Delivering Effective All Agency Planningin the Age of Social Media

Things were very different when we founded Shine Communications back in 1998. As we counted down to the new millennium, TV still ruled supreme, Google had just begun its transition from research project to business and Mark Zuckerberg was an unknown high school student with a passion for creating computer games.

According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, back in those distant pre-Big Brother, pre-Simon Cowell, pre-iTunes days, a mere £19.4m was invested in online advertising in the UK in 1998. A little over a decade later and the contrast could not be starker. In 2009, the UK became the first major economy to spend more on web ads than TV commercials. The figure has snowballed further since, to a massive £5bn a year, reflecting a revolution in media consumption habits. If you want eyeballs and impact, booking spots in Corrie is nowhere near enough.

In an age of massive marketing communications clutter when new technology means that audiences are both more fragmented and also harder to reach, there is general consensus that traditional advertising is under threat; in 1985 it took five television commercials to get 85% penetration of the TV-viewing households. In 2009, it took 1,292 commercials to achieve the same penetration (Bragman 2009).

Today of course, it’s almost impossible to imagine life without the internet. Everyone is now digitally connected. We connect on the move using smartphones and tablets; we create, communicate and entertain ourselves on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and many more. We act and interact in ways that not long ago were simply inconceivable.

What does this mean? For a start, the certainties of the old mass communications models have been swept away. Emphatically so. Big ideas can come from anywhere. They evolve and spread like wildfire.

At Shine, we have re-engineered our business to better help our clients meet these sometimes daunting challenges. The launch in 2010 of our Shine1 planning hub was a mould-breaking investment in strategy development and planning that has increasingly allowed us to take on a project-leadership role when working in conjunction with other advertising and marketing agencies.

As a business, we have always prided ourselves on our two-way conversational skills. In this era of co-creation and dialogue with consumers via social media, we can put them to more compelling use than ever. By placing consumer interaction slap bang in the middle of the creative route, we can help brands develop propositions and communications solutions that resonate with their target audience.

INTRODUCTIONRichard Brett, Managing Director, Shine Communications

Marketers have by necessity become more open-minded about how big ideas are generated. The strong growth we at Shine have seen in our pure planning fee income supports our investment in the function and underlines how well equipped, in the age of social media, PR now is to deliver truly engaging ideas – and often can and should lead the planning process.

A big question for clients is how best to manage collaboration between their various agencies to maximum effect. The rise of social media means that PR is being considered a lead discipline as never before.

But what’s not clear is how a client should engage all his or her agencies in an effective and smart planning process. That’s an issue explored by research into agency management trends we have commissioned from MBA students from the London Business School that features in this report. We hope you enjoy these and other insights on the following pages.

The world has come a long way in a short time. With a billion Facebook users and half a billion Twitter accounts, social media has rapidly passed its tipping point into mass penetration and cannot be ignored.

In this age of conversation, capturing the imagination is key. For that you need big ideas…big ideas that shine.

“PR as a discipline has always understood and valued the power of a compelling story and this has never been more important than in today’s world, where brands, more than ever before, need to connect and converse with their audience in a meaningful way,” Ruth Tobbell, independent strategic planner

#smartplanningThe Report FindingsShine partnered with MBA students from the London Business School to conduct a study into how the rise of social media and PR has impacted multi-agency management and planning. The research looks into clients’ agency structure, multi-agency management systems and how disruptive the rise of social media has been on agency roles and boundaries. 61 marketing directors were questioned and interviewed either online or face to face.

Today, social media is almost universally addressed by organisations as part of their marketing activities. Yet its rapid growth has created as many headaches as opportunities. The comparative decline of mass market advertising has eroded the hegemony once enjoyed by traditional advertising agencies. At the same time, agencies specialising in differing disciplines have hastened to set up and develop social media capabilities – with markedly varying degrees of success.

The upshot is an often complicated and confusing picture that leaves marketers uncertain how best to develop impactful and integrated ideas for their brands.

Our research focuses on some of the key agency management issues confronting organisations in managing multiple agencies in the age of social media. On the following pages we highlight the most significant findings and consider how clients can navigate their way to effective solutions.

One thing is for sure. Outmoded ways of working won’t deliver compelling ideas. To achieve the best results, you need #smartplanning.

THE CHALLENGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA NECESSITY

Percentage of respondents using social media as part of their marketing activities

THE CHALLENGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA NECESSITY

According to our research with LBS students, social media is now an essential part of the marketing mix. Almost three quarters (72%) of marketing/PR professionals view social media as important or very important to their organisation. Yet only 63% believe their organisation has incorporated social media well.

A major reason for this is that social media doesn’t sit neatly in any single organisational department. A Booz & Company/Buddy Media survey indicated that social media is found primarily in the Marketing (81%), Digital (62%) and PR (48%) departments. However, Booz researchers (Vollmer & Premo, 2011) established that Customer Service, Research, Sales/Commerce, Product Development and IT departments are all also reportedly involved.

In this light, it is unsurprising that our research found marketing directors identifying a variety of roles for social media. Brand awareness (72%), events (49%) and promotions/giveaways (46%) are the most popular, followed by media relations (39%), customer service (36%) and revenue generation (18%). It’s a complex picture, and although strategies are beginning to form, there is a “general failure to launch” for some marketers (CMO Council, 2011).

“Leveraging the opportunities that social media presents plays directly to the skills of a PR agency, they have always had to manage the complexity of creating more personalised communications which take one message and make it relevant to multiple audiences.” Ruth Tobbell, strategic planner

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According to digital analytics company comScore, social media accounts for one in every five minutes spent online. Moreover, internet users spend more time on social networking sites than email, at 4.6 hours per week versus 4.4 (TNS, 2010).

As social media becomes an intrinsic part of daily life, pinning down those killer big ideas matters more than ever. Clearly, not all organisations go about this in the same way. Our LBS student research indicates that the larger the company the more likely it is to encourage multiple agencies to pitch the big idea. While 36% of organisations with over 1,000 employees give all their agencies the opportunity to put forward ideas at the same time, only half as many organisations with under 1,000 people follow suit.

Historically, advertising agencies have taken the ‘keystone’ role in the agency ecosystem with the expectation that they would be the source of the big idea. The digital revolution has changed the playing field irrevocably.

Today, 94% of PR agencies have some form of social media offering (ICCO Trends Barometer, 2011). The most forward looking agencies also have sophisticated planning tools that allow for direction of, and integration with, other marcomms disciplines, allowing them to develop the big idea as never before.

THE IDEA CAN COME FROM ANYWHERE

“In the days when TV was the fastest way to reach a mass audience it made sense for the ad agency to be the centre of gravity, but we live in a very different world now. It’s time that clients started thinking differently about the way they approach development of communications. It’s clear to me that if they want to achieve collaboration between agency partners and seamless integration of campaigns, the ad agency should no longer be the default choice to lead this process.” Ruth Tobbell, strategic planner

Proportion of time spent online using social media, according to comScore.

THE IDEA CAN COME FROM ANYWHERE

FACEBOOk’S HEAD START OvER TWITTER AND GOOGLE PLUS IS SHOWN IN USAGE DATA.

How to lead and integrate communication agencies is an issue for almost four out of every five major marketing directors, according to the LBS research. A healthy majority (69%) manage between two and five agencies, and a further 10% manage six or more. Tapping into planning expertise matters more now than ever.

Despite the numerous and profound changes in the communications landscape, marketing directors are ostensibly satisfied overall with agency management, briefing and campaign execution. However, the LBS research indicates that many may be missing a trick. Only 11% assign a lead agency to manage other others and less than a third engage with all of their agencies at the same time, effectively denying some agencies the opportunity to come up with the brilliant ‘big idea’.

Opinions garnered during the course of the LBS research reveal that some brand leaders have misgivings about this state of affairs. “Agencies aren’t given the opportunity to pitch for specific work…so we’re not necessarily getting the agency with the best ideas or hunger for a campaign, which can have a knock on effect later down the line,” observes one.

Nailing down an idea that is both powerful and flexible can make a tremendous difference.

MULTI-AGENCY MANAGEMENT HEADACHE

“In today’s over-communicated society, a singular, integrated idea, with the same messages, communicated across multiple channels, is the most effective way to achieve your goals,” Ruth Tobbell, strategic planner

...of clients manage multiple agencies in their planning.

Only 49% of marketing and communications directors believe their campaigns are well integrated. While a mere 31% are in favour of working with a one-stop-shop able to execute all ideas. Interestingly, a quarter of respondents to our LBS survey believe it is most effective to manage each agency separately and conduct the integration in-house.

It has been the received wisdom for most brand managers to give the brief to generate a lead creative idea or platform to just one agency. Yet, as we have already seen, traditional advertising agencies that once ruled the roost in this respect are no longer as well equipped to take on a keystone function. A decade on from the publication of The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR by Al and Laura Ries, the conclusions drawn in this seminal book about the waning influence of mass market advertising ring truer than ever.

“One of the problems with having the ad agency as the communications lead is that their creative ideas often don’t translate well into media beyond the traditional media they have always worked with,” says independent planner Ruth Tobbell. “This makes it very difficult indeed to create a totally integrated campaign that works equally well across a range of fragmented channels.”

As the old keystone crumbles, the argument for a smart, multi-agency planning system carries enormous weight. In the new communications landscape, fresh thinking is required if brands are to hit upon the big ideas that put them ahead of competitors.

Planning can no longer be bound by the rigid rules and unforgiving agency structures of the past. The way ideas are generated has changed dramatically in recent years with social media, and the internet more widely, acting as a catalyst for the conversion of passive consumers into active participants in co-creation (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2008). A multi-faceted, multi-agency approach is the smart way to unearth insights that are powerful and flexible enough to make a real difference. Without question, the role of each agency must be clearly defined. Yet within these parameters the door to collaboration should always be open.

DISINTEGRATION PUTS PAID TO THE BIG IDEA

“Powerful insight continues to be the foundation of any great campaign and historically this is where ad agencies have excelled. Things are changing though as agencies like Shine now put insight at the heart of what they do. This means they are equally as adept as the best ad agencies at creating insight led, cut through communications ideas which, importantly, can be exploited in any medium.” Ruth Tobbell, strategic planner

Challenge:For global children’s charity Plan UK, Shine were tasked with developing a fully integrated brand building campaign to raise awareness and drive lead generation. Shine followed a six-step process to deliver a creative platform and channel recommendation for maximum engagement.

Insight and Platform: Using Shine’s proprietary planning system, Shine conducted a series of internal workshops and external focus groups to determine and refine a suitable campaign territory and creative platform for Plan UK. In addition, media audience tools usually reserved for advertising agencies were used to determine the specific audience and suitable media channels. With a highly defined psychographic target audience, Shine’s research identified the campaign territory of empowering girls as the most engaging, and within this the creative platform of ‘Choices For Girls’

Idea: A world-first advertising platform was created that set the news agenda, drove column inches and social media buzz. Shine created a world-first facial recognition ad that brought the key campaign message ‘choices for girls’ to life by denying men the chance to see the ad content, highlighting how unfair it is to have choices taken away because of gender. This advertising campaign was supported by a thought-provoking report and both were launched on February 29th 2012, traditionally the only day that women are given the choice to ask men to marry them. All these multiple assets were hooked around the choices for girls platform and then leveraged across social media and editorial channels.

CASE STUDY 1EFFECTIvE PLANNING IN ACTION: PLAN Uk

CASE STUDY 1EFFECTIvE PLANNING IN ACTION: PLAN Uk

Outputs and Outcomes:

CASE STUDY 2EFFECTIvE AGENCY COLLABORATION IN ACTION: P&G MODEL

P&G’s Brand Agency Leader model (BAL) sees one executive and one agency put in charge of a brand’s entire marketing. There are different detailed formats for different brands, although in each a single agency holds the budget and is responsible for distributing to its channel specialist partner agencies accordingly. The lead agency tends to be either an advertising agency, or increasingly a PR agency. Old Spice, for example, was gradually moved into Wieden & Kennedy, whilst PR agency Ketchum was recently appointed global lead for Gillette.

For some brands, the BAL is working entirely with other agencies from the same group, for other brands it is a mix of group and non-group agencies. In each case, the BAL reports to the Brand Leader, who approves the strategy and spend client-side. The lead agency becomes more accountable; because it has control of the budget it must invest more management and process agency-side. The agency is then remunerated on the strength of its results and, it is expected, will receive bonuses based on success.

Andrea Schoff, senior manager, P&G marketing communications has been quoted as saying the goal is to first develop the big marketing idea and then execute it across various media. She has also been reported as commentating that it makes life simpler; “Instead of having to renegotiate several contracts, we just negotiate with the BAL. There’s less duplication. At one time, we might have had the same types of agencies doing research on the same markets and not sharing it. Now they can share it.”

CASE STUDY 2EFFECTIvE AGENCY COLLABORATION IN ACTION: P&G MODEL

Shine1’s new SmartPlanning process consists of 14 individual tools and analysis techniques that together ensure a brand will have a highly insightful strategy and creative. The tools bring to life robust, high quality thinking and make sure that the very freshest, insightful, creative and commercial ideas come to the fore. This, together with Shine’s new measurement system Eric (Evaluating Results in Integrated Campaigns), will tie campaigns back to business results.

The process is split into six key phases; insight, positioning, messaging, creative, source and channel, and outcome.

Within each phase tools and techniques have been built to ensure that teams are able to robustly develop the very best thinking, leaving no stone unturned in the search for fresh insight and ideas.

Shine’s work with LBS has highlighted the challenge that the rise of social media has given marketing directors and brand managers: the blurring of boundaries between agencies and the potential conflicts that arise. As such, Shine1’s planning process clearly defines roles and responsibilities; the appointment of one lead agency that co-ordinates and leads the planning and creative process, but in a highly collaborative way with all other agencies, who all have a clearly defined role.

APPLYING THE LEARNINGS: SHINE1 SMARTPLANNING PROCESS

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Shine1’s SmartPlanning process has six key steps. Each of these steps contains detailed actions, outputs and roles for each agency. These are set out in a detailed matrix called Gates. At the end of each of the six Gates, a lead agency client meeting is held to ‘go through the gate’, review the learnings and work to date and to ensure that the process has delivered.

During the insight phase of development the lead agency will be responsible for co-ordinating a facilitated workshop with the client and all the agencies to both discuss the challenge, but also, with pre-work, to ensure that all partners are able to provide research, insight and input to the debate. A facilitated workshop, hosted by a planner, will allow insights and research to be shared and built upon, leading to a clear challenge and opportunity.

During the positioning phase the lead agency has the role of developing the brand’s creative and strategic platform and positioning in the marketplace which will lead to the campaign. Various tools should be used here to establish a thorough and vigorous process, that ensures that any platform is engaging and differentiated. As with the Plan UK case study, often a number of creative routes should be developed that are then tested with consumers via focus groups. All agencies should be consulted at both the platform shortlist, and final platform stage to ensure all channel opportunities are maximised and opinions sought.

Once the brand positioning has been tested, detailed messaging and a narrative for the campaign are developed, again by the lead agency, but with all-agency input and consultation.

These three steps complete the planning phase, and once completed all agencies and the client should reconvene to hear the final consumer insights, brand positioning and platform and the messaging. Now the creative process should commence. As the most impactful marketing centres on a single idea, the creative process should result in one idea. But one idea around which all agencies can build their own assets and content for their channel. Any agency can deliver “the killer idea”.

Ideally a shortlist of creative ideas should be scored and selected from the all-agency process and put into consumer test.

Once the idea is agreed, each agency will take the central idea and develop their own channel plan, building the assets, content and detailed plan that is needed to deliver success in their channel. The lead agency will co-ordinate this process, pulling together the individual agency plans into an over-arching and detailed activity and timing plan. The lead agency should allocate budgets with the client.

The PR agency should take the lead on pulling together the source strategy in terms of the most compelling people to tell the story of the idea, whether that be celebrity, experts, brand spokespeople, social media activists, real people or the media and other influencers.

The media agency works with the lead agency to develop the KPI Matrix using econometric modelling, which agrees outputs and outcomes for the overall campaign, but also by agency and by channel. For example, awareness, conversion, advocacy and ‘Like’ numbers might be agreed for the whole campaign, but an agreed traffic or impression number is agreed by channel, with additional outputs agreed for each agency. Outcome measures should be tied to agency remuneration.

Within the confines of this report, it is not possible to provide as much detail on this process as is available, so please contact us for more details on the steps and the tools.

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The Shine1 Power Grid Takes a brand and three competitors through a research based journey to establish the key challenges across five key metrics – awareness, differentiation, connectivity, relevance and admiration – to ensure a campaign is resolutely focused on the communication need.

The Shine1 Strategy Map Pushes an articulation of strategy, objectives, platform and messages on one page, and connects it back to audience insight.

The Shine1 Brand Planet Defines all the language around a brand. From the rational to the emotional, four quadrants help articulate the brand architecture and language, including function, reputation, expertise and emotional connectivity.

The Shine1 Media Map A media strategy development tool that articulates messages, spokespeople, channels and media all in one place. This is underpinned by Pulse, Metrica’s media planning tool, which Shine1 uses as a development device.

All tools:

Over-archingShine1 SmartPlanning Six Step ProcessShine1 Gate Matrix

InsightBrand PlanetBrand TraitsShine1 PowerGridBrand Postcard

PositioningPositioning IdentifierBrand RoleShine1 Strategy Map

MessageMessage Map

CreativeCreative Intelligence Tools

Source Influencer MapBlogger MapJournalist Map

ChannelMedia MapTouchpoint ModelEconometric Modelling

OutcomesKPI Matrix Brand Tracking

SHINE1 TOOLS INCLUDE:

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Shine1 SmartPlanning

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References

Parry (2009) P&G gets more from agencies by treating them as trusted advisershttp://www.marketingweek.co.uk/pg-gets-more-from-agencies-by-treating-them-as-trusted-advisers/2064107.article

Merlo, O. (2009) Brand Management and the Brand Asset Valuator

Alps, T. (2011) PR Needs Big Media and Ad-Land to Expand Creative Ideas Media Week 31st March 2011

Bragman, H. (2009) A Cynical World Could Use A Little PR Broadcasting and Cable January 19th 2009

Littlewood, A. (2009) Fear is Loose in the Marketing Jungle B and T April 3rd 2009

Rosengren, S. (2011) Publicity vs Advertising in a Cluttered Environment: Effects on Attention and Brand Identification. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising Volume 30 Number 2

Walmsley, A. (2008) Talk is Cheap, but Priceless Marketing Magazine 5th November 2008

Sweney, M. (2009) Internet Overtakes Television to Become Biggest Advertising Sector in the UK The Guardian 30th September 2009

Vollmer, C. & Premo, K. (2011) From Campaigns to Capabilities: the Impact of Social Media on Marketing and Beyond. Booz & Company/Buddy Media October 2011

Variance in Social Brand Experience. CMO Council/Lithium December 2011

It’s a Social World: Top 10 Need-to-Knows about Social Networking and Where it’s Heading. comScore December 2011

Ries, L. & Ries, A. (2002) The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR. Harper Collins ISBN-13: 978-0060081980

Goodbye email, Hello Social Networking. TNS Digital Life October 2010

94% of PR consultancy Heads Claim to Offer Social Media Services . ICCO Trends Barometer, May 2011

Prahalad, C. K. & Ramaswamy, V. (2008) The New Age of Innovation: Driving Co-Created Value Through Global Networks. McGraw-Hill ISBN-13: 978-0071598286

Biank Fasig, L. (2009) In radical change-up P&G streamlines how it promotes brands Business Courier 5th October 2009

For further information on Shine1 and Shine’s Creative Intelligence process please contact:Richard Brett 020 7841 7093 richard.brett@shinecom.com

Tom Winterton 020 7841 7074 tom.winterton@shinecom.com

Lauren Winter 020 7841 7066 lauren.winter@shinecom.com C

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