Publicis and the connected agencies

The walls between media and creative agencies in the same group are coming down. AdNews asked Publicis Groupe and clients about trust, transparency and honesty.

Jenny Melhuish, head of brand, advertising and media, Westpac Group, has a long list of what contributes to the strength of a relationship with agencies.

“But for us it comes down to trust, transparency and honesty,” she says.

“You have to be aligned and share the same values, passion for the brand and what is going to drive results. And that’s results for both of us as a client, and for our partners as well.”

Publicis Groupe’s Spark Foundry and Performics Mercerbell won Westpac’s media account in November last year. Omnicom’s DDB does creative work for Westpac but Saatchi & Saatchi has worked with Westpac brands for several years including St George (since 2013), BankSA and, Bank of Melbourne (2015), RAMS (2019). 

The Australian arm of the Paris-based global advertising company has been smashing the local pitch league recently, including winning the Toyota media account, said to be worth up to $70 million. 

At Westpac, Melhuish says: “Our motto is ‘be hard on the work not on the people’ – it helps make the conversations less emotional, and we focus on getting the right outcome for our customers.

“We are blessed to work with some incredibly talented agencies that have been with us for many years, and also to be starting new relationships with others, such as Spark Foundry and Performics as our new media and digital agencies, which we’re really excited about.” 

Melhuish says there’s a lot to be done before briefing an agency.

“My advice to marketers is to invest the time upfront into getting this right – set up a dedicated team that can focus, it’s not a side of the desk job,” she says.

“To be fair to all partners, you need a clear idea of what your business needs are, deeply consider which agencies can deliver on that and develop a tight brief. 

“These are all critical to achieving a strong pitch. It’s also important to be empathetic to how much time and effort goes into the pitch process. 

"I've been part of the discussion with the AANA and MFA to develop guidelines to support agencies and clients manage the pitching processes better. Being upfront about the milestones and objectives you are hoping to achieve saves wasting agency time which, in part, is what the guidelines are all about.” 

COVID-19 provided lessons for many brands and their agencies.

“The good news was that our brand and the way we are positioned meant that we could focus on dialling up our purpose in providing genuine help for customers in the big and small moments,” says Melhuish.

“What we did was really focus on our channel mix and how people want to receive information.”

St.George, one of the Westpac Group brands, was scheduled to launch a brand campaign as COVID-19 hit. Internally debate followed on whether to change tact. 

“However, the pandemic made the campaign even more relevant, as it brings to life the friendly customer service that St.George is known for,” says Melhuish. 

“With a revised media plan leveraging the shift in media consumption habits, we were actually able to achieve record levels of brand recall.”

On a personal note, the biggest learning for Melhuish during COVID-19 was never to assume how you feel is how someone else is feeling. 

“Even the most positive of us all still have really crappy days,” she says. “Always start the conversation by checking in with how someone is feeling personally, before launching into work. And when working from home, check the clock before you FaceTime someone!

And Melhuish sees a new energy in Australia of brands realising the importance and power of building brands, through emotive storytelling.

“That’s good for all of us, we can help continue to shift the mindsets together, and buy and make great work,” she says. “Who doesn’t want to do that?’ 

The team at Spark was backed by the collective group of agencies at Publicis to help win the Westpac account.  Of Publicis’s top 20 clients, 15 work with two or more Publicis agencies. 

Imogen Hewitt, CEO, Spark Foundry, says consumers do not differentiate between media and message, online or offline, advertising and customer experience. 

“Normal people see brands holistically and how they feel about those brands is the sum of the parts. 

“But agencies don’t typically work that way. We often agitate that our piece of the puzzle is more significant than another, working against one another, duplicating resources, requiring clients to mediate and constantly watching for encroachment into territory.

“When we work with agency partners driven to deliver the best possible work for clients in genuine collaboration, it means we can build better work, more leanly. And when we work with Publicis agencies, in an organisational structure that has been built to allow for fluidity of resources and skills, we deliver even more consistent improvements for clients.”

According to Anthony Gregorio, CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi, a strong business relationship comes from transparency, listening, caring, striving, learning, pushing and delivering. 

“When you can do this and create a united culture where everyone wants to do their best work and make each other successful, then you’re on the right track.

“When the work is performing, it’s celebrated collectively; when there’s room for improvement, it’s worked out together. This is a truism we look to apply to all our relationships and certainly one that applies to Jenny and the full Westpac team. They have an extraordinary culture that is led from the top and we are incredibly respectful and fortunate to count on them as partners.”

Michael Rebelo, CEO, Publicis Groupe ANZ, says the company has since 2016 pursued a significant strategic and cultural transformation which has seen the creation of a “connected platform” of companies and capabilities. 

“This has meant removing all agency brand silos and breaking away from the traditional holding company model and anti-collaborative mindset,” he says.

“Our connected platform approach is made possible by our unique commercial structure – having a single country P&L. So unlike traditional holding companies, there are no land grabs between our agencies. We don’t have multiple P&Ls in each brand, and our agencies are incentivised to work collectively.

“While we still compete and there are times when our agencies do pitch against each other, when they’re not, then the focus is on collaborating to help our clients’ businesses. 

“During the Toyota and Westpac pitches, Saatchi & Saatchi was heavily involved in supporting the Spark team.

“Our connected platform is more than an operational model, it’s an entirely new cultural model built to unite our people in a connected way of thinking and working. 

“This connected culture means the best ideas can come from anywhere in our organisation.

I know everyone talks about ‘collaboration’, and when there’s a self-serving benefit, even the most inward-looking businesses, leaders or employees will collaborate. 

“Connection across our agencies is encouraged and rewarded because our leaders are not financially or operationally penalised for sharing clients or talent. What this ignites is a multiplier effect –  when a client works with two or more of our agencies, they see supercharged benefits around growth, creativity and capability.”

Honda Australia has been working with Leo Burnett and Zenith for nearly ten years.

Stephen Collins, director at Honda Australia, says the two agencies are one of the most trusted, valued partnerships. “They help us direct, manage and nurture our most important asset: the Honda brand,” he says

“They function as a single hub for us, and the team really is an extension of our business. We used to have as many as six agencies working with Honda, which we came to realise created all sorts of inefficiencies and inconsistencies. Consolidating with Leo Burnett and Zenith was a big change, and it made all the difference. We’re more effective and more efficient.” 

Collins says the agencies are always ambitious for Honda.

“They challenge and take us out of our comfort zone – in a good way,” he says.

“I’ll never forget when Leo Burnett presented the idea for launching HR-V: ‘Lucid Dreams’, they challenged us to be braver with our work, and they struck a nerve: We needed to give Honda a shot in the arm. The work was exciting – visceral, emotive and entertaining. It was definitely a brave moment, but the pay-off was huge. And, to this day, that campaign is a favourite.

“Over the past two years, we’ve been going through a complete business transformation at Honda, which has seen us disrupt nearly every facet of our operation here in Australia. It’s not been easy for Leos/Zenith as our partners when everything that used to be is tipped upside down.

“They’ve been calm, steady and thoughtful throughout, and their strategic contribution has been vital. They’ve helped us build the roadmap for the Honda brand and marketing ecosystem of the future. Our new brand platform, ‘Designed for Joy’, is not just an advertising or design system; it informs everything we do for our customers across the whole customer journey.”

Melinda Geertz, then CEO, Leo Burnett: “I think the strength of our relationship (with Honda) comes from the fact that we’re honest and open with each other. We achieve more because of that. 

“It’s also what helps us get through the inevitable bumps. We respect each other, and that’s just so fundamental to a long-term partnership.”

Publicis was appointed to the global account of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (Panadol, Sensodyne, Polident, Voltaren and Otrivin) at the end of 2018 with a custom, brand agnostic Platform GSK model bringing together expertise in media, digital, consumer strategy and healthcare from across the Publicis network. 

Cat Douglas, head of media ANZ at GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, says transparency, spending time together, addressing issues early and having shared goals are all key pieces in forming a strong partnership.

“These have helped us not only achieve more, but also navigate challenges and stay on course during unforeseen obstacles,” says Douglas.

“You don’t get much more unexpected than COVID and this is when we saw our partnership really come into its own. We pulled together, stayed connected and delivered strong outputs that were right for our business, even if they weren’t the easiest choices.”

During this time communications increased. Longer weekly connections became shorter daily connections to drive agility. 

“We knew we needed to take a high-level portfolio view to ensure we could navigate opportunities and challenges that were evolving, sometimes daily – and to deliver the strongest business output overall.

“Whilst we took stock to re-prioritise our areas of focus, we didn’t want learning and growth to lose pace. We took the opportunity to run virtual training sessions which provided both ongoing growth for our marketing team but also a good sense of connection in what was a challenging, and often isolating, period.” 

A successful campaign launched in November last year was Panadol Care Collective, aimed at deepening the relationship Australians have with Panadol by championing those who care for their community, or have dedicated their life to caring for others.

The Platform GSK team developed a multi-pronged content and data-driven campaign leveraging media partners Seven West Media and News Corp. People were asked to nominate caring Australians who were then given their own care package.

Seven West Media created emotive content pieces of the winners, with Seven talent Shannon Ponton, Jude Bolton and Sabrina Frederick featured as they met with the winners.

Kylie Sneddon, Platform GSK’s chief client officer: “We wanted to build relevance and brand love by showing how Panadol cares about connection and communities at a time when community and family has never been more important.” It ran across TV, online video and social and has been so successful, it’s continuing in 2021.

Michael Rebelo says the number one challenge facing clients today is how to unlock growth in a world dominated by platforms.

“We live in a platform world where six of the ten most valuable global brands are platforms (Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, Facebook) – capturing and monetising human attention and forever changing the global economy,” he says.

“Here in Australia, the Market Cap of Platform ASX 100 Companies is $711 billion. According to our estimates, six out of the top ten ASX listed companies are a long way along their platform journey and 45% of the ASX Top 100 have begun theirs. The pandemic has only accelerated this dominance.

“How can we help our clients win in a platform world? Essential to growth will be the ability for brands to communicate with their customers in a highly personalised way,” says Rebelo. “To do this they need our help to build their own ecosystems that can connect their paid channels to their direct relationship platforms and are able to track real people, not data, across both.

“In doing so, we enable our clients to see their customers end to end and help them plan and execute their marketing strategies. We fuel the acquisition of audiences through paid channels, track and communicate with them on direct owned platforms and continue to feed these behaviours back into the system in a continuous communication loop that drives growth.”