by: Richard Hunt

This is a suggestion that is greeted with cynicism by clients in this country. Often the agencies have only themselves to blame, since they use the phrase without really demonstrating that they can contribute more than advertising proposals. However in Copenhagen we saw some examples. One which seemed to get everybody interested was presented by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, on behalf of their airline client SAS. They described how they had pointed out to SAS that some journeys inside Sweden are just better made by train. Why therefore spend money fighting a major competitor ( SJ -Swedish Railways), why not instead collaborate? So this is what they are now doing. The two companies sell joint tickets for certain routes, and SAS will assist customers if they are delayed by an SJ train, in the same way as if the customer had chosen to fly SAS. The agency presents this as a more ‘transparent’ approach to competiton, which implicitly strengthens SAS advertising claims in other cases, because it is building trust.

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by: Richard Hunt

Several network agencies also came to talk to us. Saatchi & Saatchi showed some wonderful work from around the world, including the outrageous Teletransporter campaign for Andes beer, while Grey did a convincing job of showing us a network which is small and lean enough to allow clients to become closer to the process, in the way that smaller independent agencies often achieve better. But as usual with the network agencies I had this nagging doubt: would clients in the Czech Republic really have access to this talent and resource? What is the advantage of a network agency in Prague, 2010?

The answer came in spectacular fashion from McCann-Erickson. Lee Daley and John Wright showed us how the agency has developed a system which would allow it to immediately assemble the right team for a client project from any one of its 19,800 global employees. It isn’t fully live yet (but will be within weeks), and I am not sure that we are permitted to give out too much detail. But I was not the only one in the room who was seriously impressed.

Network offices in Prague have been accused of not really offering much beyond the logo; the resource does not in reality stretch beyond the people in the Prague office. McCann’s new system challenges this assumption. But as the plane commenced its gentle descent towards my Czech island home, I felt myself returning to Czech reality. Faced with the possibility of choosing an agency team from 20,000 talented people around the globe, how many Czech-based clients would be serious about utilising their talent?

Richard Hunt

Executive Search