Agency Scope 2021/22: Nando's top company & Chicken Licken top campaign

Revealed in the most respected companies and best campaigns chosen by marketing professionals and agency professionals who formed part the 465 interviewees who participated in the rigorous questioning that the Agency Scope study comprised.

According to Johanna McDowell, CEO of the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) and Scopen partner, this fourth edition highlights leading South African marketer’s choices after in-depth probing and analysis.

Co-founder and global CEO of Scopen International, Cesar Vacchiano, says: “I have the pleasant task of announcing the Most Respected Companies winners, led soundly by Nando’s. Nike, Coca-Cola and Chicken Licken followed by Unilever, FNB, Woolworths, KFC, OUTsurance and Checkers.

With the in-depth analysis required to collate the interview responses from 239 top marketing leaders from 158 companies, 156 creative agency professionals, 50 media agency professionals and 20 media owners, he asserts that Agency Scope brings a set of data that removes the traditional ‘personal favourite’ as a winner once all the feedback is analysed.

Best campaign

“The Best Campaign, determined by a review of the last two years by each respondent, is Chicken Licken,” McDowell notes.

"Nando’s came in second in this instance and Sanlam rounds off the top three, with not much between the seven other campaigns that make up the top 10,” she says.

McDowell lists the remaining top 10 winners in Best Campaign in the following order:

·        Nedbank

·        Checkers

·        Standard Bank

·        Heineken

·        KFC

·        Castle Lager

·        OUTsurance

“The four brands that completed the top ten were extremely close,” she says.

Two new analyses were included in the results this year when Agency Professionals  were asked to mention their Ideal Client and their Brand/Marketer of the Year.  These accolades were both won by Nando’s along with Doug Place, Nando’s CMO, winning runner up Marketing Professional of the Year for 2021/22.

Consistent wins the race

“The key phrase with all study participants in listing their choices was ‘consistency’, which has always been one of the pillars of success of a brand and its campaigns.”

Vacchiano and McDowell congratulate the winners, noting that the top ten companies and campaigns made this body of research and exciting one to review.

“The South African data forms part of the body of research conducted in 11 other markets across five continents,” say Vacchiano. “We look forward to seeing how other brands stack up as we continue our analysis.”

Agency Scope 2021/22: Nando's top company & Chicken Licken top campaign

Agency Scope 2021/22 most respected company is Nando's and its best campaign is Chicken Licken.

Revealed in the most respected companies and best campaigns chosen by marketing professionals and agency professionals who formed part the 465 interviewees who participated in the rigorous questioning that the Agency Scope study comprised.

According to Johanna McDowell, CEO of the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) and Scopen partner, this fourth edition highlights leading South African marketer’s choices after in-depth probing and analysis.

Co-founder and global CEO of Scopen International, Cesar Vacchiano, says: “I have the pleasant task of announcing the Most Respected Companies winners, led soundly by Nando’s. Nike, Coca-Cola and Chicken Licken followed by Unilever, FNB, Woolworths, KFC, OUTsurance and Checkers.

With the in-depth analysis required to collate the interview responses from 239 top marketing leaders from 158 companies, 156 creative agency professionals, 50 media agency professionals and 20 media owners, he asserts that Agency Scope brings a set of data that removes the traditional ‘personal favourite’ as a winner once all the feedback is analysed.

Best campaign

“The Best Campaign, determined by a review of the last two years by each respondent, is Chicken Licken,” McDowell notes.

"Nando’s came in second in this instance and Sanlam rounds off the top three, with not much between the seven other campaigns that make up the top 10,” she says.

McDowell lists the remaining top 10 winners in Best Campaign in the following order:

·        Nedbank

·        Checkers

·        Standard Bank

·        Heineken

·        KFC

·        Castle Lager

·        OUTsurance

“The four brands that completed the top ten were extremely close,” she says.

Two new analyses were included in the results this year when agency professionals were asked to mention their Ideal Client and their Brand/Marketer of the Year. These accolades were both won by Nando’s along with Doug Place, Nando’s CMO, winning runner up Marketing Professional of the Year for 2021/22.

Consistency wins the race

“The key phrase with all study participants in listing their choices was ‘consistency’, which has always been one of the pillars of success of a brand and its campaigns,” says McDowell.

Vacchiano and McDowell congratulate the winners, noting that the top 10 companies and campaigns made this body of research and exciting one to review.

“The South African data forms part of the body of research conducted in 11 other markets across five continents,” say Vacchiano. “We look forward to seeing how other brands stack up as we continue our analysis.”

SA media agencies must widen focus to be more competitive

The recent release of the SCOPEN research into the state of play at South African media agencies has revealed a need to “leave their comfort zone and go far beyond their actual offering”.

That’s the word from Cesar Vacchiano, CEO of Scopen International and author of the Agency Scope South Africa 2021/2022 report. He says, “There are lots of opportunities to develop so that their clients discover everything they have to offer and that will allow their fees to increase”.

Vacchiano’s five takeouts from the survey he believes media agencies need to know are:

1. According to clients’ responses, South African media agencies are just focused in media planning and buying. They are not yet offering solutions in new territories such s social media, influencers, branded content, digital production and marketing automation

2. Media agencies are being more active in new business now than in the past

3. Marketers/media agencies relationships are longer than marketers/creative agencies relationships (closer to 5 years against closer to 4 years)

4. Media agency’s fees are three times smaller than creative agency’s fees. But when paying incentives, one quarter of marketers pay an incentive to their creative agencies while one third of marketers pay an incentive to their media agency

5. Even though marketers believe that media agencies contribute by 34% to their business growth and that creative agencies contribute by 26%, 14.8% of marketers are thinking of changing their media agency, very similar to the 14.5% that are thinking of changing their creative agency

Vacchiano points out the differences between the findings for South Africa, and those globally.

“In other countries media agencies are offering diversified services. They are especially strong in data, and have invested in hiring the best planners and creative leaders to offer strategic planning and creative solutions as well. These movements are allowing media agencies to have a higher position in marketers’ minds and sometimes even being perceived as leading agencies ahead of the marketers’ creative partners,” he says.

In terms of the relationship between creative and media agencies, Vacchiano says we co-operate far less here than in other countries.

Data and clients’ feedback shows that creative and media agencies collaborate together far less in South Africa than in other countries. “We see more and more often creative and media agencies combining forces (talent and capabilities) when pitching for clients’ business.

“Media agencies have the data, understand the trends better, consumer, media … and creative agency’s have the strategic and creative talent. So both teams working together using data, identifying insights and producing big ideas combined with media agencies’ expertise produce 360º proposals for clients that are very difficult to find when each entity works separately and presents independently in creative and media pitches.”

And while the lines are blurring globally, in South Africa both types of agencies offer differentiated talent and services.

Increased digital growth, much of it spurred by Covid-19, presents major opportunities and is bringing interest and investment. But, says Vacchiano, “The challenges are still huge mainly related with marketers better understanding of digital media, its possibilities and effectiveness”.

The research undertaken during Covid-19 has presented difficulties, such as fieldwork.

 “Interviewees just dedicated one hour of their time to our videoconferences as programmed in their diaries. When we met with them at their offices, it was more relaxed and sometimes interviews extended to share more points of view,” he says.

“However marketers were very open to participate because they understand now that AGENCY SCOPE is a study that allows agencies to understand marketers’ needs better and that it is used by agencies that subscribe it to offer a better service to their clients. They talk more openly because they know everything is confidential and just big research with a solid statistical base to analyse the state of the industry accurately.

“We have also noticed that agencies have had difficult times in approaching prospective clients. It wasn’t easy to do so when everybody was working from home. On the other hand, they have been focused on helping their existing clients trying to solve their needs quicker than ever (many in new territories) and demonstrating that they were capable of offering solutions in digital territories, brand purpose, sustainability.”

Differences in the current research saw researchers, for the first time in South Africa, approaching media owners for their opinions about media agencies.

“They (20 of the leading media owners) have rated media agencies across a number of relevant attributes. There are some interesting results, which have been shared with the media agencies that have subscribed to the study.  This is definitely something we will be doing again in future.”

The hows, whys and what defines integration in South Africa

The imminent release of Agency Scope 2021/22 - the fourth study South Africa - reveals a profusion of "secrets" from the inner sanctum of marketing and agency leaders.

Eager to share what their organisations have learned since the previous study, 465 interviews disclose the way in which our industries changed, driven by the pandemic, and where we stand in comparison to our foreign counterparts.

Johanna McDowell, CEO of the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) and Scopen partner, says an important area that experienced massive change is integration, defined by marketers as having expertise in five different disciplines.

“As we’ve noted in the media, marketers are operating in a much more complex ecosystem, with many working with up to an average of 13 different partners,” she says. “When asked which disciplines marketers take into account in their definition of an integrated agency, almost 100% named digital and advertising, which is largely in line with previous figures.”

McDowell notes that the percentages for the disciplines of PR, Media, Activation and Events decrease in number of mentions, but the rest of the disciplines remain stable from 2019.

President and CEO of Scopen International Cesar Vacchiano says that large companies give more importance to disciplines like ‘relationship marketing’, than other companies when defining an integrated agency. “Conversely, smaller marketers give less importance to activation and sales promotions’ when defining Integration. The evolution of marketing automation and the barriers of COVID for activation are the reasons for these responses.”

To determine the model of integration companies are employing, business leaders surveyed were asked whether they have a lead agency that coordinated their communications requirements.

“Seven out of 10 in South Africa have indeed identified a lead agency to address this need,” says Vacchiano, highlighting that large and medium-sized companies declare the highest percentage, being 75.4% and 70.4% respectively.

“At 69.9%, South Africa is the market with the highest number of marketers that identify one of their agencies as their ‘lead partner’ in Marketing-Communications-Advertising-Media.”

No more silos, say data-reliant business leaders

This leads to an issue that needs attention. “It’s clear that media and creative in some companies operate in silos, each with its own leader. Clients view this as a challenge as they believe integrated data is what business decisions rely on,” he says.

In South Africa, creative agencies are currently undertaking digital transformation to address the issue of data silos, but media agencies are not. “In other countries,” Vacchiano affirms, “we see both creative and media agencies addressing this issue.”

Media agencies appear to be lagging in South Africa and McDowell says this leads to the IAS wondering if media agency margins are so low that they cannot afford the quality tech talent required to drive this transformation.

Food for thought...

As the industry awaits the publication of Agency Scope 2021/22, Vacchiano and McDowell agree that the shining stars of responses to the rigorous examination of industry leaders undertaken by researchers would be the huge growth in the digital sector; and the way in which agencies and clients stepped up during harsh lockdowns and trying conditions to produce work and relationships that are “quite remarkable”, says Vacchiano.

“Client satisfaction with their agencies at this level makes for relationship longevity. Marketers realise that they have strong partnerships with their agencies, who in turn are strong partners for their brands,” he says.

South African marketers are becoming more high profile because of their contribution to the growth of their brands and the work that they are doing, and it is now commonplace for CMOs – and not just their agencies - to be named.

“This makes choosing the best of the best a difficult task, as can be noted in the pictures of most admired creative agency professionals.

“The top ten actually turns out to be the top 12, because the margins between the candidates were so close, it was impossible to choose. And this,” McDowell asserts, “bodes well for the health of our industry.”

Agency contracts should be safety nets, not hostage situations

There is a shift in the marketing industry from the once-stringent “here are the service-level agreements (SLAs) and our terms” towards an agreement between agencies and their clients that protects, rather than directs.

Contracts are about marketers making sure the agency is committed to it, and vice-versa.

Today’s contract does not necessarily mean a retainer, and may be a simple clarification noting the agency of record that will work on a project-to-project basis. This would, of course, include the agency agreeing not to take on work from a competitor without prior discussion with the client and following the standard non-disclosure accordance.

When it comes to the media agency, however, the role of a contract is critical, as its work includes ongoing expenditure on behalf of its clients and the legalities of the outlay and payment that need to be defined in a firm contract.

Given the varying needs of marketers and agencies and the types of collaboration we’re seeing today, there are four or five basic contract outlines that would ensure harmonious working relationships. These range from a simple letter of appointment to solid financial commitments and SLAs.

Always, though, it is the essence of the contract that sets the tone for what working together will look like.

When marketers ask: “How will the agency work with us?” the contract outline may include agreeing on a timeline per project; the time a campaign will take to develop, including reverts; who will be working on the campaign and what resources the client will need from the agency.

This covers the basics of setting up of the relationship and should be followed with an indication of the scope of work, broken down into platform specifics such as campaign, packaging, design, digital and social media.

Some clients may say they don’t believe in contracts with agencies, but it must be made clear that a contract is not designed to trap a marketer and tether it to an agency.

Instead of seeing a contract as a tie that binds, participants should view it as a guide to the mechanics of how the working relationship will be conducted in the best interests of all parties.

Again, media agencies will operate under different parameters by necessity, but even these are far more flexible than they used to be.

If it takes a while for an agreement or SLAs to be put in place, it’s usually due to the need for both parties to really explore all the work they’re going to do together. Even after agencies are appointed, the contract may not be signed immediately. The letter of appointment is important, and if it takes six months for a contract to be signed, it would only be to benefit both parties.

Today’s contracts are about flexibility, commitment and trust. Importantly for all parties concerned, agility is everything right from the word go – and harmony must be the aim.

Trends for 2022 - The agency-marketer relationship

As with most industries, current trends are either driven by the pandemic, or in response to it. As intermediaries, the IAS has noted some interesting shifts in the way marketers and agencies have surfed the various waves as they rolled in, and how they're looking to stay on the crest in 2022 and beyond.

Chief among current trends is reviewing the number of agencies a marketer works with. The average in South Africa is around the global average of 13, including digital, public relations, communications and more.

Importantly, the IAS is working with marketers looking to review their providers and decide the best way forward. Where there is an overlapping of services, there’s a view to keeping agencies in their own lanes – namely, the core competencies for which they were hired.

This brings with it a trend that sees agencies assessing their offerings and ensuring they have the resources required to meet marketers’ needs now and for the foreseeable future.

As more office doors open after the vaccine rollout, marketers and agencies are mostly back in their creative, vibrant, people-centric environments where they feed off each other’s positive energy. However, marketers and agencies are facing more complex issues today that were not as pronounced prior to the pandemic.

Among these is an increase in specialisation among agencies, based on the rise in digital platforms and their opportunities for brands. Where bigger agencies may not have the agility smaller ones have to meet brand needs, there’s much that can be done and a willingness to take the necessary steps.

The IAS is working with marketers on right-housing, the process that requires them to review their internal and external capabilities, as well as those of the agencies they work with. There’s a definite shift away from the ‘purely creative’ agency of the past, towards partnerships with those who are adept at strategic planning, are able to offer technology to support the strategy, and will work with marketers to produce the best approach.


Finally, a noteworthy 2022 and beyond trend is the move away from project-based relationships to retainers. While this can be in part attributed to the deepening of relationships between marketers and agencies we saw during the pandemic, it makes sense to retain the services of an organisation as a partner rather than run the risk of the agency being able to work for the competition on a project basis too.

For the IAS, the past 24 months have been busy ones and we foresee no slowing down, as we navigate the new and exciting specialist skill sets and collaborative spirits.

Agency Scope 2021/22: Trends, tactics and triumphs

The fourth edition of the unparalleled study Agency Scope 2021/22 South Africa brought 465 interviewees face-to-face with researchers in video interviews, comprising 239 leading marketing professionals from 158 companies; 156 creative agency professionals; 50 media agency professionals; and 20 media owners. A total sample size 465 individuals - the largest sample for Agency Scope in South Africa to date.

The South African data forms part of the body of research conducted in 11 other markets across five continents. In pitting local trends against global, president and CEO of Scopen International, Cesar Vacchiano, and Johanna McDowell, CEO of the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) and Scopen partner, note areas of universal equality – and then some enormous differences.

Digital sector

“Notably there is increased investment in the digital sector,” says Vacchiano. “Globally, digital has grown 2.9 percentage points or +7.6% in the last three years. China and Brazil are the markets with the highest digital budget (50.1% and 45.1%, respectively), and the IAB South African Digital Ad Spend Report for 2020 reveals that despite the state of the economy, the digital industry experienced an 18% year-on-year growth.”

Current digital ad spend accounts for 38% of marketing spend in South Africa and digital spend is divided largely between three sectors, being digital paid media (33.1%), social media and influencers (23.4%) and search engine optimisation (15.5%).

Programmatic, CRM, e-commerce and marketplaces and “other” make up the balance.

Investment in the sector continues apace, according to Vacchiano, who notes that there are more partners working with marketers in a far more complex ecosystem, helping clients with their communication mix. “On average,” he says, “each advertiser surveyed works across its communications, marketing, advertising and media projects with an average of 13 different partners.”

Says McDowell: “The complexity of managing this number of partners requires robust leadership to establish which companies are responsible for which space, and how to keep them in their own lanes.

Collaboration

“The companies themselves must be highly focused and leaders must manage collaboration between them. One way of doing this would be for the CMO to run it; the second would be to appoint a lead agency that the CMO can rely on to assist with this hugely important aspect.”

In this regard, Vacchiano notes a standout in Agency Scop 2021/22 research is the satisfaction clients expressed with their agencies, noting appreciation of the lengths agencies went to in intensifying working relationships through the pandemic.

“Clients are acutely aware of and grateful for the strength of their partnerships with their agencies. The leadership shown through the massive challenges is noted and lauded by brands,” he says.

“Worldwide, the work agencies did for some brands truly set new standards in creativity, brand-building and strategy, and clients highlighted their satisfaction in our interviews.”

McDowell adds that travel restrictions increased the availability of senior executives on the client side enabled more access to the C-Suite. “This has been a boon to agencies who took the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities and successes at the highest level.”

Agency Scope 2021/22 analysis has also brought to light how marketers invested their spend. Globally, investment is about 50% on brand building, long-term brand development and big campaigns; with around 50% in shorter-term, performance and sales driven lead generation initiatives.

“What this tells us,” Vacchiano posits, “is that reinforcing brands in the minds of the consumer is of equal importance to marketers as the short-term wins from leads and sales.

“The takeaway from this part of the research is that opportunity for big branding campaigns should not be ignored.”

The science of success, the art of intermediaries

Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish author of Don Quixote de la Mancha, noted that "experience is the universal mother of sciences". This being so is the art of experience in business is to collaborate with those who broaden your knowledge base.

In an industry of rapid change and speedy decision making, both marketers and agencies are likely to come up against a gap in their knowledge of the exact capabilities a potential client or provider offers.

Rather than tilting at windmills, working with an experienced intermediary means gaining access to their vast experience with any number of agencies, locally and globally.

The intermediary must be able to bring all this to the table when marketers are looking to either appoint a new agency or renew their existing agency with a view to enhancing performance.

Understanding the global market

Specialist intermediaries constantly interact with creative, digital and media agencies as part of their function. The IAS, for example, brings many years of experience in staying up to speed with trends, capabilities, and what international agencies and clients are experiencing.

Agency Scopen has also added far more intimate knowledge of current global methodologies and strategies favoured by multinationals, as well as ongoing industry studies.

As a market leader, we see the IAS’s function as being a catalyst in the growth of the intermediary space. This drives a rise in value that marketers gain by engaging with intermediaries in a partnership that brings insights into every sector and platform in the industry.

For agencies to get the most out of intermediary engagement, we encourage them to see how they can work with an intermediary to be presented in the best possible light to potential clients. It is in the best interest of the industry as a whole that intermediaries assist agencies to develop their pitch and polish their credentials appropriately.

The bottom line for all participants is that intermediaries are there to protect, promote and amplify what each brings to a potential new relationship or the injection of enthusiasm into an existing one.

Any specialist intermediary will tell you that the science may often be reflected in numbers, but the art lies in vision, collaboration and the longevity of robust relationships.

Word soup: The starter that waters down relationship management

Word Soup is a tactical electronic word search game where you swipe strategically to create ‘insanely-long words’ to get points. Urban Dictionary suggests it is a long, involved message without punctuation or capital letters. In our industry terms, writes Johanna McDowell, CEO of the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) and SCOPEN partner, it’s the substance-free version of metrics.

Over the past 14 years, the IAS has evolved its client-agency relationship management tool as we’ve noted changes in the sector. The various iterations of this product have been updated or amended for maximum value, and added to the arsenal marketers and agencies can implement in maintaining effective associations.

Where measuring the efficacy of an agency was once heavily slanted towards an agency’s execution of specific campaigns, its creativity and even industry awards and accolades, today’s marketers are looking for hard metrics.

These include not only performance, but the agency knowing exactly what metrics the marketer must deliver to the business, and show how they assisted in meeting them. This brings a new level of relationship engagement between marketer and agency, and one that encompasses a new dimension of honesty, transparency and accountability from both parties.

Compared to the “word soup” that is our industry’s equivalent of empty calories, hard metrics do so much more than enable each party to gauge successes - they build stronger bonds, encourage better communication for greater campaign impact and are essentially the “meat” of relationships.

Recipe for relationship management

The IAS takes measurement one step further, encouraging agencies to ask themselves how they felt they performed and whether the marketer explained the business metrics they are required to deliver on. Engaging with the marketer on these issues will ensure the marketer reviews the metrics carefully before briefing the agency.

Then, there’s the client’s pitch brief... Should this vital part of the original process not list the metrics that an agency needs to achieve, the most important measurements are unlikely to be accomplished.

In the IAS’s evolution of all the components that come together to ensure effective relationship management, clients are given a questionnaire that enables both marketers and agencies to rate themselves to determine what they should be doing differently or placing more focus on.

Importantly, this removes the likelihood of any party producing word soup in a process that demands hearty, robust metrics.

You may also be interested in reading How do you measure the value of an intermediary and Mutuality: They key to intermediary efficacy

Most admired marketing professionals revealed

Our globally standardised methodology allows Scopen Africa to research trends with first-hand information that provides a unique strategic vision for marketing and agency professionals and media owners," says Cesar Vacchiano, Scopen Global CEO and cofounder, who was recently in South Africa to present the results of the Agency Scope 2021/2022 study to agencies who have subscribed to the report.

Agency Scope South Africa 2021/22 is the fourth edition of the study on our shores, where face-to-face (F2F) video call interviews through Computer Aided Web Interview (CAWI) totalled 465 interviews, including 239 marketing professionals from 158 companies; 156 creative agency professionals; 50 media agency professionals and 20 media owners.

While the size of the Agency Scope study matters, how Scopen Africa drills down to determine the top ten marketing professionals is of equal importance. In reviewing marketers who work with creative and media agencies, data includes location and type of company, from multinational to NGO; through to interviewee’s profile, job title and decision-making level across all business sectors.

Importantly, the interviews with marketing leaders are not a Q&A plug-in response exercise, but a 60-minute dialogue that enables an in-depth evaluation of their skills, how they conduct their campaigns, percentage of ad spend related to turnover and how they market their companies.

Professionalism above popularity

It’s vital to note here that the marketing professionals are being rated by their own colleagues and peers, which results in Scopen Africa’s analysis to determine the top ten marketing professionals in an equitable and precise business manner rather than industry popularity or personal acclaim.

Equally important but in a far briefer, 15-minute exchange, agencies rank marketers on topics such as how they run their companies and how easy they are to work with, among others. Scopen Africa analysis allows us to publish an aggregation of all results.

The following marketing professionals were identified as Most Admired Marketing Professionals, in order of importance:

#1 Thulani Sibeko, Standard Bank
#2 Doug Place, Nando’s
#3 Khensani Nobanda, Nedbank
#4 Sydney Mbhele, Sanlam
#5 Nontokozo Madonsela, Momentum Metropolitan
#6 Chantal Sombonos-Van Tonder, Chicken Licken
#7 Heidi Brauer, Hollard Insurance
#8 Abey Mokgwatsane, Vodacom
#8 Andrea Quaye, Coca-Cola
#8 Bernice Samuels, MTN
#8 Suhayl Limbada, KFC

Says Johanna McDowell, Scopen Africa managing partner and CEO of the Independent Agency Search and Selection company (IAS): “As we begin to present results of Agency Scope South Africa 2021/22, look out for further snippets and insights from the data that we have gleaned – probably the most comprehensive that we have ever seen in South Africa.”

Read this online here

Winners of the IAS Agency Credentials Award for 2021

Winners of the IAS Agency Credentials Award for 2021 include Gorilla, Hill+Knowlton Strategies and Mark1 who achieved Bronze Awards. Penquin follows with Leader Award.

The Assegai Integrated Marketing Awards, in conjunction with the IAS (Independent Agency Search and Selection) is proud to announce the winners of the prestigious IAS Agency Credentials Award. Gorilla, Hill+Knowlton Strategies and Mark 1 achieved Bronze Awards, with Penquin following with a Leader Award.

Although this award was inaugurated in 2016, IAS recently revitalised their relationship with the Direct Marketing Association of South Africa (DMASA) - organisers of the Assegai Awards - in order to “relaunch” the IAS Credentials Award this year. The award ceremony took place on 11 November 2021 in Melrose, Johannesburg. Entries were received from creative, digital and media agencies.

Judges included several leading South African marketers as well as international judge Cesar Vacchiano who is president and Global CEO of SCOPEN International. Nikki Munsie, Business Director and Hlamazi Mabunda, Project Director of the IAS were also part of the judging panel.

According to Vacchiano, “The judges were quite specific about the criteria and the winning entries certainly displayed evidence of an agency that was clear about their focus and positioning. The credentials entries provided the judges with insight into the agency culture and the successes of the work that they are doing for their clients. ROI was clearly evident.”

Johanna McDowell, founder and CEO of the IAS, comments: “We are committed to our partnership with DMASA and will continue to offer the Credentials Award. All winners of which there were three Bronze awards and one Leadership award submitted excellent credentials. We would like to encourage more agencies to enter this award in the future because it will give them an opportunity to showcase their agency to the significant number of leading marketers on the judging panel,” concludes McDowell.

How do you measure the value of an intermediary?

The cornerstone of any intermediary’s function is to deliver value – noticeable, measureable value.

Expert intermediaries provide valuable benefits for both marketers and agencies, and the result of their input is visible across a number of important areas in a marketer-agency relationships. It starts with the in depth knowledge a good intermediary has about both parties, and an audit that supports this knowledge.

When reviewing a marketer /agency relationship or even a campaign, the marketer should be asking “What did your work do for the brand?” and the agency should be able to respond with the measured results achieved.

The onus is of course on the marketer to ensure that clear measurable brand and sales objectives, as well as results, are communicated to the agency. In assisting both parties, the intermediary – sometimes referred to as pitch consultants – must keep this clear objective in mind throughout the process.

The value of these engagements is delivered by the intermediary in guiding the marketer and agency in the setting of the correct objectives and standards and measuring them against real-world efficiency improvements. The potentially costly part of non-delivery here is where intermediaries bring real value: How is the relationship delivering for the brand? What has growth been like? Has business or brand reputation been enhanced?

As we continue to recover and reignite relationships and the energy they should create together post-pandemic, IAS intermediaries are being called on to work with clients to ensure the marketer has a clear idea of what they want to achieve, and the agency has equal clarity on how to achieve that.

A recent request from a client saw the IAS auditing the relationship between and agency and a marketer to determine why it appeared that the answer to “What did your work do for the brand?” was eluding the agency. A review of the work required and the work produced showed that, somewhere between lockdown and coming to terms with new ways of communicating, the brief wasn’t what it used to be or should be.

Our intermediary engaged the marketer and the agency and did a quick but important refresher on how to deliver a brief that tells an agency upfront and out loud precisely what the marketer is looking to achieve. In every single case, a robust, well-delivered brief can set the tone for a successful campaign or entire relationship.

Our industry has always known the value of salvaging a once-productive relationship rather than starting a new one, and it is in the intermediary’s ability to review without fear or favour, produce facts and measurables, and open the channels of communication between all parties that the real value of an intermediary is clear.

To read this online click here

You may also be interested in Mutuality - The key to intermediary efficacy

Mutuality: the key to intermediary efficacy

Bringing two parties together without taking ownership of the service or result is an exercise in tightrope management and ensuring everybody wins.

Also called funambulism, the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope is not unlike the skill required of an intermediary where the balance between what the marketer wants and what the agency provides must have a mutually beneficial outcome.

The real dexterity needed in these negotiations is for the intermediary to navigate the line between the marketer and the agency in a way that they bring both onto the tightrope without either falling off. It’s a skill that takes years to perfect.

The pandemic brought with it challenges that intermediaries must now take into consideration as our markets start to open up. During the various lockdowns and the protocol they brought, many marketers developed closer relationships with their agencies than they’d had before.

It stands to reason – with remote working and communications restricted to video conferencing, the parties’ reliance on each other over the last 18 months was strong. There was little chance that either party was going to leave a relationship that could sustain the business during the pandemic, hence the reliance.

Agencies had greater access to clients and both groups were under pressure to make relationships work to ensure the brand came out on top. IAS intermediaries were kept extremely busy, as I’m sure others were. It was vital for marketers and agencies to have someone to provide insights as they navigated the high wire under unprecedented circumstances.

Gearing up for the post-pandemic reboot

As the markets across South Africa reboot and companies go back to the office – or opt for hybrid working models – we may see some marketers on the lookout for new agencies, and agencies also taking stock.

I don’t think this should cause concern for the organisations that forged deeper relationships during the lockdowns, but it is clear that intermediaries will be involved in discussions to help all parties navigate getting back to normal where “normal” may well be different from before.

It’s appears to us at the IAS that most would prefer getting back to the energy and innovation they get from working alongside colleagues, especially in creative arenas.

Either way, having an intermediary take the stress out of getting back to an office or getting used to hybrid arrangement is key as they work as a buffer that protects both parties and guides the focus back to the tightrope that that leads to the ultimate goal: Getting the work out.

You may be interested in reading Task of the Intermediary - walking clients through hard choices

Scopen conducts a study to analyse the involvement of companies with SDGs

On behalf of the Colombian Union of Advertising Companies (UCEP), Scopen has carried out market research to analyse the role of companies operating in the marketing and communications industry in Latin America, with regard to meeting sustainability goals.

The study took place between June and July 2021 across 13 countries on the American continent, with a total of 163 marketing and communications professionals (advertisers, agencies, media, NGOs / foundations, public companies, associations and freelancers) participating.

Asked about the words most associated with sustainability, “environment” appears first, followed by “responsibility” and “future”. Respondents also maintain that the sustainability goals they consider companies to be most involved with are good work, economic growth, gender equality and the creation of alliances to achieve objectives.

However, looking ahead, they plan to place more emphasis on other goals such as sustainable cities and communities, quality education and clean water and sanitation.

Actions currently taken by study participants to comply with sustainable goals include improving living conditions, followed by working to reduce environmental impact; promoting diversity, equality and inclusion; and a focus on the circular economy.

Companies and brands in the marketing and communications industry are especially involved in complying with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal SDG-12, which guarantees procedures for responsible production and consumption. Fifty-four percent (54%) of the leaders interviewed rank its importance at 9 or 10 on a scale from 0 to 10 - above the average for other goals, where Brazil and Colombia are the countries with the highest concern at 8.3.

Fulfillment of sustainability goals

Industry leaders suggest they can best work towards the fulfilment of sustainability goals, in particular, through “the creation of communication and awareness campaigns that value sustainability”.

During the interviews, professionals were also asked about the brands and/or companies in their region that, in their opinion, stand out with their commitment to sustainability goals. The most mentioned ones were recognised by the new Sustainability Awards held at the Latin American Summit of the Creative Economy + CTG, which took place recently.

In Latam, Natura was awarded first prize, with Grupo Nutresa taking second prize and third going to Unilever. Other finalist brands were ABInbev, Alpina, Alquería, Bancolombia, Coca-Cola, Grupo Argos, Grupo Sura and Nestlé.

In Colombia, the winning brands were once again led by Grupo Nutresa, with Alpina taking second prize and Grupo Argos third.

César Vacchiano, president and CEO of Scopen, says: “It is very rewarding to verify the degree of involvement of Latam companies with the fulfillment of the sustainable development objectives

“At this point, there is a vital focus on equality issues and, when analysing future efforts, equality gives way to other important matters, which shows a belief that equality goals will be achieved in the short-medium term.

“The actions promoted by UN Women and their support for events such as + CTG undoubtedly contribute to this.”

Ximena Tapias, president of UCEP and + CTG adds: “At UCEP we are focused on building on important issues within the industry. This study and the new awards within the framework of + CTG are a proof of our commitment.

“We will continue to revisit this study in future and believe it will be very interesting to see how the analysed indicators evolve."

When accepting first prize at the 2021 Sustainability Awards, Alexandre Lemos, General Manager of Natura Colombia, said: "I am very proud to accept this award on behalf of Natura.

“I want to give a special thanks to our entire network of Natura consultants and all the company collaborators, as this achievement has been a collective one, where we have all immersed sustainability in our processes.

“It is thanks to this network and their total commitment to sustainability that we are receiving this recognition today. Despite the obstacles caused by the global pandemic, we managed to work as a team and joined forces to make Natura the company we all want it to be.

“With our ‘Commitment to Life’ initiative launched a year ago as part of our 2030 sustainability vision, we will continue to intensify our actions to address the climate crisis, protect the Amazon rainforest and guarantee equality and diversity in the world.”

Contract negotiation: When trust is virtually indispensable

Intermediaries are playing a bigger role in contract negotiations, online and offline.

Intermediaries have become more important, and their scope has broadened to accommodate a number of operations companies would ordinarily have taken on themselves. One area of intermediaries’ knowledge that marketers are making the most is in contract negotiations.

This is a vital part of the new relationship, as the tone of the discussion or a word used out of context can easily damage a relationship before it gets going.

As an intermediary, the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) plays a pivotal role in ensuring the correct key performance indicators (KPIs) for performance management are included at the start of contract negotiations, thereby ensuring clarity on what must be achieved and how this achievement can be measured. If this is not given enough thought upfront, it is likely to affect the relationship down the road.

Where trust is questioned, discussions will usually not run smoothly, and where negotiations about financials previously took place largely through a series of emails, tone was easily misread and integrity placed in question.

With virtual communication now so commonplace, the cyber face-to-face discussion is as meaningful as being in the same room with all parties. Virtual can, however, prove challenging when, for example, not all cameras are turned on for a more open, engaging meeting where all parties feel comfortable.

To maintain transparency and keep everyone on track, the savvy intermediary will use their well-honed people skills to work through the small issues and get the job done.

Intermediary as the touchpoint

Under the conditions set out by pandemic protocol, the intermediary is the touchpoint that provides impartial information to all stakeholders and brings to the table an in-depth knowledge of the agency: client needs, expectations and the actions that best allow for this to be managed.  

They also bring expert understanding of realistic resourcing required to meet contract objectives and outcomes. Their role is to manage expectations and ensure frustration does not derail the process, by implementing their knowledge of the companies involved, requirements and individual players’ specialised skills.

The trust marketers are placing in intermediaries when choices are determined by outside forces is well earned, and with the intricate negotiations contracts demand, every marketer should be asking themselves, “What should we be looking for in an agency intermediary?”

The answer, I believe, must begin with “an entity we trust”.

Client-agency partnerships now more important than ever

The past 18 months have brought about a once-in-a-lifetime experience for marketers and agencies. The partners in the relationship have had to rely on each other more than ever before, points out Johanna McDowell, CEO of the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) and Scopen partner – and it’s been a good test.

“Agencies have been expected to go above and beyond during this time,” she says, adding that those who have done so have succeeded in retaining their clients. 

The only potential downside, she says, is that they might have compromised more than normal on costs.

“The uncertainty has continued long beyond what we thought it would be 18 months ago, and though some marketers are now starting to look beyond the pandemic and at what they will need for the future, client-agency partnerships that were forged through the worst of the pandemic have become even more important,” she says.

There is no question that there is a benefit to long-term partnerships between marketers and their creative and media agencies. Successfully managing them requires the understanding of each other’s roles and requirements. Rough patches are inevitable, McDowell says. “Getting past rough patches requires careful management. The key to partnership success is how these rough patches are navigated, smoothed over and adapted to by both parties with key goals firmly in place.”

Agency-client relationships that are enduring – and succeeding – are the result of innovation, proactivity and a real sense of shared responsibility for tangible business results, says McDowell.

Scopen research reveals that the length of a marketer’s relationship with its creative agency is an average of 4.5 years, and typically ends as a result of poor account service, internal agency processes, lack of creativity or a failure to meet deadlines. The research reveals that a marketer’s relationship with its media agency typically lasts 4.7 years and tends to end due to bad account service, poor value for money or an unreasonable fee, and internal changes or new ways of working.

However, as McDowell explains, there is a cost to ending the relationship. “Besides the parting of ways, there is the challenge of finding a new agency and developing a relationship, which can take months before it functions optimally and produces the required outputs.”

That is why she recommends establishing a management structure from the outset that includes the flexibility required to accommodate market changes over time.

The Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) and Scopen will be sponsoring the 2021 FM AdFocus Partnership of the Year Award.

IAS to host virtual Marketers in Conversation

The Independent Agency Search and Selection Company (IAS) will be hosting the first virtual Marketers in Conversation on 12 October.

The event is meant to facilitate open discussion and networking in a forum that provides a safe place among peers.

Johanna McDowell, CEO of the IAS and Scopen partner, said the session will be an invitation-only event once a quarter, where CMOs can discuss issues that affect them and the industry in a relaxed and candid manner.

“The IAS is well-placed to facilitate these sessions, and notes the value of collaboration between marketers who are facing a rapidly changing landscape,” said McDowell. “We feel it’s important to keep senior decision-makers talking with their peers, and we will be inviting a topic leader to add insight at each session.”

With its affiliation to Scopen, McDowell said participating CMOs will have access to others from across Africa and the UK, and the knowledge gleaned from IAS relationships and data from some 12 countries.

The beauty of virtual sessions, McDowell noted, is the ease with which people can come together who ordinarily may never meet. “The sessions are held in camera, and it is our understanding from our Agency Scope studies that senior marketers would value the opportunity to share ideas.”

The topic for the first session is ‘Brand building in a post-Covid world’, and the IAS is expecting some enlightening engagement on the subject.

For more information, contact robynne@agencyselection.co.za.

NOTES FROM A MASTERCLASS - THE CRITICAL ROLE OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE (CX)

A lively debate between five panel members – all with expertise in the above area – took place at our most recent masterclass at the end of September.  Our five panellists were:

Maja Smith – Former Head of Customer Experience at Ford Motor Company – now Head of After Sales

Palesa Tshabala – GM Marketing and Head of Brand Experience at Nando’s

Heidi Brauer – CMO of Hollard Insurance

Haydn Townsend – Managing Director – Accenture Interactive

Kevin Power – Managing Director – Conversation Lab

With an audience of more than 35 agency and marketing executives in the audience, the debate got off to a flying start with viewpoints on where customer experience sits in an organisation.  Does it belong to marketing?  Or does it belong on its own but across the entire organisation – with marketing only involved in the communication aspects? 

The panel had wide ranging views on this particular question – and all three of the brands commented that, although their respective organisations spent a lot of time collecting data from the customer journey relative to their particular companies, how to action this data and what it could mean was the much bigger issue.

More and more, customer experience needs to happen “in real time” not after the fact.  This means that front line staff and executives need to be highly trained and highly skilled in solving issues.  “No one remembers a perfect customer experience” said one panellist – but everyone remembers a bad or difficult situation that was resolved expertly, efficiently and with real empathy. 

How can agencies help marketers with customer experience issues? And indeed can they?

Generally – the view was that agency partners need to be empowered by marketers to assist them in the quest but agencies need to spend time understanding the client’s business as well as the client understands it.  

Is there a gap in the understanding of customer experience?  Yes – the panel members concluded that agencies do not necessarily understand the customer journey as well as they could do.

Although the importance of customer experience has been around for many years, it has become more of a focus since the advent of online communication and social media and the ability of customers to be able to talk directly to brands.  Having the fairly instant feedback, direct communication channels, has enabled more of the stakeholders in an organisation to understand what customers are looking for and what they need.  There is a much greater level of two-way interaction.  However – this often has to be focused on and forced across the organisation in order for those executives who do not have direct interface experiences with customers to understand better.

Tips on customer experience? 

• Customers do not want to fill out a form – they want immediate answers

• Customer experience can be predicted and planned

• Make sure everyone in the organisation understands that “ it takes a village to build a brand” commented one panellist

• CX is the future – investment in this area is key and critical to success

• Collecting the data is pointless unless you have tested the reason for collecting it first. Make sure that the data has a relevance and purpose and can be used in future – thus avoiding the mountains of useless data.

• Tech has enabled CX so far but the intersection of tech and the human intervention is the critical point.

Task of the intermediary: Walking clients through hard choices

It’s one thing to embrace the thought of a new idea, but another thing entirely to face the fear of implementation and take action.

Marketers are usually open to new ideas and embrace them, but when it comes to implementation, then nerves and uncertainty can set in. This is where knowing what you don’t know – but knowing someone who does – is key.

The Covid-19 pandemic brought with it much uncertainty and caution became the watchword across many industries. As we move towards recovery, everyone is looking for growth and marketers are no exception. What needs to be dealt with first, however, is “analysis paralysis”, the over-thinking that can result in high stress and missed opportunities.

This is when intermediaries provide real value. Being aware of marketers’ increased openness to new ideas right now and the role we can play in providing facts, figures and formulas that best suit all parties.

Supporting clients with knowledge

Because organisations like the IAS have in-depth knowledge of marketers, agencies and global trends around what is working for both, we’re able to present an array of tried-and-tested options targeted at the specific tasks at hand.

The more alternatives an intermediary can present, the greater the confidence clients have that they are not being pigeon-holed into choices or using certain platforms and agencies just because they’re out there. For example, prior to the pandemic, budget set aside for digital media was growing fairly steadily.

Enter the sudden need to provide solutions for people working from home and the amount of spend being allocated to digital his risen rapidly and will continue to do so. According to leading intermediary, AAR Partners in the US, by 2023 65% of media budget in the US market will be spent on digital platforms.   This involves a step-change in thinking by marketers as they look to select the best fit-for-future creative and media agencies.

South Africa’s digital spend figures showed an uptick of around 36% just a few months ago, and it looks like it’s already sitting at 40%. SCOPEN notes that China, Brazil and the UK are also seeing an increase, not just in spend but in the platforms available to marketers.

Choices, choices everywhere…

Having observed the options coming thick and fast in technology and agencies that are able to extract value from them almost immediately, marketers are open to doing things differently – and more so when they have the guidance of intermediaries.

The impartiality of professional intermediaries offers a reticent-to-spend organisation the guidance needed to know where their money will buy solid results and which agency options they choose will see them through campaigns that require different ways of reaching an audience unlikely to go back to how things were done before.

Importantly, understanding that clients need to resolve specific issues using best-fit technology and analytics that show their agency choices were worthwhile is a vital part of what the intermediary does – and knows – best.

You may also be interested in reading Breadth of digital choices creating confusion and When the pitch is a small part of the whole

Intermediaries, handover and pandemic protocols

In this article, I take a look at how intermediaries are assisting with good solid handovers at the end of the pitch process during the Covid period - and succeeding virtually and effectively...

Where a new agency is appointed by the client, the outgoing agency must undertake a proper handover of all the work they have completed for the client. And this is where the intermediary’s audit begins. Both the client and the new agency will be counting on a robust appraisal that will enable them to take up the new account quickly and seamlessly.

With the protocols demanded by Covid in an industry that can’t put operations on hold, intermediaries are far more involved than ever before in every area of the transition. Preparations for these discussions are critical, and planning must include the finest detail to ensure transparency and legal compliance.

Since virtual became the new boardroom, intermediaries have found adapting to online meetings both easier and more difficult. One such tight-rope walk is the agency handover process.

Skills to manage the quality of handover

The real work for intermediaries is managing expectations and keeping relationships on track, resulting in a quality handover. Any handover requires a foundation, a starting point that brings transparency to the whole process. It begins with the audit.

All the data pertaining to the outgoing agency and the client must be collated and backed up to a hard drive or to the cloud. A misstep here can result in dirty data, creating problems down the line.

It takes great skill to understand and moderate this very sensitive process for all, especially where the agency handing over is likely to be busy looking for new opportunities or – at worst – having to lay staff off. The incoming agency wants to familiarise themselves quickly, but is wholly reliant on the outgoing agency and the client working together.

Also, the client is likely to want to brief the new agency on new work. There is a pent up demand, as most marketers would have held off new briefings until the newly-appointed agency is on board.

Narrow down any potential margin of error

Financial documentation must be checked and referenced, and it’s the intermediary’s job to ensure clean, quality data. The IAS, for example, has a specific formula for handovers which narrows any potential margin of error and ensures the quickest possible process. Included in this important documentation is the assurance that the previous agency has been paid, and whether credit notes are settled. Closing off a relationship with complete financial transparency between the parties is key.

The process can take several months and quality will result in issues that will have lasting effects on the various relationships. Paradoxically, these lasting effects can be very good – or just the opposite.

Aside from the traditional – and vital – processes, planning must go into ensuring all parties are able to deliver their goods at the same time in the same cyberspace, with the intermediary creating a space where compassion for the outgoing agency meets the enthusiasm of the incoming, and the client is kept abreast of every stage.

This can sometimes take anywhere from three months upwards, depending on how ready and willing all parties are to commit to the audit and the process it underpins. The intermediary’s business acumen and people skills must prepare us for all eventualities – especially in the ether that is MS Teams.

Fortunately, it appears that intermediaries were quick off the mark when taking their skills online as Covid 19 hit, and all parties in any handover are placing more and more trust in them and their ability to be the non-partial knowledge provider.

It’s also apparent that, while some will go back to face-to-face negotiations, many have found online saves time, and its ability to record all discussions a plus in total recall of the process.

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