Agencies working together through “contractual collaboration” will breed fear, competition and foster a clash of egos among agency partners, agencies and marketers were warned this morning.
Jee Moon, director of brand and marketing at Westpac, told the seminar, hosted by the Advertising Federation of Australia and the Australian Marketing Institute, that an agency roster based on co-creation, not simply collaboration, is key to establishing and maintaining a strong brand identity, but requires an overhaul of the way campaign “success” is measured.
She added the “one stop shop”, integrated agency model in Australia had “never materialised” and that a rostered agency model based on co-creation in which agencies do not simply coexist but coproduce was key to developing and maintaining a strong brand positioning.
“At Westpac we have moved from a contractual agency model, which we had with the Red House when there was little to bind the agencies together apart from a piece of paper, to a system of collaboration where our partners work together as a community of experts, and are currently striving for a true, co-creation model,” Jee said of her agency partners The Campaign Palace, Yello and Lavender.
“We subscribe to a culture of respect and openness and believe that a great idea is agency agnostic while execution is agency specific. Co-creation does not mean just sitting side by side, but being in it together, sleeves rolled up and building ideas as one.”
However, she added: “This model is not easy, it’s a whole different game to the ordinary standards of agency collaboration and feels unnatural, like you’re stepping on each other’s toes and plodding into areas that are not your own. But when it works the results are remarkable.”
Moon said this model requires input and support from the entire company, and was central to the success of its new brand positioning, the “We’re a bank you can bank on” campaign in June, and its most recent “bank manager” campaign.
Jacques Burger, CEO of The Campaign Palace, said the challenge with moving from a “contract of collaboration” to a “culture of co-creation” is motivating a change in agency behaviour and added there needs to be a shift in the traditional measures of success.
This includes moving away from a focus on output to a focus on input and changing the hierarchy or roles.
“In the industry we work in, the person who comes up with the idea is seen as the hero and the person who implements it, second class,” he said.
“We need to flatten this structure out and get agencies to work on the same level, which is achieved by giving agencies access to all briefs and by creating a remuneration model that reflects contribution and collaboration as opposed to mere results.”
Moon added its agency remuneration is dependent on how well they work together, and not who comes up with the idea or creates the campaign.
