Agencies Council 2014 Review

As we near the end of another year – one dominated by big data, real-time marketing, selfies and, sadly, Kim Kardashian – we at the Agencies Council have taken a moment to reflect on a busy 12 months. Guided by our ambition to help DMA member agencies “enjoy substantially greater commercial success” we focused our finite resources on a number of strategic initiatives. Here's a round up of the progress made by the team this year.

Exploring New Agency Remuneration Models with CIPS

Sam Nolan and Gavin Wheeler set up and ran a joint panel workshop with CIPS (Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply)) to discuss agency remuneration models and view on the future of value based pricing. Chaired by Will Hamilton, the panel had representatives from the procurement industry, Tina Fegent and agencies, both big and small.

The panel presented a state of the current market place, a review of payment options and touched on bad experiences and practices on both sides of the divide. A lively debate ensued on the difference between cost and value and attitudes to payment by results. Whilst no hard and fast conclusions were reached there seemed to be consensus in the room on trying to value agency outputs rather than inputs, perhaps with the emphasis on agencies demonstrating this value to their clients. The conversation will continue in 2015.

Debating The Latest Creative Issues with ZEDTalks

Ian Bates launched ZEDTalks – a new event series targeting creative issues. Shamelessly borrowing from its illustrious forebear TED, the forum offered a broad range of opinions, ideas and provocations delivered in 15-minute presentations by leading industry names.

The topics were uncovered by research conducted into creative issues that kept clients awake at night. The three 2014 sessions have seen 16 speakers from the top of the industry including Patrick Collister (Google), Tim Lindsay (CEO of D&AD) and Jeremy Ellis (TUI) sharing their insight with over 150 attendees. We’re now expanding the initiative with 2015 London events currently being planned, and regional events being held in Edinburgh, Manchester and Bristol.

Attracting the New Generation of 1:1:Millions Marketers

Led by Shaun Bailey, Rick Pullan and Omaid Hiwazi the “Encouraging Youth” initiative has progressed steadily over the last couple of years. Following on from our Vision, Values, Proposition and User Story sessions we now have full funding and a green light to develop both the logo mark and the website. Jacob Bailey will be working on the design and UX while Arch, who built the DMA website, will work on technical delivery. But before we move forward we do need to agree on one crucial element – a name for our venture! That’s top of the list for 2015. Feel free to get in touch if you have any bright ideas!

The Fresh Perspectives team, Katherine Barnett, Lucy Smaill & Greg Dade, successfully kicked off a number of grass roots events (including a Christmas party with Buzzfeed) that we will see continue in 2015.

Supper Club Addresses C-Suite Challenges

Led by Mike Cullis and hosted by Tony Spong, The Supper Club has always been an exclusive forum for senior agency leads and clients to meet and discuss the pressing issues. It's popularity has seen the forum be adopted by other councils and regional teams. In 2014 we steered the program to address C-Suite challenges. Here’s a quick round up of the March, June & November events:

* The March Supper Club saw speaker Andrew Grill, Global Partner of Social Business at IBM, walk through take-outs from IBM's study, and "what keeps the C-Suite awake at night". The debate swiftly moved into a challenge to the DM agencies to stop indiscriminately bombarding people's doormats - and to make better use of social channels to engage with customers.

* The June Supper Club welcomed speaker Alastair Dryburgh, Contrarian Consultant, writer and author of 'Everything you know about business is wrong'. He led the discussion on how the psychology of innovation and overcoming the barriers to making it happen. Alastair also brought to bear his experience as a CFO, suggesting that DM, as a practice has more ability than most to talk the CFO's language.

* The November Supper Club was our first panel-led event welcomed Jonathan Harman [Managing Director at Royal Mail Media], David Meadows [Head of Brand & Marketing Communications at The Open University], Judith Denby [CMO of Krispy Kreme], and Margaret Burke: [Consultant and former CMO of Three]. The panel shared insights on the pressures that they face and their responsibilities that go beyond communication and into product. In fact, communications only takes up a small part of their time. Time is at a premium, and it's a real challenge to find or create headspace for proper thinking. This is an area where they seek support and added value from their agencies. It was also agreed that DM agencies need to be more confident - this is our time.

Annual Integrated Keynote Event Explored Real-Time Marketing

In September we hosted our annual keynote event exploring real-time marketing - from every angle. John Willacy, the DMA team and myself put together an agenda that saw expert speakers from both sides of the Atlantic share inspiration and practical advice on how to get started and become agile marketers. Topics covered data and analytics, creativity and content as well as media and operations. Over 100 attendees were able to select the topics they were most interested and curate their own agenda – moving between breakout sessions to keep the blood pumping and brain ticking over! The team is currently discussing ideas for 2015’s keynote event. Suggestions welcome!

A Look Ahead to 2015 – Get Involved!

So that’s what the Agencies Council has been up to this year – in their spare time! We couldn’t make these things happen without their support – so please join me in thanking the team for their hard work and dedication. A festive thanks and shout out to:

Lucy Smaill, Rick Pullan, Gavin Wheeler, John Willacy, Mike Cullis, Ian Bates, Sam Nolan, Omaid Hiwazi, Tim Dearing, Greg Dade, Katherine Barnett, Tony Spong, Lucy Stafford, Shaun Bailey and new member Jonathan Cooney.

And, of course, a huge thanks to the DMA team: Emma-Jayne McEwan, Charlotte Natter and Georgina Lippa.

The team and I are already planning how we improve and expand our existing initiatives as well as explore new challenges brought up by our ever-evolving industry. We are also looking for more new members to join the council – so please drop us a line if you’d like to get involved.

Here’s to a fantastic 2015!

Pipa