W&T comes up big in awards season

By Robert Wheatley

There’s winning and then there’s winning. Our firm struck gold twice for Nature’s Variety pet foods. And silver once for Thermos brand. It’s award season, the time when industry peers assess and evaluate the finest work out there to determine the campaigns worthy of a best-in-class trophy.

For W&T the win isn’t in the trophy. It is in the validation of our strategies, insights and work by those who arguably can tell the difference between medium and outstanding. Interestingly the Gold level recognition is for the same program on behalf of Nature’s Variety pet foods.

Bravo to all of our brilliant team members who made this happen and at the source of all the effort and great ideas that led to this outcome…

Publicity Club of Chicago has awarded a Gold Trumpet in the Marketing category to W&T for Nature’s Variety, and a Silver Trumpet in the same category for Thermos brand’s Hydration For All campaign. At the hotly contested national Sabre Award competition, Nature’s Variety is one of five finalists for the top prize in marketing, the Gold Sabre. Getting to this level is no easy task as the largest global brands on the planet participate. Our work bested a broad field of iconic household names with very deep pockets.

The Rotation Diet campaign for Nature’s Variety was an outcome of a close collaboration between agency and client. Our goal was to identify the right path to building distinction and differentiation into an emerging pet food brand that is fighting for growth and share. In the end the victory is found in the client’s business results. So here’s to 20 percent year on year growth at the bottom line! This outcome is really our finest hour. And importantly an hour now acknowledged by our peers and colleagues.

Likewise the strategic campaign for Thermos similarly helped fuel sales and distribution growth in a difficult economy. The core idea: leverage Thermos as part of the rising tide of consumer interest in moving off of drinking water in plastic bottles and on to more environmentally appropriate solutions. The project put Thermos in the center of public and media discourse on the evolution of hydration and water consumption.

As a former national award judge, I understand the criteria separating winners from the rest. It is not just a judgment on the freshness of an idea or its superlative execution. Rather, it is the result that weighs heaviest. The goal of marketing communication investments for any brand is acquiring and keeping more customers. The extent to which W&T’s work contributes to client business growth is the real measure of excellence. That our peers agree is just icing on the cake.

By Robert Wheatley

The cosmic at work on planet earth

This post may feel a bit like convening with the spirits or consulting the stars, but there is merit and consequence, we believe between proper, moral, ethical behavior and “good things will happen to you” and your business.

Otherworldly phenomenon…

An agency management consultant we know and respect, David Baker, made an interesting comment to us about the at times murky world of new business development activity. He said: you can’t know from one day to the next when a prospective client is actually ready and motivated to buy your services. His comment came in a conversation about what he believes is a lot of misguided attempts to “sell” agency services. He correctly asserts that agency services are bought and not sold.

However, he also said that there’s an almost cosmic, otherworldly connection between the act of purposeful outreach and opportunities for growth. His point: even though some activities may appear to be shots in the proverbial dark, there is a corollary relationship over time between conscious effort (sweat) and opportunity (result). You cannot necessarily quantify or calculate exactly how action “A” leads to “B” but it routinely does, so you proceed down this trail with a measure of faith that your labor will be rewarded. And sometimes from places you least expect.

Faith?

Similarly are there forces at work in business we cannot fully understand and measure that make the case for ethical behavior and the moral high ground? I believe the answer is absolutely YES. There are plenty of opportunities in business to take a darker path, as Seth Godin discusses in a recent post.

There is an interesting dynamic at play around us that underscores the wisdom and value of ethical actions. It may seem that bad guys like Bernie Madoff routinely make out like bandits — and others with less obvious criminal intents may also work hard to reap benefits from business practices that fly on the edge of moral judgment (some argue this condition is at the foundation of a few Wall Street meltdowns).

The world is a curious place and the rationale for moral conduct has a lot going for it beyond the religious undertones it’s almost always associated with or how you were brought up. Truthfulness, doing the right thing if you will, is somehow at work like a natural order just below the surface at all times. The old saying, “what goes around comes around” has been proven more often and in more ways that I can count.

If you act and operate morally, responsibly in your personal life and business dealings, there is a functionality to it that works alongside the conscience we’re raised with. Congruently bad behavior over time often leads to bad outcomes. This curious balance and force tempers the rush to greed that can motivate bad decisions and judgments.

Do nice guys finish first?

So does faith operate in the business world? Absolutely. Doesn’t mean we recommend tossing your efforts aside in favor of waiting for miracles. Rather the actions and efforts you undertake, if done in a spirit of right, fair, helpful, generous truthful, lawful and correct — lead to outcomes that generate benefits for individuals and business.

You agree?

Team can’t be a team when it’s all about what we take from each other

This blog is primarily devoted to brand strategy and communications subject matter, but today we take a break to talk about something impacting our firm now – an imperative in how we operate that we believe will pay long-term dividends in staff development and how well we interact with clients. That said, it bears an uncanny similarity to how some brands treat Read More»

What’s The Real Key To Finding Your Muse?

(A three part series on the process and how to separate the purest wheat from the finest chaff)

The Ultimate Selection Tool…

An assumption is built into the agency/client mating dance that both will be partnering with the other on a specific and not-so-small mission: build business. But as stated earlier the process when focused on a project assignment may yield a wide range of outcomes that can be useful, actionable or just plain wrong. Too much like a poker game or darts and not enough like a true collaboration where the best and most effective ideas always spring.

So are we just to accept that this is an inherent weakness in the deliberation and press on? Well, no.

Too many places along the standard RFP path to go off the track or never be really on the rails that in our mind suggests we should instead narrow the bandwidth of the entire evaluation criteria. Perhaps to focus on something that is at once powerful and also revealing about an agency’s brainpower and way of doing things.

It’s light bulb time….

All communication, no matter what the specific objective, is about changing behavior. We know that effective communication will always be built on a foundation of relevance to the recipient. The sequence is as follows: relevance leads to effective communication, which leads to preference, which leads to sales. So where does relevance come from?

Effective strategies and creative solutions must come from a fountain of – insight. If this is any affirmation on the importance of the subject: according to the Intelligent New Business Survey. When asked about the most effective way for agencies to engage with the prospective client the top box score of 92% went to you guessed it – insight.

Audience-centric evaluation

Our recommendation for selecting an agency is target audience insight. Could be category insight, too. But perhaps audience insight might lead to the most satisfying dialogue. Peeling the onion another layer, the yardstick of agency selection analysis would derive from identifying key areas of lifestyle relevance and how the brand can connect successfully. This steers the process away from complete campaign execution and towards the foundation on which you can mutually build a successful and effective program – based on audience insight.

This is no cheap date or letting the agency off lightly. It requires some research. Some study time, some thoughtful evaluation, creative interpretation and strategic thinking to connect the dots. The agency evaluation on this platform, by virtue of its focus, is more apple-to-apple for the selection participants.

And it doesn’t feel like (to an agency) you’re giving away all of your intellectual property. The “poker-like” nature of the review process would be less palpable and the journey more engaging. Mix two parts chemistry with two parts insight and the process will go from murky to clear.

What do you think? Let us know…

What’s The Real Key To Finding Your Muse?

(A three part series on the process and how to separate the purest wheat from the finest chaff)

What Really Matters…

What is chemistry? I like you? You seem smart? I respect you? I like your tie? This organic equation does not require a formula in our opinion. It will be there or it will not for a thousand reasons that aren’t too far removed from the same attraction juice that causes people to be drawn to or repelled by others we come into contact with. Humans make decisions about people very quickly says Malcolm Gladwell in his book BLINK, a fascinating tour of powerful sub-conscious cues. It just IS as they say.

How the fit fits between client and agency is the stuff of spark, flame, comfort or decided lack thereof. You cannot compel it (chemistry) but nevertheless recognize how vital and essential the matter of rapport will be. After all you’ll be slaying dragons together presumably.

Getting to know you…

What real-time investment is made to get to know each other? Conversations not presentations loom large. Dinner anyone? Does this feel somehow frivolous? Our recommendation is this: way more weight needs to be focused on the human side of the journey than perfunctory RFP processes often allow for. A consultant, by the way, cannot do this for you. The right pheromone formula is a highly individual thing and human contact is the only route to assessment. On-site agency tours can also be revealing in terms of environment, practices and people — and could be an integral part of the overall chemistry check analysis.

Business is done between people who trust each other. Period. Everyone in a decision role (not too many please) should be involved in meet, greet, talk and get to know one another sessions. Outside of the conference room would be good. This can steer you towards a successful partnership and away from something destined to shipwreck later. You’d be surprised how much you’ll learn through informal, hair-down discourse.

It’s really about the people. That’s what you’re getting and trust is the key ingredient.

“>What’s The Real Key To Finding Your Muse?

(A three part series on the process and how to separate the purest wheat from the finest chaff)

Setting the Table…

This is a subject near and dear to our hearts about an often lengthy, sometimes bumpy process that goes on literally everyday. Clients looking for fresh thinking or support in the launch of a new product or brand, or attempts to fix a business in decline will send out RFPs and so the winnowing race begins. Sometimes it can feel like a crapshoot for everyone.

Client decision makers walk into a process (in the midst of pressing everyday business priorities) that from the get-go with can be vexing and mysterious. Agencies, too, have a love/hate relationship with the whole thing: love the hunt and the strategic challenge but hate the vagueness implied in a search process and the inevitable giveaway of their intellectual property product.

Not surprising is the general nod with some regularity to a fairly routine line-up of selection criteria such as relevant previous category experience, chemistry, listening skills, strategic chops, planning process, creativity, people power/bench strength and so on. Still there’s a sense of risk involved or so it seems and therefore often an assignment (tell us how you would launch Brand X) is arrayed on the table to put agencies into action so their process and outcomes can be vetted. And from a distance mind you!!

Flaw in the ointment…

All is well and good except every business is deeply unique, and the entire procedure is at once three miles wide and a half-inch deep. It is unavoidably the nature of the beast. This can result in ideas that, while innovative on the surface, are wrong for the brand. This is not due necessarily to lack of due diligence from the agency but more about proximity. No one knows the other all that well. Even with briefs and data dump meetings, many assumptions will be made on both sides that could be right, could be wrong.

Is there a better way?

Yes!!

“>Raising the bar on fundamental skills and services in our tenuous relations with the press

On any given day, people bearing the moniker of PR consultant reach out to reporters and editors with story ideas. This process will yield results based on the quality of what is presented, how it is packaged and its relevance to the media channel approached. Unfortunately, on occasion, minor league “professionals” in the field demonstrate that cliched views held by some reporters about PR people are indeed true – as often feted in the laughable fictional portrayals of movies and TV shows.

At a basic level, clients expect their investments in public relations services to result in effective translation of their brand or corporate messages in editorial media channels. Our role in the media relations and publicity process – what we often refer to as media placement activity – is to re-cast brand messages within a defensible, salient and newsworthy story idea. Media is not in the business of doing commercials for business – a story can bear a commercial quality that achieves the client objective – but, most likely, it will be positioned inside a broader problem/solution presentation or other vehicle that meets the news value and reporting requirement that drives the editorial media business.

At its optimal level, media relations should revolve around constructing a trustworthy, symbiotic relationship between PR and the press. We, in the PR arena, should be reliable sources of well-packaged and properly researched content. A strong outsource of material that helps feed the “media monster” with its un-ending need for top quality story material. All interests are served when the product in question is built on story telling that is interesting, relevant, truthful, entertaining and assembled in a manner that is also respectful of editorial sensibilities – such as the use of outside third party quote-able sources.

Professional development is a big thing at Wheatley & Timmons. We believe our reputation with the media – as a reliable source of news content – is just as important as our reputation with clients. In an effort to continually improve our work in editorial placement, we recently invited a panel of reporters/producers to participate in a media relations roundtable at our offices for the purpose of discussing the ins and outs of what they need, and how best to build an effective working relationship. We heard familiar stories of ham-handed efforts by the untrained or oblivious novices who harangue reporters with stories that are devoid of news, lack of responsiveness to reporter queries on deadline and other assorted miss-steps. As a professional this can be agonizing to hear.

We should work together to exorcise our profession of fluffy, self-serving publicity efforts that immediately fail the time-honored “so what and who cares” test. Or the absence of doing basic homework on media properties, their specific audiences and editorial slant – without this knowledge stories that are not relevant to a news organization’s preferences are pushed their way without regard to its usefulness.
Or worse, marginalizing this important work by moving the activity far down the internal food chain to relatively inexperienced people – even interns – who are made to “dial for media dollars” in an attempt to remind reporters over and over again about a story they simply can’t and won’t use.

Standards of practice should be maintained that demand professionalism and integrity at all times in the work put out there for editorial consumption. This is ultimately respectful of the role reporters play in reporting, as well as our role as communications experts, In the end, clients are better served when their media relations team truly understands what those two words mean and how to walk the fascinating line between the needs of commerce and the requirements of news organizations. These two worlds can be bridged successfully, but only when the developers of news material and ideas make the effort to build the story the same way a reporter, editor or producer would handle it themselves.

O f late there’s been considerable chatter about a recent Ad Age article on “new” thinking around how agencies should be paid for their ideas or media content they create – as opposed to pay for hours of labor. Other pundits in the PR space have also weighed in on the subject with assorted thoughts on linking payment to editorial media placement results. The notion conveyed is that motivation to succeed is supplied to the agency by taking a gamble on partial or full payment of fees against delivered results. Sounds good on face value to some I’m sure – but this along with other current hourly rate schemes works to heap more commoditization on an increasingly commoditized business. We hasten to add editorial media is just one tactical component, but surely not all of the value we provide to clients.

Certainly, pay-per-hit would be an interesting alternative given that the power of editorial media is found in the very fundamental and uniquely American notion that the “not for sale” sign looms large around the perimeter of an editor’s office – this makes the whole placement process organic and not transactional – a.k.a. harder to get.

If agency fees were tied to editorial media hits, what are we saying to clients about what we provide? Should we hire Casino pit bosses as account directors to help settle on relative risks going in about “placement worthiness” of a story idea and then set the odds bar for payouts based on top box placements like the Today Show versus community newspapers? Are we media gunslingers whose compensation should be set against “PR-by-the-pound” objectives? I hope not. What business are we in anyway?

What in the end constitutes fair value for the services served?

The standard model in the PR business that’s been around for decades is hourly billing. Rates generally configured around a productivity model of 1,500 to 1,600 billable hours per year, divided by salary and then multiplied by a factor to cover overhead and profit. However, unlike the predominant equation in the legal world where most client relationships are based around specific projects/issues/needs that come and go, our business is fundamentally geared to creating long-term partnerships with clients that immerse the agency in their business issues on a day-in, day-out basis.

In our view the hourly model is a dinosaur that, by definition, works to commoditize what we offer and operates subtly to undermine the deep dive relationship we should be creating with clients. If we were in the arms and legs business then hourly rates might be appropriate. Or if we define ourselves as media placement tacticians, then perhaps the dice roll model is best. Or perhaps it should be no to all of the above.

Client brands are facing an era of incredible and rapid change. More is at stake than ever before in the business of persuasion. As we’ve said before in this blog, today “everything matters” – every point of contact the world has with a brand matters. If we are to provide the kind of solutions that will truly build brands and businesses, then the answers must be strategic, holistic and built on insight. This level of thinking is best developed when agencies and clients operate in partnership at the highest and deepest level. We’re on the hunt for transformational ideas and paradigm-shifting answers that can help lead businesses to greater success.

Certainly there’s more going on here than just editorial media placement by itself or other mechanics of PR that can be purchased by the hour virtually anywhere. For our part, we base compensation on assets required to think, consider, research and reason as well as execute. We don’t bill clients by the hour. We don’t devote ourselves to timesheet-centric behavior. All budgets are based around strategic and tactical deliverables so clients know what they’re buying from us. But we don’t live by the clock – as that model not only works to prevent senior level brains being focused on a client’s business, but also takes the eyes off the prize for tactical outcomes. We think results are the goal – not the time required to secure them.

What’s helpful and important in this dialogue about compensation is this: ideas and insight are extremely valuable and should be properly compensated for. Agencies routinely give away their thinking in return for payment to execute. That’s wrong headed. Great clients understand when compensation rewards thinking as well as doing there’s much to be gained – and anything less than that may be playing fast and loose with company assets, because going through the marketing motions isn’t good enough anymore. Great ideas are table stakes. Compensation that encourages this kind of relationship can redefine that value equation of what agencies provide – and therefore what business we are in.

At a recent industry conference, PR legend Harold Burson offered his audience a stunning recommendation for the profession at large: consider becoming a “licensed” discipline much like lawyers, accountants, medical experts and architects. What’s driving this suggestion? A long-standing perception in the PR game that we just don’t get the respect we deserve. Therefore, “institutionalizing” a process and code of performance might raise the collective bar for those who work in PR and, in commensurate fashion, imbue the field with extra cachet — thus commanding higher fees while achieving some loftier status (perhaps this is a move to expunge the lingering press agentry gene in the PR family DNA). Paul Holmes has an excellent treatment on the subject in his most recent newsletter.

I feel I must weigh in. First, I have the deepest respect for Harold, for his intellect, concerns and views, and the enormous value he’s brought to this industry. I’d also like to point out that by far and away the large global PR firms, including Mr. Burson’s, are owned by ad agency holding companies. Why? Besides the dollars and margin opportunities, there is some natural kinship and functional familiarity in the world of communication between ad and PR. My point is: do the ad brethren seem preoccupied with concern about their status and respect? Perhaps yes, in some manner, due to the marginalizing of traditional paid media strategies and in a few corners the diminishment of “ad guy” influence in the hierarchy of some client organizations – but would they consider professional licensing as a way up? I suspect not. In the end it is about the value we create, the ideas we bring and how we define the business we’re in that determines where we will all end up globally in the intellectual property pecking order. Ad makers may be no different than publicists in that regard.

The undertones of this underclass worldview have been around since I got into the business 27 years ago. Are we journalists masquerading as spin-meisters? Are we C-suite insiders, counselors and advisors with expertise in public and social policy, politics, and corporate reputation management? Is PR about publicity or is publicity a lower life form subset of PR? Is PR simply any form of communication and outreach that is not paid for? Is PR about keeping corporations on the straight and narrow, maintaining a sense of balance between self interests and those of the public at large? Is PR about image and its burnishments? Are we marketers or more broadly — business communicators? Are we getting the reputation we deserve, or does PR need to do some PR for itself? Is PR the dog or the tail, and just who is wagging who?

PR is all of these things and more. Perhaps Mr. Burson’s thinking behind licensing is to create a code of behavior, norms, training and specification that makes it tougher to join the club, while also offering an aura of “profession” along the lines of what say, lawyers, may secure from passing the bar. An admirable goal. If we’re being candid, much of the lingering reputation issues faced by the PR business generally come from the disparity in assignments given to people in this field.

Writing a press release is one level, advising the CEO on a merger is another. The bookends are wide apart, with a fair amount of the day-to-day activity going on at the press release/media contact end. In fact, I think a case could be mounted that agencies have done much to commoditize the business themselves by focusing on selling arms and legs (tactics) rather than strategic ideas.

No form of licensing is going to get us to strategic ideas – concepts that have the potential to change the destiny of a business. Management consulting may be a closer model to what we’re reaching for in this context. But consultants with a bonus – we can create communications tools to execute what we recommend at the strategic end. In my view we’re in a creative field and for my part I think we should stop worrying about lack of respect and focus on performing now at a higher level. Respect will follow. I agree with Mr. Holmes who suggests that PR, at the academic level, be moved to the business school from the journalism school where it is certainly a stepchild.

We are entering the golden age of PR. The strategic thinking and communications field we’re in is best suited to the environment that most businesses are facing these days. Want to command higher fees, respect and influence? Then offer that level of expertise, which goes back to a point made earlier about defining what business you are in. To that end, in our firm we are increasingly focused on training that, in addition to building out the brains of those who counsel clients, is also intended to re-program their views about what we are on the planet to accomplish. Helping guide businesses to growth and prosperity is at the top of our list, and that is by definition a difficult and challenging task. Yes, I believe we are up to it.

Our participation in social journalism starts today. We’ll beg forgiveness up front as we inevitably learn through trial and error the ins and outs, the rules and regs of this form. What you can expect is total honesty. Our unvarnished opinions and views will appear here. And the good news: we have a lot to say so this effort will likely gain momentum in the coming months as our training wheels come off and we get the gist of interactive conversations.

First up: the remarkable change that is taking place around us at an unbelievably rapid pace. It is why we have narrowed and re-focused our agency’s brand positioning on what we’re calling TrailBlazer brands. The metaphor is simple – to win in this marketplace you must be willing to slay the marketing and communications conventions in your product category and follow a new compass. Navigation now must be driven around the over-arching requirement to be relevant in consumer’s lives. Either consumer’s will indeed care about your brand or they will relegate it to the “how cheap is it” menu. Sounds simple enough but the forces of commoditization are impressive and pervasive. Retailers exercise enormous power these days and it can be tough to create the kind of change necessary to truly disrupt the consumer’s perceptions of what a brand is all about and re-cast it in new light. It will take ideas, a certain level of fortitude and recognition that the consumer now controls everything.

We hope what appears here will help inspire that kind of change.