The secret to a successful agency village, where multiple voices might compete for the best idea, is partly down to having a good manager who can keep everyone swimming in the same direction.
Dulux has just formed its agency village - including Omnicom creative agency DDB Group Melbourne, integrated brand agency Scooter and media agency Team Inspire - and launched its first integrated campaign for Weathershield and Wash & Wear product ranges.
“Worth it, do it, love it” demonstrates the benefits of ending procrastination and getting stuck into that long-awaited painting project, laddering up to the famous Dulux master brand “Worth Doing, Worth Dulux”.
“With the media landscape constantly evolving, we needed to find new ways to reinvigorate the brand and connect with our audience,” Angeline Lee, head of integrated marketing at Dulux, told AdNews.
“Leveraging the strength of our agency village in a collaborative way has enhanced our campaign to be more connected across our Dulux brand and product range. This is just the start of what’s to come.”
DDB Melbourne general manager Khia Croy said a tightly orchestrated agency village is a key component to the modern marketer’s toolkit, as clients move away from pure, traditional advertising.
“It is about fostering a deeper partnership between media, above the line, in-store creative, and client, and in this case helping Dulux get to the most effective work,” she told AdNews.
“Despite the push for marketers to do more, across more channels, often with increasingly fragmented budgets. We believe the better the collaboration, the better the impact, and the simpler the process to get there."
She said it's about focusing on the best outcomes and getting to the best media and creative solutions.
“The group thing is only beneficial when it's really wielded in the right way. And that's why we need strong, integrated marketing leads like Angeline (at Dulux) who should keep everyone in swim lanes and thinking about the right things at the right time,” said Croy.
“It's always a challenge in every agency village I've ever been a part of to make sure people are being collaborative, not competitive.”
Sometimes there's a tendency to throw lots of ideas into the collaborative ring and see which one sticks.
“Then there's a point where you go, that's the idea,” said Angeline Lee. “But how do you amplify that and make that really holistic?
“And I think that's the secret sauce to getting the agency village firing in the right way.”
Lee agrees that this takes managing.
“Whilst it might sound like more time invested up front, I think the quality of the work and the pace of work on implementation is actually faster," Lee said.
“Everybody is then aligned on their roles, on the amplification. But that part of the journey takes a little bit longer to unlock.”
There are multiple people, perspectives and thought leadership that goes into an idea.
Croy said an agency has to be humble enough to know there are many parts of a puzzle.
The agency village’s latest, targeting the high percentage of Aussies that plan to paint but haven’t gotten around to it yet, is an integrated campaign nudging Aussies to pick up brushes.
The campaign peeks into real people’s most intimate spaces, their homes, to bring out the emotion and positive impact that simply painting our walls can have.
The campaign features on BVOD, SVOD, YouTube, out-of-home, META, Pinterest and digital channels, as well as in-store activation, training and consumer competitions.
Felix Mason, group business director at Team Inspire, said you don’t have to go far to find someone who’s all talk but no action when it comes to home improvement.
“The fundamental strategy behind the media for this campaign is identifying these ‘paint procrastinators’ and providing them with the tools and the inspiration they need to get cracking on their paint project,” said Mason.
“By intercepting our audience at specific moments on the journey, we can serve them the right message for the right time to ultimately drive the best outcomes.”
Anna Hodgson, CEO at Scooter, said working collaboratively within the agency village has brought a fully connected approach for Dulux.
“The campaign messaging flowing seamlessly through to in-store, bringing it to life via POS, training, and a consumer promotion, helping Aussies take that final step from thinking about painting to actually doing it,” said Hodgson.
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