Agencies that lead bring more value than order takers

By Robert Wheatley

Hugh MacLeod is a creative and insightful expert who regularly exposes the soft underside of the marketing world — and helps us laugh at ourselves. His thoughts, expressed as graphic images, can be down right powerful. Today’s post in some respects is a perfect foil for a few of his engaging ideas. (Check out gapingvoid.com – and subscribe to his daily image emails).

Great work falling from great ideas can transform the future direction and growth of business. Yet more often than not, by definition, it will require clients to stretch, to have faith and take risk. And none of this will see the light of day unless agencies step up to passionately support and defend solid out-of-the-ordinary thinking. This is often the price of strategic concepts that are unique, unexpected and disruptive (in a positive way).

An insightful article on this subject was published today by Cory Treffelett of Catalyst SF. You can read it here . In his excellent piece he accurately describes the difference between a vendor and partner style relationship between agency and client. Essentially the order taker vs. the leader.

Good agencies are in the strategic idea creation business. Clients make investments in programs and concepts that will grow business, build brand reputation and attract or retain new customers. No easy task. And I can recount over the years in virtually every instance of needle-busting results, innovative concepts always supplied the accelerant. Thus risk and leadership is demanded of the agency.

The path of least resistance is easily followed and at times it feels much safer to stay within the comfortable bounds of serenity — a quiet surf made calm by the absence of tough discussion that can whip up a big wave or two along the way.

Fear – collectively our greatest enemy
What stands in the way of great ideas and game-changing initiatives? It’s fear. Fear of rocking the boat. Fear of losing the account. Fear of failure. Fear of disagreement. Fear of ruffling feathers. Fear of slaying sacred cows. Fear of the unknown. Fear of folded arms and taught expressions. Fear of shaking heads. Fear not being loved. Fear of losing the budget. Fear of the boss. Fear of mistakes. Fear of conflict. Fear of perception leading reality. Fear of risk, of making the big bet. This insidious human condition interferes so many times, closing the gate on otherwise powerful moves that may occasionally require a willingness to “boldly go where no man has gone before.”

This is not a call to arrogance and conceited behavior by the way. What is in the client’s best interests at all times will be growth and development of their brand and their business results. The fact that innovation is often at the fulcrum of transformative periods only means that risk will be part of the mix in bringing these things to fruition. Clients who are challenged by their agencies to accomplish more through bolder initiatives are needed now more than ever. And are often in short supply for all of the reasons mentioned above. Just take the order, do the work and make sure everyone is happy and smiling all of the time? No great thing was ever accomplished by simply riding the existing wave. Blazing a new trail will be required of us.

Agencies and Clients Together Offer the Best Formula…
There’s an old saying, “an agency is only as good as its client.” Well in some end-game sort of reference I suppose this is true if all you ever hear is no. Should clients run from risk and punish their agency for bringing bold ideas then Houston, we have a problem!! Ultimately however, agencies have an obligation to bring this kind of thinking routinely. It should be the rule rather than the exception.

Clients can help this process by openly inviting and encouraging their agency partners to challenge them, to say no when its necessary, to think big, to look for new territory to trail-blaze. In essence to disrupt the category conventions and accepted brand behaviors that can deter major leaps ahead. Clients also acquire an obligation: to be willing to approve and fund campaigns with risk involved. And be prepared to accept a mistake along the way and learn from it.

This kind of healthy give and take — lively discourse built around discovery and epiphany — is essential if transformative programs are to get out of the developmental garage. Our daily mantra should be to make this quest genuinely a part of our culture and operating philosophy. To do less is to compromise the values and integrity of what we’re on the planet to accomplish.

What do you think?

By Robert Wheatley


This is the story (heads up this is a feature-style post) of crazy commitment, of all-nighters and pushing beyond the limits we often place in front of ourselves. The effort delivered success for a brand and taught a person (me) what you can accomplish when you’re willing to dispense with fear (and sleep) to do something big.

It was 1990 and I had just walked off the edge of the cliff. For 11 years, ten of them in a relative state of happiness and personal growth, I had been working for Ogilvy & Mather – a wonderful firm that invested heavily to teach its emerging talent how to create powerful communications ideas and how to run profitable agency businesses. My last year was not so fun, filled with trepidation around a career move I did not want (so ordered by my boss) to a city I had no plans to live in (sorry Windy City but at the time I was living in LA and had client roots there) doing work that was not so challenging (vast difference in point of view between West Coast group I ran – progressive – and the Chicago office of Ogilvy – conservative).

And then it happened. After seven already unhappy months Ogilvy was sold in a hostile takeover to Sir Martin Sorrel and the final unraveling began in earnest. By March of 1990, after just 15 months in Chicago, I resigned from the place I thought I would be for the rest of my career and started a firm from scratch, working out of my partner’s storage room in her apartment.

We had just convinced Sara Lee to take a big risk, too. To hire a brand new agency to represent this venerable and iconic business at a moment in its 50-year history when it was most vulnerable. Years of share and profit declines had finally caught up and the brand was on the ropes. We had been talking to Sara Lee about a relationship while at Ogilvy but a conflict arising from the New York O&M advertising office stopped the conversation dead in its tracks.

How to resolve a client conflict? Surgically remove the conflict by starting a new firm (thus producing said cliff to jump off of). Our deal with Sara Lee was unique: they would literally own our firm for a year as we agreed not to solicit any new accounts. In return we got the business and a healthy budget to get our agency in motion. What got us to the deal table? A very BIG idea — one that involved risk all around but had the potential to arrest Sara Lee’s decline.

This is the PR business, and if you want to secure the kind and quality of media coverage that can transform your business outcomes, you need to go big. Events make news. And we were about to do the mother of all media events.

Something extraordinary and disruptive for a brand that had been around since the late 1940’s: in six months time we built The First International Symposia on Dessert. We had struck a moment in food brand history when dessert was getting hit right and left by news of new reduced fat products and technologies, coalescing over concerns that dessert was a major contributor to growing American waistlines.

People decided certain kinds of sweets (baked goods for one) were bad and stopped buying them. While new brands were emerging with low fat technologies to cut calories. Sara Lee was left flat-footed in this time of “no thank you” to dessert options and so-called “full calorie” products.

So, with a portfolio of new reduced fat products in the wings, plus an agreement to bring the real Sara Lee out of obscurity to become the face of the brand (named after her by her father when she was nine years old), and a strategy to revitalize and re-stage Sara Lee as a relevant and contemporary brand — we set in motion a major media experience…

Vienna, Austria: land of dessert, palaces and Mozart

Our event concept was predicated on capturing the hearts and minds of top food media from the US and Canada. To do this, we needed to give them content that was unique and compelling in a setting that would engage their imagination. We were determined to “own” them for at least three days time, away from their offices and schedules in an environment we controlled.

Vienna is the dessert capitol of the world. Dessert as we know it (cakes, pastries) was invented here. To be an acclaimed pastry chef in Vienna is to achieve our equivalent of culinary superstardom. We brought the idea to the Viennese tourism board, the Austrian economic chamber, Imperial hotels and Austrian Airlines. All bought in to the opportunity to host a large contingent of US food media, knowing the coverage opportunities this could offer. In return we got access to palaces at no charge, free ground transportation, cheap airline tickets and hotel rooms.

We worked literally around the clock to do all of this within six months of our being hired. We constructed a three-day schedule of seminars, events and hands-on experiences we knew would supply editorial angles appropriate to an array of food media from Good Housekeeping to Associated Press. Also ladled in was entertainment for the editors on a scale that we knew would trump anything they had seen previously. This included an exclusive concert with the Vienna Symphony just for them in the very palace where Mozart performed his first concert when he was six years old.

In total 56 editors and writers went to Vienna. All of this would be carried off by our team of six people, plus the master pastry chef from Sara Lee. Adding to the pressure was the CEO of Sara Lee Steve McMillan, the head of marketing and the founding Lubin family all in attendance.

You just push yourself…

We recruited the top seven pastry chefs in Vienna to create new recipe ideas for home cooks using Sara Lee products as a base. We secured a dessert psychologist from the University of Vienna who did a remarkable presentation on the psychology of eating dessert. She spoke poetically about the guilt issues Americans experience that is absent in the European mentality about sweets consumption. The Viennese by the way are not fat even though the pastry shops outnumber McDonald’s.

We brought a US food historian to chart the evolution of baking and sweets in our nation, including the birth of Birthday celebrations and our cake traditions. A special seminar on chocolate was held in the oldest operating bakery in the world, opened originally in 1535. We introduced the editors to the real Sara Lee (they were awestruck), launched a new line of desserts at a dramatic “dessert fantasy” reception inside one of the most important palaces in Vienna.

We designed the Symposia to cover every aspect of dessert, why it matters in the American diet and to rekindle our love affair with the sweet tooth with a nod towards balance and moderation.

We positioned Sara Lee as the expert brand on the evolution of dessert in America….

To do all this required total commitment — mind, body and spirit. Nights, weekends leading up to the event were spent creating materials, securing editor attendance and handling the logistics of moving a large group of people from venue to venue flawlessly. Hotel rooms had to be meticulously selected based on editor preferences and personal needs.

The editorial concept development work was a monster, creating angles appropriate to each title and editorial slant, while developing supportive materials and sources for each one. Once in Vienna we had 56 editor “stars” to watch over and then our top client executives to boot. I did not sleep at all for four days. We worked around the clock making sure every detail was handled without mishap.

I distinctly remember sitting on the bus next to the Food Editor of Bon Appetit as we took them to the airport for their departure back to the states, literally zoning in and out of consciousness as we talked about her experience and story plans. It was a monumental undertaking and a huge homerun in the making. The media coverage coming from this event was unlike anything the brand had ever seen in its history. The turnaround was launched.

It was an experience I will never forget. There were moments along the way when you would hit the wall and declare, “I’m just done.” But you go on, knowing what’s at stake and push yourself a little further. I would not recommend this as a way to live your life on an ongoing basis, but a few of these experiences along life’s trail can elevate your game a bit — for a lifetime. Yes, its scary and yes you may tell yourself there’s just no way to do something of this scope in six months time with a small staff – and then you muster up the courage and press on.

We helped restore luster to an iconic American brand, and that was worth every minute. The only way to know what you’re really capable of is to test the limits and then go past them.

Gold Sabre finalist rounds out heady award season…

Wheatley & Timmons took home two Silver Trumpet awards this year from the Publicity Club of Chicago annual campaign competition. The winning work was for Sargento Foods in the Sponsorship category for the South Beach Wine & Food Festival product launch of their Artisan Blends Authentic Mexican cheese; another Silver — this time in the New Media (as in social and digital) category — for the MOTHERHOOD program on behalf of Thermos brand.

What’s more, the Sargento work was also named one of five finalists for the coveted Gold Sabre – our industry’s top award, also in the Sponsorship category. Unfortunately the final nod went to Procter & Gamble for their Swiffer brand effort, but it was a remarkable achievement to make it through the hundreds of top-level submissions to hit the finalist “best-of-the-best” group.

We don’t by nature, personality or belief look at client work as a means to secure awards or generate a pat on the back. Rather we enter periodically to see how our strategies fare against other top-flight efforts in an independent review. So we thank the judges but even more we thank our great clients and our terrific staff for the work well done. Sargento kudos and recognition belongs to Kerri Erb, Carrie Becker, Krista Cortese and Jill Delaney. The Thermos triumph comes from the star quality efforts of Betsi Schumacher, Mary Clare Middleton, Krista Cortese and Jill Delaney. Bravo!!!!

In the end the final judge of our strategies and ideas is the consumer and their willingness to buy more of our client’ products more often. According to IRI’s April numbers, Artisan Blends continues its rise, up 135% overall in a tough, commodity category. The Thermos program was their first foray into social media and beat all of their objectives for audience building and engagement. So we’re especially happy with that – and pleased that our industry peers found the work laudable too.

Cheers…

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.