Does the second mouse get the cheese?

This metaphor tells you that it’s not so bad to come in second. The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. He who waits or hesitates wins, but it rarely works that way in marketing terms. Is it easy for a new player to gain market share when the category is already defined? No, for the leading brands would only get stronger. Marketing guru Al Ries himself declares that it’s better to be first than it is to be better. To get the cheese, you’d have to diversify, be different.

It’s like the (not-so-famous) kid-brand differentiation. Diversification is instinctive in kids. The firstborn sets the standard. He’s usually his parents’ favorite. The second child instinctively aches to be noticed. So he differentiates himself from his kuya. The second child has more drive, and grows up to be a natural-born brand manager.

Within the local advertising context, we’ve seen the emergence of second mice/kids. They’re here not because of missteps from the first mice. They just want to get a big share of the cheese, which isn’t as large as it used to be.

Advertising agencies’ profits have been shrinking through the years on account of the change in compensation schemes, smaller advertising budgets, the channeling of funds to non-traditional media, and the arrival of media independents (whose chief role is to broker placements on TV, radio, print and other media, leaving the creative business to the brand-handling agencies). The big firms from the so-called sunset industry have had to keep the sun from going down on them through reinvention or de-fragmentation. These 30-second-centric agencies have gone multi-disciplinary, or split into specialized units, in recognition of the increasing power and efficiencies from other communication channels like direct marketing, PR, events, online, mobile, and shopper marketing.

Part of this reinvention is the advent of the "second agency."

A second agency is structured like any advertising agency, offering the same creative and account-management services. It is smaller, nimbler and flatter. It works independently from the "first" agency, allowing for opportunities to work on brands that may be directly or indirectly competitive with the "first" agency’s brands. To ensure confidentiality, firewalls are set in place, like physically separating the second agency from the first. The shared resources are usually confined to human resources and finance.

The first "second agency" in Manila was H.K. McCann, set up in 1996, within the McCann Erickson fold. Its original mandate was to work on accounts that were competitive with McCann’s (telecom, fast food, pharmaceuticals and other categories). It has since grown into a major advertising force, and established its own fiscal identity, as Harrison Communications. Other big advertising groups have followed suit, including Leo Burnett, DDB TBWA, and Campaigns & Grey.

Campaigns’ second agency is Neuron. Neuron’s beginning was much like Harrison Communications’. Neuron’s managing director, Boboy Consunji, was then vice president for account management at Campaigns & Grey, heading a group that had brands in conflict with other Campaigns account groups. Before things came to a head, Neuron was officially launched in February 2006.

Consunji, together with erstwhile Campaigns creative director, now executive creative director Ompong Remigio, manage the marketing communication requirements of key market players like Sun Cellular, URC Candies, Nissin Noodles, Lamoiyan Corp., Rockwell Land, Red Ribbon, Silverworks, Ligo and Consolidated Distillers. Both of them have worked for several years in larger corporate settings, and are now exploiting that experience and knowledge in finding a niche for their new agency. It can’t be copycat positioning lest it be seen as a dispensable or inferior me-too.

"We’re barely 12 in Neuron," says Consunji. "At first, we didn’t have any choice. We had to start small because we were a startup. Eh siempre, we had to make do, improvise. We also realized that’s how it’s been. We’re used to being lean. So we positioned ourselves as a crack team for clients who are used to seeing lots of agency people servicing them. ‘Crack team’ has a nice ring to it. Mabilis pero mahusay. So, quite unwittingly, that’s how we brand ourselves," he explains.

"Slow turnaround" is often a client complaint in any ad agency. Most advertisers would always expect quick results, or creative materials done in 24 or 48 hours. Sometimes it’s done on a whim, considering that the launch date is months away. "Defenses like ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ or other more significant allusions don’t always work. Neither does ‘let me manage your timetable and we’ll work backwards.’ Short lead times are handed down nonetheless. We accept that when we don’t have any choice, and make them happy when we deliver," Consunji emphasizes.

It’s also swiftness coupled with work that’s plenty and bold, inventive, according to Remigio, a Creative Guild of the Philippines’ Hall of Fame awardee. "Plenty" means offering an array of creative options or executions. Most clients appreciate seeing several ways of skinning the cat. Moreover, Neuron’s accounts are mostly local, some non-market leaders yet. So, the work has to be smart and vigorous vs. bigger competitors.

"The Manananggal TV commercial for Sun Cellular, for example, was pre-produced, shot and post-produced from Holy Monday to Maundy Thursday, then aired Easter Sunday. It’s not your usual telecom advertising. And the business results have been phenomenal for Sun," Remigio reports. That work philosophy seems to be working for Consunji and Remigio. Neuron is expected to hit P500 million in gross billings after less than a year of operations.

Neuron’s icon is Einstein, who was thought to have had the best set of brain cells ever. Einstein is its moving figure for profound reasons. He was the embodiment of pure intellect and daring. His ideas were revolutionary at the time, and he challenged ancient prejudices and everyday experience. And they still have a galvanizing effect on popular imagination, proving that what may seem impossible or different at first will ultimately make sense.

"Neuron’s work will certainly not reverberate beyond its immediate milieu, as relativity did beyond science," Remigio enthuses, "but it will aim to surprise, at least, and make the ad-weary consumer thrilled during advertising intrusion, not arouse indifference to something as atrocious as Newtonian physics," she adds.

The Einstein inspiration has been captured in the following brand-sell, which could very well be a great piece of poetry:

Nothing is incredible,

Nothing is impossible,

Not everything should make sense.

If it’s crazy, illogical, mad, insane,

Maybe because nobody has done this before.

Fear is the thing that kills,

And so we will walk where angels fear to tread.

Brilliance can be lonely. So what.

The brain is not programmed to be predictable,

sensible, and sane at all levels.

We use a fourth of our brain.

Imagine if we use all of it.

There are more neurons in our brain

Than there are stars in the Milky Way.

So there’s no stopping of brilliant ideas.

Neuron won’t quit.

Neuron as a new player is playing a different riff that its customers are willing to hear. It’s a strategy that other new entrants in any market must do. The second mouse needs more than luck to get the cheese. It needs to be a keen observer of the market, asking hard questions like, "What is it that the first players haven’t done yet, or have ignored?" "Is there a niche in the market that’s open as a result of what the first has done or left out?"

There will always be room for new competitors. If you’re at a loss, learn from Al Ries. Or, perhaps, any second child.

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E-mail bongo@vasia.com or bongo@campaignsandgrey.net for comments, questions or suggestions. Thank you for communicating.