Name Jeffrey Seah
Day job Managing director, digital services, Starcom Mediavest Group
If you treat your advertising partner as your life partner, what are some of the things you should stop doing right away?
A"Early in work life, when 16-hour days were norms, a question swirled in my head desperately seeking an answer: 'Is your job going to be your life?'
My personal life since has been relatively eventful: choosing a life partner, mutating friendships, family upheavals, transgressions while I was serving reserve military duty, grasping the institution of marriage, vacillations on parenthood and what to give back to society.
The collective learning from these life events inadvertently found their way into my work life, and have adjusted well to the fickle and artificial advertising world.
Here are some life lessons I have picked up and applied to work. They have resulted in new-business wins and revenue growth (ad people are mercenary and money-minded).
Firstly, take no-one for granted. A client is like a spouse: the work starts after winning her business. What's more, they change — especially after they have signed the contract.
The key here is under-promise, over-deliver.
Secondly, don't judge or impose. Just like growing kids each client is different and has their own views. People should be treated as people, not as job titles. Respecting a person is a state of mind, while respecting a title or role is just physical show.
Lastly, be a real person. This means stay in touch. Staff and partners, like family and friends, do change for the worse. Keep within mental sight to coach or advise. Remember, you get out of relationships as much as you put in. Contact reports and staff evaluations deserve equal respect as a child's first report card. Do, not what a job or role demands, but what should be done. Differentiate the (TVC) reel from the real.
In retrospect, I found the answer to that other question 'Is your job going to be your life?' a few years back. But only in recent years could I encapsulate it in a single-minded proposition: 'My life is my job.'"
Name Neil Stewart
Day job Marketing director, Motorola Mobile Devices, high growth markets
Arguments can be good for marriage - but won't you get fired if you adopt the same approach in advertising?
A"Issues fester. Important dates are forgotten. You take each other for granted. Then a seemingly trifling difference of opinion turns into all-out war.
Given that I travel approximately half the year, the heated debates I have with my family are often on the phone, and relate to when will I be home. When it comes to dealing with our agencies across a region as diverse as Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa, the discussions we have are usually on the phone or over email.
It is very difficult to communicate your point of view in a three word SMS. So tip number one — try and save the argument for when you are in the same room.
If the agency-client relationship is strong then a healthy, constructive discussion on each other's differences and short comings is often the key to longevity. As Dr Phil would say, 'Keep it positive'. Keep focused on the issues and not the person and remember why you got in the relationship in the first place.
Sounds like good advice and exactly why after our recent marriage guidance session we decided to stay with our agency in Asia and India.
Honesty, as they say, is the best policy for agency relationships and successful marriages."
Name Margaret Kennedy
Day job Managing director, Euro RSCG Hong Kong
Does being single-minded work as well in advertising as it does in your private life?
A"Nowhere do you need to be more single-minded than in your work, and if you are in the advertising business, even more so. Because, given the current business environment, we have to be much more efficient and effective in our work — and being single-minded is the way to accomplish this goal.
In terms of work, if the target for the agency is revenue or gross income, then be very focused about new business and organic growth from existing clients.
If you wish to have distinctive ads, then filter, distill, and sacrifice to come up with the most relevant, compelling, single minded promise — because with budgets today, if you don't, your ads just simply will not cut through the clutter.
If you wish to build long-term partnerships with your clients, be focused: invest in the relationship, build trust and confidence on a professional and personal level. This will not only help you today but also when the client moves on and takes on another position.
If you are not focused or single-minded about where you want to be, I would argue that you would find it very hard to get there.
There are simply too many diversions along the way."
Name Chris Thomas
Day job Chairman and CEO, BBDO Asia
Faced with the global meeting for an important client and the annual family holiday, how would you choose between the two?
A"This is a tough question, and in my experience comes up once a year.
We are in a service (not servile) business. Successful people in the advertising business thrive on creative energy, deadlines, passion and a fascination with their client's business problems. It is not a nine-to-five job.
So obviously the family holiday has to go.
Not necessarily. Personally I can only go the extra mile for my clients if my family is happy and thriving.
I am lucky that my wife, although she never worked in advertising, has worked in an advertising agency. She was the head chef of a London advertising agency in the heady days of the 1980s, when agencies had private dining facilities.
So she knows why I am passionate about the business. My kids know that I work hard and am away a lot. But equally they know that they are my number one priority and that my leisure time is devoted entirely to them. And they know that I am fiercely protective of my weekends and the annual family holiday.
So obviously the client meeting has to go.
Not necessarily. So how does one decide? Life both at home and work is about relationships. All great relationships depend on trust, mutual respect, selflessness, partnership and honesty. Apply these principles and you will make the right decision.
Nine times out of ten, after an honest conversation with my client, the family holiday has come first. That is what good relationships are about."
Name Carolyn Kan
Day job Managing director, M&C Saatchi Singapore
How do you develop a special relationship with a client who shares work on a project basis with several agencies on its roster?
A"Clients don't just buy great thinking and inspired ideas, they also buy great team chemistry. In my humble opinion, it may be distilled into five Cs: comprehension, collaboration, can-do, candour and commitment.
People buy people who understand them. Listening is the first step towards comprehension. Linguists have proven that an 80/20 split of listening versus talking is the optimum balance. So talk less, listen more.
Collaboration is key in any relationship. If clients show willing, for goodness sake involve them in the process. The big reveal at the end of the allotted time for creative development is like an arranged marriage. It doesn't give anyone much room to manoeuvre and no one likes to be cornered.
A can-do attitude is probably the most valuable trait in our business of intangibles. Passion and conviction are contagious. Knowing that a team will do whatever it takes to achieve their goal gives clients confidence to be brave.
Candour goes a long way. Being honest and standing up for what you believe is right may not put you in people's good books all the time but at least you'll be trusted for your sincerity. One can only pretend to be someone else's ideal partner for so long.
In this fickle world of constant change, commitment is a rare and fragile thing. It's hard work. In our relationships, we take care to seek out the right fit before we commit. Why should business be any different? One-sided commitment will only end in tears."
Name David Mayo
Day job Vice-president, Ogilvy & Mather Asia-Pacific
If getting to know consumers through focus groups is akin to speed-dating, how do you get more truth than lies?
A"I am a sworn believer in the sixth sense. Focus groups seem so old fashioned in 21st century marketing, where people make less and less conscious decisions because they have less and less time to think about their decisions.
We have to be on our toes as consumers. We rely on a large amount of information being made relevant to our own personal and immediate needs. The way to get the truth out of advertising is to apply some of the innocence and naivety that we lose as we become adults. If you speak to a six-year old-child (take my daughter Scarlet for example) she will ask you only the questions that she wants answers to. And if she doesn't get the right answer, she asks again until she is satisfied.
Ask a question that you really want the answer to. Focus groups always seem to be about using the people and the time they have because they are there and paid for.
And do we really want to believe people who are being paid to answer our questions? Do they care enough? I tend to believe more of what I hear in auto-conversations and interractions. To get more truth than lies, you have to go watching people in their natural habitat, listening to conversations, observing reactions and responses, and then you have to be able to apply this tapestry to communications and marketing.
I am unsure of the difference between truth, lies and bullshit sometimes but without any of them, this industry probably wouldn't exist! Thats perhaps why we need a sixth sense."
Name Jimmy Lam
Day job President, Clipper Asia
When would you let your significant other change your mind on a campaign?
A"I don't and I won't, period.I simply refuse to mix business with pleasure. I mean, dealing with domestic affairs at home is freaking serious business and writing campaigns is a pleasure. (Well, it was supposed to be!)
It's not that my significant other is not intelligent enough to provide valuable input. At home, she runs some of the more sophisticated and complex departments such as Finance, Education, Housing, Labour, Transport, Internal Security and Correctional Services. Not to mention, she was and still partially works on the client side.
However, when it comes to working on creative assignments targeting the mother, housewife, career woman or suspicious wife, I always seek consumer insights from my wife aka Master of Planet Home. The campaign I write will be very much loyal to such hard earned insights, but I would never ask for a concept test from her.
I already have very little say at home, and my work is my last frontier. I am digging in my heels."
Name Ian Thubron
Day job EVP, TBWA\Asia-Pacific
What has your personal life taught you about client-agency relationships?
A"My job is to deliver great work that sells my clients' products. Strong client relationships makes the process easier, the work better and both our jobs more fun. Relationships are key. I consulted my family of four kids, one dog and one wife, and we agreed three key things.
Firstly, deliver what you say you will. If you promise to read a child a story and don't, it ruins their day. If you promise a family dinner and work late, it begins to break down the trust between parent and child.
Clients are the same. If you commit to deliver, deliver you must.
Secondly, make it very personal. You can't email love to a child. You can't upload your family to an FTP site. Clients are the same. Build a strong personal relationship, based on face-to-face contact and shared experiences.
Thirdly, constantly surprise and delight. There's no better recipe for a happy wife than a surprise bunch of flowers. Even the dog loves unexpected Pedigree treats. Clients are the same. Initiatives and ideas, even if not specifically briefed or expected, work wonders.
I wrote at the outset that ultimately it's about the work, and no relationship can work if the work doesn't work. But you get so much more from people if you actually spend a bit of time with them."
