Eight CEOs – spot the difference!
A unique feature of the C Squared Venice Festival is its agency CEO session. Eight CEOs representing all the major agency groups were quizzed by moderators and audience and all delivered a combination of measured, passionate and confident responses as most embraced enthusiastically and optimistically the challenges ahead.
Themes were clear:
The media industry is uniquely positioned now to become more creative – already the ‘big ideas’ are starting to come out of media (Mindshare examples were quoted as Dominic Proctor, of MindShare Worldwide, stressed that it did not matter now which part of the group offered the solution).
However with opportunity comes challenge and threat, and three were identified above all.
Firstly, can agencies recruit and nurture the new talent needed to add this creative edge. “We must broaden the areas we look for good talent,” said Mike Cooper of PHD Worldwide, and Proctor pointed out that none of his most senior hirings recently had come from an agency. Jack Klues, of Publicis Groupe Media, talked of “creative architects or media designers…right brain people with brilliant creativity and a media sensitivity”.
Secondly, can they structure in such a way as to allow that talent to operate across any piece of business whatever its nature and media requirement. This would mean regular restructuring, said Proctor (he felt this was his greatest challenge at Mindshare) and the breaking down of silos (commented on by many of the CEOs).
Thirdly, how can this talent be paid for as long as media fees are being driven down – in part by procurement. Klues talked of the “and..and..culture” we are now in; Steve King, of ZenithOptimedia, of the “mismatch between client payment and client requirements”. A difficult audience question from an advertiser – in summary, how do you make margins of 15%-20% overall when your predominant activity is said to be delivering just 2% now? – was unsurprisingly side-stepped under PLC “guidelines”.
All agreed the opportunities were there to own content and ideas now. “The future will see us putting our own money into content,” said Alexander Schmidt-Vogel, of MediaCom Worldwide, “and owning the IP”. Interestingly, an afternoon presentation by Carl Johnson, CEO of Anomaly (and former COO of TBWA/Worldwide), showed the way on this, as Anomaly had taken investment stakes in at least four of its emerging clients/products. Johnson accepted the risk in this, but believed it was the only way forward (and could only be done in a small start up like his own “I could not achieve this in a worldwide agency group”). So there’s a challenge…
However as the agency CEOs all returned for an end-of-session on-stage photograph (a sort of This is your Life end of show scene!) it did leave the sense that here were a set of very well run businesses who could all offer their clients more – but largely what they offer now and might offer going forward will be the same, and competition will dictate it is. So how would a global client pick its media agency? Probably it can only be on relationships, recent successes… or price.
The assembled CEOs were: Nick Brien, worldwide CEO, Universal McCann; Jack Klues, chairman, Publicis Groupe Media; Mike Cooper, CEO, PHD Worldwide; Steve King, worldwide CEO, ZenithOptimedia; Mainardo de Nardis, CEO, Aegis Media Global; Alexander Schmidt-Vogel, CEO, MediaCom Worldwide; Maria Louise Francoli, CEO, MPG; and Dominic Proctor, CEO, MindShare Worldwide.