The Science of Advertising

An exclusive tête-à-tête with Peter Hamilton, Regional Director (Asia Pacific) and Executive Vice-President (Worldwide), McCann-Erickson Worldwide, on what goes into the making of a great advertising campaign.

By Shamni Pande

McCann-Erickson Worldwide has been booking space at Monte Carlo for the last two years to celebrate its target of being identified as the best advertising agency by 2002. Says Peter Hamilton, Regional Director (Asia Pacific) and Executive Vice-President (Worldwide), McCann-Erickson Worldwide: ''We think that the occasion to pop champagne can happen much before the 2002 deadline, which is why we have been booking space.''

Having clawed its way to the top from the seventh position a decade ago, the agency certainly has stuck to its combative stance of 'we will not be denied'. This has been achieved at a pace of 20 per cent growth for five years to hit the leading spot with a billing of $18.6 billion and presence in 131 countries.

Hamilton stresses that this does not amount to ''us thumping our chests, but we have been very single-minded in our pursuit''. So then, there may be larger holding groups, but as a brand McCann has achieved its gameplan. Its gross income at $2,191.70 makes it streaks ahead of the second-largest agency BBDO Worldwide at $1,930.30.

Hamilton spoke to BT about McCann's approach to advertising and the reasons why it will achieve its target of being the best very soon. Excerpts:

Q. Is big not good enough?

A. It was a simple question that triggered our pursuit to be the best. After we achieved our target of being the largest agency, we asked ourselves: what next? Are we the best? That got us real excited about getting our clients, competitors, and the trade to acknowledge us as being the best in class.

This led us into the creation of tools that could sustain quality work year after year, and help us in our mission of creating effective advertising. Four years ago, we developed and put in place our strategic planning, creative, and media tools. We are also tracking studies to know the quality of retention. This helps us in finding out the best time to use media that would be conducive to purchase.

'Media In Mind' is a quantitative media study which is a part of our selling strategy. Meanwhile, mediography seeks to study a day in the life of a person, watching their media consumption pattern in that span. This gives us better insight into who the person is, rather than just a category in a certain socio-economic classification.

Q. Can you give some examples of how these work?

A. Just as Pulse is in continuous dialogue with people in 84 countries. This has helped us tailor several of our brand promotions according to local aspirations. For instance, when the currency was devalued in Indonesia, it affected many there. These people were covered as part of our consumer insight programme and we learnt that they wanted promotions to offer real benefits like paying school fees or giving certain things at discount rather than fancy trips to Disneyworld, etc. Such responses actually affect the construct of our promotions.

Also, among other things, we do a great amount of study into the brand footprint where we consider the DNA of the product, and what it is meant to do, and for whom. A good instance would be the way we started off by trying to create an aspirational platform for Vaseline Intensive Care range. However, most of our findings did not support such thinking, as it was typically a favourite brand in middle-America, where the housewife used the brand because she knew it to be an effective and a dependable product. Trying to weave another logic into the brand would not have worked.

Q. So what will be the real measure of success?

A. When we sustain our wins at EFFIES, which are awards for effective advertising. Besides, the obvious sign of how our billings are going at a clip of $1 billion every year for the last four years.

Q. How about the creative awards?

A. Well, these are necessary and good, but get the agencies excited. The Efficient Marketing Awards are ones which actually excite our clients. Because these awards actually take into count the sales progress, the brand-building effort, among other things.

Q. What best describes McCann's attitude?

A. When John Dooner took over in 1994 as Chairman, his philosophy was clear--managing your clients is your day job, managing your agency is your night job. It was the tone which set the pace.

Q. What else is McCann focussing on right now?

A. We are working on strengthening our McCann-Erickson WorldGroup which takes care of marketing communication by building 'corridors'. This includes the MRM WorldGroup, Momentum Experiential Marketing Group, FutureBrand Coleman Group, Shandwick, Zentrophy Partners and Torre Lazur McCann Healthcare Worldwide.

For these, we either form strategic partnerships or joint ventures or buy out individual agencies that are doing excellent work in their regions. This way we also have access to a great cross-section of talent, which has the feel and experience of relationship marketing in their areas of operations. So, the two sides combine to form a potent pool.

Q. Where does McCann India fit in your strategy?

A. I am really excited by the progress of McCann India. The people here are very strong on strategy, and we have relied upon their talent for our global thrust. For instance, we have taken Suresh Nair from here to head our strategic operations in New York. Similarly, we have taken Kapil Sethi to head operations in Malaysia.

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