The Coca-Cola China account has been put up for pitch, however, the
exercise has been clouded by the fizzy drink giant's recent appointment
of the Interpublic Group (IPG) to develop a global communications
strategy for its flagship Coke brand.
Three agencies are battling for the account, estimated to be worth
upwards of USdollars 13 million annually. They are IPG's
McCann-Erickson, and Bcom3's Leo Burnett and D'Arcy.
While D'Arcy is the AOR, Burnett has been responsible for the main
thematic work and McCann has been appointed to work on the upcoming
Chinese New Year promotion.
The pitch aims to consolidate the account into one agency.
However, there is concern over how non-IPG agencies will operate under
the IPG umbrella and also how this will impact Coke's new "Think local,
act local" strategy.
While firm answers aren't likely soon, it is believed that Coke is
attempting to give itself a more consistent image through a single
"brand architecture" as it emphasises local branding across more than
125 markets globally.
"We don't yet know what these brand stories are going to look like, but
it's a common sense thing to do to avoid chaos," said worldwide D'Arcy
president Susan Gianinno.
"What they are doing is similar to building a brand vision of sorts and
I imagine it to be conceptual, which means interpretation and adaptation
will be allowed on a market-by-market basis rather than local agencies
becoming simple executors of ideas," she told MEDIA.
It's a message that Coke has relayed to its roster of agencies worldwide
since appointing IPG. IPG consists of McCann, The Lowe Group, Draft
Worldwide, Initiative Media Worldwide, Octagon Sports Marketing and the
Allied Communications Group. Together they will work with Coke to
determine how best to communicate the brand in local markets, given a
global context.
But industry sources said that the global assignment could give IPG
agency networks an unfair advantage in the years to come.
But D'Arcy worldwide president and CEO John Farrell disagreed, saying
that Coca-Cola's new set-up represented the spreading of a new trend
first seen in North America just a few years ago.
He said: "All agencies, including us, are increasingly getting into
assignments that are really more about brand consultancy, not just a
communications execution."
Mr Farrell pointed to Sprint in the United States, which has had three
agencies, including D'Arcy, over the past few years.
"The assignment (for Sprint) called for the construction of a brand
architecture and at one stage we had the responsibility to brief other
agencies on the work to be carried out. But, initially Sprint had three
agencies and three years on, it still has three agencies.
He added: "It really does depend on the nature of the conceptual
architecture that's developed, and the client is really the ultimate
arbiter of how they want to see that infused and working
market-by-market with their agencies."
Leo Burnett's Asia-Pacific business development director, Charles
Edwards, also said local markets would ultimately determine local
strategy. However, he believed the arrangement with IPG was only related
to the US market for the time being.
"As far as we have been advised, IPG is related to the US only to
explore ways to reassert Coke's brand essence. That doesn't include
developing ads, but concepts which could lead to advertising ideas," he
said.
(See also page 8).
