The two agencies may increasingly collaborate on clients such as Nestlé and General Motors, but there are too many other client conflicts for a marriage to be feasible, he said. “A merger would make absolutely no sense for Lowe in the context of where we’re going. We’re attracting a new breed of clients and we put creativity above dots on the map.”
Top of his hit list is to bring creative quality in Asia in line with Europe and Latin America. “I want uniformly high creative standards globally,” Wright said. “On Unilever, we want Asia to break through the quality barrier, as we have done in Latin America, in 24 months. Too much work on FMCG business, including ours, relies too heavily on the classic ‘product demonstration’ formula.”
Wright insists that improvements will be made with real clients. “Too many creative reputations have been built in Asia through work of questionable provenance. Scam is regressive - it’s playing tennis without a net.”
He also rubbished the suggestion that Lowe’s coverage in Asia was patchy outside regional hub Bangkok, India and Indonesia. “We do not have major clients asking us to be in Singapore or Hong Kong. And while China was a real weakness, we’ve dissolved our joint-venture partnership, started afresh and have seen real progress.”
The Asia roll-out of Rivet, Lowe’s direct marketing sister brand, is another priority for Wright, as is enforcing the agency’s ‘High value ideas’ proposition. “We may not like the individual execution, but what’s more important is whether there’s an idea behind it that creates value in the marketplace.”
