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< Back to News Home"I Detest the Average" BBDO CEO Andrew Robertson on Agency Business in Times of Crisis
Andrew Robertson, CEO of BBDO Worldwide, has a reputation for being a tough network manager. He sees agencies right now as being duty bound to document their performance capabilities. His advice to communications service providers is to concentrate on essentials and scrap all marginal activities. In an interview with Horizont, Robertson, 48, deals with customer relations and developments at BBDO Germany.
Some advertisers claim that the crisis is good. It forces agencies to redefine themselves. Do you find the crisis good too?
I would have preferred a different situation, but I know what they mean. We must not pass up opportunities that the crisis offers.
That sounds all very well, but what can you do when business is plummeting around the world?Agencies are now duty bound to prove that they create added value by what they do. Demand for work that packs punch is greater than ever because clients want to make more from their investment. What that means for agencies is that they must concentrate on what matters. All marginal activities will vanish. We must refocus ourselves.
What on? Some of your colleagues claim that conventional agencies are doomed. They see creative management consulting as their salvation.
We develop innovative communication solutions that are as efficient as possible. That is our job. The top management on the clients' side appreciate it and demands precisely this kind of work now more than ever.
Principals seem to consider the services of agencies to be dispensable. They are slashing budgets around the world.
I don't see clients as being less interested in quality communication, but they are definitely not interested in wasting their time and their money. Yet that isn't to say they no longer respect agencies and their work.
The Coke saga tells a different tale.
I don't know the details, but according to everything I have heard and read you can see it from two sides. The optimist would say it is an opportunity to earn 30 percent profit. The pessimist would say we no longer have a guaranteed profit.
What does Andrew Robertson say?
I am always for looking ahead. Agencies must have an opportunity to earn an above-average margin, and to do that they must run a certain risk. You can't have both -- guaranteed profit and a share in profits. I certainly see nothing bad about an opportunity to earn a 30 percent profit.
For that you should also have an opportunity to influence the success factors, but clients don't let you have that opportunity.
As long as the parameters are clear I am in favor of performance-oriented models. I believe in the power of our work - and BBDO's ability to deliver better results than our competitors. I delight in everything that makes the distance between us and the rest greater - including payment. I detest the average. That is the worst place to be.
Did BBDO achieve above-average results in 2008, then?
2008 was a record year for us in every respect. We earned our highest revenues and highest profits ever. And, quite frankly, we had the most successful year of all networks in the history of our industry. But the truth is that we had three quarters in 2008, followed by a final quarter that ran entirely differently.
2009 evidently got off to an even worse start. The first quarter's figures for your holding company Omnicom do not hold forth the promise of anything good.
We knew that this year would be even harder. We prepared for it and took the necessary measures. To that extent the figures come as no surprise to us. We are working on the things we can control.
Are there still markets in which your business is still developing positively?
There certainly are. But it is not markets that develop well or badly; it is agencies. You have to take business forward day by day, order by order, client by client. And an agency with a consumer goods manufacturer as its biggest client is naturally in a different position from an agency that works for an auto maker...
...like Chrysler agency BBDO Detroit, for example. Does that agency still exist?
Sure it is! It is very much alive and kicking. But it is smaller than it used to be, of course.
Is it not awful to work for Chrysler right now?
Why should it be? All you have to do is stop worrying about things you can't change. There isn't much we can do to rebuild the auto market from nine million to 18 million sales once more. But we can work as productively and efficiently as possible to try and ensure that our clients earn more than their fair share of a 10-million auto market.
Back to the growth markets.
Naturally there are countries where we are growing. China, India, Brazil. And we are even growing in seemingly saturated markets. Our UK agency has continued to grow, and so has BBDO Paris. So what counts is not the market but the individual agency and how competitive it is. That is the key growth driver. It is a matter of how an agency develops compared with its competitors. Gaining markets shares is what counts.
How, in this context, do you rate developments at BBDO Germany?
The Group is on course. The quality of its work is improving constantly. From the creative viewpoint 2008 was BBDO Germany's best year. What is more, no client was lost. That is pleasing because stable customer relations are especially important at present. The conversion ratio of around 50 percent for pitches is OK too. But we are not at enough presentations yet. I was annoyed that we weren't in there at Vodafone. But Anton Hildmann and his team are heading in the right direction. The pipeline for 2009 is well filled.
Even so, more vital agencies do exist in Germany, especially outside of the network world. Are the times better for owner-managed agencies?
The times are good for good agencies. Size, ownership structure, international or local alignment are irrelevant parameters. The deciding factor is whether an agency is able to produce superb work efficiently for its clients.
Yet there isn't a freeze at independent agencies, or at least not one that is dictated by New York, Paris or London. Local network manager are groaning that they hardly have any leeway any more and are spending too much time filing reports.
Anyone who says that is clearly not well organized. I don't see how you can run an agency without precise reporting. You may be able to run a hobby differently, but not a business. People are complaining about the wrong thing. They would do better to concentrate on their work and focus on its success for their clients' business.
Many claim that they have no time in which to do that. Do you as CEO of BBDO Worldwide still find time to deal with clients? With Chrysler, for example?
In Detroit it is now 8 a.m. Let me call Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli. This is the number of his cellphone. Of course I am involved in day-to-day work. That's my job.
And how do you manage to do it along with managing a network?
How you organize yourself is what matters. I have learnt how to divide my time right. I spend 50 to 60 percent of my time with clients, 20 percent with employees and the remainder on management.
You are fond of saying how much you have learnt about communicating from your teenage daughter. What did she last teach you?
Her latest lesson was in the digital sector. My daughter is in her last year at high school and is looking after the school's website. I asked her what she has changed - a new design, more information? She told me that personalization is the key factor. The website is now geared to the individual requirements of each and every visitor. Her motto is to develop what is useful. I am learning so much from my daughter!
So the secret of Andrew Robertson's success is his 17-year-old daughter?
They say that behind every successful man there is a strong woman. In my case it's a daughter.
Let us take another look at BBDO Germany. Ever since Anton Hildmann was reappointed in February 2008 there have been rumors that he will soon be about to quit. When will he really be leaving?
When he came back we agreed that he would stay for an absolute minimum of two years. That would be until February 2010. But I am delighted to be able to say that he will be staying for at least another year. He will call it a day some time between February 2011 and August 11, 2041 -- his hundredth birthday.
Whenever his replacement comes, would it not be high time to change the Group's structure to make it easier to manage?
I can't answer that question right now. We adapt structures to people, and not the other way round. So a reorganization at BBDO Germany cannot be ruled out if a new management lineup were to make that necessary.
Why not ask your daughter?
(Laughs) That would be a good solution. She is even learning German. But Anton would then have to stay on for a very long time.
CEO Andrew Robertson, 48, has been at the helm of BBDO Worldwide since May 2004, when he took over from Allan Rosenshine. Robertson has worked for the Omnicom subsidiary since 1995. He began his career with the world's fourth-largest agency network at Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO in London. He went on to become head of BBDO in North America. Today he is in charge of around 17,000 employees worldwide who work at over 280 offices in around 80 countries. Insiders have repeatedly tipped Robertson as a possible successor to Omnicom President and CEO John D. Wren.
Reprinted with Permission