The Pragmatism Pandemic
SYDNEY – The integrated marketing movement that has taken hold atthought-leading, bottom-line-driven companies is not solely an Americanphenomenon. Here for the Asia-Pacific judging in the World PRO ofExcellence Awards, we pick up a copy of B&T Weekly (Australia’s topmarketing paper and promo’s PRO Awards media partner) and immediately readthe following about the Commonwealth Bank restructuring its marketingdepartment and consolidating its promotion agencies from 12 to two:
“[Director of brand marketing Graham] Ford said . . . the relevant brandswould be brought together and the bank would work with Ikon Communicationsto decide how best to reach the target market. Then it would decide whetherto use above or below-the-line communications or both – in which case theagencies would be expected to work together to present one creativepresentation in line with the direction set.”
Sounds a lot like the way big marketing spenders such as Coca-Cola havebegun working with their agencies, no? In Sergio Zyman’s new book, The Endof Marketing as We Know It, the old Coke marketing wizard makes the point -ever so clearly – that marketing is not about winning Clio awards andspreading one’s creative peacock feathers. It’s about using creative meansto sell more product and make more money. That’s the pragmatic battle crythat’s playing to the strengths of promo shops and putting traditional adagencies on notice – a cry so loud that it’s reverberating Down Under.
Of course, it’s a movement still in its formative stages in the U.S. and,it appears, in fetal development in Australia. One judge from a globalapparel company we chatted with following the PRO Awards judging expresseddisappointment with the overall ambitiousness of the nominated programs.”For the most part,” he observed, “these are all still short-term, tacticalprograms. Very few are linked with long-term brand strategy, and that’s toobad. It’s a waste.”
An Aussie agency chief retorted that the situation was changing, however,and that his shop was being included in strategy sessions at most of itslarger clients. The 2000 Olympics should give these agencies theopportunity to show their brand-image-building stuff.
HOW MUCH IS THAT DOGGIE IN THE LIMO?U.S. magazine direct-mailers in the legal doghouse can take some comicrelief from this story, which broke in Australia during our visit. Reader’sDigest, which uses the direct-mail sweepstakes approach here as well,awarded a $250,000 prize to a German shepherd. The pup’s owners had put thedog’s name on the billing for a new phone line installed in their house. Nomatter the sophistication of computer technology – list management remainsan inexact science.
Also logistically challenged on this religiously regionalized continent isthe art of sports marketing. Nationwide tie-in promotions with Australia’svarious professional sporting leagues is an impossibility.
Australian Rules Football, the controlled melee that has found wideviewership in the U.S., is followed mainly in the West and the Southwest.Rugby rules in the eastern states of Queensland and New South Wales, buteven that sport is demographically partitioned. Upscale Aussie “gentlemen”follow the Rugby Union, the old-line league that plays “test” matches onthe international scene. Blue-collar folk favor the National Rugby League,which is undergoing a shakeout at the hands of media monarch RupertMurdoch. His News, Ltd., which holds stakes in a number of NRL teams, isforming a Super League that will focus TV coverage on 14 to 16 squads. Aswe write this, the boardroom fights rage over which of the NRL’s 20-oddteams will find themselves on the outs.
The only truly national sport is cricket, but the sport once tagged”baseball on Valium” by Robin Williams holds gender limitations formarketers. “It’s all male,” laments one promo agency chief, whereas up to30 percent of rowdy rugby fans are women. Love those Sheilas!
KUDOS, KOREAFor the second year in a row, honors for the Best Promotion in theAsia-Pacific Region of World PRO competition went to Seoul-based CheilCommunications. This year, Cheil rallied Korean youth around the new Mviofashion brand with a campaign called Play Your Free Will. Appeals throughTV, newspaper, the Internet, POS, and on-campus posters inviteduniversity-student musicians to enter songs in a nationwide contest.Regional winners vied in nationally televised finals that reached 70percent of the target market. Celebrity appearances and T-shirt giveawayscarried through at retail, and Mvio sales exceeded goals by 26 percentduring the promotional period. Well done, Cheil!
