The Johnson & Johnson brand was one of five to be unceremoniously removed from McCann’s care after an internal global review last month (Media, 27 June). The news got worse a fortnight later, when Universal McCann was fired from 11 markets in Asia-Pacfic.
The news was a slug in the guts — but for the world’s largest ad network, it may not be a disaster.
So what about networks with a spindlier backbone of global clients? What would Euro RSCG do if it hadn’t retained Dell last month? How will Bates prolong its remarkable existence if, as the doubters predict, it loses linchpin client Nokia?
Michael Maedel is the international president of JWT, which has been on the wrong side of some global reviews in recent years (Samsung being one), but profited handsomely from the McCann/ J&J fall out, picking up Reach and Band-Aid globally.
“Any network which depends on centrally-won business faces a major threat. We’re seeing a growing centralisation of the ideation process,” he warns. “We’ve actually had a pretty good run with multinationals, with HSBC, Vodafone and Kimberly-Clark. But, like anyone else, we have to be careful that these clients don’t dominate us.”
If all agencies do is adapt work created in New York or London, says Maedel, they’ll never be able to attract local talent or local business. “Nobody wants to be labelled a postbox,” he says.
Of course, not all marketers make catch-all decisions in faraway places. Yes, JWT has the luxury of centralised clients like Ford, J&J and its age-old relationship with Unilever on which to fall back in hard times, and it also has Levi’s in India.
“These clients want global ideas executed locally,” says Maedel.
A pendulum swings for most multinationals, says Chris Thomas, Asia-Pacific CEO of BBDO. “One company is centralising, while another goes the other way,” he says, citing Unilever as one big company to have centralised last year, stripping out its regional structures in Thailand.
Thankfully, there are ever larger local clients up for grabs, he says, pointing at Maxis, Malaysia’s biggest advertiser, which BBDO retained in April this year. Nonetheless, he admits that, in other emerging markets such as China, where BBDO isn’t strong, an anchor client is a crucial springboard.
Even ‘boutique networks’, such as BBH and Wieden & Kennedy, which opened an office in India this month on the back of its Nokia win, have used globally-aligned business to plant their flags in the soil. Such clients, adds Thomas — like Nike with Wieden — shape agency culture. Which is fine, as long as this client isn’t serviced and staffed at the expense of others.
Havas media agency MPG has used Dell to establish a foothold in the region. But MPG’s Singapore and Malaysia general manager Stuart Clark insists that the network could get by without many global clients.
“As a network, we don’t have much global business,” he says. “We try and win local brands and grow with that client.
“Multinationals tend not to be profitable for network offices in Asia, as you’re working on low commission.”
Soon enough, however, Asia’s agencies won’t have to look overseas for financial security. Michelle Kristula-Green, Asia-Pacific president of Leo Burnett, which handles Philip Morris, Procter & Gamble and McDonald’s, concludes: “As Asian companies (such as client Petronas) expand, we will see more international clients. But those clients will originate in Asia, rather than the West.”
