‘Collaboration is bullshit’ says PR agency boss in swipe at Publicis Groupe restructure he says has commoditised agency brands
A restructure by the world’s second largest holding company, Publicis Groupe, to simplify its offering has commoditised the company’s agency brands in the process, a prominent PR executive has said.
In an interview with Mumbrella, Alan VanderMolen, the head of independent PR agency WE’s APAC and EMEA operations, was asked for his view on the popular trend of collaboration between agencies and disciplines, which in the context of holding companies the outspoken American described as “bullshit”.
VanderMolen, who worked for fellow independent Edelman before joining WE but also had a long stint working within a holding company for WPP’s Burson-Marsteller, told Mumbrella: “Collaboration is bullshit. The people who are talking about collaboration are the holding company people who aren’t allowed to swim outside of their swim lanes.”
“Publicis Groupe talks about collaboration, and in the process they’ve commoditised each one of their disciplines,” he said referring to a move by the French group to consolidate its agencies into four solutions hubs at the start of the year.
“Their position is, the discipline doesn’t matter, you guys are going to collaborate. And you’re going to collaborate because all of you, no matter what your P&L is, are now going to report to the advertising people at a country level.”
Publicis Groupe’s restructure has meant that creative agency brands such as Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi now fall under the banner of Publicis Communications, and media agencies Zenith and Starcom have been aligned under the Publicis Media name.
In markets outside Publicis Groupe’s top 20, all agencies are part of the Publicis One brand.
“WPP started the trend when they created Team Ford. They said, this isn’t an Ogilvy client, or a Wunderman client. This is a WPP client, and we’re going to pull all of your people on to this.”
“And you know what happens every day there? They fight over where the money goes. Collaboration is shorthand for, ‘we’re going to commoditise each one of the disciplines’.”
VanderMolen mentioned Marc Pritchard, the chief brand officer at P&G, as the first senior marketer to declare that where an idea comes from is not important. “But you have to earn the right to execute,” VanderMolen asserted.
“He [Pritcard] has said I want my brand marketers, my contents people, and my product innovation guys all to sit on the same teams, because I want you to collaborate.”
“I think the agencies that can address that will win. But I think they’ll win as an individual agency, not with a holding company model.”
“As an independent you’re beholden to one person and one person only, and that’s the client. Holding companies are beholden to investors,” he said.
I always love what Alan has to say. Don’t always agree with all of it…but at least he has the guts to speak boldly, and to challenge. That’s why WE will grow under his leadership. This industry needs more brave leaders who say it the way they see it. It is great to have you back in the region, AV. Chris Savage
ReplyAgree 100%. If individual agency networks find it tough to collaborate internally across the region due to P&L conflicts and siloed service offerings, what hope do they have of being able to do this at holding company level?
Replyby getting rid of P&L conflicts – having one P&L at country level
ReplyI agree that true collaboration the way it is being spoken of is hogwash…..it doesn’t exist.
Nothing happens until someone has an idea to hang the entire campaign on….and usually the media, digital, pr guys are waiting on the creative shop to come up with the idea. And then everything is retro-fitted into that idea…for better or for worse.
There has to be a better way to do things….I have sat in on some real disasters due to this….all it takes is one misjudgement by the agency and everything down the chain gets compromised.
ReplyGotta Start, you are supporting Alan’s point. Many times the “big idea” that the ad creatives come up with just can’t be directly executed by the PR guys and gals – for being too straight up commercial vs. engaging on a human level. It’s usually better for the campaign theme to be broad so that all disciplines can execute according to what works for that discipline while supporting the larger concept, than trying to flog all discplines to support specific creative and condemning when they can’t pull it off well. I personally don’t think collaboration is necessarily BS, but it behooves smart marketers and communicators to understand that dotted lines are oftentimes more impactful than solid ones, and let each discipline plan and execute – and be paid for – what works in their world.
ReplyAlan is right. Holding companies only care about clients because they keep investors happy, not because they’re customers. I also agree that clients don’t necessarily care where ideas comes from or who handles the execution. It’s up to the agency to sort that out and in my experience, holding companies don’t have a good track record figuring it out.
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