the more those clients want it to do so and so the disruption continues.
Proactively, it looks at its clients daily and measure opportunities using one of its proprietary tools. Disruption deals with much more than marketing and communication; it may foster innovation. This process has attracted new clients, along with a new way of working. Some of these new clients — from Silicon Valley, such as AirBnB — are looking for more and more disruption, and are keen to pay the agency on a results basis.
TBWA has evolved considerably in the last 18 months, especially under the leadership of current global CEO, Troy Ruhanen. It also has introduced Project20/20 which is designed to ensure that women leadership at executive level increases to at least 20% within the next few years.
Starting (last) DAY 5 @TBWA #adforumsummit in this brilliant newsroom ! pic.twitter.com/dEs7PH44L6
— Pitchville (@Pitchville) October 9, 2015
IPG Group
And, finally, we met with IPG Group CEO, Michael Roth, who talked to all of us about the various agencies in his group and gave us an overview of IPG’s intentions. The group is in a good position financially after several years of hard work, and the various agencies have strengthened as a result. McCann, Mullen Lowe, FCB, Weber Shandwick, Media Brands (Universal and Media Initiative), R/GA, HUGE and Deutsch (and the other smaller agencies in the marketing services division) have all developed into strong standalone agencies which compete independently. Having said that, Roth believes in open architecture, and considers that clients should have the flexibility of working with whichever agencies in the group are most suitable for that client — if this means working across agencies, there is no reason not to do so. He is also of the opinion that agencies should be client-focused, while the holding company concerns itself with the P/L or balance sheet. IPG also commented on the number of media reviews that are happening in the industry; it does not believe that this has been caused by lack of transparency and the rebate issue, but rather it is just global clients deciding to review their options. From a diversity point of view, IPG is the most diversified of all of the holding company groups, what with 40% of its executive being female and an ongoing commitment to building this diversification. And so we ended the week on a very positive note.
2nd meeting of day @InterpublicIPG – Michael Roth presenting. @agencyselection #adforumsummit pic.twitter.com/EzaEJgdV2h — Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) October 9, 2015
Overall trends
We observed:
- Convergence of creative and tech has happened, and now it is all about what to do with it to ensure that brands have the audiences they want
- Agencies are investing heavily into their systems and people, once again; and
- Lots of innovation is happening as a result.
Until next year!
Best
Johanna
@jomcdowell @agencyselection
#adforumsummit
Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) 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.
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