Where’s the disruption?

In the next three years, TBWASantiago Mangada Puno intends to be among the country’s top 10 advertising agencies. It currently ranks no. 17 in terms of billings–against the P3.5-billion billings of number one, McCann Erickson–and much higher in terms of creative reputation.

"We want to be rich and famous," said managing partner Jaime Santiago. "We want brands that will support our families and raise our egos, brands that will help us grow in both size and reputation."

TBWASantiago Mangada Puno’s growth strategy is to snatch clients from the top 10. In part because they are constantly in search of new creative ways to sell their goods and services and in part because there are so many advertising agencies to choose from, companies are increasingly opting for one year contracts, instead of the more traditional three.

Last year, TBWASantiago Mangada Puno pitched for 13 clients and signed up 12. Of the new accounts, the biggest was Alaska Milk Corp., the second largest player in the family milk segment of the P10-billion local industry.

"We got the account in September and we started airing the three-month growth gap campaign in October," said Santiago. At the end of the campaign, Alaska’s market share went up by four solid points against leader, Nestle Phils. Inc.

Copyrighted

The Alaska campaign was based on the copyrighted "disruption" way of thinking of TBWA Worldwide chairman and chief executive officer Jean-Marie Dru, the former executive creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi in Paris.

The three-step process started with convention or how the filled milk market, which accounts for 40% of industry revenues, is traditionally viewed. Based on tedious data gathering, it was discovered that the birth weight of children tripled from the time of birth to the child’s third birthday because mothers were very conscious of the nutritional value of milk. By the child’s fourth birthday, mothers ignored milk in their children’s daily nutrition, easily substituting this for soft drinks.

Knowing the convention, the TBWASantiago Mangada Puno team used disruption to meet Alaska’s vision of being one of the country’s top milk companies.

"Disruption is not a beautiful word nor is it about new ideas. It’s about discovering what is hidden in a product or a service, of rejecting the obvious," said Santiago.

The disruption concept was inspired by the success stories of businesses which registered dramatic growth in the stagnant economies of the 1990s. Dru, who visited the Philippine operation late last week, called it non-linear thinking.

"Disruption forges links between vision and creativity. It is more than a fool-proof methodology for creating breakthrough advertising and marketing campaigns but a groundbreaking new language that can create and manage change at all levels of an organization," he said.

TBWAWorldwide is among the top ten US-based agency networks with annual consolidated billings of $8.9 billion. Last year, it bought a 30% stake into the seven-year-old local ad agency.

Strategic creativity

In his book, "Beyond Disruption: Changing the rules in the marketplace", Dru argues against the conventional belief that creativity within an organization is non-strategic. "The force of an ad campaign resides not only in the quality of creative expression and the executed talent of the people involved but also in their strategic insights, their courage to think big and to aim high."

One of TBWAWorldwide’s global clients is Absolut, a premium brand of vodka. Early on in the 20-year or so relationship between the two companies, Dru used his convention-disruption-vision process to position the brand in the marketplace.

The conventional strategy to sell premium liquor brands is to emphasize the brand’s heritage or provenance. Thinking out of the box, TBWAWorldwide created a campaign based on the product’s name, Absolut, and its crystal clear bottle. "The disruption was to transfer the battle into icon and to build a territory around who drinks it," said Dru.

As a result, the product’s vision–to be treated as a fashion brand–was reached. Today, Absolut is the fourth best-selling brand of liquor and is priced, on the average, 20% higher than other vodka brands.

Problems

At the local level, TBWASantiago Mangada Puno has a client mix of both small and big companies. "I like clients that are small because they are not guided by a set of rules. They are open to disruption," said Santiago. Even better are problematic accounts such as the Philippines and Bayan Telecom, both of whom have tarnished images.

TBWASantigo Mangada Puno created the TV component of the global campaign, "Invest in the Philippines", which currently airs in cable stations, CNN and Discovery Channel. The ad agency also created Bayantel’s quick response campaign, which promises to rebate landline subscribers P100 for every day of delay.

"Bayantel’s vision is to be a premier name in the communications industry but it has image problems that included its financial difficulties. We decided to turn another disadvantage, its size compared to market leader, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., into an advantage. Because it was smaller, Bayantel could be more responsive to the needs of its subscribers," Santiago said.

In the two months that the ad was aired in its sister company, ABS-CBN Channel 2, Bayantel’s performance significantly improved and employee morale went up.

For TBWASantiago Mangada Puno, thinking differently has become a mantra. At the very least, disruption has been profitable. –MJGrey