The Executer’s Tale
First the compelling lead draws in your attention, and before you know it you are hooked into the full power of the message . . .
Nice, huh? That’s what creative does. And that’s what the “creatives” do. They make sure the message sounds, looks, and feels right. They are the guardians of the branding and the equity. They win the awards and stuff. Now this isn’t going to be a rant against creatives, but I just want to know why execution, especially promotional execution, has to take the back seat.
Given the choice would you rather go on a shoot with Cindy Crawford and the Back Street Boys or tour a fulfillment center? (To find out what our Editorial Director would choose, see pictures of him at the Super Bowl with the Miller Cheerleaders in the March ’98 promo , page 35). Creative is sexy and will continue to be sexy. But execution is the thing that makes it happenand there is a big opportunity out there for the right kind of agency to stake the right kind of claim.
The big ad agencies, knowing that they can’t just fill time and space anymore, are bolstering their own co-marketing execution resources. Good idea because somebody is going to have to gets things done.
Look at one recent development. General Mills hires Saatchi & Saatchi to handle its co-marketing. Since when is a big advertising agency, the bastion of the creative image, a stronghold for retailer field execution? Now, I am no insider, but it sure seems like Saatchi & Saatchi was awarded the business for its advertising creative, not promotional execution expertise. They said they’d build or buy a co-marketing arm (they ended up buying Geographic Marketing Group in Philadelphia, a.k.a. GMG, now known as Saatchi & Saatchi Co-Marketing Services). That says to me, the tail is wagging the dog.
Promotion agencies, in turn, have fully outsourced functions to outside service providers. Turn-key sampling or direct mail can be neatly embedded into an account-specific menu. As a client, the marketer should know who and what is really executing the program. Execution is not a commodity. Are you doing “radiant direct mail” or are you using the most sophisticated trading area methodologies and seamless electronic communications?
Some service providers have positioned themselves as smoothly compatible execution elements. “We are creative-neutral,” says Tim Hawkes, president of Westport, CT-based TradeZone. “From my perspective, marketing is a whole lot less about creating and a whole lot more about actually doing. That’s what we focus on here – just getting it done.”
Pass the nuts & bolts Core competencies are a cliche, but they mean something. What does your agency really really do? Whom do they ask to do the things that they don’t do? You have got to look past the nice colors and expensive paper and care about the nuts and bolts. It isn’t glamorous but if you don’t pay attention to the way things are being done, and the industry reputation of who is doing them, you’re asking for trouble.
Get some tangible examples. Ask for report formats. Can your service provider give you reports and analysis that mean something both in the context of your promotion and within the greater context of your whole brand/ company plan?
Also, don’t let the creative uber-vision make things un-executionable. Give a little when you need to. Early in my career (before faxes, e-mails and Kinko’s), I was managing a field marketing program for a consumer packaged goods brand during spring break. We needed some banners painted for a beach pavilion in a big hurry. When exact color PMS swatches and logo treatments were Fed-Exed (at least they had that), I brought them to a local sign painter. He had agreed to crank them out that night, but was stymied on the phone when I read the PMS color numbers. Once he saw them, he said “Oh, that’s just royal blue and chocolate brown, I’ve got that.” This guy knew how to execute.
Maybe there should be awards for execution. For the merchandising force that completes the cut-in blitz for a new product in two weeks. Or the sampling company that has to mobilize a small army equipped with toaster ovens and card tables in thousands of stores next weekend. Or the direct-mail house that sent a hundred versions of an account-specific, direct-mail piece, each with the right retailer logo and “creative” message for 8,000 stores.
Nope, no extra accolades for them. They just slog through the executional trenches, saving promotional Private Ryans every day. But while the creatives always get the big showy glory, those on the execution side do lay direct claim to a few extra benefits for the client. You’ll know them when you see them; they’re called brand share and distribution and sales. That’s what they create.
