For Karl Wu, perhaps the gulf was just too wide to cross. Three months after joining Publicis Groupe’s China Media Exchange, Wu returned to the client side at Intel (Media, 9 October).
According to Publicis Groupe Media China chairman Phil Talbot, Wu’s departure was as much to do with his background as anything; after spending the bulk of his career on the client side, the shift to an agency may have been more dramatic than he had foreseen.
According to Publicis Groupe Media China chairman Phil Talbot, Wu’s departure was as much to do with his background as anything; after spending the bulk of his career on the client side, the shift to an agency may have been more dramatic than he had foreseen.
It may be no coincidence that few career client marketers find the bright lights of the agency world all that seductive. Instead, the traffic looks overwhelmingly one-way and appears to be getting more congested, as client teams continue to cherry-pick senior agency executives as a means of overcoming a region-wide talent crunch that refuses to ease.
Consider some of the examples: Coca-Cola has hired the likes of Linda Kovarik (Leo Burnett) and Leonardo O’Grady (Saatchi & Saatchi) in recent times, while Nokia’s recruitment of Grey veteran Chris Leong is starting to reap dividends.
Meanwhile, Nike’s Southeast Asian marketing team is led by former Wieden & Kennedy executive Tim Parkinson, and Johnson & Johnson’s integrated marketing is overseen by former Universal McCann staffer Gary Lim.
In all of these cases, however, there is a theme that recurs - namely, the category experience brought in by the relevant agency executive. The alternative — drafting in talent from sharply diverging backgrounds - still appears unpalatable to many of the region’s MNC marketing departments.
“It’s just a demonstration of the fact that a lot of companies do not want to take risks,” says PCCW’s outgoing SVP of mobile commercial marketing, Melanie Lee, who switched from heading Seagrams at Ogilvy in 1997 to lead the branding team for new mobile player Sunday. “In a way, it gives you a different perspective, provided they can learn quick.”
In Western markets, there appears to be considerably more cross-fertilisation among differing client sectors, giving rise to the ‘rockstar CMO’ stereotype - marketers like Jo Harlow and Julie Roehm who can, supposedly, bring results to any marketing division. The rather ambiguous fate met by this duo may weaken the argument in favour of this kind of movement, but recruitment consultant Beverly Chan says that it shouldn’t.
“It will take a long time for the Asian mindset to accept,” says Chan. “It’s a punt - when you take this candidate on, you know there are areas he’s not familiar with. Understanding the industry is one thing - what is important is the attitude and mindset.”
Sectors such as IT and finance may be the most risk-averse of all when it comes to trying out new talent, which can – at least partly – be explained by a continuing fascination with putting sales people into marketing roles. At Sun Life Financial, new CMO Rob Burr is attempting to sidestep this thinking by building his team from people who are comfortable with consumer insights.
“The problem is, in some industries, they put people into the marketing role who have no marketing experience but plenty of industry experience,” he points out. “But there are some clients, like Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Coca-Cola and Levi’s, that have got a particular history of process and success. If you’ve got a good track record that jump is possible.”
It is a strategy that more clients may need to consider, given the patchy track record - and skepticism — that sometimes accompanies agency hires. “I’m not saying that people in agencies don’t work hard but it’s a different type of intensity,” points out Burr.
