Do you reach out? By that I mean do you scour the Wunderman Network, the WPP Network, or the world for help; new ideas; challenging thinking, innovation, recipes, or expertise? Why not? We cover the world no? My point is this: if you break the axle on your car, you bring it to your friend the car mechanic. Yet if (heaven forbid) you break a leg, I would certainly hope that no matter how good a friend the car mechanic is and no matter how well he fixed your car, you would find the best doctor to attend to your need.
Last week The Wunderman Network participated in the “Marketing Forum,” an important conference sponsored by Forrester, pre-eminent authorities on Internet usage and behaviour.
The Conference was focused on customer behaviour and Lester Wunderman was one of the keynote speakers. It was hugely well received and another proof point to Forrester that we are the leaders in RM. More on this soon…
One of the more interesting presentations at the event was one of its analysts ripping apart some Web sites and praising others. Forrester has a particular format for analysis and follow a fairly rigorous so it reports “apples to apples” comparisons.
What grabbed me was its assessment of a particular company, Lenscrafters, and its praise of the company that was accountable, Tribal DDB.
You see Tribal got credit – not for owning the site – but for managing 18 different partners who all contributed some expertise from design to metrics to off line retail integration. The key to Forrester was not just the Tribal work but the fact that they had reached out and had mechanics and doctors all doing what they do best.
As I reviewed my notes, later that evening, I came across the following:
No animal should ever jump up on the dining-room furniture unless absolutely certain that he can hold his own in the conversation.
Fran Lebowitz
Too often we jump on the table and get caught without having anything to say or add. Learn from Forrester and Tribal – it’s not about owning it all. It’s about being the smart visionaries at the centre. Do that and we can jump on any table and hold our own.
What do you think?
I think on the whole it makes sense, from a brand/company perspective. But this point of view doesn’t take into account that there are a large number of us who have done things outside our current jobs/roles…and done them well. Letting the “experts” do their jobs is one thing — discounting expertise because our job titles/company focus doesn’t say the right thing is the surest way to get a bunch of people who don’t think outside their disciplines…which is far worse.
Having been there as well I agree with the overall perspective. Bringing together a lot of “best of breed” players to solve client problems is usually a winning strategy. I think the overlooked role, and one that we should always work to “own”, is that of ringmaster. Being able to orchestrate activity amongst the agencies and provide strategy to the client at the same time is of real benefit. When I was a client I often asked my agencies (inclding YRB) to partner with other agencies. What I didn’t want to do was teach them how to play nice.
Becoming a Marketing Engineer: Positioning yourself in the centre, constructing, inventing and drawing together unique elements and applying them to a practical solution.
The creation of “Spands” a network of complimentary brands that span an entire customer segment brought together by a group of experts in their individual fields. Like the Engineer it requires one who has the imagination, the vision to bring together these complimentary components so that they may contribute more than the sum of their individual parts. Building a bridge that spans the gap between alliance partners and their customers. Understanding the interactivity of individual components and drawing them together in a meaningful way to fulfil a desired outcome.
“Engineering is not merely knowing and being knowledgeable, like a walking encyclopedia; engineering is not merely analysis; engineering is not merely the possession of the capacity to get elegant solutions to nonexistent engineering problems; engineering is practicing the art of the organized forcing of technological change… Engineers operate at the interface between science and society…”
— Dean Gordon Brown; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1962)
It is about possessing enough knowledge to feed the imagination and then creating the recipe that will make it desirable to others.
Couldn’t agree more … “The sum of the parts is greater than the whole”.
Critical points — expertise is, in fact, a sum total of what you know in and out of the job. If you have an area that you can contribute to — shame on us if you are not utilized and shame on you for not letting people know. I always beleive experience gained outside of our business and network creates a more rounded and interesting resource.
I’d also add that expertise is also knowing what it is you dont know.
Think about the “Spands” notion — I love it!! Marketing Engineers — great concept. Years ago I tried to change the titles of Account Management types from Account Executives/Supervisors etc to Navigators — same idea….got a lot of publicity — didnt fly….