FEATURES: Days of showing off are over - Why do agencies find it so hard to accept that relationship marketing is what it is all about?

Thinking in the New Age Relationship marketing is all advertising is and ever was, but few agencies seem to acknowledge this truism. Instead, they continue to give away ideas to their clients while trying to make a dollar on media or commissions. All the time, they are doing ads for themselves in the hope of getting an award so they can show how clever they are to their fellow agencies. Sorry, but those days are over. Today it is all about results and the 'traditional' agency - someone who acts on behalf of a client to produce advertising - has gone the way of the dinosaur. That model is dead and so are those people, but although clients have realised this for some time, it has sunk in with very few agencies. DDB Singapore realised it three years ago and we began looking for a better way that would give our clients better results right then. It took us two years to really get it defined but in the past 12 months, we reckon we've cracked it. The Internet: Catalyst or catastrophe? Many ad people see the Internet as either something to fear or to worship but in reality it is neither. It is just another form of conversation. And, in the end, that is all advertising was or should have been, a conversation. Bill Bernbach knew that best. All of his ads were conversations. 'Think small' or 'We try harder', are cozy chats. Our DDB Worldwide chairman, Keith Reinhard and I were talking a few months ago and we mulled over what Bill would have done if he was around today and had the Internet as a medium. Our conclusion was that he would have done what he always did. He would have welcomed you in to the page or the TV commercial and invited you to sit down for a bit of a chinwag. And you would have been pleased to join him and come away better informed with a smile on your face thinking aren't VW, or Avis or Levi's really nice people to know. Those were ads done for the customer. Not for the client, or the agency, or the creative team, or, heaven forbid, the award show. Think of any great ad campaign and you'll find it is a conversation with you, the customer. And that's what is so great about the Net. The Web is just a market place where all business is a conversation. There is no longer an "us" and "them". It is only "us" now and if you don't realise that then you are going to be left out of the conversation, and nobody likes that. The soft soap of advertising no longer washes People are talking on the 'Net. The customer, not the consumer - that's an old word - knows more about a product, and the company which makes that product, than the company knows itself. Because the customer talks to other customers about that product and the service and the company promises and knows the real truth, the soft soap of advertising no longer washes. That customers can now talk to each other is the most influence-altering thing about the 'Net. And it is something very few bricks and mortar companies from the Old World realise. Amazon is so successful at garnering loyalty from its vast customer base because it knows exactly what each of its customers wants. How does it know? As CEO Jeff Bezos says, "it may sound simple, but we asked them". It's only the 'Net, you numbskull!! But, that's just it - the 'Net is simple and it's easy because anyone can talk on the 'Net and the Internet has reached as many people in its first six years as the telephone did in its first four decades. In fact, a thousand new Internet users have joined the Web since you began reading this article. Ecommerce is transforming world business. Both in the way that we do it and the means we use to measure it. So, where does that leave us marketing people? Well, if you have embraced this new new way of business - which is in fact the same as the old old way but with new tools - and understand how to use it, then you are laughing. Agent provocateur.com The 'Net is not the revolution, it is only the catalyst. A change has been long overdue and the World Wide Web is merely an agent for that change. Our job has always been to build brands. But too many advertising agencies have been stuck in the rut of doing ads that dictate to consumers - "Buy me and I will change your life!", they shout. But, the thing is, people now know that it is not true. This has caused many companies to begin to soul search in order to know themselves better and that is where we, the new age brand builders, come in. Navel-gazing for beginners. At DDB, we are lucky enough to have some proprietary tools that mean we can help clients find the heart and soul of their organisations and their brands themselves. We call it Brand Foundations. It has helped us win a heap of new business and, because we sell it as a brand consultancy, it is a great revenue generator in its own right. We insist on using it with all our clients and that way we can really get under their skin, which allows us a far greater insight into their business, what they truly believe in and where they want to go. Integration begins at home We strive to offer truly integrated solutions that best reflect the needs of a strategic group of significant clients. That solution could be an event, a website, taxi tops, a TV blitz, or a full customer loyalty programme. Or it could be some of, or all of, the above. We find that, if you start with knowing exactly what your client's brand really needs to achieve what they really want, then the solution usually finds you by itself. It's not rocket science, but then, advertising never was. Bring us your dotcoms Where Brand Foundations is particularly useful is with the plethora of dotcom start-ups that come looking for us these days. Dotcom start-ups are good at being fast. They can make decisions - even big decisions - in a mouse click, but that won't work when it comes to developing their core values and their brand. That process requires more reflection and a deeply thought out consensus among members of the leadership team. And once those core values have been defined, they need to communicate them to the people who work for them. Internet years are like dog years. These two essential activities - developing an organisation and developing a brand - take time. By doing a Brand Foundation, we can help the company founders with leadership, which is about teaching their organisation what it is they stand for, and brand building, which is about teaching millions of customers what it is they stand for. Leadership and brand building are parallel and independent and they both require time, consistency and constancy. And, because dotcoms move at lightspeed and are usually made up of very passionate, clever people who know little of marketing, a two-day Brand Foundation and a very reasonable consultancy fee now, can save them years and hundreds of thousands of dollars later. Get to know yourself With Brand Foundation, we have helped numerous dotcoms get started and develop into real, sustainable brands. These companies include some of the best known local names on the 'Net: SESAMi, Zing Asia, Horizon, Asia One and Asia Stock Watch, all of whom found their brand DNA with us and we then developed their corporate look and brand icon. These companies will be successful because they know who they are; they have good products and they are enthusiastic. Enthusiasm breeds content. There is a virtuous cycle in which enthusiastic employees help create enthusiastic customers and vice-versa. It works for dotcoms and it works for customer relationship marketers like us, which is why we are so enthusiastic about what we do and what the new order offers, because it is almost impossible for our customers to feel enthusiastic about their experience with us if our people who are delivering that experience aren't themselves enthusiastic. And the more enthusiastic our customers are, the more enthusiastic our team members will be about what we are doing. Which of course mean that ultimately, we will all live happily ever after. These are exciting times. The most exciting times our industry has experienced since Bill Bernbach set the world of advertising on it's head. Sure, they may be a little confusing but, as Jack Welch puts it, if you're not confused, you obviously don't know what's going on. Footnote: Last year was incredible for DDB Singapore - 19 out of 21 pitches won, bringing in over $16 million in new business. Staff growing to 105 people from 45, three years ago. The Telecoms Worldwide Marketing Effectiveness award for M1. The establishing of Rapp Collins Singapore, bringing relationship marketing into the fold. Enhanced interactive capabilities with the transitioning of HIT into Rapp Collins interactive so as to provide the best front-end interactive and Web design skills to our clients. And the further development of DDB Beyond, event management and alliance specialists which bring the added value of marketing beyond the agency norm. The truth is out there.

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