Below is part of an interesting article from AdAge.com. The premise is that now multicultural should have less consideration and 'Cross-Cultural marketing is preferred. Cross Cultural Advertising and marketing is nothing new and no one is really making that claim. It seems to me a long term - short sighted goal of landing all or most multicultural advertising accounts into 'general market' agencies. We've already see this trend begin and the article references that.
All I'm really saying is; this is a long a slippery slope and subject. And most often the money winds up in the hands of the same players. But I have faith in the smarts of the Multi-Cultis and the newer-faster-disruptive cycle of things today. This means there's always a fighting chance in spite of the cratered playing field.
Marketers Favoring Cross-Cultural Idea Over Narrowcasting; Idea Over Agency Status
The term "inclusion" is taking on a new definition for multicultural agencies: that of making room to collaborate with general-market shops.
If there was one big theme at the Association of National Advertisers' Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference this week, it was that the best marketing idea will carry the day, no matter whether it comes from a multicultural or general-market agency. From the podium and in response to often defensive questions from some of the 610 registrants, marketing executives from Coca-Cola to General Mills, State Farm, Best Buy and Unilever were unapologetic in urging agencies to work together with one another rather than against one another in this regard.
"The pressure is on us to deliver," said Pam El, VP-marketing at State Farm, the country's largest auto insurer. "I need to know that Agency X has my back and they can't have my back if they are at it with each other."
She added, "There is enough business for everybody," so "do your part, bring your best stuff to the table and it will work out for you."
Indeed, it was clear some multicultural agencies are seriously concerned about the migration of business to general market agencies and, in fact, were still smarting from Home Depot's shift of its $37 million Hispanic account to a Richards Group unit in March.
At the same time it's also clear that clients are demanding a holistic approach. "I believe an agency is an agency," said Beatriz Perez, chief marketing officer, Coca-Cola North America. "We put them in a room together and reward those who deliver the best plan." She added that can also work to the advantage of smaller multicultural agencies that don't have enough scale for a Coca-Cola brand but can partner with a larger shop on an idea.
General Mills favors a "brand navigator" approach, said Mark Addicks, its senior VP-chief marketing officer. "We put together a team around a brand or category and the best idea wins," he said. Though the Minneapolis food giant's major agencies are Saatchi & Saatchi and McCann, "the best work often comes from our multicultural agencies," he said.
Speakers were almost universal in their belief that narrow-casting one group, such as African-Americans or Hispanics, is missing the point. Teresa Iglesias-Solomon, VP-multicultural and Latino initiatives at Best Buy, said the company had a tendency to break out three groups: women, Latinos and business owners -- but she herself could have been lumped into all three categories at once. The point, she said, is that there are commonalities within each target group. "We need to make sure we are looking at the whole customer." For example, moms have similar interests whether they are African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic or Caucasian.
That kind of insight was the impetus behind OgilvyCulture, a new "cross-cultural strategic-service practice" now launching from the WPP Group agency.
"It is not multicultural advertising, which tends to focus on specific ethnic markets," said a spokeswoman. Instead, "cross-cultural marketing has the objective of developing one brief for clients designed to communicate across different cultures by celebrating shared values and insights." Ogilvy units that are a part of the initiative are Black Diaspora, LatinRED, RedLotus, OgilvyPride, Young Professionals, Working Parents, Women's Leadership and Administrative Professionals, which will collaborate to "provide clients with a full range of services starting initially with marketing strategy, creative strategy, digital strategy, CRM and analytics," she said.
"It gives us the capability to have a single voice to the consumer," said Jeffrey Bowman, director of OgilvyCulture, who presented at the conference with his client, Ruy Yokoi, brand manager at Unilever. Together, they presented a case study of their effort to launch Hellmann's light mayonnaise to the Hispanic community two years ago, which led Mr. Bowman to the realization that "we didn't need to create a Hispanic agency within our agency," but a cross-cultural one.
When asked whether he had considered working with a Hispanic shop rather than Ogilvy for the effort, Mr. Yokoi said, "I don't want to disparage anyone, but we had been working with a Hispanic agency and the creative wasn't working. It didn't jibe with our general-market strategy."
How? "Every Hispanic ad had a picnic" with a revolving cast of Latin musicians, he said. "It was almost patronizing."
More @ AdAge
4 comments:
"That kind of insight was the impetus behind OgilvyCulture, a new "cross-cultural strategic-service practice" now launching from the WPP Group agency.=:
--> Another name for stealing multicultural assignments and keeping it under the same GM umbrella.
"Indeed, it was clear some multicultural agencies are seriously concerned about the migration of business to general market agencies and, in fact, were still smarting from Home Depot's shift of its $37 million Hispanic account to a Richards Group unit in March.At the same time it's also clear that clients are demanding a holistic approach."
--> meaning give all the assignments to their GM agencies!
Ill keep this short and sweet.
This is exactly the scenario GM agencies want to happen.
Step 1.GM agencies will go after (all) multicultural agency work, so clients can do away with the need for all multicultural agencies
Step 2. Gm will continue and wont hire qualified minority applicants, and discriminate against them.
3. In response to this, they will increase the # of diversity programs,scholarships,bootcamps, job fairs, officers, and bullcrap award shops further isolating minorities from the advertising industry.
4.Heres the reality , most clients dont see multicultural agencies as their partners at all. They still dont,anybody celebrating a burrell, uniworld, are complete fools. Clients dont respect them, they will never let these agencies lead the account or come up with the big idea.
Any agency losing, well their agency, simply need to take their power back and become truly disruptive sources. They / we must change the game. I know it seems impossible agains the huge vested corporate entities, but very necessary.
Great points Anon!
Clients really don't understand. Two agencies never work well together. It's like tossing bloody meat in a pit with two hungry dogs and telling them to share. Not going to happen. Doing this with a GM agency and MC agency is even worse, because one of the dogs is there. These are the scenarios I've experienced.
MC agencies come up with the lead idea only to have to turn it over the GM agency to execute. Why? GM agency has the resources. They will always have more resources if you keep giving them more money and the work.
Roundtable creative agency presentations: Yeah they're great. MC agency kicks GM agencies but with great idea. GM agency feels threaten, all of a sudden there's no budget for MC work. But we'll put the idea on the shelf.... Months later your creative is running without your knowledge. Once you present it, it's the clients work so you're just SOL.
The list goes on and on. It's a win, win situation for the GM and the clients are pushing it.
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