Here are my key observations and possible trends from the latest AdForum Worldwide Summit, which took place 5–9 November 2023 in London, England. It was a fascinating summit, with many of the best agencies in the world currently.
We pitch consultants met with 20 in total, 10 of which were independents: Accenture Song, Accomplice, Amplify, Anomaly, Assembly, CPB, Dept, Fold7, Iris Worldwide, Kairos, Mother London, MSQ, MullenLowe, Not Perfect, Pablo, Smart Assets, Stagwell, The Beyond Collective, Worldwide Partners and WPP.
#1. Do agency brands matter?
The answer is yes, they do, as long as there are clear differences/differentiating factors that help each agency brand occupy a position. These factors tend to be guided by the history of the agency, its name and its origins, the founders’ way of thinking, and the direction in which they want to take the agency.
This is naturally obvious for the independent agencies — and more on that later. But what happens in the holding group companies?
#2. Agency brands within the holding companies
What’s next? With the very recent decision by WPP to merge Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R into VML from January 2024, we speculated on other agency brands within the WPP group and, indeed, in other groups. Will Grey remain a separate brand? What about the media agencies in Group M: will Mindshare, EssenceMediacom and Wavemaker all merge into one? And, as these agencies all move onto one campus, what then will happen?
As a reminder, WPP used to have 38 buildings in London for its agencies; now it has three.
Unwittingly, Accenture Song has paved the way for gradual disappearance of famous agency brands. Its acquisitions globally, including South Africa, have resulted in strong agencies all called Accenture Song, apart from the Droga5 micro-network. Clients seem to have less anxiety over potential competitor conflict in this new environment.
Publicis Groupe increasingly focuses on the Power of One, although retaining some of its legacy brands — for now — and as long as there are real agency brand differences within the group.
#3. Agency methodologies
Clients want to understand agency methodologies more and more so that they can trust the agency to manage the complexities of the client marketing ecosystem.
With so many marketing channels and opportunities, how does an agency harness all of these and, indeed, should they? How does the lead agency model work and how do they bring in additional capabilities?
These are the questions that clients have and that they set before their agencies.
#4. Influence vs influencers
It’s all about influence. We met several agencies in London where influence is a key strategy in audience building and with an emphasis on earned and owned media strategies.
This is an area where some media agencies are starting to play a role; this hasn’t come to SA yet but it’s anticipated that it’ll soon be here.
#5. The rise of the independent agencies
In the UK, there are many very successful independent agencies, as there are here in SA. They are successful for many reasons, going back to point one: clear direction, clear points of difference, agility etc. What clients want to know is:
Who are they?
What do they do/what are their capabilities?
How well funded are they?
What are their networks like? Do they belong to any of the independent networks and, if so, why?
What is next for them?
#6. Budgets
They’re not increasing globally at all. Yet these budgets have to do more and more, and with an increasing range of channels. The danger of spray-and-pray is something that marketers and agencies fear. It’s also one of the reasons that earned media is becoming more and more important.
#7. Events & activations
These are no longer something to be added on at the end. Agencies now are involved from the beginning and are expected to provide strategy, clear success KPIs and measurements. The return of events after the first few years of the covid-19 pandemic is very noticeable and, provided it’s all ground in data, very effective.
You may also be interested in ADFORUM'S TRUE VALUE: LEARNING FROM VISIONARIES, BRINGING HOME GOLD