Procter to agencies: collaborate

In a world where agencies are busy reinventing themselves to secure a special status with their clients, the biggest brand owner of them all is more concerned about how well its agencies are working together than deciding who represents the future of marketing. "I expect agencies to collaborate much better, because no agency is expert in everything," says Bernhard Glock, the man overseeing global media and communications for Procter & Gamble, the consumer goods giant with a portfolio of almost 300 brands and media spend worldwide approaching US$8 billion. "That just doesn't exist." Glock, promoted to what was a newly-created role around 18 months ago, is one of the key players in a major overhaul of marketing at P&G. This was instigated in response to changing consumer lifestyles and attitudes, and is resulting in a shaking up of the traditional hierarchies of which marketing disciplines are considered the most important. "The advertising agency is very much in the lead, because the creative part, the equity of a brand, is still very fundamental to the way we work," Glock says. However, he adds: "What I see over time, and already now, is that other types of agency come more and more to the table earlier because different areas of expertise are needed early on. The old world doesn't exist any more. The new world is where consumers have choice, consumption patterns are different, there is media fragmentation -- and that is why we have to have a different approach and involve different agencies early on in the process." Experts in brand equity, communications and consumer understanding need to be able to work effectively together Glock explains, with the mix of disciplines present at the table dependent on each brand -- interactive specialists, for instance, are brought on board before the media plan is drawn up for products where the target audience uses a lot of interactive media. "If you have different perspectives on your consumer and your brand proposition on the table early on, this inspires and creates ideas which you never had before," Glock says. "Then you go out and work your respective area of responsibility but (the benefit) of that collaboration early on is you create ideas you never had before, if you have the right experts at the table." Glock's job involves traversing the globe in search of expertise and best practices that can be replicated worldwide. He stresses that great work and pockets of expertise can be found all around the world -- last year's Cannes media Grand Prix, for P&G's Biomat detergent, came from Israel. "For me, what is important is to look for underlying principles of success, how they made it, learn from those best approaches and reapply them worldwide." Greater collaboration is one of three work practices Glock says he wants to introduce into Asia, alongside "the importance of ideas" and building communication plans around them, and holistic communication. Conversely, the enthusiasm and commitment he witnessed in Asia on a recent brainstorming visit is something he wants to export. "I was looking at 80 people and you could not distinguish between an agency manager and a Procter & Gamble manager." Rivalry between disciplines may not disappear overnight, but Glock sees the primary responsibility for getting them to work together as down to P&G's internal staff to create a communal atmosphere where agencies share a common goal rather than a combative "pitch bunker". Marketers have to be open and transparent with their agencies. The challenges Glock lays down are as much directed internally as they are at P&G's marcoms partners. One priority is to encourage staffers to rethink the best ways to communicate with consumers. Underpinning all this is market research in its broadest sense, including techniques where marketers spend time with the people that buy their products to deepen their understanding of how their target consumers live. P&G's assistant brand managers and brand managers in China, for instance, stayed with low income families for a week. Glock, shaping the future of P&G's immense media buy, is implementing the philosophy articulated by his boss, chief marketing officer Jim Stengel, as 'consumer is boss', effectively over-riding concerns over clutter and noise by basing media strategy on greater consumer understanding. "Without insights, without data, without understanding, without immersion into consumers' lives and how they use different media, you cannot make conscious choices. This is when you come back to default positions like managers have for TV. One of my missions is to fight those default positions and come to a more neutral position to start with," Glock says. Consumer insight, he adds, is the backbone of all media planning decisions. As for the agencies, it seems what Glock requires from them mirrors what P&G is setting out to achieve with its marketing communications as a whole. "What we have to make sure is what the consumer sees is integrated, seamless and holistic; and that's what the agencies need to work on," he says.