Value-up the advertising agency

Name: Matthew Fanshawe

Position: Managing director

Company: Euro RSCG Singapore

Making the advertising industry more quantifiable is key to protecting the value that we bring to companies, products and brands. It may seem an odd statement in relation to a creative business too often associated with the frivolous and esoteric, but it has never been more relevant or crucial.

Ever been asked why you went into advertising and what it was all about? Being surrounded in mystique is no longer positive or useful.With the average CMO changing roles every 22 months and average client-agency relationships lasting 2-3 years, combined with the pressure to deliver profitable growth, the value that advertisers bring is constantly under scrutiny.

To avoid our margins being squeezed further or being sidelined by the Board in favour of other service industries, and to increase the longevity of the client-agency relationship, as an industry we must learn to demonstrate how advertising adds value through proven business results to both the CMO and also the Board.

The truth is, we are in an era when clients need more help than ever -- fragmented media channels, new business models, changed consumer behaviour all mean that ensuring the right message is delivered at the right time through the right channel is essential. From TiVo to Consumer Generated Video to Bluecasting, the communication world is changing fast and advertisers must grasp the opportunity to show to clients the valuable contribution that they make.

In a recent study, CEO and CMOs were asked their opinions on what agencies can bring to them to address their current challenges. The simple response was ideas and innovation, and lots of it. They did not only mean advertising ideas, rather using our skills to create ideas that can drive or even change business strategy and that will innovate their products, give their brands a competitive edge and deliver topline growth. Simply put, it is open season for creative ideas -- not just advertising ideas.

Are we, as an industry, ready to do this? Our world is divided -- boutique agencies that can deliver ideas but who cannot necessarily implement them globally, and global networks with the ability to deliver ideas but who are too big or slow to change or react as nimbly as boutiques. Media agencies are hiring creative talent, creative agencies employing media experts, and there is the "I" word -- integration, over used with true integration as hard to find as weapons of mass destruction. If we cannot find a way to respond, we are in danger of being marginalised further as clients chose to set up in-house departments or outsource to small partners, effectively only using global networks to implement the campaigns.

The true smarts (and so true value generators) are revealed when advertising people apply their thinking to business ideas that generate growth by leveraging creative ideas that allow one to look at a product or company in a completely different way.

For this to succeed, we need bold and brave clients, we need trust and a sustained client-agency partnership and we need CMOs looking further than their average tenure of 22 months. It will be hard to focus on creative ideas that are fundamental to driving business if there is not the same passion, structure and willingness to succeed long-term at the client's end too.

Effectively, we are the best at applying creative thinking to deliver ideas that are fundamental to grow a business. It is in our DNA, we have the experience and the resources. Whether we are communicating through a TVC, on the web or in a shopping mall, we can entertain people more effectively in shorter formats than any other service industry. We now need to ensure that we can prove to the decision makers our added-value across the board.