Posts tagged "company"

This is a version of an article submitted to Pharmaceutical Marketing this week. Having been delightfully asked by the guys at PM for a thought piece on the future of agencies. Post submission –  I find myself being all a little A-level, that feeling when you have just submitted an essay and you wait eagerly for a C+. Anyway have a look at it early;

“My approach to this article is symbolic of much of the way client service business has evolved.  Life’s got full on, busy, juggling drive and discussion. I am desperately keen not to write a piece that’s another repetition – you know the world according to X approach, beginning with a story about how  a pause for thought has been remarkable, leading to a ‘cut and paste’ about globalisation, silos and some boxes and arrows.  To deviate from this course seems quite risky and frankly I don’t want to seem an idiot in front of you.  I don’t want to be the “you’re that guy, the idiot from hive”. My task is to secure succinct biting observation that truly connects.  A couple of scene setters firstly, I have never written a thought piece for a magazine before and only have 6 hours until flight BA185 lands in New Jersey and I have to file this copy. This pressurised environment is further aided when the small world we work in came crashing down on me.  Either side of me on this luckiest of flights are two potential clients. Both of whom I know, and each one is dead keen to read and review this as it’s written.  It’s being termed ‘helping out’.

“The traditional role of sage, always ends in a stuffing” is a phrase I wish my mother said, unfortunately she is from New Maldon so rarely quotable. With this in mind I imagine you having read loads of these. I imagine you’re sitting there, laptop and docking station, lanyard, and mock-ups scattered round a cubicle. Cesar like, thumb ready to be down-ended, at the faintest sign of a hastily written article.

Anyway I have hundreds of words to write all from 10F and two eager editors either side of me. How should  the agency evolve?

The death of the silo

It’s in no doubt that times have changed massively.  I have been lucky enough to work across all the usual silos in both big and small agencies.  I cannot help but think that we all in healthcare have supported and perpetrated a myth. From the agency side the silo simply doesn’t exist in the way many would have you believe. Whether by audience or discipline, the uniqueness and homogenous nature of advertising, medical education, PR is a fallacy. All agencies cross each other when it comes to many of the core activities required by a modern client. I am not talking about getting an ad man to run an advisory board or the PR lead to come up with an ad concept, but in the more grey activities. The communications business has diversified massively since the 1950s and continues to do so. Next time you have an all agency meeting ask who should be best placed to do the patient pack or a speaker meeting direct mailer. Or if you are having a particularly tough day wave the budget busting 100 page monograph artwork and watch the solid nature of silos in action as all clamber for this margin busting cherry of a project. The plain fact is that our silos are converging, with a few distinct specialized projects owned by a specific silo. This post silo confusion where all expect to be able to do everything should be a pretty rough time for all.  Perhaps we all can expect to merge – becoming healthcare communications agencies. Masters of nothing; all offering the same menu of services, competing on price. The onus is on us to realise this and find ways of driving differentiation between us.

The monograph meeting game leads nicely to the need for agencies to understand our businesses better. We in the past have not been very good at it. The rise of procurement and what seems like a new breed of operations director has been brilliant at forcing us to know where we make our money, to transparently cost our business and move away from licked finger and prevailing wind estimations. This is still forcing many to a new sense of honesty to what the business actually is. Our margin should be delivered through selling time, whether that be for thinking, doing or managing processes. Procurement have rightly prevented us from becoming shopkeepers and marking up pass through costs, but still loads needs to be done to professionalise our sources of income. Artwork is now a commoditised service, and for many a great source of income, with some agencies deriving as much as 50% of their margin from this. Is that really right? An output that’s so vulnerable being so crucial? It makes you worry for the business. It’s time for agencies to start transparently outsourcing artwork, operating tiered costing models  and developing  capabilities across the world to reduce down these costs. Enabling clients to do more, with the same budgets and get the value they demand.

Agencies are a diverse bunch ranging from the enveloping borg of the networks to the boutique creative shops.  The need to reengineer the model that we all have grown used to is dead clear. Pyramid shaped agencies that are run by few, with masses of junior implementers have to evolve. Agencies that specialise in knowing audiences need to listen to their clients more. Time and time again we hear from agency changers that they need senior people day to day. Implementation is a given, (you get fired for screwing it up, but not hired for it) but strategic support and decision making mid implementation can no longer be considered second class to the yearly brand plan day.  It’s a pretty straightforward conclusion that if you consider strategy mobile, and it needing to evolve alongside the environment then partners to this evolution need to be present, to support and evolve in real time.  The big kids are needed on, and not just in the business. The current agency approach most adopt drives the best strategists and most senior talent up and inward looking, spending an increasing amount of time managing the business.  Reporting up to the holding company, sorting out operations, succession planning, staff development all moving the most valuable players away from the coal face.

Loads of other industries face this challenge. When you describe the typical agency approach to a partner at a law firm they laugh at you, and rightly so. In the legal world partners are the blood of the business and kept freed up to face clients and drive value 90% of their time. These partners are supported by teams but lead the relationship. Learning is done internally, the machine is set up to front the most valuable, look after the rising stars and discard those who are not going to make this grade. Its food for thought perhaps that there are no B teams amongst the big 5.

The rise of digital has been the cause for dozens of slides delivered to loads of marketeers. Web 2.0, augmented reality, avatars, virtual this and that, ad infinitum. Our digital world and the increasing sophistication of our audiences will force agencies to start to consider digital not as a channel or (at its very worse) a production function, but as glue for everything we deliver. Consumer closeness, tracking and ROI all are facilitated by this rush for 0s and 1s. But we need platforms and integration not things. Those agencies that are going to be mega are going to be the ones who see digital for what it is – a seamless place to embed all activities and facilitate community. The world of digital is moving so fast that risk is inherent in its delivery, as producers of digital the risk must start to be taken in house at agencies. It’s the agencies job to push the boundaries not just borrow what Skittles are doing. Next time you see a presentation touting channel genius ask the biggie question of your crew in this storm; “In this ever changing world of digital innovation how much do you spend on R&D?” If the answer is nothing then you are already behind. Your agency should be sharing risk to deliver their margin and your ROI.

Increasingly our clients are alone. Head count pressure and the change to the model all have produced a new type of brand leader.  Too often under huge pressure, under supported and at risk. The clients we know and love are the ones that know this and want not just stuff done but help and partnership. As the need to differentiate brands theoretically grows we will find that so will the ways we understand problems, and develop solutions.  Move away from off the shelf solutions forces agencies to change and be more open, not have all the solutions, and be happy to open up their teams to work alongside clients to understand and co-create. This is a big ask for an industry that often has pretended that their ideation process is a black box of inspiration and genius – rather that good people slogging hard, and building and idea from humble beginnings. This is so true with more complex projects that result from pseudo briefings, and client/agency development teams working on prototypes for testing with audiences.

I am sure much of the above has been expected. It seems really clear that we need to evolve our model, man up in terms of transparency and define what business we are in. Most importantly for me is that I see great clients, good agency talent striving to do good work, often despite the model they work in. For me the ultimate aim is for agencies to be seen as Trusted Partners, on the inside, rather than service providers on the out. Anything that gets in the way of this simple aim should either be questioned or set alight.

With 20 minutes to land and for the skippers amongst you. In a small bag of macadamia nuts the future of agencies is as the follows; create your own silo, move the pyramid to an hour glass, insist on working with clients not for them, put you best front of house and keep them, fire your B team, jettison the commoditised business, show all how you make your money and be prepared for co-creativity.”

Fingers crossed it gets published.

Did you ever visit us on Regent Street? Did you catch any of the guides’ commentary from the tour bus below? Then you know that Soho, a former royal hunting ground, is named for a huntsman’s cry – SoHOOOO!

Now the clarion has called us to W1F.  Monday morning, after convening in a café, we were led through the doors of National House, 60-66 Wardour Street.

We walked into our new office on the 4^th floor. It’s great. Come see.

So much thanks again to Jas, Tim and Ian who chose the premises wisely. And spent all weekend shifting, cleaning, sticking. We have a much larger, shinier foorspace now, art on the walls, lots of light. Plenty of storage. Our own boardroom, a perfect little kitchen and two charming loos. I would happily live here.

The bits
My favourite bit is the nap/ reading area. It’s a quiet corner with about 30 foam cubes that you can arrange into a bed, or a fort.

The faithful pink sofa, that lived at Tim’s when our old premises got too crowded, is back in business

Unfortunately we couldn’t get the vending machine up the stairs/ lift. We are looking into crane hire.

Kinsey is still hankering after a piano. Pipe down girl.

We’ve got a microwave and a sweet dishwasher, and a new fridge called Candy. Michael keeps threatening to bring in his Breville (grease) devil.

1950 steel lockers arrive end of October.
The launch
So we spent our Monday all energized and excited by the new space. It was hard to work with a party flirting at a distance like the brush of an intrepid fox. We’d been told to look sharp, but the evening plans were secret. At 6.30 we went to a cocktail bar. On the way, I looked in the Starbucks window to check my face out. Someone sitting at the counter ducked out of my sight. I thought this unusual, but my attention was diverted to the right by Justin Lee Collins.

Anyway, we had a few cockies and shot the breeze. Two hours later, Tim made some calls behind his sleeve. Time to wend through the streets…back to National House. Our office had been transformed into a restaurant. A handsome silver service situation with candles, flowers, wine. Tim’s wonderful sister Nicky stood by in chef ensemble…guess who was evading my sight in the coffee shop!

Wine was poured, starters delivered:  tuna carpaccio on a futon of baby leaves. Nicky’s walnut bread was stunning. She served up beautiful beef fillet with silky fennel and creamy potato roundels. Two tarts turned up for dessert: passionfruit and chocolate amaretto.

The time, the place, the moon – all perfect.

The office turned out to be a great dancefloor. The nap area came in handy as a chillout space. The cubes tend to separate if used for bouncing.

I got home at 3.30am.

We are still working our way through the cheeseboard, the cakes and the whole honeycomb. Jas threw the biscuits away yesterday. Everyone got the hump so she got more. So in a way, we haven’t stopped celebrating.

As many of you know we move offices at the end of the week to our new London office in Soho. Not content with the organisation chaos that comes with one office move (ask Tim what a dishwasher looks like these modern days) we have also been finalising arrangements for New York. This is it, our other new office. It’s our first formal entrée into the US. Based in Chelsea, with great views and full agency facilities we now have a lovely space in Manhattan. Many thanks to Roxanna, Kate and Lois for helping us. As ever, you are all welcome to beapart there too. For now though we don’t have people permanently based there so London is still your best bet. But watch this space because we aim to change that very soon.

Given we know over 300 of you read this blog every week we thought we’d try something. If you are, or know, someone who would like to beapart of Hive then we would love to hear from you. We are actively recruiting in junior account management, art direction and digital project management. We’re looking for people who share our aim to place patient centred brand planning and programming at the heart of the pharmaceutical strategic process.

We’ve grown quickly, but carefully and if you’d like to join 16 slightly mad individuals its a lot of fun, very challenging and enormously rewarding. Give us a shout if you are interested.  beapart@hivehealth.com

A couple of weekends ago Kathryn and I had the pleasure of attending an Epilepsy Action London Forum meeting at UCL. What we experienced was truly moving, a group of people with epilepsy willing to talk to us openly about their lives. This involved laughter, tears and then more laughter. What an amazing group of individuals.

Marie, who is the Regional Services Manager for the South East told us how difficult it was for her to find the space she needs to hold these meetings. After exchanging emails with her for a few days, she sent me this message:

“I am interested in the footnote to your email about a desk in London. We sometimes need meeting places in London for committees – 8-10 people for about 2hrs is this something that this message might apply to?  ”

I replied in the affirmative. We are now hosting three meetings for Epilepsy Action at our offices over the course of the year. We are pleased and proud to be getting something a little different out of our patient-centric ethic:  the chance to help people directly, even when we’re not at work!

More than 50,000 people gathered outside Hive yesterday to watch the Regent Street Christmas lights being turned on. Colleagues, friends, sisters and WAGs gathered in the office to drink us dry and eat 200 of my sister’s cheese straws.

This year the theme is stars and with this in mind the organisers dug deep in their credit crunched pockets and hired McFly. (I thought a McFly was a happy meal). This bunch of plucky funsters took time away from their busy schedules to throw the switch. Next year we are pretty sure they will available to check the bulbs.

Want to experience it for yourself? Click the video to see what the Nokia N95, a window ledge and Verve Clicquot can achieve when combined to capture the magic of an event.

This week we welcome Helen Scott into the Hive. We have worked with Helen previously and have a deep respect for her account management skills.

With a degree in Pharmacology and Medical Neuroscience (she’s a geek), Helen has long been attracted to healthcare work – blood and needles excluded. She has substantial agency experience with Rx and Pharmacy brands.

Having been here all of two and a half days, Helen is full of enthusiasm for the challenges of working in a start up (evil laugh goes here). She looks forward to working on a variety of projects and accounts and getting stuck in on the new business front.

Helen’s worst job was standing in Sainsbury’s for five days, promoting Nectar Card in a very bad purple outfit. We hope to offer her a bit more stimulation. Also, we’d like to see the outfit if it’s still around?

Her first impressions of Hive are pleasing.  ”Everyone admits when they’re winging it, but seem to have an enthusiasm and experience that means they must be getting it right! ”

Thanks for joining, Helen – undoubtedly you will be a real asset in helping us grow into great shapes.

We’re still a young outfit, and our first premises are unlikely to be our last. Thus we have furnished the place simply. One of the larger walls seems to cry out for dressing, however, and we often muse together about the artistic possibilities – something 3D, healthcare-inspired of course. Tim fancies a PVC nurse’s outfit encased in glass like a museum piece. Debbie would like to have installed a human skeleton with a single pink capsule suspended on fine wire inside the abdomen. Ian rebutted this idea because he said it would scare his kids (and anyway he wants a huge plasma screen and a wii).

But I’m the one who made the obvious connection with Damien Hirst. Don’t think diamond encrusted skulls – think Pharmacy restaurant, medicine cabinets, syringes and paracetamol tablets on canvas. Problem: Medicine Cabinet sold for £190,000….back in 1998.

I have no problem asking for things. So I got in touch with his agent suggesting a loan of a piece…

Dear Jas

Thank you for your e-mail but I am afraid that Damien doesn’t loan works for this sort of request.

However, best of luck with your business

Andry

It was worth a shot. Nice to receive a blessing from the art world anyway.
Now then, any artists out there who want a wall to play with?

I was once told across a crowded meeting room that maintaining the divide between business and personal life is important. “It’s business, not personal” still rings in my ears today.

Now I am part of our own agency, I feel I can stand back with a little more authority and give thought to this mantra.

The idea that what I do during the ‘day job’ is very different to who I am on the weekend, is one I have at times aspired to but never really succeeded at. I find it impossible not to be worried at home by worrying office stuff, or for a successful workday not to give me the foundation for a great evening out with my mates. Thus far the flick of the switch on the No. 38 to Angel has eluded me.

The strongest and best relationships we have are ones where we allow ourselves to be human, working alongside other humans, who worry, laugh, err and create… whether that’s at home discussing broad beans or striving for patient-integrated Rx strategy.

Being ourselves and keeping it personal was built into the agency culture from our earliest plans. The business side made Barclays happy and ensured we had rigour and efficiency. But by valuing personality we don’t break people down and rebuild them the ‘hive’ way, or force a process on a relationship. All actors are free to contribute ‘their’ way adding to what we are as an organisation.

What we want most is for people to say that we understand them at a personal level: what they want, where they plan to be, what they love, what they don’t – not just the business of the brand, political situation and process.

Because of this our business could never be anything other than personal.

It was invented by the Egyptians as flat, round, sweetened bread. Its name in Britain derives charmingly from the Norse “kaka”. Today, it’s the soft, melting centre of a swaggering power struggle on Regent Street.

We’re having a cake-off at Hive to celebrate six months since our inception; our demi-birthday if you like. This competition was conceived in an entirely non-calculating move by Timothy D Scorer. We hope you all agree that Tim’s cake (looks like a snowman) isn’t all that much to write home about, seeing as he has actually earned money as a professional chef.

Please vote for the cake you most admire in terms of concept and appearance. The rules are simple: cakes have to have something to do with us – our humble beginnings like the proto-cake of the pharaohs’ intrepid bakers…. our steady and determined rising from 3 to 8 staff despite working in essentially a moderate oven (we have a bit of an air conditioning problem some days)….our proud selection of clients as diverse as a handful of hundreds and thousands.

We have a panel of tasters judging taste, etc, but every rising talent knows it’s the public vote that counts, so click for your fave between now and Monday evening, when we’ll announce the winner. Who doesn’t actually win anything but gets to batter the rest of us with eternal smugness. Thanks!!

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The art director fairy breezed into Hive last week and deposited Kieran. He’s a tall, laid back bloke who is fond of cashew nuts and Corona and whose desk at this very minute is peppered with ideas and design of a vibrant calibre.

Kieran, where have you been all my life? Actually, it’s just a few months since we began feeling the need for another full-time workhorse. Since then, we’ve gathered even more exciting brands and are gearing up for some roaring creative.

Kieran and I are not a traditional creative partnership. Forgive me for finding the concept rather insular, somehow greedy – definitely 1980s-like. Maybe I’m just sulking because no-one has never wanted to be my creative partner.

There’s something special about two people on the same mission, hence marriage and comedy partnerships. This helps you raise children and write entertaining stuff, which must both be really hard. Also, we like to see people playing together. But when you’re at work surrounded by loads of different brains, why milk just the one?

Working with others helps people thrive intellectually and creatively, and for me, the more other people, the better. Everyone’s creative. The message is true to Hive’s goals – we all get stuck in. It’s nice.

It’s the way forward. The days of saying “creatives” and “suits” are surely slipping into extinction. It’s my prediction for the decade. (Note: only 2 years left, people!)

Anyway, I’ve completely drifted from the key message of this article which was to say….

Welcome to the buzz shop, Kieran.

The 6 months since we all we moved in have flown like mad. I look back at the days when we were not quite an office – days which we filled with countless calls ordering phones, desks, sofas, IT equipment and data cabling. They seem so far away. With this in mind, it’s time to take stock, pull up a few chairs and review how it’s all been.

We have grown at a massive rate, faster than we expected. Within 6 months we have delivered to a broad base of client companies and across a really diverse and exciting number of brands. Reviewing the business plan, written way back in Festival Hall (our surrogate early day offices) shows how we have exceeded all our expectations.

The biggest and best surprise is the approach of many of our clients. We are used to reading about the currently slower-than-expected adoption of innovation, so it was always a source of big discussion when we were forecasting. Will we have something that is wanted? Why change a method that is deeply established (even if it’s a little broken)? In hindsight our doubts were futile – an experience that has made us all exhilarated and proud as punch.

When we sat down and decided that a change was a good thing, that our brand of “different” could be better, I couldn’t help but feel deep down, late at night, whilst lying there in my heavily mortgaged flat, kicking our strategy around in my head, a fear that “different” might not be desired. Thankfully my pessimism has not been substantiated. We have an idea and approach that is really hitting home, really making sense, and moreover is really delivering results to our clients, in the here and now.

Time to put the chairs away and go do some more, I think.

It seemed to be going so smoothly, getting our offices up and running in just a month.

The key word is ‘seemed’. We are wiser now. We have seen the gap between promise and delivery. We know how it affects users attitude and behaviour.

It’s nice to be sweet talked at times; it’s fun visualising how great things will be. It’s less thrilling to hang around waiting for non-existent goods to turn up. That’s when you feel disappointed and want to kick your bright, flawless, newly painted walls down.

Customer service is something everyone gushes about. “We are competitively priced, but our premium is justified by our outstanding commitment to…” You’ve heard it. Why is it companies and brands still haven’t got it? Buying a service is about the delivery, not the promise.

Things that should have happened naturally were eclipsed by a tortuous string of phone calls and frustration: Transferring phone accounts: O2 say ‘1 day’, our panel say, Att-Ahhhh 2 months of chasing, cajoling and being let down. In the end we gave up and went to Vodafone, finding out that it’s easier to change provider than stay with the same one… hello? Putting landlines in. Our provider says cat 6 will be fine, so that’s what we do. Our panel said Att-Ahhhh, I meant cat 5, not cat 6 cable – 2 days wasted.

I could go on but I’m starting to tremble.

Brands must contain a promise, but more importantly they must fulfil it. One company that would never let that happen is First Direct. Their brand promise (or should I call it brand truth?) rings loud and clear from their call centre upwards, for them it feels that delivering the brand is actually more important than communicating it.

Something always comes good from bad as my Grandmother used to say. It got us thinking. Do we in the pharmaceutical industry focus so much on selling to HCPs that we fail to properly consider the impact on end users? The token patient programme, the leaflet, the poster. Not being able to talk to consumers is no excuse, we can talk to patients. Even if we can’t hear their complaints, the rest of the world will.