It must be frustrating for agencies when they win awards for client work but are then relieved of their duties for the same clients soon thereafter.
It happened with Edelman when it won an Entertainment Lions Grand Prix at Cannes for Asics back in 2021 and lost the business to Golin just six months later. It happened to Ketchum when it won numerous awards for Discover Puerto Rico and subsequently lost the business to MMC.
And, last week, Weber Shandwick will have been relieved to retain its brief to work on Kellanova’s Pop-Tarts brand having just won a Grand Prix at Cannes in the Brand Experience Lions.
These things happen for a variety of reasons, not necessarily always related to poor performance or lack of synergy on behalf of the agencies involved.
Sometimes a new CCO or CMO comes in and wants to work with people they’ve had success with before. Sometimes the brand just wants to change things up. Sometimes they want to cut costs and flex their procurement muscles. Sometimes they’re back with the original agency within six to nine months because it turned out the grass wasn’t actually greener on the other side. And sometimes, the relationship just isn’t working.
Such is the lot of the agency CEO and their teams.
And that’s why senior executives such as Ogilvy’s global CEO Devika Bulchandani, who guested on Campaign's sister site's The PR Week podcast this week, says: “The earnings report is the most important award for me.”
That was super relevant last week, as Ogilvy client Coca-Cola unveiled strong Q2 financial results, and attributed some of its success to its marketing activity.
"We have greatly improved our ability to rapidly produce and deliver marketing content, integrate activations with timely innovation and scale successes to drive the greatest impact," Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey said in last week's earnings call.
"One example from the second quarter. Coca-Cola's partnership with Marvel, which featured nearly 40 different limited edition collectible graphics and QR codes on our packaging to connect consumers with unique augmented reality experiences. We collaborated closely with Marvel Studios and the Walt Disney Company and tapped into the best-in-class animation and activation to quickly scale to over 50 markets."
That resonated much more strongly with Bulchandani as an approbation of what her agencies are doing for a key client than Coke being the most shortlisted brand in the various Lions categories at Cannes and being named Creative Brand of the Year.
Much as that was something to celebrate, and both clients and agency reps did so up and down La Croisette, the rubber really hits the road when the marketing results in higher sales and sustainably positive business outcomes.
"As a result of this and other growth initiatives, Trademark Coca-Cola grew volume and on volume and value share during the quarter," added Quincey.
Ogilvy’s work for Coca-Cola is earned first then social. In this era of earned-first creativity, the balance of power has shifted. Creatives are starting with what people are talking about and then tapping into the hunger they are feeling about that topic to construct fun and relevant brand activations.
The genesis of Ogilvy’s Social and Influencer Lions Grand Prix-winning Michael Cera activation stemmed from a comment someone made on a Reddit post about seven years ago
Bulchandani prefers the term immersion to integration, producing immersive experiences on behalf of brands that tap into culture. “Amid so much fragmentation you need to work more closely together,” she added. “Common technology platforms and physical spaces help enormously in that process.”
Check out more of Bulchandani’s insights on this and much more by listening to the full podcast here.
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