Robin Wight, President of ENGINE

TH: What Does the Robin Wight brand stand for?

RW: A brand that stands for more than one thing arguably stands for nothing. So although my brand ‘colour’ might be purple, and my brand narrative might be “interrogate the product until it confesses to its strength”, I would hope there is one central thought that unties both of these concepts. And this is the concept I invented about “conviction brands”.

Back in 1994, when I was part of the team that created the Orange brand, I invented the notion that many of the most successful brands had an “inner belief” about the way they should be. So, Orange, had inner belief about the way mobile phones should be marketed, BMW believes that every car should be rear-wheel drive (even though consumers aren’t particularly fazed) and Apple believes that its products should look “good enough to lick” etc, etc. And like these successful brands, I would hope that my own approach to communication and marketing may also be something of a conviction brand.

TH: You’ve described the advertising industry as “a great place for misfits”. Do you think it is still?

RW: One of my founding partners, the late Ron Collins, used to say that, “nothing of merit is ever achieved by reasonable people”. Behind almost all of the great communication campaigns I suspect that there is a misfit. If not, it’s likely to be an idea that is simply going with the grain, that is professional but lacks that magic which creativity can provide. The most successful agencies are the ones who attract the misfits and manage them better.

TH: Your career has spanned over 40 years, which brands have you particularly enjoyed working with and why?

RW: The first thing to be said is that any client that has been kind enough to entrust us with their communication is one that I am profoundly grateful for.
I am particularly grateful to those of whom – at the end of the day – we didn’t do great work for, for whatever reason. But over the long term, there are 3 brands that particularly stand out.

The first is BMW, for whom we brought ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’ from America to create a campaign that’s now in its 33rd year.  However, our very first campaign, featuring Kirk Douglas, was an absolute disaster – apart from the endline – so I’m grateful to BMW for allowing us to get it wrong before we got it right.

Secondly, I’m really grateful to Orange for rejecting the consumer research which said that our positioning for Orange, around a “wire free future”, was wrong.

I’ll always be indebted to the then Marketing Director, Chris Moss, whose instinct said that this might be the right way to build a new sort of mobile brand. And five years later he was proved right, when the company was sold for £29billion.

Chris Moss, now CEO of FAMOSS ltd

And thirdly, again with Chris Moss, was the achievement of getting 118 118 into the brains of British consumers so that they couldn’t forget it, even if they wanted to. Chris’s boldness in allowing us to have two crazy moustachioed runners, and doing enough to create new British folk heroes, is an example of a brilliant client.

More recently, there are three campaigns I’m particularly happy to have seen WCRS doing. The first is the Christmas movies advert for Sky, which a million people downloaded from YouTube. That’s an extraordinary achievement.

Then, for Churchill, it’s been a pleasure to work with the team there, helping develop the Martin Clunes campaign which is a classic example of how the well established campaign can be redeveloped with further creativity.

And finally, for Bupa the latest campaign telling the true story of someone who’s staying in a Bupa care home, shows how real emotion can help build a brand.

TH: What successful campaigns have you done recently?

RW: Most of the work I do now is strategic rather than operating as a copywriter – which is how I first came into the industry many years ago. And quite a lot of my work is in New Business, which obviously I can’t talk about in an interview. What I do enjoy is being plugged-in to campaign development and being allowed to make some contribution, as I have with a campaign that’s being developed for Radox at the moment. I’m really optimistic this will prove to be a breakthrough campaign and I’m happy to even contribute to the slogan!

TH: You talk about ‘creative edge’. What makes Engine different?

RW: I took four young graduate trainees, who are half way through their first year at Engine, to dinner recently. And while none of them are officially in a “creative” role, they demonstrated the creative edge that sets Engine aside from other communication businesses.

Unlike any other graduate training scheme, we place each trainee with four different businesses (out of our ten) to create multi-skilled talent that other businesses don’t have.

We also do this, to some extent, with our creatives looking for extra bandwidth and providing job swaps so that nobody at Engine, be they a creative planner or an account handler, feels like they are in a silo.

And this is the creative edge.

We can genuinely say to a client. “Don’t give us a brief, give us a problem”.

And by having this broader bandwidth of creativity, because of the way we train and nurture our people, we have an edge over our competitors.

TH: What makes a good marketing director in the current economic climate?

RW: I don’t think that the economic climate is the crucial factor in being a good marketing director.

The best marketing directors I’ve worked with have had, at their heart, an instinctive feeling for what is right for the brand and what communication can deliver for the brand.

These are not marketing directors who rely on focus group research to make their decisions.

Now, I know in tough economic times some marketing directors may be tempted to “play safe” and not take risks with their communication.

In fact, when economic times are tough it’s even more important to find a way to cut through to the audiences without having to spend more money.

The good marketing director is the one who takes the risks and is rewarded in the market place.

Tom Holmes talking to Robin Wight, President of Engine

TH: Of the leading marketers you know, who are the most impressive?

RW: Well, naturally, all the marketing directors who have appointed Engine to work for them! But if I was to pick out one or two marketing directors whose work really shines out I would have to look at Unilever. Unilever, over the last decade, has transformed its communication from being average to being outstanding – with campaigns such as Dove and Lynx to name but two.

The first of Unilever’s marketing directors who began this transformation was Simon Clift – incidentally now a Non-Executive Director of Engine. He was by no means a typical Unilever person but had the wit, intelligence and courage to unlock the creativity of his agencies to do some of the best work that they produced. Then when he left, Keith Weed – now Chief Marketing Officer of Unilever and, for the first time I believe, on the main board of Unilever – has taken this even further. He’s just been around the world with his Vice-President of Marketing, Marc Mathieu, with a presentation about “magic not logic”. For Unilever to be preaching this message is hugely encouraging to all the Unilever agencies – which WCRS (one of the Engine companies) became when Unilever acquired Radox.

Sometimes the hardest marketing task is to raise the standard of advertising and performance in businesses that have got very rigid methodologies. Unilever – with Simon Clift and Keith Weed – has done a remarkable job in bringing a revolution to what had been one of the sleeping giants of the communication world and that deserves huge applause.

Simon Clift, Keith Weed

TH: What do you think of the UK’s marketing reputation globally?

RW: Well if we look at the Cannes Awards we can see clearly that the UK is not the advertising leader it once was. But if you think about it, once developing markets started developing their own advertising – rather than just having advertising produced in the US or UK- it was fairly inevitable that their national creativity would come up with brilliant work.

And when you visit some of the large multi-nationals – be it Unilever, Nestlé or Coca-Cola, you will find many people from Non-European or American nations working in key marketing roles so the pressure in the UK is to ensure that its creativity – both in communication and management – outperforms that of its global rivals. And I think this is still possible. Whether you are talking about music or games or advertising, there’s something about the British gene pool that has creativity inside it.

Our schools certainly need to do more to nourish the creativity of students -  which is something the Ideas Foundation, which I set up in 2004, is trying to do.
And I also think that we don’t have enough diversity in the advertising industry and we therefore waste the creativity from cultures that originated outside the UK. So I think, overall, the reputation is in need of extra creative effort from all of us and particularly to recognise the need for finding young creatives in marketing or in management to help get our reputation right at the top of the global league table.

TH: In 2003 you founded the Ideas Foundation, what did you set out to achieve?

RW: The mission of the Ideas Foundation is to help unlock the creativity of young people whose creativity has been overlooked in our exam focused school system. We focus on disadvantaged young people, particularly from ethnic minorities. It’s not just morally wrong – that ethnic diversity is so absent from the advertising industry – it’s a waste of a huge amount of talent that the nation and the industry can’t afford. Our programme is expanding every year: last year around 1000 young people were involved in our programmes and now we have 120 mentors from advertising agencies, and we’re starting to get some major brands, such as Vodafone, Aviva and The Sun, involved in our programme.

Most importantly, the first group of young people who have come through our programme are now getting their start in the industry. And that’s the real goal: that within five years we’ll see a radical change in the level of diversity within the communication industry.

The peacock’s tail and the reputation reflex: the neuroscience of art sponsorship

TH: In 2007 you published The Peacock’s Tail, why did this come about?

RW: This came about after I’d been Chairman, for seven years, of Arts & Business, a not-for-profit which was trying to encourage businesses to invest more in supporting the arts. And though we’ve done very well in terms of “instrumental” sponsorship for the arts (such as educational workshops for an opera house) we’ve done less well for “intrinsic” support for the arts – the actual sponsorship of the opera itself. So the purpose of my investigation was to see if there was a biological purpose of art that would help support intrinsic sponsorship of the arts. And that, when one studied the evolutionary psychology, the cognitive psychology and the neuroscience, was what the science revealed.

One side effect from this slender volume was that it led me into the area of Brain Science and a whole range of studies which, until very recently, our industry has ignored. These range from Behavioural Economics, FMR brain scanning and numerous studies showing the limited value of focus group discussions etc, etc. While the book was intended for the world of art, it ended up being of value to me in the world of advertising, too.

TH: You are a friend of Richard Dawkins…

RW: I have always been a great admirer of Richard Dawkins and I was hugely honoured when he offered to write a foreword to ‘The Peacock’s Tail’ but I had originally met him about ten years previously to talk about ‘memes’, which he invented in ‘The Selfish Gene’. ‘Memes’ can be seen as analogies to genes – ideas that reproduce – be they ideas about religions or ideas about brands and I would argue that what we are all, essentially, ‘memes’ managers, helping to create a ‘meme-plex’ which is a bundle of ideas that spread from brain to brain to brain and – if the right marketing steps are taken – become deeply imbedded in consumer’s brains.

Slogans are an obvious example of this, as are jingles. And I would argue that some of the old fashioned sloganeering and jingling techniques meant that some advertisers had instinctively understood what memes are about.

Interestingly these ‘memes’ can be so powerful that they live on long after the brand has chosen to drop them. For example, The Future’s Bright, The Future’s Orange, is present in many brains even though Orange has – in my view, unwisely – decided to drop it. So if you do manage to get a ‘meme’ into a consumer’s brain, you are strongly advised to keep on supporting that campaign and that property, rather than coming up with a new idea – however much you may be tempted, just to win an advertising award.

Richard Dawkins

TH: Both your Grandfathers were MPs…

RW: I have a picture of one of my Great Grandparents who was an MP in my flat in London – and I am very proud to have this in my family history.

And it perhaps played some role in my decision to try to enter Parliament, in 1987, when I stood as the Conservative candidate for Bishop Auckland, Co Durham.

It was an amazing experience and I think what I mainly learnt is how determination can make a difference to a campaign.

We were never going to win as it had been a safe Labour seat since the invention of the Labour Party. Derek Foster, who retained the seat for Labour, attracted 25,000 votes but I managed to attract over 19,000 votes and no Conservative candidate, before or since, has had that level of votes in any General Election. So I was very proud of the achievement. I fondly remember our campaign jingle – “Yes, it’s true, Wight can be Blue”!

However, while I really enjoyed the experience of campaigning the more I looked at Parliament – though I would have been attracted to the cut and thrust of debate – I felt that my skills weren’t best suited to that environment. I’m essentially an Ideas man, not a Committee man and I therefore chose to do things where I could come up with ideas, this included helping to raise £50m for The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, helping Arts & Business grow its role in fundraising and, most recently, helping to give The Ideas Foundation a significant voice in getting ethnic minorities into creative businesses. I still work in the world of political ideas – including running an Anti-Gordon Brown campaign in the last General Election – but the House of Commons will not be disrupted by my presence!

TH: And your next big project?

RW: I’m hoping to do some television projects in 2012. Watch this space.

TH: Thank you Robin.

Tom Holmes outside ENGINE at 60 Great Portland Street, London W1W 7RT

The incumbent to the £10m+ account was Ogilvy, who were also involved in the process.

The appointment indicates RSA’s intention to take a new creative direction in the Eastern European markets.

Sol, the Heineken International owned brand, has appointed The Marketing Store as its new global activation agency.

The agency were invited to pitch for the business after impressing during (though not winning) another review for the global activation account on Strongbow Gold; also handled by creativebrief.

Speaking about The Marketing Store’s appointment, Vicente Cortina, Sol Global Marketing Manager, said: “We are very pleased to welcome The Marketing Store to the Sol family. They are the final piece in our world class agency puzzle. The four key things that impressed us were The Marketing Store’s Strategic Focus, Global Approach, Creativity and their Passion”.

The agency will work alongside BBH who won the global lead on the account through a seperate review handled by creativebrief in March 2011.

Lisa Bonney Managing Director, The Marketing Store said: “We are delighted to kick off 2012 announcing this win. Sol is a great brand with a proud heritage; we are looking forward to working with such an ambitious creative client”.

The agency beat numerous other agencies to the business including the incumbent The Big Kick

They will work on a retained basis with Birds Eye across their entire product range, covering duties in DM, Sales Promotion, Experiential, Shopper Marketing and Digital.

Check out a link to the article in Campaign here.

If you’d like to know any more specific detail about this brief or any others in the pipeline, then don’t hesitate to give our team a call.

Claire Andrews, Marketing Director, Mazda UK

TH: As Marketing Director of Mazda UK what are your key responsibilities?

CA: I am responsible for all elements of the Marketing mix – from integrated National and Dealer Communications to Experiential, Brand, Social, CRM, Retail Promotional Campaigns and Product Management which includes setting the pricing and specification for all Mazda vehicles sold in the UK market.

People management is also a key part of my responsibility which is really rewarding. I love developing talent and giving my team the opportunity to move onwards and upwards in their careers.

TH: Your career has spanned Norwich Union Insurance, Lotus Cars and Mazda Motors, what have been the high points?

CA: Taking a new product to market is always exciting but when that product is a sports car that definitely registers as a high point. I launched the Lotus Elise Mk II at the British Motor Show which was a showstopper as the UK hadn’t seen a true all-new British sports car launch for a while.

Launching the Mazda RX-8 was also incredible as rotary engine cars are so unique – it really captured the public and media’s attention.

Developing the Mazda RX-8 PZ Limited Edition was a high point as it went on to achieve iconic status amongst sports cars.

Mazda RX-8 PZ Limited Edition

TH: What are the main challenges for your sector/category over the next 12 months?

CA: The economic climate hit the car industry hard last year, with consumer confidence at an all time low for making a major purchase, and this is forecasted to continue throughout 2012.

Interestingly, the sector is divided between unbeatable value from relatively young Korean brands with favourable export exchange rates and premium brands which are now more affordable due to retail consumer finance or low CO2 for company car drivers.

In 2012 the battle for market leader will intensify as VW continues to steal share from Ford and Vauxhall with their value campaign. New environmental technology will also take centre stage in a world where affordability and practicality will increasingly be overriding concerns. In this respect, the ones to watch are VW Up and the Mazda CX-5 powered by our ground-breaking SKYACTIV technology.

From a consumer perspective, 2012 will be a great year to buy a car – finance permitting!

TH: What work have you done recently that makes you the most proud?

CA: Being the only automotive partner in the launch of Facebook Deals was fantastic.

Effective online social content to drive offline in-showroom purchase was extremely successful and we retailed 100 Mazda MX-5’s in under two weeks!

Digital innovation is key to stand out against the big traditional media spenders in our category. I’m particularly proud of our mobile presence as we’ve been recognised by Google for having one of the best mobile automotive sites.

Our new dealer websites are also category leading in terms of providing our retailer partners with mobile sites as well as a state of the art web platform dedicated to retailing; including e-commerce which is surprisingly unusual for car brands.

The dealer website solution puts the customer at the heart which is something our sector sometimes falls behind on compared to other retailers.

In January 2011, Mazda launched one of the UK's first social network ecommerce opportunities in the UK through its participation in the launch of Facebook Deals.

TH: How do you see the media landscape unfolding in the next 5 years?

CA: For the past couple of years it has been forecasted to be the “Year of the Mobile”. However, I believe this year and next will definitely see this prediction become a reality as smartphone penetration exceeds 80% and mobile internet usage exceeds desktop internet usage.

Growth in the mobile sector will accelerate and impact on consumer behaviour. Similarly, M-commerce has potential to take off as UK consumers embrace the mobile wallet.

Online will continue to provide the best platform for advertisers to innovate but the potential changes in cookies legislation may prove interesting in terms of ROI for online spend.

Integrating in-store with online and mobile for a seamless consumer experience will set brands apart. Vouchers are set to stay and partnership innovations such as O2 Priority moments have potential to increase as securing a deal will remain central to the consumer’s purchase decision.

Audio/visual recognition technology, such as QR codes or AR applications, will be an interesting development as the use of a mobile screen as a visual search engine continues to grow.

Traditional media will still have its place for reach and it’s interesting how events, such as the Olympics, boost the short term importance and inflation (!!) of some of these media channels.

TH: Do you prefer to use an ‘integrated’ agency approach or specialist agencies by individual discipline?

CA: I’m a great believer of agencies doing what they do best! That said, traditional ad agencies who start with a press ad or TV campaign and then force this idea into other channels as an afterthought definitely need to move with the times and fully embrace online and mobile.

Experiential is more specialist and should be left with experienced event agencies who can extend campaign ideas into social as a cost effective recruitment platform.

TH: Do you prefer to use local agencies by market or international/global agencies?

CA: For a Pan European or global HQ, international agencies have their place to ensure ROI on large scale productions such as TV and brand consistency across markets. Local agencies tend to be most effective at connecting with the local audience.

The cultural nuances even between European markets never cease to amaze me. I believe social needs a local agency approach to achieve real engagement with fans.

Tom Holmes talking to Claire Andrews at Mazda UK

TH: When choosing agencies in the past were you ever influenced by awards?

CA: Awards are interesting but word of mouth recommendation and campaigns which stand out rank higher on my agenda than awards alone.

A more important factor is the agency’s ability to demonstrate their understanding of our customers to deliver a better customer experience and to get under the skin of our business to support our commercial objectives.

TH: What challenges do you face, managing day-to-day agency relationships?

CA: Integration and communication between agency partners can be challenging at times.

The key success factor is having the right people working on the account as they get behind the client’s best interests and the interagency relationships then come together effortlessly.

Mindshare are a long-standing agency partner with Mazda as we have a fantastic relationship – the team consistently suggest ways of innovating to help us deliver on being a challenger brand.

TH: How often do you look at new agencies or review your roster?

CA: This is mainly event driven such as a new business need, an innovation presented by a new agency or, in more unusual circumstances, it is performance review related.

Reviews with existing agencies take place on a regular basis to ensure our efforts remain focused on delivering the best result against our business objectives.

TH: How do you monitor and stay-in-touch with the agency market to ensure you work with the best?

CA: Trade press is a good source to stay-in-touch across sectors. Monitoring competitor activity to see who is doing it well, as well as who isn’t, and comparing their marketing performance to their market share.

TH: Which agencies do you think are ‘hot’ right now?

CA: For media buying, Mindshare are hot. For creative I admire BBH’s work on the Lynx angels campaign as it was clever and innovative and I love the Yeo Valley farmers! Mother are also hot for their work on Stella Artois – it’s “cidre”.

For paid search, Jellyfish are a specialist agency who deliver great ROI. AKQA’s Nike Training Club app was great.

Itch are an interesting and creative boutique events agency and Imagination have really stepped up their game by combining their extensive events experience with social amplification.

TH: What’s your attitude to the ‘traditional’ pitch? Do you think there is a better/more modern way?

CA: Being innovative is a good fit for Mazda so I personally welcome a more modern approach than PowerPoint slides which follow the tried and tested approach.

This doesn’t mean it needs to be completely off-the-wall as ultimately it must focus on delivering against the task or business objectives. However, being memorable and engaging is paramount. Clients are consumers at the end of the day!

TH: Would you ever consider awarding an agency business without a pitch? What would they have to do / demonstrate?

CA: I’ve awarded business to agencies without a formal pitch process. It depends on how well their proposition fits our business need. Being nimble can create competitive advantage.

TH: What are your top tips to agencies when presenting credentials to you?

CA: Research the client first and demonstrate this insight in the credentials pitch by tailoring it to the client’s business requirements.

Use relevant case studies from a variety of sectors to demonstrate effectiveness with sound metrics.

Be creative – don’t kill the client with PowerPoint!

Variety is welcome – video breaks up the presentation.

Be succinct – strike the right balance between talking about the agency credentials and business results achieved for clients.

Adapt the presentation to the feedback given during the meeting.

Show the culture of the agency through bringing the right balance of the agency team to the presentation.

TH: What was the most impressive agency presentation you have ever seen?

CA: I recently saw an amazing presentation from our events agency. It was one of the most exciting and creative ideas I’ve seen in a long while. The whole team were utterly bought in and wanted to take part in the experiential idea.

You’ll have to watch this space for more information as the idea is now in development for launching the all-new Mazda CX-5 this summer!

TH: Thanks Claire.

The bulk of the budget is spent in the UK, but the appointed agency will need to create communications that run in numerous European markets too.

As a challenger brand in a sector dominated by a limited number of airlines with larger marketing budgets, Cityjet are on the hunt for an agency that can really help them to outmanoeuvre, rather than outspend the competition.

Agencies involved in the latter stages of the review include Addiction, Fold7, Brooklyn Bros and Dentsu.

We’re now down to the business end of things, so watch this space for an update…

Martin George, Managing Director, Group Development, Bupa

TH: As Managing Director, Group Development at Bupa what are your key responsibilities?

MG: I am responsible for Marketing, Corporate Affairs (media relations, government affairs, internal communications and sustainability), Group Medical and the Bupa Cromwell Hospital. I also have responsibility for exploring development opportunities for Bupa outside our current businesses.

TH: Your career has spanned Cadbury, British Airways and Bupa, what have been the high points?

MG: I have enjoyed lots of memorable experiences and had the pleasure of working with many truly gifted people.

Amongst my best memories would be my involvement in the initial launch of Cadbury’s Wispa  (yes, I am that old), the introduction of the truly flat beds in Club World and World Traveller Plus at British Airways, the development of the London Eye and flying on the last ever Concorde flight.

At Bupa I am proud to have been involved in the launch of the ‘Helping you find healthy’ UK communications campaign and introduction of the Bupa brand in Australia.

TH: What are the main challenges for your sector/category over the next 12 months?

MG: Like other businesses we are facing the economic challenges present in a number of our key markets in Europe and North America, which put pressure on the ability of individuals, companies and governments to fund healthcare.

Fortunately we are increasingly internationalising our business so our strength in growing and emerging markets will prove beneficial over the coming year.

TH: What work have you done recently that makes you the most proud?

MG: The migration from three well-known, long established brands in Australia and the introduction of Bupa has been extremely interesting and, though it is early days, I am proud of what the Australian team has achieved.

The early results of our new UK communications ‘ Helping you find healthy’ campaign are encouraging, our web presence has significantly improved and I am very proud of our sustainability work which is intended to improve the health of society at large.

TH: How do you see the media landscape unfolding in the next 5 years?

MG: More fragmentation, more options for clients, more focus from clients on results – all leading to an increase in the need to have media specialists (in-house or agency) who can help clients navigate an increasingly complex landscape.

TH: Do you prefer to use an ‘integrated’ agency approach or specialist agencies by individual discipline?

MG: Whilst there are clear benefits of the one-stop shop approach provided by an integrated agency, these only truly materialise if each agency is best in class.

TH: Do you prefer to use local agencies by market or international/global agencies?

MG: What matters is that an agency understands your market, your customers, and your business, demonstrating an ability to translate that insight into business solutions that create differentiation and add demonstrable value.

TH: When choosing agencies in the past were you ever influenced by awards?

MG: It is inevitable that award winning agencies gain a profile that encourages you to look at what is making them successful and whether they might be able to help your business be more successful.

TH: How often do you look at new agencies or review your roster?

MG: In general it’s good for both agencies and clients alike to undertake regular reviews, though there is no standard for the ideal frequency or trigger for a review.

Reviews are valuable for agencies and clients alike – reassuring clients that they have the best agencies and reassuring agencies that they are the best.

TH: How do you monitor and stay-in-touch with the agency market to ensure you work with the best?

MG: I try to keep a close eye on which clients are doing well commercially, which brands are growing in strength (and which are moving in the opposite direction), as well as work I admire – then work back from there.
It’s all about results after all.

TH: Which agencies do you think are ‘hot’ right now?

MG: Clients have never had more or better choice of top quality agencies.

TH: Do you/have you used intermediaries in the past? What are your observations?

MG: I have had very positive, though limited, experience of working with intermediaries. Their involvement can only be defined in relation to a specific situation a client finds themselves in; their needs, experience, resource and timescales are all key factors.

Outside Bupa House, 15-19 Bloomsbury Way, London, WC1A 2BA

TH: Would you ever consider awarding an agency business without a pitch? What would they have to do / demonstrate?

MG: Is any one horse race really ever worth winning or staging?

TH: What are your top tips to agencies when presenting credentials to you?

MG: I am keen to see that an agency has taken the time to really understand our business, market and most importantly our customers.

We employ agencies because they have skills or views that we don’t have, so please focus on what we need not what we want.

Be challenging, assertive, passionate about our business.

Give us confidence that our business is safe in your hands, that together we can create value that we cannot create alone.

Show us that you are interested in helping us achieve our business goals and you can describe where that value would be created…..examples of where you have done this before always help.

TH: What was the most impressive agency presentation you have ever seen?

MG: The presentation is the easy part…..delivering work that produces results is the tough bit!

TH: Thanks Martin.

There has been a big push on marketing the website and continuing to raise our profile in the client community. This has come in various guises with an initial feedback panel of just under 100 marketers all of whom have been using the site and passing on invaluable insights and advice.

On top of that we’ve spent a lot of time engaging the 2000+ client password holders to www.creativebrief.com and making them aware of the changes and the value this has for them over-and-above the previous version of the site.

And finally we have also been pushing the site out proactively to new clients who were not previous users of the service.

All this client engagement has not only lead to a major uplift in traffic and overall users of the website, but also a major uplift in client brief activity.  We’ll elaborate more in January when we can give you greater detail as some of these begin to fall into the public domain – but to give you an idea for now here’s what we’re working on as we speak:

• A major BTL integrated marketing review for a food and drink client
• An exciting PR review for a brilliant water brand
• A digital/direct review for a major global financial services brand
• A creative review for a glamorous airline
• A global experiential marketing review for an edgy and ambitious beer brand
• A website design/build review for a global travel/leisure client
• A social media review for a small but well known retailer
• A BTL roster review for a major alcoholic drinks brand owner
• A design/branding review for an online start-up brand with VC backing

So until 2012, Merry Christmas and happy New Year.  We’ll look forward to being in touch in 2012.

Paul Bainsfair and Tom Holmes

TH: As Director General of the IPA what are your key responsibilities?

PB: I stand on the “bridge” of what is a very effective trade body “ship”, with an expert crew.

My job is to make certain that we are heading on the best possible course to ensure that our members receive the very best service to help grow their businesses and improve their profitability. This means constantly checking that we are meeting their needs and structuring our offering accordingly.

TH: Your career that has spanned Saatchi & Saatchi, Bainsfair Sharkey Trott, TBWA, Lean Mean Fighting Machine and Iris what have been the high points?

PB: I was lucky to join Saatchis just before their famous ‘Labour isn’t working’ poster. It turned the agency into a household name. Working there was all about ‘can do’. Learning from people like Tim Bell and Charlie Saatchi taught me that anything is possible.

Starting Bainsfair Sharkey Trott was the realisation of the classic adman’s dream. There’s nothing like running your own agency. We launched during the recession of the early 90s. We built a good creative reputation and enjoyed a lot of success. We were also proud to be named the UK’s most profitable agency 3 years running (by Kingston Smith in their annual review).

After acquiring BST, Omnicom merged us with TBWA. This was at the start of the 2000s and the talent at TBWA was amazing. Trevor Beattie, Carl Johnson, Johnny Hornby, Simon Clemmow, Gary Lace, Andrew McGuinness, Ed Morris, Ben Priest to name a few. TBWA London became one of the most awarded and admired agencies of that time.

Most recently I have worked with Lean Mean Fighting Machine and iris. Both brilliant companies with outstanding cultures that are good exemplars of how agency models have adapted to reflect the impact that technology has had on the advertising world.

TH: Do you think the UK advertising industry is still a world leader?

PB: Yes, indeed. As a proportion of GDP, the UK has the largest creative industries sector in the world. The UK advertising industry generates £7.8 billion of UK Gross Value Added (GVA) rising to an estimated £15.8 billion, taking account of the direct, indirect, and induced impacts of our industry.

As a sector, we creatively punch massively above our weight – we are consistently in the top two most awarded countries for creative awards, with the IPA Effectiveness Awards considered the most rigorous and prestigious in the world. Having said this, our members are all too aware that it would be suicide to rest on our laurels

TH: What other markets do you see around the world doing great work?

PB: You have only to look at the winners of the 2011 Cannes Awards to see how far South America and the Far East have come in terms of creativity. No one in this world has a monopoly on good ideas. It is therefore down to us all to help create a climate in the UK in which original highly creative and effective work can flourish.

TH: In the current economic climate what are your predictions for the UK advertising industry over the next 12 months?

PB: The IPA Bellwether Survey has historically provided a remarkably accurate predictor as far as the UK economy is concerned. While ad spend currently seems to be holding up, it is disturbing how low client confidence in the future has fallen. Most of the factors influencing this are not only beyond our control but also arguably beyond even our Government to influence. All we can say is that, in the circumstances, our members will be working hard to ensure that the advertising they produce for their clients is as productive and cost-effective as possible.

TH: Over the longer term, what are the big challenges facing agencies and, therefore, the IPA?

PB: Agencies have to be able to take on board and advise their clients on what is an ever more complex and rapidly changing marketplace. At the same time our members are finding their fees continuously under pressure from procurement departments. This poses a considerable challenge – to be asked consistently to do more, on less, is not a sustainable model.

TH: How has the IPA membership offer changed?

PB: The IPA offer is continuously developing to meet our members’ needs. We have evolved from an organisation which historically concentrated purely on the requirements of “traditional creative” agencies to one which encompasses just about every aspect of the modern communications industry.

This is reflected in the considerable expansion which has taken place over the last 10 years in the number of specialist policy groups in which our members participate  – and the massive range of different training courses we now offer, tailored for individual disciplines as well as those core, common topics which every agency will need.

TH: Are there particular industry disciplines the IPA would like to focus on?

PB: Our guiding principle is to move with our members and support them wherever they go. Our President, Nicola Mendelsohn has stressed the need to ensure the industry, as a whole, focuses on where its future lies and we will be supporting this in our seminars, training and other activities.

TH: What are the main benefits of IPA membership?

PB: There are three broad areas where we support our members and the industry. Thought Leadership, Business advice and Professional Development.

The IPA’s overall aim is to make our members more professional and, critically, more commercially and financially successful via our package of services (e.g. legal advice, information centre, training and development programme, awards schemes, events, etc).

While it is estimated there are over 10,000 companies in the UK claiming to be advertising and marketing agencies, the 252 companies which make up our membership, not only account for 85% + of the nation’s advertising spend but are marked out by their dedication to effectiveness, professionalism and continuous improvement (via the IPA CPD programme).

TH: What initiatives is the IPA doing regionally?

PB: We have members all around the UK and we treat them equally regardless of their location. We hold dinners, training courses and ad hoc events each year in various cities around the UK. We also make it our policy personally to visit and discuss how the IPA can help their business with each of our members at least once every two years.

TH: What initiatives is the IPA doing internationally?

PB: While the IPA’s membership is restricted to the UK, we are well aware of the potential offered our members by emerging economies overseas. The IPA has just completed its third mission to China and has led a fact-finding trip of members to Silicon Valley, which was supported by the Government through UKTI.

Further member visits are planned to major events in the USA in the New Year. We are also in talks to introduce the IPA Foundation certificate to most European markets (through The EACA) as well as in India and Australia.

TH: What do you think of intermediaries?

PB: Intermediaries play a valuable role in today’s pitch process. The vast majority are highly professional and competent in what they do.

TH: What are your thoughts on pitching and/or remuneration?

PB: The IPA New Business and Marketing Group has been working closely with ISBA in order to address historical concerns relating to the pitch process. Our joint goal has been to make what is an extremely expensive (and often wasteful) procedure fairer and more efficient for all parties.

Notable outputs from this project have been the joint-industry ’6 Pitch Principles’ card and ‘The Good Pitch’ website: http://www.thegoodpitch.com/ which aim to help advertisers get the best out of the process in the smoothest and most cost effective way possible.

Everyone wants to be paid a fair reward for what they do. It is in the interest of all parties to ensure proper levels of remuneration both to allow the creation of the best possible work and to provide a reward for the benefits it brings. As yet, no one has found a perfect formula in this area. What we can say, however, is that beating an agency down to subsistence levels has never been a recipe for good service or effective advertising.

TH: Is this an area which could be improved for all parties?

PB: Yes, most definitely – hence the IPA/ISBA project described above.

TH: If there was one thing that you had to achieve at the IPA, what would it be?

PB: As the focus of many leading advertisers moves towards emerging markets like Asia and South America I would like the IPA’s positioning to be that of a World leading Centre for know-how in Brand building and advertising effectiveness. Making the UK the go to place for the world’s leading marketing and advertising agencies.

TH: Thanks Paul

Paul Bainsfair at the IPA, 44 Belgrave Square London SW1X 8QS

Michael Maguire, Author of ‘IT’S OUR THING - 300 Years of Irish Brands.’

TH: Can you tell me a bit about your career as a marketing analyst and business commentator?

MM: I’ve been in business now for some 40 years and run Quintus Management, a Belfast based boutique consultancy that I established in 1996. We specialise in delivering business insight, growth and turnaround services for a portfolio of clients. We are also involved in the development and repositioning of client brands and in the acquisition and disposal of brands. Prior to this I held senior positions appointments in industry, government and management consultancy in Europe and North America.

If I’m an analyst and consultant by profession, I’m probably a communicator by disposition as I am a regular columnist and commentator on international marketing and brands in newspapers, TV and radio, and a frequent speaker at conferences and events.

TH: How did your book ‘It’s Our Thing – 300 Years of Irish Brands’ come about?

MM: I have been a corporate writer in one form or another most of my life but the concept of the book grew out of a realisation of what limited case study material existed on the development and contribution of Irish brands – north and south.  I quickly realised that it was a field of study that has been entirely overlooked. It is ironic really considering the rich legacy of brands of Irish origin that exists, many of which like Belleek, Guinness and Kerrygold have become global brands.

TH: You say, in the book’s title, ‘It’s Our Thing’, are you suggesting that there is a similar vision or attitude behind successful Irish brands that sets Ireland apart?

MM: You are perhaps reading more into it than I had actually intended.  I was simply stuck for a catchy title that could convey the book’s scope and content in an engaging way. Actually I ‘borrowed’ the ‘It’s Our Thing’ bit from a popular advertising campaign for Harp Lager that ran a few years back as I felt that it captured the informal and easy going spirit of many Irish brands down the years rather well.

TH: Do you think there is a difference in attitude to building brands in Northern Ireland vs the Republic of Ireland?

MM: No, I don’t think so. Indeed unless one knew something of their history, one might be hard pressed to differentiate the regionality of Ireland’s brands that have been established or repositioned in the last few decades. This is simply because most modern product and service brands have been geared to appeal to the widest possible audience in Ireland, Europe and elsewhere. It is a question of economics. However, for much of the 19th and 20th centuries right up to the 1970s, the regional origin of many brands tended to shape their personality, and ultimately their heritage. This was especially true of those that grew out of the high tariff isolationist years of the 30s, 40s and 50’s that characterised politics of the Irish Free State years and beyond.

Brands like Blackthorn (footwear), Carrolls (cigarettes) and Newbridge (cutlery) were typical of many that drew heavily on their ‘local’ origins to address a domestic market that was skewed to favour Irish producers. The ‘Irishness’ of Northern Ireland brands of the period was somewhat less pronounced.

TH: How does Ireland’s reputation for marketing stack up, internationally?

MM: The popular image of the Republic of Ireland as the Celtic Tiger economy of the late 20th century has been an enduring one despite the impact of recession and the difficulties of the Euro that have come to dominate the news in recent months. Ireland’s reputation as a business friendly, low tax, export driven economy has long appealed to foreign investment. Northern Ireland, on the other hand, has emerged from decades of civil strife and has experienced a massive economic revival that has brought considerable investment in its wake. One legacy of this has been the significant advance of the creative industries in Ireland that ranks among the best in the world.  Ireland’s reputation for creativity and clever marketing present as major economic drivers.

Tom Holmes talks to Michael Maguire about Irish brands and marketing in Dublin recently

TH: Do you think government recognises the contribution brands are making to the economy or appreciates that their marketing is also enriching our lives, society and culture?

MM: Governments of all persuasions have long appreciated the advantages that accrue from smart marketing and they have all adopted marketing principles to engage with the citizenry at large.  Indeed the extent to which government agencies now exploit broadcast and social media for primary communication reflects this.  Governments also recognise how the evolution of branding has become the driving force of marketing economics, which in turn enhances global business competitiveness.  That said, ‘left of centre’ administrations in the UK as elsewhere in Europe often display a distrust of capitalism and have sought to control internal markets through monopolistic public intervention, often with disastrous economic consequences. Whether or not governments ‘appreciate’ that marketing enriches ‘our lives, society and culture,’ is more difficult to fathom. In my judgement branding is seen as an ‘inevitable’ factor of social change rather than a process of cultural enrichment.

As an interesting aside, a feature that was uncovered in my research for the book is the extent to which few government entities or public services in Ireland can be said to have emerged as brands in any real sense despite the significant investment in campaign advertising and PR since the 1970s.  It may be that the temperament of customer engagement that typifies regular brand building relationships is less marked in public services, or that services and government entities are scrapped and remodelled with unfortunate frequency.  Either way it means that the legacy of publicly funded marketing cannot be unlocked, and as public ‘brands’ are rarely traded the value of historic investment is rarely realised.  Maybe there are lessons there for the future!

TH: Which industry sectors have produced Ireland’s most successful brands?

MM: If success is solely measured by global reach and visibility then the most prolific must be the drinks sector. Premier brands like Baileys, Bushmills and Jameson have a huge international following. While Baileys is comparatively modern, it single-handedly created the global cream liqueur market.  The Bushmills and Jameson whiskey brands have a significant heritage. Indeed Bushmills is Ireland’s oldest commercial brand that traces its origins back to 1608, predating the industrial revolution by a century and a half.

The soft drinks industry has its champions also. Thomas Cantrell, a Belfast based apothecary, kick started the world market in soft drinks with his invention of aromatic Ginger Ale in 1852, which he marketed under the Club, and later, C&C brands.  Cantrell’s success paved the way for Coca Cola, Pepsi and Dr Pepper to enter the market.  In fact, Club was the biggest selling soft drink brand in America until well into the 20th century.  In more recent years there has been an explosion of mineral water brands in Ireland, the brand leader of which is Ballygowan that was launched in 1981. Indeed, the wider food sector brands like Bewleys, Dale Farm and Fyffes are also major export earners.

In contrast to the food and drink sector, Ireland has a rich legacy of major engineering brands.  Everyone knows about the ill-fated RMS Titanic that bumped into an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage in 1912. Yet its builder, Belfast based Harland & Wolff remained the world’s biggest shipbuilder for much of the 20th century. Glen Dimplex (appliances), Powerscreen (quarrying equipment), and Shorts (aircraft) are also among many world-beating brands that have done much to foster Ireland’s reputation for quality manufacturing.

TH: Are there any Irish brands that could be regarded as real ‘turkeys?’

MM: History is undoubtedly littered by some supreme failures down the years but we tend not to hear too much about them as they inevitably disappear from our consciousness. However Ireland has had its share of quirky brands that came and went, and some too that enjoyed surprising longevity. I can recall the hugely expensive TV launch of Guinness Light in the mid 1970s; an attempt to take market share from the lager brands. It spectacularly failed and was withdrawn from the market within months. De Lorean was another. The pioneering Belfast built sports car succeeded in becoming a true style icon of the early 1980s but the project’s superstar designer John Zachary DeLorean over committed his development capital and the business ran out of cash just as the brand came to market. Gone but not forgotten. However my personal favourite was Dublin based Swastika Laundry that operated for about 50 years until the 1960s. The brand logo and its black, white and blood red livery was virtually identical to that of Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party and despite the global revulsion of the Nazi excesses that followed the conclusion of World War II, the owners of the laundry brand were not motivated to change its image, and the business went into decline.

TH: Which Irish brands do you most respect and why?

MM: I suppose my personal favourites must include Denman, Glen Dimplex and Guinness, but for widely differing reasons.  Bangor based Denman is a global haircare brand that has come to dominate the international professional salon market and whose products can be found in the bathrooms of almost every home on the planet.

Glen Dimplex is a Dunleer based holding company behind some of the world’s most popular kitchen and heating appliance brands.  Its design driven dominance has been achieved in little more than 30 years.  Guinness is undoubtedly Ireland’s most truly iconic brand whose use of the Boru harp in its logo made that instrument synonymous with Ireland.  However, it is the brand’s continued commitment to stunningly creative advertising campaigns that puts it in a class of its own.

TH: Which Irish marketers do you most respect, and why?

MM: I find myself quite spoilt for choice here but I will take the liberty in choosing one from history and two from the present day.  The first is Arthur Guinness the founder of the famous brand now owned by Diageo.  He was an early pioneer of implied differentiation.  Every barrel of beer that left his brewery carried his name on it some 100 years before the rest of the world recognised the utility and quality benefits of brand projection.

Arthur Guinness

My second hero must be Sir Tony O’Reilly. This newspaper magnate and former CEO of Heinz was the driving force behind the Kerrygold brand of Irish Butter that did much to enhance the global quality recognition of Irish dairy products in the early 1960s.  Thirdly I will opt for Brody Sweeney, the Dublin born founder and architect of O’Briens Sandwich Bars, which in just a few short years became the biggest franchise business in Ireland with branches stretching around the world.  While the business caught a cold during the economic downturn I believe that the brand will continue to evolve. Sweeney too has used recession times to evolve new business opportunities.

Sir Tony O’Reilly

TH: Which Irish agencies in do you most respect and why?

MM: Just 25 years ago virtually all advertising agencies in Ireland were independently owned full service businesses. Today the international agencies have become major players and this has brought new challenge to the industry, which has also experienced activity segmentation with a veritable explosion of design agencies, PR companies, and a host of media service providers, market research houses and marketing consultancies. Agencies such as A V Browne, Bluecube and DDFH&B have some excellent creative teams but many of the independent design houses like FRANK, Huguenot and Red Dog are engaged in a broad range of crossover activity that is expanding the scope of advertising communication in Ireland. I think we are in for some exciting times.

TH: What ‘next generation’ Irish challenger brands are appearing that you suggest the marketing industry watch for?

MM: That’s a tough one. It occurs to me that the ones to watch out for over the next year or two might include Almac (pharmaceuticals), which is emerging as a major world brand, Cuisine-de-France (in store hot bread) and Magners Cider. In less than a decade Magners has utterly changed the image of the international cider market. I suspect we also see a lot more of names like Tayto (snack foods), Wrightbus (buses and street cars) and Feckin Irish Whiskey. Yes, it really does exist, and this young brand is rapidly going global. Father Ted would be proud!

TH: Do you think that Northern Ireland represents a good market for entrepreneurial brands? What are the advantages?

MM: Northern Ireland is potentially the fastest growing of the two regional markets in Ireland. This is partly a legacy of its rapid emergence from the political doldrum years when Belfast and Londonderry were alive on our TV screens for the most negative of reasons. The rate of investment in the last decade has been immense and this has had a dramatic impact on industry and commerce, and of course on tourism. An interesting feature of change is the extent to which young SMEs like Andor (scientific cameras) and SureSign (family health test kits) are emerging that may well become major brands of the future.

TH: What are your thoughts on City Brands?

MM: I touched on tourism a moment ago. City Breaks has become one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism industry in Europe that has been fuelled in no small measure by an expansion in international conference tourism and budget airline schedules.  In this regard Belfast and Dublin are competing head to head. Dublin has a long history of tourism cultivation whereas Belfast is very much the new kid on the block.  It is interesting to note that the Financial Times now lists Belfast as one of the ‘Top 10 places in the world’ to hold a conference and National Geographic has voted the city one of the ‘World’s Top 10 destinations’ for 2012. However the city brand focus isn’t confined to Belfast. Lisburn, Londonderry and Newry are also establishing discernable city brands as are Kilkenny and Cork, and this investment will expand the market.  I should also mention that Derry is the UK City of Culture 2013, which I believe will provide a new platform for tourism product development.

Belfast - National Geographic has voted the city one of the ‘World’s Top 10 destinations’ for 2012

TH: When considering ‘marketers of the future’ can you list the top universities in Ireland with marketing degrees or ‘brand centric’ business courses, and give your opinion on their offer?

MM: Well most universities and colleges in Ireland offer marketing undergraduate programmes that provide an excellent grounding for young marketers. The two most dynamic, from my perspective, would be University of Ulster at Jordanstown and Belfast (which I think is also the biggest provider), and the National University of Ireland at Dublin and Galway. These entities also provide a broad portfolio of hybrid programmes and masters’ programmes as well.

Two professional bodies, the Marketing Institute of Ireland and The Chartered Institute of Marketing also facilitate professional qualifications in marketing through a broad network of vocational colleges. These institutions are turning out some superb people that I believe will shape the businesses of tomorrow.

TH: What are you working on at the moment?

MM: As a businessman in a fast changing environment, my main focus is on working with client companies to evolve new and more creative business development and turnaround initiatives, and helping them to become the brand leaders of the future.

I am also conducting research for three further books for release in 2012 and beyond including a biography on a prominent international businessman. There may even be a first novel in the offing!  I am also engaged in writing two potential documentary series for television – all this in my spare time!  You will appreciate that these projects are very much under wraps at the moment.

TH: Thanks Michael

A bit about Michael…

Professional Experience

Having trained initially as a journalist, Michael held corporate positions with leading businesses and spent a further decade in the public sector in economic development. This included a period with the Industrial Development Board for Northern Ireland and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he set up and managed FDI and trade marketing offices in North America.

He joined Deloitte & Touche on his return, and over a ten year period established a reputation as a leading management consultant in marketing economics. As Consulting Director, he developed a specialist multidiscipline European marketing economics consultancy group that analysed client problems, assessed sectoral opportunities, and introduced innovative business development measures for selected clients.

In July 1996, he formed Quintus Management as a UK and Ireland based specialist provider of market access, brand development and business turnaround services, and management coaching and training in these specialist fields.

Michael has also worked closely with The Chartered Institute of Marketing for whom he has provided extensive services over the last decade.  He also works closely with selected universities and public bodies, and serves on professional boards and committees of various enterprises.

A popular commentator on international business, he is a regular columnist for several newspapers and magazines, and is a frequent contributor on business matters in TV and radio broadcasts.

His current book, ‘It’s Our Thing – 300 Years of Irish Brands,’ that tracks the origins, evolution and contribution of Irish brands was released in September 2010, and is available on line through lulu.com.

Career History

Early Years (1966/78):  Michael started out with Allied Irish Bank, then worked with various multinationals including Group Planning Manager for Sterling Winthrop Group in Ireland, and Managing Director of E R Howard for AHP, before both of these businesses became part of Glaxo Smith Kline.  He later took up an appointment as Marketing Director for Ormeau Bakery in Northern Ireland.

Economic Development (1978/87): Appointed Senior Executive with Northern Ireland Development Agency and later IDB, he specialised in business turnarounds, and FDI marketing. This included a five-year secondment to the FCO, where he set up and ran marketing offices in North America.

Professional Services (1987/To Date):  He was appointed by Deloitte & Touche to lead regional business development consulting teams and set up a Europe-wide marketing economics unit serving international clients.  In 1996, he formed Quintus Management, a firm of marketing analysts & business advisers, providing resources in marketing, branding and revenue generation.

Professional Assignments

The following is a representative selection of assignments that have been undertaken and managed by Michael Maguire in the recent past:

Marketing Analysis & Business Positioning

• Undertook more than 20 sectoral research studies for regional government agencies & business organisations.
• Completed a market entry feasibility study for a new cellular service on behalf of an international company providing security services.
• Provided a review of marketing opportunities & three-year marketing plan for a fire & intruder security company.
• Provided professional input to a retail development programme for a leading charity.
• Undertook a market positioning review for a prominent newspaper publisher.
• Completed a ten year strategic plan on behalf of an international building products & construction group.
• Completed a detailed evaluation of the scope & effectiveness of external transport services for a UK regional development agency.

Brand Development & Communications

• Developed a three-year European branding strategy on behalf of a Japanese FMCG company.
• Conducted a detailed review of the medical systems market on behalf of a Dutch based electronics group & advised on market entry strategy & brand positioning.
• Undertook an opportunities review in e-commerce by food companies on behalf of a government department.  The programme also involved providing brand positioning & development advice for selected companies.
• Initiated a branding strategy & development programme for an industry trade organisation.
• Completed a market positioning audit, image evaluation study & development of a three-year marketing communication plan for a major trading charity.
• Provided input in developing an international brand development programme for a manufacturer of medical testing kits.

Business Growth Support

• Initiated a six-month business turnaround programme for a bicycle manufacturing company involving customer/profit realignment, product development, brand promotion & launch, hiring & training a new sales team.
• Undertook an evaluation of marketing, customer development & service support policies on behalf of a major public utility company.
• Completed a development programme in advanced selling techniques to rebuild performance of a client executive team of a knowledge transfer consultancy.
• Provided management input in initiating a business turnaround programme for the European Division of a Japanese engineering company.
• Undertook a business turnaround programme for a regional law firm & provided management support in developing & implementing new service streams.

Management Development & Training

• Designed & delivered a series of training programmes in customer interviewing & professional selling of selected financial services programmes on behalf of a major clearing bank.
• Designed & project managed the delivery of a series of One Day Training Workshops to deliver innovation for senior management for The Chartered Institute of Marketing.
• Designed & produced an AV based marketing training product for four UK regional development agencies.
• Designed & delivered various marketing training programmes for a prominent UK university business school.
• Delivered senior management training & mentoring programmes in leadership & innovation for leading businesses & public sector bodies.
• Completed a business venture programme that delivered intensive training for SMEs & potential investors, & resulted in the development of new commercial projects.

Economic Studies

• Completed an economic audit & developed a ten year regeneration strategy for Sweden’s Örebro & Bofors regions.
• Provided assistance to the Gibraltar Government in preparing a strategy to address economic & social change with reductions in NATO investment.
• Headed a European SPRINT team that undertook a detailed review of application of knowledge & technology transfer in Northern Ireland.
• Undertook various studies that evaluated the utilisation & effectiveness of diverse EU social & economic programmes within Europe.
• Completed various economic audits & regional development programmes in Great Britain & Northern Ireland.  Examples include Belfast, Coleraine, Craigavon, Lisburn, Newtownabbey, Stafford, Central, North & South Wales.
• Undertook various initiatives to establish town centre programmes.  Examples include Lisburn, Lurgan, Portadown, Pontypridd & Wrexham.
• Conducted various project feasibility studies, economic appraisals & performance evaluation studies for UK government agencies.

Recent Publications

• Michael Maguire writes regular weekly & monthly columns on diverse business matters for various regional newspapers & business magazines.
• Michael Maguire is the author of ‘Revenue Generation for Recovery,’ a position paper on using ‘Marketing Principles to Grow Our Way Out of Recession,’ published by The Chartered Institute of Marketing (August 2009).
• Michael Maguire is the author of ‘It’s Our Thing,’ a major work on 300 years of Irish brands.  It is available for purchase on line from publisher: lulu.com (September 2010).

Focus will be across a range of areas to include shopper marketing, digital and direct marketing.  The successful agency will be given a position on Birds Eye’s roster to work across the entire product range, alongside their other strategic lead agencies AMV, Carat and Freud.

The pitch process is currently under-way and an appointment will be announced over the next week or two.  We’ll update with news as-and-when…

Jeremy Sinclair talks to creativebrief’s Tom Holmes

TH: What is the secret behind Saatchi’s success and brand endurance?

JS: Brutal Simplicity of Thought

TH: What campaigns best demonstrate the brutal simplicity of thought?

JS: Over the years, in no particular order, Conservative Party, Silk Cut, Dixons, BA at times, Vogue.com launch, our Australian office’s ads for Rentlo, ANZ and Qantas.

TH: Why do you think agencies are generally so poor at marketing themselves?

JS: Not sure they are. The idea is to promote the clients.

TH: What other agency brands do you respect and why?

JS: Difficult, there are bits of many that do good stuff.

TH: What’s your secret to winning new business?

JS: You’ve guessed it, BSOT

TH: What are your thoughts on pitching?

JS: Love it.

TH: How do you increase the odds of success?

JS: Always and only do what you like.

TH: Is there a particular type of client you tend to attract?

JS: Like attracts like. We tend to get clients who like to think the way we do

TH: What have you done that makes you the most proud?

JS: Starting Saatchi & Saatchi, then M&C Saatchi and the work that made Saatchi the brand that it is.

TH: Anything else?

JS: Recently we were thrilled to see our first ever book in print. The company’s exhibition at the V&A last month was also great fun because again, it was our first.

TH: If you were to ask Maurice the same question, what would he say?

JS: Same

TH: What do you hate about the marketing communications industry right now?

JS: The rise of procurement. If I really thought that what we all do for a living could be bought like a sack of potatoes, I’d jack it in.

TH: What do you love about the marketing communications industry right now?

JS: The freedom and possibilities that the digital revolution has created. I am writing this for you from a thousand kilometres away, in the sun.

TH: Do you think the marketing’s contribution to society, culture and the economy is understood or appreciated?

JS: Not sure it needs to be. We are supposed to be in the back room, noiselessly sweating away for our clients.

How do you create the world’s most powerful nation?

On a single sheet of paper, the most powerful nation in the history of the world was born. Fifty-six men signed the American Dream into scripture. They declared that ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ are the inalienable rights – and that all men are created equal. It was the spark that would drive millions of people to follow their dreams.

TH: If you were responsible for marketing the UK marketing communications industry, what would you say?

JS: You are resting on wilting laurels.

TH: Is your network as big now as you want it to be?

JS: Almost, we can cover most places, but if there is any client requirement to be somewhere, we’re there like a shot.

Equally, if there are people out there desperate to start something, they should call us.

TH: What is the difference between starting S&S and starting M&C Saatchi?

JS: This network has been built almost entirely by backing start-ups. We find people who want to be us somewhere and back them. This way we attract people who are naturally entrepreneurial and want to run their own show.

No one is here because they were bought. It is a marriage of love not convenience, not arranged or forced by money – although we hope everyone does very well out of it.

TH: Thanks Jeremy

Jeremy Ellis, Head of Marketing, TUI UK and Ireland

TH: As Head of Marketing TUI UK, what are your key responsibilities?

JE: As marketing jobs go, I don’t think they come much better than managing two great holiday brands – Thomson and First Choice. Having worked in Thomson/TUI for 20 years, I still believe that holidays are the best product to sell. I’ve always been passionate about what we do and what our brands stand for and this role gives me full control of developing the brand strategy across TUI UK along with all the offline communications.

My main objective is to put the brands and consumers at the top of the business agenda. TUI UK’s strategy of differentiation and exclusivity is working very well, but there’s still a relatively low level of understanding of what the brands stand for and the detail within the products i.e. why our holidays are better than everyone else’s. Holidays are very intangible products, infrequently experienced and one of the most emotive purchases of the year, so arguably we have an even greater need for marketing to educate consumers.

But the brand and marketing role is much broader than that. A brand is only as good as the experience it delivers and a large part of my remit is making sure the end to end customer journey is consistent with what is promised. The past few years I have invested a lot of time building a customer experience strategy along with several colleagues responsible for the customer journey through retail, online, customer service, overseas, airline and head office. We have made huge improvements in managing and delighting customers as a result by putting the customer back at the centre of the business. That’s why our customer satisfaction scores are second to none, and we are proud to include TripAdvisor™ ratings within our websites.

TH: You have spent the last decade at the forefront of the UK’s Leisure, Travel and Tourism industry, what have been the high points?

JE: Working in travel is incredibly varied. My core background is in product development and innovation and I’ve been responsible for the introduction of numerous new products such as Thomson Platinum and Thomson Family Resorts over the years. More recently I oversaw the launch of Thomson Sensatori our most successful holiday product ever, so that was a real high point and remains core to our future business strategy.

My first role in marketing communications was CRM and at this point in time we had just started to develop some very clever digital campaigns – 100% personalised, drawing in content based on previous history. It didn’t take long to realise that customer data is king, and I would argue we have one of the most sophisticated CRM programmes of any business. Customer data is now also very much at the heart of the TUI UK and is the backbone a large part of the end to end experience. Customer data is at the fingertips of almost all our front facing staff so they can recognise and delight customers, particularly those who are loyal. We have also developed some pretty nifty tools to improve customer’s excitement before their holiday. Traditionally, once they’d parted with their hard earned cash, we sent an invoice, a balance reminder and a ticket book. Now they get a completely personalised website with all their holiday details, rich content, what to do, contact details and fun things like countdown clock, weather reports and check lists. We’ve seen massive engagement in these and huge revenue increases in pre-booked sales. We’ve won loads of awards for our CRM capability over the years, including the 2011 Data Strategy Grand Prix this month for our behavioural targeting activity.

TH: What are the main challenges for your sector/category over the next 12 months?

I believe the biggest challenges we face as a sector is continuing to drive value while all the economic and political unrest continues. Fuel, exchange rate, interest rates, unemployment levels, political upheavals, here and across the world – they all heavily influence our sector. Added to that, flights and cheap accommodation are now very much commoditised – easily accessed on the internet, far too much capacity and constantly discounted. TUI UK’s strategy of product differentiation and exclusivity in the very best hotels keeps us well ahead of our competitors so we are very confident in leading the way through the tough times ahead.

TH: What work have you done recently that makes you the most proud?

JE: I joined my current role at a time when the Thomson and First Choice brands were struggling to find clear and differentiated identities. Consumers couldn’t tell them apart. Added to that, no-one had ever managed to define a clear brand proposition for Thomson. I’ve spent the past year building a dual brand strategy to address this. By making First Choice into the ‘Home of All Inclusive’ and giving it real distinction has allowed Thomson to focus on a proposition based around what it does best ‘Holidays designed just for you’, or ‘Your Holiday to a T’. The next big job is to communicate these to consumers. The new Thomson campaign has just gone live designed specifically to build the brand before the busy post Christmas sales period. We kicked off with an emotionally led 90” TV ad – a first for any holiday company – and two months earlier than normal to give the brand message plenty of time to sink in. I’m really proud of the TV ad and have had tremendous feedback on it. I believe this is the beginning of a new dawn for Thomson. Watch this space for First Choice!

TH: How do you see the media landscape unfolding in the next 5 years?

JE: The media landscape is a very difficult thing to judge given the digital world is still in its infancy. For sure, everything will be digitally based, completely personalised to individual consumers and all mobile. ‘Channels’ as we know them today won’t exist. A rich array of content tailored to your needs will be accessible through numerous digital portals. It won’t be long before we are creating personalising TV ads, or rather moving image ads, for each consumer to be accessed on any screen – at home, work, phone, tablet or whatever else comes along, at just the right time for them, and synchronised across multi access points.

Paper will still play its part in the next 5 years. There are too many of us middle aged and upwards who still like to ‘flick’ and will never feel completely comfortable with just technology. We have a big debate about holiday brochures and the role they play, but we have customers who book online, then come into our shops to collect a brochure so they have something tangible to read and show friends. I think it will take longer than 5 years for paper to disappear.

TH: Do you prefer to use an ‘integrated’ agency approach or specialist agencies by individual discipline?

JE: Currently we have specialist agencies working across our activity but more and more, agencies are developing integrated capability. I think the more important challenge is to create an integrated approach internally before looking at integration externally. Merging offline and online marketing can often be quite a challenge when online is so ingrained into the fabric of driving sales. The offline/online distinction needs to be thrown out and the entire pot considered as one. The future is about optimising the entire marketing spend across all media using econometrics, web analytics and other measurement tools.

TH: Do you prefer to use local agencies by market or international/global agencies?

JE: In TUI Group we have a combination. Mediacom buy our media in UK and Germany, and for Late Rooms too. On the creative side, all the source markets have their own agencies although there has been some sharing of property from time to time. Holidays are not like cars or clothes – they are very individual and complex experiences and what the UK like in a hotel can be very different to what Germans or Scandinavians like, food and entertainment being classic examples. There’s nothing worse than sitting through entertainment that has to be repeated in several different languages before you get to the punch line!

TH: When choosing agencies in the past were you ever influenced by awards?

JE: Awards are a useful nod to previous success but may not be relevant to what the business needs are. I would always look at the quality of agencies’ previous work and how relevant it is to what I need to get done.

Jeremy Ellis talking to Tom Holmes

TH: What challenges do you face, managing day-to-day agency relationships?

JE: In my experience, the success of agency relationships boils down to three simple things:

   1. The quality of the agency staff, in particular in understanding the business

   2. Whether they are ‘people like you’

   3. And most importantly the brief you give them.

If the agency is clear on what they need to do – the relationship will be great. We’ve had terrific results with BMB and Mediacom especially since we’ve got our dual brand strategy crystal clear.

TH: How often do you look at new agencies or review your roster?

JE: Ideally as infrequently as possible! Changing an agency is time consuming and costly so as long as I’m very happy with the work being produced, there’s no point in wasting energy.

TH: How do you monitor and stay-in-touch with the agency market to ensure you work with the best?

JE: Press, websites and personal references keep me informed enough.

TH: Which agencies do you think are ‘hot’ right now?

JE: I would say this as we use them for creative on both Thomson and First Choice, but BMB have delivered us a brilliant new TV ad for Thomson and have done some great ads for First Choice in the past. They’ve also won more new business than any other agency this year so they must be doing something right. I have to say that Mediacom are doing a terrific job for us too in getting great value out of our media spend.

I would add that I’m impressed with the work that Adam and Eve have done on John Lewis.

TH: Do you/have you used intermediaries in the past? What are your observations?

JE: No, we’ve never used them.

TH: What’s your attitude to the ‘traditional’ pitch? Do you think there is a better/more modern way?

JE: I think the traditional pitch has a lot of merit. Take the three things I mentioned above about what makes a great agency relationship. It’s important to meet the people you are working with to understand them and what they are capable of. Technology can be used to speed things up through.

TH: Would you ever consider awarding an agency business without a pitch? What would they have to do / demonstrate?

JE: I think this is possible but only if you are very confident in what they are capable of. I would guess this could come from previous experience or recommendation from a close source.

TH: What are your top tips to agencies when presenting credentials to you?

JE: Show a real understanding of the business and the business challenges, in a creative way. I recently had a cold-call email from a chap who’d booked a Thomson holiday for him and his family. His pitch was essentially a list of all the missed opportunities across the whole customer experience that we could have delivered to him had we been more integrated. Now that’s a seriously good understanding of our business!

TH: What was the most impressive agency presentation you have ever seen?

JE: I honestly can’t say that there’s one that really stands out.

TH: Thanks Jeremy.

The company has been in operation for 8 years, and was set up to help clients get the most from their marketing budgets by connecting with the best matched agencies and sponsorship partners for their requirements.

During this time creativebrief has been responsible for the exchange of over £850 million of business across the spectrum of marketing communications disciplines.

The website now has over 2000 client password holders in the UK alone, and through 2011 has seen significant growth on an international scale with brands also accessing information on agencies in Amsterdam, Stockholm, New York and numerous other markets.

Charlie Carpenter, Managing Director, Ben Piper, Head of Studio and Tom Holmes, Founder & Chairman

Tom Holmes, Founder & Chairman, said: “The mission for creativebrief from day one was to make a complex and saturated agency market more accessible, transparent and navigable – to provide brands, marketers and procurement teams with the critical intelligence required to make accurate and informed decisions. The landscape is now more confusing than ever, which makes our proposition more relevant by the day – but we’re also taking this on to the next level. As recession continues to bite, brand and procurement teams need to find a more efficient way of sourcing marketing services whilst ensuring they continue to work with the best partners and avoid a drop in the quality of their communications. The new website will provide exactly that for our clients wherever they are in the world”.

www.creativebrief.com had previously provided a search engine for clients to find, review and contact agencies direct – but the new developments will see the business provide a more comprehensive service to brands, encouraging a dynamic flow of information between both parties, and facilitating a higher level of networking and interaction.

Clients will use a central dashboard enabling them to find, monitor and connect with agencies, review the industry’s latest work from all disciplines, send RFI’s through the ‘briefcase’, request alerts to relevant information, manage ongoing agency relationships, and share information with their colleagues and departments.

Charlie Carpenter, newly appointed Managing Director at creativebrief, who led the development alongside Ben Piper, Head of Studio commented: “This is a natural evolution for us, developed around the needs of our loyal client base. All our clients were feeding back that they wanted more than just a space to access information about agencies and their work. Over-and-above this they were looking for an intelligent and dynamic business tool that would help them perform their roles more efficiently and unlock further value from their marketing relationships The new website represents a significant shift in the industry and will set the standard for the way that brands find, engage and transact with agencies. We are looking for www.creativebrief.com to become a ‘must have’ in the armoury of the next generation brand marketer”.

The website was developed by Natural Graphic who were appointed by creativebrief following an initial tendering process.

creativebrief will continue to offer a face-to-face consultancy service to their client base and are currently believed to be working with brands such as Desperados, RSA, Heineken, IHG and others.

The brand, which was acquired by Heineken in 2007, and is now looking to connect with a wider audience will run a press, outdoor, point-of-sale and experiential campaign aimed at unlocking the potential of the brand that has until now been considered a ‘well kept secret’.

See link to the article that appeared in Campaign last week – ‘Heineken appoints My Agency for premium beer task‘