I advise my advertising and PR companies that client success is 95 per cent relationship and five per cent contract.
Nearly 20 years ago after I opened my first advertising and PR agency in a small, temporary office, I immediately reeled in a client, the result of a cold call. Two weeks later, the second client came, the result of a referral from a friend.
I immediately had a raging conflict.
Unbeknownst to me, the West Virginia Medical Association, the first client, hated (and that is not too strong a word) the second client, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, an insurance company. That was then.
The situation is infinitely more complex today. The world we live in has a handful of mega-holding companies, each with an array of advertising, public relations, design, research, media planning and buying, branding and corporate identity companies.
Those global communications giants, likewise, serve but a couple of dozen mega-holding companies, where the same corporate umbrella puts shampoo in the shower, puts soup on the table and makes clothes whiter than white.
It is no wonder that, from some point of view, however distant, there is the perception of conflict in the advertising and PR business at every turn.
Our own (The Willard Group's) relationship is with WPP, which owns Young & Rubicam, J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy and Mather, which had been separate agencies. These agencies compete head-to-head in most large markets.
Additionally, WPP owns two of the world's three largest public relations companies, Burson-Marsteller and
Hill & Knowlton.
It also owns dozens of other companies related to those two industries. Some compete, some work in partnership.
In theory and in fact, the global nature of these communications giants allows them to bring more creative and more targeted resources to bear as a client sets about to build a brand, solve
a tough PR problem or even train
a workforce.
Two decades ago, particularly in small advertising and PR communities like West Virginia, a handshake was much more important than a contract. In fact, in nearly nine years and after working with dozens of clients, my company had signed only one certified contract - and that one agreement resulted in legal action.
That is why I advise our advertising and PR companies - and they are totally separate companies - that client success is 95 per cent relationship, five per cent contract.
This, of course, is where the rubber meets the road. Most company executives - if they are worth their salt - are fiercely passionate that their ad or PR agency work exclusively on their products and not those of a competitor.
Because of this, most worldwide contracts recognize the global nature of the agency business and the conglomerate nature of what is normally called the fast-moving consumer goods, or FMCG, market, although perceived conflicts certainly can arise in other businesses as well.
Hence, these contracts generally allow an agency to work for globally competing companies but in non-competing categories. However, in nearly all cases, conflicts are about passion, the will to succeed and agency relationships.
The contract becomes an interpretive document, and each side's lawyers tend to have all the right, albeit different, answers.
Our company some time ago recognized that in order to grow in this complex arena, we simply had to, well, grow. Nearly two years ago, we legally separated our advertising, PR and below-the-line companies, and they are staffed with separate teams and leaders.
The transformation will be complete when, in the near future, they are housed in a separate building. We are currently waiting for the renovations to be completed, which will take much of 2004.
My conflict two decades ago was solved when we were able to work on an issue common to both the medical association and the insurance company.
We developed an advertising and public relations campaign to help pass tort reform. This reduced medical malpractice awards, thereby holding the line on liability insurance for doctors and saving insurance companies millions of dollars, so there was a "forgiveness" factor over our supposed conflict.
However, in the final analysis, this is what it is all about. The ability to grow with a client is 95 per cent relationship, and five per cent what's on that written piece of paper, regardless of how it is interpreted.
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