Yes, there is a slump; no, it's not wise to ditch advertising

A recent Manila visitor brought an upbeat stance to the world of advertising. He said that, given the US economic slump, several businesses will go slow on their marketing communication efforts, but warned it would be extremely shortsighted for any company to simply ditch advertising. It is marketing myopia to abandon this communications tool during difficult times. Reasonable spending must be pushed since irrefutable evidence shows that simply dumping advertising is not a good strategy. “A company should consider its competitors’ share of voice or share of ink as basis for determining its communication investment,” he declared. 

The visitor who made a brief Manila stopover is Miles Young, the new global CEO of Ogilvy, a leading name in the world of integrated communication. He assumes his post in January 2009, and promises to continue to drive people development and push the creative culture the agency is known for.

If you manage your business well, Young stressed, you can even use the recession as an opportunity to post gains. “Trust the recipe, aggressively exploit every opportunity, and as your competitors wobble, go after their best people, or better yet, go after their clients,” he added.

Those who went through the 1997 financial crisis and the SARS scare will agree that if you don’t blink, you win. These events make you realize that every difficult situation is a question of confidence. You just have to be strong, resolute, aggressive and focused in facing the battle and winning it.

Invest In People Development

There are a number of things Young learned in Asia, which he intends to bring to his new post as global chief — the values of patience, consensual decision-making, and subtlety. “Asians are fundamentally optimistic and essentially pragmatic. They look for the solution rather than the problem,” he articulated.

“The secret, really, is people,” Young replied when local media asked for the reason behind the success of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific under his 13-year leadership.

Young is known for unconventional approaches in developing his team. Marketing communications students and practitioners will surely learn from some stories and nuggets of wisdom shared with this writer:

• Seeing that many of the employees in Ogilvy Beijing and Shanghai have lived all their lives in the city, he organized a trip to the countryside to get them to widen their perspective and rediscover their rich heritage. And on a trip to Russia’s Lake Baical, where Young brought together academicians, businessmen and Chinese and Russian students to study globalization and the environment, he assigned the participants a five-book reading list during the trip. These maverick methods allowed his people to get better and fly higher.

 As a strong advocate of diversity, he appointed a diversity-officer in the organization whose mandate is to safeguard the office’s multi-lateral mix.

• More revenues would come from homegrown accounts. If you are a multinational company (MNC), be a different type of MNC that can re-export or export back. Morph the organization into an operation capable of having different offerings that cater to the local requirements.

• In other offices within the network, Young noted a 50-50 mix of international and local talents — a deliberate strategy as the client mix consists of both regional and homegrown accounts.

• Hire people with non-traditional traits — rebels with a cause, slightly irreverent creative types who step up for their own views, out of the box thinkers who are willing to step the line, skilled, professional people, and skilled people with a cultural twist. And based on the Philippine experience, find talents from the second-tier schools.

• The agencies that produced the best business results are those with the best creative standards. At the end of the day, you are in business because you can do something that the client cannot do, which is offer creativity. The minute they think they can do it, then, without a doubt, you go out of business.

• Have very high touch skills and institutionalize them in the right people — those who live the brand and who do care for it. As you do this, make sure that top management is ready to invest in this developmental goal. You may focus on professional and personal growth rather than simply training for your people.

360 As Key Differentiator

When queried about the legacy of his predecessor, Shelly Lazarus, Young was quick to refer to the 360-Degree Brand Stewardship that has come to be Ogilvy’s key differentiator. He pronounced that other agencies may claim that they do integrated communication work but he is proud to say that only Ogilvy offers the depth and breadth of specialization in its entire network. Before that the company was only advertising and direct marketing, now it is into PR, brand activation, health communications and other potent tools in reaching out to people.

The 360-Degree Brand Stewardship is a set of beliefs, practices and proprietary techniques that goes far beyond ordinary businesslike interest. It is the way to get inside each nurtured brand and determine what makes it tick. It is a philosophy that helps turn products into brands.

Young highlighted that within the 360-framework, there are more opportunities to further build your agency’s offerings, especially in the light of digital communication, which has exponentially gained ground.

360 works, but there is one area that Young feels uncomfortable about— a degree of attention to advertising has vanished. It has been taken for granted and, of late, has not been tended as much as it should be. There is a great mistaken notion that advertising has lost its purpose, its logic and its magic. The advertising industry, in general, has somehow lost its confidence in its power, especially in the light of new tools. What’s left is the whole business of big ideas and brand building. But note that only a few global brands have been built solely on a digital platform.

There is a worldwide slump, and because of this you might be thinking of ditching your communications investment. You are warned not to, lest it hurts your brand over the long haul.

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Email bongo@vasia.com or bong_osorio@abs-cbn.com for comments, questions or suggestions. Thank you for communicating.