A new survey shows — not surprisingly — that Nando’s, MTN and Chicken Licken are the companies creatives want to work with
A new survey that rates perception of brands and marketers by creative and media agencies shows fast-food chain Nando’s is the company they would most like to work with.
MTN, which has just undergone a major brand repositioning, is also named, as well as another fast-food brand, Chicken Licken
The results are not surprising because all three are acknowledged for allowing their agencies to continually push the creative envelope. The upshot over many years has been high public brand recognition and regular awards success.
The "Scopen Marketer Scope" survey engaged more than 200 professionals who work in the creative and media space. More than 150 were in creative agencies and 50 in media agencies all belonging to holding groups or independents operating in SA.
Johanna McDowell, CEO of the Independent Agency Search & Selection Co and Scopen partner, says: "Until now, research has been about asking marketers for their perceptions and input around what they think of their agencies, and while we’ve had opinions from creative agency professionals, we’ve never really asked them what they think of marketers."
To determine their quintessential client, agency professionals were asked to define the characteristics that their ideal or exemplary candidate must meet. Nearly 40% overall said considering the agency as a real partner was the most valued characteristic, with an even higher ranking by media agency professionals.
This attribute was followed by 27% saying a marketer’s willingness to assume risks and being open-minded was important, with a chief marketing officer’s trust in the agency deemed third most important.
Following these, importance was also placed on "adequate recognition and compensation" by media and creative entities.
Respondents also said they valued clients who constantly sought to innovate, and valued transformation and those who prepared good briefs for agencies on work needed. This has been a constant complaint by agencies for years: they are forced to navigate in the dark.
Surprisingly, just more than 40% of respondents rated marketers on their digital advancement. This gap should be of concern to both agencies and marketers, given the direction that brand marketing is heading in.
McDowell says: "Once the ideal client was defined, we then asked these same interviewees to name two client companies that most closely match the defined qualities." Nando’s, Sanlam and Unilever were the three most mentioned companies.
Scopen researchers then asked which they consider to be their "brand or marketer of the year 2021", specifying they could choose only one. Chicken Licken and Nando’s were the two brands most mentioned.
The report also reveals that agencies value client decisionmakers being involved in day-to-day meetings, not juniors. This is a constant complaint, both from agencies and marketers, in that heavyweights arrive for the pitch process and are rarely seen again until the account needs to be renewed or there is a crisis to manage.
In the overall marketer performance ranking, Mazda came out top, followed by insurance group Hollard, for having attributes that sustain a long-term relationship, or, as McDowell says, "a brand that is the marrying sort". Other brands on that list include Mondelez, Shoprite, Nando’s, AB InBev, Standard Bank and Ford.
In response, Heidi Brauer, head of marketing at Hollard, said on social media: "Our little-big brand has done well to get such recognition from agency professionals. Small budgets can be beautiful constraints."