Kmart marketing boss Michele Teague says social media metrics and impressions no longer cut it. Agencies have to shift product.
A member of the Creative Effectiveness jury in Cannes, Teague said jurors were dismayed by how few entries demonstrated return on investment, effectively consigning themselves to the bin.
Winners were those that “told a story that naturally led you through all of the key parameters,” says Teague. “From the media and the social metrics, to brand perceptual shift, intention to purchase and recommend, through to sales and ROI.”
That may sound like stating the obvious for a prize focused on effectiveness. But Teague says there were “significant advertisers” that failed to demonstrate ROI on their entry form.
“It seems staggering, but they left it out,” says Teague. “I was left thinking, ‘are people in the industry actually confused by what effectiveness means?’ Do they really think that because it ‘broke the internet’, lit-up Twitter and got a million impressions, that is a measure of effectiveness? My outtake was that they do.”
The Twits
Teague subscribes to the burgeoning view that social media is overstated.
“Another key theme from Cannes is the complete overplaying of social media,” she says. “Several of the presidents mentioned that. I am not saying that social media metrics aren’t relevant, [but without proving the link to sales], it is just not enough.”
Context
Teague’s other tips for metal-hunting agencies are to provide context and to be concise.
“What is the context of the market? How big is your brand relative to that? What is the population of the country?” Outlining those elements gives jurors a grasp of how the creative has performed relative to its environment, says Teague. “Jurors come from all over the world and may not be familiar with your market, so context is really important [to include in entry forms]”.
Concision
Some agencies shot themselves in the foot by failing to include a succinct summary, says Teague.
“’Less is more’ is so important,” she says. “It’s university 101 stuff, but do an executive summary at the beginning that includes some ROI figures to remind people who will have to read the entry several times in different phases of the judging process.”
Agencies must modernise
While “coming to Cannes has reaffirmed my belief in agencies,” Teague thinks agencies have a long way to go in terms of change.
“I have to be honest, I see very little change in agencies over decades. They are internally focused instead of externally focused,” says the former Campaign Palace managing director. “They are so worried about competing within their agency networks - and on who is moving where - as opposed to really looking at the wider picture and evolving.”
If agencies followed the operating model of clients, “they would be assessing macro trends, how they are evolving their product - and they’d have a whole R&D division just within that”, Teague suggests. “Very few things have changed since I first worked in agencies many years ago, and I find that very frustrating.”
Mano a mammo
Teague says she lost count of the number of awards during Cannes collected on stage by a bunch of blokes.
“It just got to be a bit of a cliché. There would be nine guys and one woman. Then there would be eight guys and one woman. Or ten guys,” says Teague.
“I am happy to say that the only group that got up last night [Friday] that was fifty-fifty was from New Zealand, from where I hail (Colenso BBDO Auckland, Titanium for Brewtroleum). And we were the first country in the world to give women the vote,” she says. “So what does that tell you?”
Teague accepts that agencies are trying to tackle the issue.
“I applaud that. I can see they are trying to focus on that change – everyone gets that diversity of thought leadership comes from diversity of people. And that includes people of all ages – because the industry is incredibly ageist as well.”
Hey boss
While there are signs of progress, Teague says real change will only be driven from the top.
“Agency leaders have to look at themselves. They have to stop saying ‘why do these women not work for us?’ As one said to me recently, ‘they decide not to come back after maternity leave’. No, they decide not to come back to you. What are you doing to make it easy for them? Don’t project it onto them. Look to yourself and your culture.”
Teague has much, much more to say on the issue, but admits it would take another article in its entirety, possibly more. So she returns to the key take-out from her Cannes Creative Effectiveness experience.
“One of the most fundamental things - whether for a marketer or an agency person – is to own the commercial results,” says Teague. “Get your head in that space. Because if you can’t be a commercial business person, then quite frankly, you are just dabbling around the edges.”
Teage spoke as part of the MCN 'In the Cannes' video series last week - watch it here
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