Not long ago, most major promotion agencies were independent. Today, with both the demand for integration and group ownership of agencies, many promotion firms work hand-in-hand with ad agencies so the marketer ultimately sees a “one voice” campaign.
But is one-voice creative truly an attainable, business-building objective or a pie-in-the-sky buzzword? Does integrated creative increase promotional results or water them down? For that matter, just what is “integrated creative”?
In a recent survey by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, many marketers cited difficulty in managing integration and the potential for compromised creative. As one promotion director with a multinational, multi-brand corporation pondered, “The integration thing is a real issue right now. We either have silo thinking or the one-agency approach. History has proven that neither of these approaches works long-term.”
In earlier days, if an advertising agency had an internal promotion “department,” they often simply reproduced the advertising on a pole topper. It rarely got placed at retail, and independent promotion agencies referred to them as “ads on sticks.” Today, the “ad on a stick” mindset still persists in some ad agency cultures.
But “integration does not mean replication,” says Tom Hansen, senior VP-executive creative director at Wunderman, a Chicago-based unit of WPP group. Packaging, print, TV, outdoor, merchandising, promotion, the Web — each express a brand’s established voice in a slightly different manner, because each has a different objective, he says “A great example is Pepsi,” Hansen notes. “The voice is young, loud, pop, energetic. The television features Shakira and Beyoncé Knowles. Last summer, they gave away a billion dollars. They’re giving away iTune downloads under the cap. Each execution stands on its own. The brand has established its voice and each agency applies it in a different way.”
By its nature, promotion puts a sales spin on communication. As one promotional creative director observed, “Our relationship is better in terms of driving foot traffic if we’re working with an ad agency that’s sales driven versus ivory-tower brand builders. The approach is ground-up versus top-down. You can’t really have the big idea reach consumers at retail until you can get into the mind of the sales culture. You can’t push a theory to a sales force trying to get a shelf strip placed.”
Indeed, retailers have their own rules for what goes up on their turf. Retailer Target typically won’t allow branded P-O-P materials unless it looks like the store branded it. Coke asked me how to get gondola displays in Target during the holidays, when higher-ticket items take over that prized space. The answer was not Polar Bear ad graphics and prizes. It was business — the fact that Coke premiums fill an entire holiday aisle, and Coke 24-packs could bounce people back cross-store for premium purchases. The answer was also to hire a Target freelance designer to revisit Coke’s P-O-P designs.
Before she begins in-store creative, Paulina Connolly, VP-creative at Ryan Partnership, Wilton, CT, relies on co-marketing expertise to feed her the right store knowledge. “Figuring out the retailer’s business focus presents a real hurdle for manufacturing organizations,” she says. “After you know the focus, the hard work becomes figuring out the programs with that focus in mind.”
Communicating this perspective requires a specialized expertise in itself, even in basic sales materials. An ex-promotion exec turned Snapple marketer, Lewis Goldstein observes, “Selling materials are an art form. They need to be direct, very succinct and targeted toward distributors and retailers. Advertising folks are not taught that. They don’t know that world and they don’t know that language.”
Hansen explains, “Often the general advertising agency is forced to become the steward for the brand. This invites ‘sandboxing,’ and we’ve all seen the results: great TV, with the offer buried in the copy — and no significant impact on the brand’s sales. A smart client hires a great advertising agency to produce great advertising. The same goes for hiring a great promotion agency.”
“They really are two strong disciplines,” Goldstein adds, “and you need strong promotion creative to take the essence of what the advertising folks do and bring it to life in a direct way.”
Don Schultz, PhD, is the Professor Emeritus-in-Service of Integrated Marketing Communications at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University. He notes, “Some advertising people say, ‘Anything you do will cheapen the brand.’ Hey, the biggest retailer in the world got there by being cheap. And that’s Wal-Mart. They built a brand for a retail organization based on the fact that they sell stuff for less, not for more.”
Schultz says both parties are often guilty of not focusing on the strategic purpose. “Are we trying to get people in the store for this weekend or are we trying to build a brand? Are we trying to get short term or long term returns? Somehow, you have to put both of them together.”
“Integration is evolving beyond syncing advertising with promotion,” according to Dan Fisher, executive VP-creative services at 141 Worldwide. The bigger question is what is most effective in talking to consumers. Is it through a live event with brand ambassadors, direct mail, P-O-P? “The role and the importance of those agencies has increased and the better clients understand that in some cases the promotion agency can be the lead agency and in other cases it’s the p.r. or events agency. Unilever, for example, does an excellent job of bringing all the different agencies into the planning process,” Fisher says.
Hansen echoes the praise for Unilever. “Unilever brands excel at bringing their agencies together for a unified approach, without restricting the disciplines. If the big idea for summer is a promotion, the promotion agency will direct and help manage the supporting work of all the other agencies.”
At Ryan Partnership, “Our process is usually borne out of what is driven by the client,” Connelly says. “It’s usually an integrated planning and execution process. We all sit in a room and hash it out.”
Ultimately, Hansen says, “When you put the work up on a wall, it should all look like it represents the same point of view.”
In truth, integrated creative still requires the brand to wear many different hats, while it still maintains a consistent character. It embraces a range of specialized marketing services, some more subtle in their approach, some more sales-driven. The best results are achieved when a decisive marketer designates who’s driving each initiative based on who’s best qualified to achieve those objectives. Every marketing discipline then exercises its own expertise with a creative delivery that’s consistent with the objectives and the brand’s personality. In the end, integration does not mean one cookie cutter creative template, but rather, how the brand’s unique personality chooses to dress for each special occasion.
Steve Smith is a consultant based in Chicago. He can be reached at (312) 664-4188 or at [email protected].
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