A lot of debate has been brewing on this topic especially with the procurement departments becoming even more active and inquisitive during the recession. Read some views/discussions here.
1. Adage : Agencies and Media Brands Turning Into Commodities
2. An impassioned response to the above piece. Extract : “Bottom line: if corporations continue to squeeze ad agencies and other suppliers to drive down prices for their services, there will be a point where suppliers won’t be able to drive the advertisers’ cars, sleep in their hotels, buy their insurance, wear their clothes or spill their booze. And wage deflation will trickle down and around to other consumers, who will also stop buying branded goods. That is unless advertisers cut their prices and turn their hallowed brands into low-cost commodities.”
My thoughts : Well, when a global FMCG giant like Unilever puts out a global brief on one of its most prized brands-DOVE, on a freelance creativity website BOOTB for a grand fee of US$5600, one has to say we are scraping the bottom. (Read my earlier post on BOOTB and Outsourcing creativity).
First creative, media and production got unbundled. Next maybe we will see the separation of ’Creative expression i.e creative” from ‘Brand stewardship & comms strategy i.e. planning” and “Brand operations management i.e account management”. Maybe global agency networks will largely focus on :
a. brand stewardship & communication strategy development,
b. Creative expression procurement against an agreed creative brief within a very tight budget ( which will inevitably not be enough to cover in-house creative costs and thus will drive use of creativity out-sourcing)
c. Globally consistent cascade and implementation.
Obviously it is not going to be so black & white and there will be all kinds of hybrid models ( Coke it seems is bringing communication strategy in-house and have hired a few ex-agency planners). What is certain though is that it is going to be an interesting ride. Tighten the belts. They have been slipping slowly for sometime.
Till now HSBC was brand royalty for me when it came to banks & financial services branding and communication. Seems like even Gods have feet of clay. This banner ad on the HSBC HK site tries to attract new HSBC premier customers ( minimum deposit HKD 1mn or USD 100K) with a “scratch and win”. Wow !!! I used this mechanic to sell a few more soaps and detergent bars to a reluctant retailer in India about 15 years ago. How the world has changed since the recession. Blame it on Lehman.