Euro RSCG is working on a creative project with Virgin Mobile, as the telco's marketing chief David Scribner looks to overturn the brand's current agency relationship model.
Euro RSCG will work on a project with Virgin Mobile's retained agency One Green Bean, which is a fellow Havas agency.
The project appointment was part of a more fluid agency relationship structure Virgin Mobile is currently working through.
As part of the new model, Scribner told AdNews the company's three retained agencies Publicis Mojo, Starcom MediaVest and One Green Bean will be asked to pitch against each other internally, to come up with different solutions to the same briefs. In other words, the agencies will no longer be split along media, creative and PR silos, but will be asked to pitch against each other to come up with “big ideas”.
“If any one of our agencies comes up with a great idea, and they want to use other resources at their disposal to make that idea come to life, then they can,” Scribner said.
In the case of Euro RSCG, One Green Bean has come up with an idea, and has employed the help of fellow Havas agency Euro RSCG to execute the idea. While Euro RSCG will be working on Virgin Mobile, the work has largely come through One Green Bean, rather than directly through Virgin Mobile.
Scribner said the new agency relationship model will see Virgin Mobile holding internal pitches two to three times a year.
He also said he would have to examine the current remuneration model, because the agencies' roles will be more fluid moving forward, so the idea of a retainer will probably no longer work. Scribner said one option he was considering was a mixture of a retainer and project payment, so agencies could still pay for ongoing costs while being rewarded for winning internal pitches.
He also said that, alongside this new model, his rostered agencies would still be conducting ongoing work according to their former creative, media and PR silos, which would not require internal pitching.
“Good ideas can come from any agency,” Scribner said. “Media agencies can come up with great creative ideas, so it makes sense that we could pay for the best ideas, rather than locking an agency into any one reltaionship.
“Traditional relationships between marketers and their agencies need to evolve.”
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