Globally, we see a relentless drive for more data, more measurement and greater accountability. And rightly so, as the pressure mounts on CMOs to demonstrate RoI

What makes negotiating Agency fees so difficult? Well it might sound obvious, but the principle issue here is that when you’re buying Agency services you’re not buying a predictable commodity – you’re buying people’s skills – thinking skills, business skills, and creative skills – and that presents a whole set of complexities to negotiation.

In January this year, Unilever CEO Paul Polman announced the company would roll out zero-based budgeting globally – a move it had tested in Thailand last year, which cut down the spending by two percentage points as a share of sales.

Digital has led to agencies proliferation. This is viewed by CMO’s as a critical issue, as marketing organisations do not have a clear vision on their partners. Cost of duplication is also huge. Brands’ also need to invent new ways of dealing both with large communication agencies bringing global strategic strength to the party, as well as bloggers, vloggers, artists operating as free lancers, selected by the marketing teams to bring a high level of creative disruption. In this context, brands’ have a tough life defining a sourcing policy as “Everyone is doing everyone else’s job”. Consulting companies (Deloitte, Accenture…) are competing against agencies who are competing with production companies and software companies…

Le digital a fortement contribué à la prolifération des agences chez les annonceurs. Ce phénomène est vu par les directions marketing comme un enjeu critique, n’ayant plus elles-mêmes une vision claire de leur portefeuille d’agences. La duplication des coûts est évidente et importante. Les marques ont également besoin d’imaginer de nouvelles façons d’acheter des prestations intellectuelles, convenant aussi bien pour de grandes agences de communication que pour des bloggers, vloggers, ou artistes choisis par les directions marketing pour obtenir une créativité disruptive.

Around 70% of the agency search and selection tasks we handle from our London office are to appoint pan-regional or global agencies, to deliver communications which will travel across borders. Finding agencies in London capable of delivering on this most basic principle isn’t difficult. At least in theory…

How would you feel about a country where the top two ad agencies own half of the industry? Pretty odd, isn’t it? Well, that’s exactly how it is in Japan, the third largest advertising market in the world (including all disciplines like creative, media, PR, digital, etc.).

Marketing und Kommunikation werden immer vielschichtiger, schneller und dynamischer. Dabei ist die Digitalisierung, die auch vor öffentlichen Institutionen keinen Halt macht, Fluch und Segen zugleich: Sie beschleunigt Veränderungen und erhöht damit Herausforderungen auf der einen Seite. Andererseits kann sie selber die Antwort auf bedeutende Fragestellungen sein

John Sealey von Roth Observatory über die gut zu verstehenden Norddeutschen, seinen buddhistischen Glauben, die kulinarische Ader der Engländer, die Vorteile gegenüber den Dickschiffen, die Langsamkeit der German Angst und die Probleme vieler Marketing Manager mit langfristiger Planung

John Sealey wurde von der Marketing Society gefragt, was es heutzutage mit dem Projektgeschäft auf sich hat. Hier geht es zum vollständigen Kommentar