GO GLOBAL? or stay local?
“We have the best people doing the best work in the best environment we can create,” boasted John Steedman, executive director of WPP AUNZ, in an AdNews interview at the end of 2019. But is that true? Are global agencies employing the best people and doing the best work? Or is it a case of good people spread between independent agencies and the multinationals?
Certainly, there is validity in the contention that the global giants have the edge when it comes to training and development, but isn’t this often a case of bringing younger employees up to speed while some of the best talent heads off to create their own agencies and work for themselves in a free, more inspiring environment that best serves their innate creative talent?
In true advertising speak, Peter Horgan, chief executive of Omnicom Media Group Australia and New Zealand, told AdNews in the same issue: “Agencies need to improve their navigation across the consumer journey and hone their attribution capabilities to prove and drive a marketing return.”
In New Zealand’s independent-agency environment, we are a bit more down-to-earth and the success of the local independents centres on creating long-term client relationships, based on a personal relationship with senior people rather than depending on international alignments.
While it seems a number of the major marketing companies feel safer dealing with big name agencies, this comes at a cost in terms of speed and fees. Indies have to build their reputation over time and through the work they do, showing that they can do it again and again and again.
Without question the resources made available through global alignment give a substantial advantage but being in a group-aligned agency environment often makes it surprisingly difficult for smaller subsidiaries, in markets like New Zealand, to benefit fully from what the networks are able to provide. Promises of access to all sorts of IP can be difficult to attain and the reality is it often doesn’t fit with the local market.
Having said that, there are plenty of benefits which local independent business-owners envy, especially the investment in operational infrastructure such as finance and HR.
Indies miss out on global new business. As Rufus Chuter, chief executive of Together, told NZ Marketing: “This can be a double-edged sword as sometimes the global deals aren’t in smaller markets’
