What are marketers looking for in this time of accelerated change? With experience on the agency side earlier in her career and across Africa first at an agency and then as a marketing professional, Sithabile Maphumulo, Renault South Africa vice president of communications, was the ideal person to comment and share insights on this topic at the first masterclass of 2023.
How does the market look in 2023?
The vehicle market has been quite robust in recent times, primarily because owning a vehicle in SA is a necessity due to the lack of public transport; in other markets, owning a vehicle could be seen as a luxury. Growth is expected to continue as the automotive industry becomes more and more innovative, such as building an insurance product cost into the ownership of a new car.
Brand purpose has become more and more important, and this is also expected to increase further.
How can agencies help clients be even more effective in 2023?
Understanding the needs of marketing in terms of driving sales harder is one way that an agency can help clients be more effective. At the same time, agencies need to develop knowledge of the competitors; understand the long-term strategy of the business at hand while setting milestones to assess the effectiveness of the strategy and communications that accompany it; and understand how to lift brand sentiment and creat work that will help the brand achieve that.
Trust is a critical success factor in a client-agency relationship and that includes the ability to push boundaries and step out of comfort zones. Clients look for agencies which won’t be “yes people” but will rather lead clients into new areas or possibilities that will be relevant for their brands and help them to grow.
How can agencies work better/collaborate with each other across a client’s marketing ecosystem?
This was an interesting discussion. Collaboration among agencies could be likened to working in a case-study group during an executive education programme. How does a group let each expert in their respective field shine, similarly with agencies in a typical marketing ecosystem?
First, and most importantly, client responsibility is to provide a clear brief with clear deliverables for each agency in the system. Muddling up those work streams can cause endless problems and frictions among the agencies, which results in poor delivery for the client.
To brief all of the agencies together at the outset of the project or campaign is another critical success factor; don’t only bring in the BTL or social media agency at the last minute once the big idea has been cracked. We all know that a big idea can come from anywhere and that it’s certainly not the domain of the ATL or lead agency only.
Perhaps, when the agencies come back with their various solutions, it’s best for the client to listen to each of their agencies one by one, instead of all together. That seems like best practice in this situation. Trust, again, is an important part of this collaborative process.
Tips during pitching — “inside a review”
When clients are reviewing agencies in a competitive pitch situation, there are some important aspects that clients consider and which will tip the balance for an agency to be selected:
Shared values
Governance
Demonstration of abilities, rather than ‘hard sell’
Chemistry, and
The quality of the team who will work directly on the client’s business, as well as the agency’s overall reputation.