Category: Insights

Advertising is, they say, a people business: Saatchi & Saatchi; J Walter Thompson; Ogilvy & Mather; Abbot Mead Vickers; Doyle, Dane Bernbach. Historically it was all about the name(s) on the door. Many ad agencies were built in the image of one man – back then sadly they were always men – or a couple of men. The founder or dominant partner’s DNA, his principles and idiosyncrasies, informed how the agency behaved, the kind of people it hired, the clients it went after. Of all the great old agencies, Ogilvy (formerly Ogilvy & Mather) is perhaps most closely associated with one man, its founder, David Ogilvy (1911-1999). Those who knew him tell me that he was a brilliant, if sometimes infuriating, man – tall, imposing, charismatic; a dazzling storyteller; a born showman not above burnishing stories if necessary; a superb copywriter; a snob; a great boss; a dispenser of bon mots… The great man founded the agency that bears his name back in 1948. His client books and early campaigns – for Dove, Schweppes, Rolls-Royce, Hathaway shirts – were a reflection of the kind of man he was. Singular, distinctive, a little eccentric maybe, but almost fanatically informed by careful research, and always gentlemanly. O&M went public in the 1960s – it was the first big agency to do so – and Ogilvy’s influence waned after he retreated to his French chateau and as he aged and as the shareholders took over. He wasn’t above making his feelings known or dropping in on the shop he founded, of course. He famously called Martin Sorrell “an odious little shit” in 1989 when the latter’s WPP group took over the old lady of Bettenham House in a daring $864m acquisition. Although Ogilvy later apologised and the two men were reconciled, the WPP takeover ended Ogilvy’s influence at the agency. While his spirit was always there, kept alive by veterans who’d known him and worked for him, O&M effectively became ‘just another agency’, albeit one of the marcomms world’s most prestigious brands. Since the 1990s, the agency has been through a number of global chief executives, all of them different, but all of them longstanding O&M employees. Whether these bosses had a greater influence over the look, shape and behaviour of the agency than Sir Martin Sorrell is perhaps an argument for another day, but all of them had some sort of link with David Ogilvy and O&M’s past. But this week Ogilvy (or, we should say, WPP) did something rather different. It appointed Andy Main, global head of Deloitte Digital and a principal at Deloitte Consulting, as its next chief executive. Main replaces John Seifert, who has worked at O&M since 1979 – a decade before the WPP takeover – and who has been chief executive for the past four years. Seifert stepping down isn’t a surprise (he’d announced his retirement back in April) but the timing is (Seifert originally said he would be stepping down next year), and so is the new boss, who will join next month to begin what management types call “a leadership transition”. So, who is Andy Main? This is what we know so far. A Scot who attended the University of Edinburgh, he’s spent 21 years at consultancy giant Deloitte, with the last six spent running its agency operation Deloitte Digital from Denver, Colorado. He is based in the US, and it’s not clear whether he will run the network from New York or London. You may have heard his name before – under his leadership, Deloitte Digital made the first significant move by consultancies into creative services, snapping up the likes of Acne and Heat. Talking earlier in the week to Ogilvy and WPP veterans and industry observers, two viewpoints are emerging. For the suits, and from a WPP perspective, this is seen as a good move. Main is highly rated, and WPP’s ability to hire an outsider of his stature is seen as both a coup and a tonic for the holding company, which has watched its fortunes slump since 2017. Mark Read, chief executive of WPP since 2017 (he replaced Sorrell), who led the search, told the trade press: “I was looking for someone who could have respect for Ogilvy’s creative business but also someone who could develop a future vision to help transform Ogilvy’s clients’ businesses.” It turns out that Main also knows WPP and was invited to speak in his Deloitte Digital capacity at a private WPP strategy day in September 2017. The new boss spoke to 50 or 60 senior Ogilvy executives by video earlier this week, ahead of the public announcement, and an insider said they were “excited” about the new CEO. But another (not entirely impartial) Ogilvy watcher told me that the agency’s creative community might not be so welcoming. “Creatives and management consultants do not always regard each other with much respect… there may be antagonism and cynicism, both inside and outside the agency”, he told me. “People will ask: ‘What are his creative credentials?’ But time will tell. You’ve got to applaud WPP for trying something different.” So what will Main do? Given his background, his agenda is likely to be “modernising” Ogilvy, with a big emphasis on technology. What about creativity, an ill-defined term that, despite the importance of tech and consulting, is still essential to any marketing shop’s success? I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that when you look at what he has said previously and the acquisitions he made at Deloitte – principally Heat – he does seem to acknowledge the role of creativity. “Andy Main is one of our industry’s most admired leaders”, Read said in a statement. “He has demonstrated the effectiveness of blending creative, technology and consulting services. His belief in the power of creativity to transform businesses and the importance of people and culture in organisations aligns closely with our vision for WPP and our agencies.” And Seifert added: “Andy’s personal and professional experience could not be more relevant for the ongoing transformation of Ogilvy and WPP at a moment of extraordinary change and opportunity in our industry.” Like all industry leaders in the current climate, Main will have to address two major current issues: the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. But in the longer term, Main will also have to restore the agency’s reputation for creative excellence. Although Ogilvy still has one of the most enviable client books in the business – BP, IBM, Unilever, Vodafone and Walgreens Boots – and much of its work has been good and very occasionally great, it is no longer the force it was in the 1950s-80s and even into the 1990s. This means he’ll have to work hard to overcome the cynics and those wary of his background, both inside the agency and out. Winning over clients should be unproblematic given his background and track record – but if he is to really succeed he’ll need to attract and retain the very best creative talent, nurture it, protect it and give it freedom. Not an easy task when you have a big holding company and its shareholders to please. After years of tinkering, Ogilvy/WPP has acted decisively, broken the mould and chosen an outsider – the agency needed to do things differently if it is to survive and prosper in an era of disruption and crisis. But at the same time, Main must remember his new agency’s great founder, understand his creative and managerial legacy, and adapt it for this century while still retaining its distinctive DNA. No easy task. It’s way too early to pass judgement, of course, but I wish him luck – and, I suspect, will many others. An Ogilvy restored to true greatness will be good for the industry, as well as for WPP shareholders. Read more

Pre-lockdown there was already a strong case for companies to lead their strategy with digital and tech-driven activity, and the Covid-19 pandemic has only served to accelerate this. Green Square’s Barry Dudley weighs in on how companies can plan for the long-term in light of this, by finding an ‘ology’ of their own. For those of my generation, you will remember the much-loved ads for BT back in the 1980s and 90s. I’m talking about the campaign that featured Maureen Lipman as Beattie, an archetypal grandmother using BT landlines (remember those?) to keep in touch with family and friends. Perhaps the most memorable of these was when Beattie phoned her grandson, enquiring after his exam results. The crestfallen lad explained that he’d failed: Grandma Beattie: “You didn’t pass anything?” Grandson Anthony: “Pottery” Grandma: Pottery! “Very useful. Anthony, people will always need plates. Anything else?” Anthony: “And sociology” Grandma: “An ology! He gets an ology and he says he’s failed. You get an ology, you’re a scientist!” Roll forward to present day and Trinity McQueen, an award-winning insight consultancy, recently bought itself an ‘ology’ to build on its behavioural science core, acquiring Blinc Partnership in February. Commenting on the deal, co-founder of Trinity McQueen, Anna Cliffe, said: “Blinc has unrivalled experience in TV and media and their innovative tech means clients can get quick feedback on how to develop successful TV shows, films and now advertising content.” For me this is smart on many levels – Trinity McQueen has acquired a complementary business which accelerates growth; gained access to a vertical (TV and film) it was previously not in; now has an ‘ology’ in prediction markets, but probably most prescient of all – it is now looking at what other verticals its ‘ology’ can be taken to. And of course, for better or worse (depending on your viewpoint), behavioural science has taken on new importance during the current pandemic, so perhaps Trinity’s swoop for Blinc was even smarter than it seemed at the time. In our last blog, we finished by saying data, tech, and digital were going to be key areas for agencies to have to reinvent themselves towards in a post-pandemic world. In our view, Beattie’s ‘ologies’ are going to be really important. So, has your agency worked out what its ology is? Because you’ll need one to reinvent, and you’ll need to reinvent at least part of your business in order to prosper in the as-yet unknown world of the “new normal”. One thing we do know about this dawning new world is that face-to-face meetings and business travel will be both more difficult and expensive than they have been hereto, but also much less common or necessary. Who’d have thought, for example, that a previously obscure video conferencing tool called Zoom would rise to such prominence? Or that Microsoft’s Teams software, aimed at the enterprise sector, would suddenly be also marketed as a tool for bringing families and friends – as well as business teams – together? Zoom and Teams are likely to play a more important role in the future than Lufthansa or BA. Teleconferencing has its issues of course, but the technology is now accelerating at an unprecedented rate, spurred on by Covid-19. In The Times newspaper recently, Microsoft boss Satya Nardella put it rather succinctly: the need for social distancing would lead to a “remote everything”. It had also, he added pointedly, brought the adoption of various technologies forward by “at least two years”. In the same piece his Google counterpart, Sundar Pichai, pointed to a massive upturn in digital activity and forced migration to online work, as well as shopping, entertainment, medicine, and more (Google also has its own video conference tool, Meet, of course). Adapting to these new ways of working is one thing, but what are you doing to get your own ‘ology’ to ensure you have a sustainable differentiated offer and will emerge as one of the future winners? A move to more digital and tech-driven activity seems clear – software, methodologies, and tools will play an even bigger role in meeting clients’ needs. These will either have to be built from the ground up – requiring businesses to buy in new skills – or else they’ll have to use their creative abilities to come up with ways to leverage or build on existing tools and platforms. Another challenge – or opportunity – is the industry’s lack of on-demand data insights, both agency and client-side. Back in April the Chief Marketing Officer Council, which represents CMOs, surveyed its 16,000 members (in around 10,000 companies) in an effort to understand the global pandemic’s impact on global strategies, operations, budgets, and outlook. The vast majority (84%), the survey said, expect the pandemic will multiply business disruption globally, while even more (90%) expect to make changes to their marketing plans. However, two-thirds (66%) said they do not have enough real-time visibility and insight into the pandemic’s impact across both the demand and supply chains, while a similar number (69%) are not satisfied with “the quality, timeliness, and usefulness of decision support data”. The CMO Council said marketers are being forced to make decisions the “old-fashioned” way, tapping into their experience of, instincts about and knowledge of customers and the market, rather than following the data. Although, it’s worth pointing out that most marketers seem to feel they are addressing customer consternation and concern either “extremely well” [36%] or “moderately well” [56%]. This points to a need or opportunity to develop data tools to help clients. CMO Council executive director Donovan Neale-May said at the time: “Companies with real-time visibility into supply and demand chains are better prepared to make informed decisions, as well as adjust, redirect or moderate marketing activity. Unfortunately, not enough do, and so many are struggling to re-calibrate operations and spend.” Many decades later Grandma Beattie’s words are as prescient as ever and are behind a lot of what we have always worked with our clients on – it’s time to get your ‘ology’… Read more

Who’d be in retail right now? While online vendors such as Amazon prosper (at the time of writing, the company is making $10,000 worth of sales a second), times for ‘brick and mortar’ shops have been – to put it mildly – torrid these past few years. Now, with the world enveloped in a Covid-19 pandemic, the going has got even tougher. Some retailers, many of them familiar high street names, have gone under – Laura Ashley being a recent one, with Debenhams, Oasis and Warehouse all teetering on the edge. In business, the motto is ‘adapt or die’, although given the extreme uncertainty of our current situation, adaptation feels like it is going to be difficult. So, we thought now would be an interesting time to look at how businesses – all businesses that depend on footfall, human presence and face-to-face meeting, not just retail – might cope and we have a few suggestions for how you may look to reinvent yourselves. The first thing to remember is that sticking one’s head in the sand is not an option. Things are unlikely to get back to normal anytime soon – indeed, they may already have changed forever. Some retail businesses, aware that the landscape had changed, were starting to adapt even before the coronavirus outbreak. Carphone Warehouse, looking at its data, had realised that its small standalone high street outlets were no longer profitable, so the company decided to close these down and incorporate mobile phones into its larger PC World/Currys stores, figuring that the latter’s tech offering would work symbiotically with the CW offering. Then there’s fast-fashion giant H&M, which, despite having opened new stores in emerging territories, has found its established markets in the US and Europe (where it plans to close 175 shops) under pressure. Management’s answer has been to change strategy, to use its 5,000 or so stores to act as logistical hubs to boost online sales: one can imagine your local H&M becoming not just a place to buy dresses and trousers, but also somewhere to pick up your online orders, maybe have a cup of coffee, meet friends, see a fashion show or the latest collections… the possibilities are almost endless, but to remain viable, a retailer must do more than just sell stuff, it has to add value, to offer shoppers an experience that’s worth their time and them travelling. In the affluent Battersea area of south London, Marks & Spencer has converted a medium-sized (and previously rather dowdy) clothing and food store into an ‘M&S Market‘, a kind of upscale miniature version of Borough Market, offering M&S favourites as well as ‘artisanal‘ goods, an in-store salad and herb farm fixture, local craft beers, food-to-go and so on. If you’ve visited, you were probably impressed – it reminded me of one of those upmarket New York grocery stores, the merchandise looks fresh and inviting, the layout is adventurous, it offers pretty much everything you could need, and there’s a real sense of theatre about the place. It’s somewhere you’d make a detour to, and spend time exploring. As someone who has a soft spot for M&S and who has despaired at the company’s tired retail estate and frustrating online experience, a visit to this store made me smile. I understand that early sales figures from SW11 are promising, so let’s hope it works. And of course, it’s not just the big chains who are looking at doing things differently. Many of the family-owned department stores that were once a feature of every town have gone under, but those that have survived have done so by offering that extra degree of customer service, and by providing – usually via their coffee shops and restaurants – a social hub, somewhere to meet friends, relax and have a natter. For older people particularly, oases such as these provide vital social contact with others. The online shopping experience may be convenient, cheap and efficient, but ultimately, it’s a cold, perfunctory process – which is why so many music fans still buy from record shops (although these have admittedly shrunk in number). Of course, all of these innovations are largely moot right now. As we are in the middle of a pandemic, social contact is being discouraged if not yet outlawed, and most business models seem to be broken. The emergency is as much financial as it is medical. But as unpredictable as events are right now, as bleak as the business outlook seems, there are still opportunities for those who are willing to do things differently. Where they were able to, many coffee shops and restaurants converted themselves into takeaway-only operations. I heard about a restaurant that, faced with enforced closure, had converted itself into a kind of retail outlet, buying supplies from its wholesaler as usual and offering customers ingredients and ready meals to take away and cook at home. Even our mighty supermarkets may be forced to change. The recent spate of panic buying has forced them into selective rationing and, visiting a supermarket, it’s striking how the staples are often in short supply, while exotic ingredients and gourmet sauces are still plentiful. One of the reasons for German discounters Aldi and Lidl’s success over the past few years has been their compact range (they are officially known as LADs, or “limited assortment discounters”) – typically an Aldi or Lidl will carry 4,000 lines compared to the 100,000 of a superstore. Research from Kantar and others has demonstrated that this limited range makes shopping easier and quicker, and actually strengthens the consumer’s perception of value. One can envision the supermarkets stripping out the dozens of fancy mustards or bottles of mirin to allow more space for the in-demand staples. And Amazon isn’t immune either – the online behemoth has said that it will not be stocking any more supplies of vinyl records, freeing up space in its warehouses and supply chain for more essential items such as groceries and toiletries. The out-of-home entertainment industry has been impacted perhaps more than any other sector, with theatres, venues and galleries closed and tours, festivals and concerts cancelled. How do musicians and actors make a living now? The problem of musicians seems particularly acute, as playing live is now practically their only means of scraping a living, the returns for recorded music being so meagre. Yet even here, there are some green shoots. A number of enterprising jazz, rock and folk artists and grassroots venues have started live streaming gigs straight to fans – the most high profile example being last weekend’s Lady Gaga-organised One World: Together at Home series of gigs, which featured the likes of The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Paul McCartney and Billie Eilish, which raised more than $127m for Covid-19 relief. With more and more people confined to their homes, there will be a hunger for entertainment of all kinds, and this could represent an opportunity for those wanting to take it up. There have also been (as yet unverified) rumours that streaming sites such as Neflix, Disney+, Spotify, Amazon, and Apple TV/Music have seen huge growth; and The New York Times speculated that the album (as opposed to individual tracks or the playlist) might make a comeback, with listeners looking for a richer experience. With stores switching to “logistical hubs” or fashion show destinations, artisanal food halls from M&S, barbers selling T-shirts, restaurants becoming retailers, what is the response going to be from marketing services, media, production and similar businesses? What good can be learned from what is happening right now? How do these businesses think differently too, use their creative energies to help their clients (in every conceivable sector) get through this most testing of times. This is where the dynamic, nimble, and innovative can steal a march on the big consultancies that have eaten into their domain so much in the past few years. Creatives, technologists, and planners will need to concentrate not just on award-winning campaigns, but business solutions. Times as extraordinary as these will require different thinking and new ways of working; and without putting too much of a gloss on what is a grave crisis, this could be the biggest opportunity for agencies since the 1950s. Peoples hands are being forced to find new and innovative ways to solve client problems, and there’s no people better to do that than those within the creative community. Some of the ways that businesses may look to adapt or reinvent their service offerings and models may include: Recognising that the disintermediation process will continue as clients develop more digital marketing and creative capabilities internally. You could look to step towards this, rather than bemoaning it, and assist in the process by offering clients access to talent that can work within these departments on a temporary or permanent basis. Clients may want you to develop the strategic approach and the ‘big idea’ that then gets handed over to their internal department to take on and fulfill across their communications and content channels. Or the reverse, where the clients wants their internal thinking to be activated by highly effective and efficient execution agencies. Becoming digital and technology partners to your clients. It is clear that technology has now become a critical factor in developing competitive edge for brands – the current environment has now elevated this further. Many clients are unclear about which technology platforms are right for them and how to integrate and leverage these into their marketing ecosystem. This is an opportunity for you to develop deep strategic partnerships with clients on the basis that you can help clients understand how technology can give them the edge to win in tomorrow’s markets. Another area that you can deepen your relationship with clients is in relation to data. Clients now have access to massive reservoirs of data that can be utilised to shape messaging, new product development, innovation and marketing investment optimisation. In many cases this data is underutilised as clients have simply not figured out how to even begin to draw out the necessary insights and conclusions from it. You can utilise your strength in creative thinking to synthesise the data into new approaches to strategy and marketing communications in these rapidly shifting times. Yes, it does seem rather gloomy out there right now, but it is also an opportunity to reinvent yourselves in order to become indispensable to your clients for the next 20 to 30 years. And in keeping with this we are in the process of extending our own offering – watch this space. Read more