Not Promotion, Optimization

Speaking of Impact Communications Group’s “holistic” integration with Foote, Cone & Belding’s advertising operation in our story on page 42, FCB Chicago president Brian Williams says that, “rather than be identified as promotions experts, we want Impact to be identified as branding experts within the discipline of promotion.”

The turn of phrase had a familiar ring to us, and we thought we knew where we’d heard it before. We dug back into our old piles of notes, located those from DMB&B North America president John Farrell’s address at last fall’s APMA meeting, and there it was.

“I still feel a little bit of the chip on the shoulder in this room versus ad agencies,” Farrell had told the elite assemblage of promo agency chief executives and presidents. He paused, then continued.

“Ad agencies are being criticized for not being results-oriented early enough. But turn that around: How long have promotion marketing agenciesbeen paying attention to brand equity?”

It was a valid point, and Farrell then made a sensible conclusion: “The opportunity this group is brilliantly poised to attack is brands.”

Sometimes in this frenetic, ever-changing world of marketing, everyone seems to be going off in five different directions. Other times, common threads abound. This past month was one of those abundant times, for on the trail of the FCB/Impact integration, here came DMB&B – Farrell’s DMB&B – calling for holism and media-neutrality as it integrated the Clarion Marketing promo shop with its advertising business.

It’s been tried before, but maybe these two are serious. Maybe there’s some deep thinking behind these latest, valiant efforts to unite the warring factions of advertising and promotion. They could achieve the ultimate double-dip: brand-building plus measurable sales increases. Back to the notes.

Farrell said that DMB&B had surveyed its North American clients and found that they are 1) hungry for best practices, 2) interested in staging promotions that build brands, 3) in need of immediate sales increases, and 4) holding high expectations for integrated marketing solutions.

“But integration,” argued Farrell, “is still more process than output. That’s where we waste so much energy. There’s a new breed of integrationists emerging, and they’re valued as thinkers, not coordinators.”

Farrell said DMB&B had a new success model for agency personnel: “Forget about integration. Get it out of the vocabulary, it’s not the issue. Think brand optimization.”

Concept and positioning, he continued, are the domain of above-the-line agencies. Executional integration is the bailiwick of below-the-line agencies. Those in search of true Integration, Farrell contended, must meet at the juncture called Brand Optimization. It’s what fills the gap, the missing piece of the puzzle.

Today’s clients have become more brand-centric than business-centric, said Farrell. “Brand optimization means bringing the brand message to consumers at all points of contact,” he told the promo shop honchos. “That’s a big change.”

He gave as an example of effective brand optimization the Burger King ads congratulating McDonald’s on its anniversary. The spots noted that BK burgers had 75 percent more beef than McDonald’s patties and were flame-broiled, but otherwise were “just the same” as its rival’s products. They concluded with Burger King inviting McDonald’s workers to come over to BK in their uniforms for a free Whopper.

“It’s promotional advertising with an attitude,” observed Farrell. “It’s about putting money into the brand bank. Burger King is enjoying tremendous success because of [the balance it achieves] between promotion and advertising.”

Other good examples of promotion-tinged brand optimization, according to Farrell: Bavarian Malt Beer bottle caps as hubcaps on buses in Amsterdam; Scope mouthwash’s Web site offer to send digital “kisses” via e-mail to anyone in the world; Canada’s Leon’s Furniture stores issuing a call to action to consumers to throw out their ugly old furniture.

Farrell told the APMA crowd that their opportunity to get in on the brand optimization movement was huge. The promotion agency’s unique understanding of channels, distribution, and changing behavior, he said, provided them a powerful arsenal with which to claim a forceful position in the new marketing order. “But only,” he added, “if you fight the right battles.”

Though Farrell got his grounding on the promotion marketing side of the business, and though his points seem as sensible as brown loafers and as solid as granite, his counsel to promo agencies sure sounded like an ad man’s admonition. Promotion people have been snippy about the rarefied reputation of ad agencies for some time. It’s only been recently that the advertising elite felt they needed to pay attention to their below-the-line brethren and the value they provide to today’s clients.

Those “holistic” brand teams at FCB, by the way, are mostly headed by advertising staffers. It will be interesting to watch what fights their promotion subordinates pick.