Campaign letter of the week
My group CEO, Marco Scognamiglio, recently wrote a letter to Campaign (’Letter of the Week’, Jan 12, 200 
about how agencies are reacting to a changing environment.
Here is his letter:
Claire Beale
Editor
Campaign
174 Hammersmith Road
London
W6 7JP
Dear Claire,
So we have new start up Adam & Eve structuring itself to think “in an unbiased way”. And Grey choosing a multi-experienced new creative director to “revolutionise” the way it operates. And both say it’s all about “giving the clients what they want.”
As your Perspective piece points out, there’s clearly a theme emerging here. Both are reacting to a changing environment, an environment in which what the client wants has changed markedly. The key question is, why?
The simple answer is that the change is being driven by the consumer and changing consumer behaviour. Media fragmentation and the growth of digital and social media means consumers are now interacting with brands in a multitude of different ways. Consumers don’t think in silos and increasingly it won’t be good enough for brands to choose the channels they want and hope the consumer responds.
The future is all about understanding and tracking consumer behaviour, gaining obsessive insight that then dictates both creative solutions and channel selection.
And that’s where companies which are, and always have been, devoted to understanding consumers are now - more than ever - uniquely placed to help brands manage customer relationships.
Those who can truly understand and track the customer journey – particularly understand how on and offline assets interact – are going to be at a massive advantage. It’s no longer going to be about advertising, or DM, or digital. It’s going to be about the consumer. Ultimately, what clients really want is someone who can acknowledge and deliver against this most challenging of scenarios and can deliver them measurable, creative business solutions – solutions based on an obsessive understanding of their customers.
Yours sincerely,
Marco Scognamiglio
Group CEO
Feel free to comment. Personally I’m convinced he’s spot on about the impetus lying with agencies who understand the consumer. But then I would say that, wouldn’t I…
