| Which office are you based out of? | |
|---|---|
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | Singapore |
| What is your background, in terms of agencies, accounts, and client-side experience? | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | 22 years as a client, now in an agency role :) |
| What is your staff size and how has that changed over the last 3 years? | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | 80+ Staff now, 3 years ago, it was about 110 |
| What has been your role in the new business and organic growth efforts of the agency? | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | Develop existing relationships as well as rev growth and getting new local business |
| As if you were writing to a prospective client, describe the agency in no more than 3 sentences: | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | We’re a multi-disciplinary solutions company with a full service offering with specialists in communications, direct, digital, mobile, social, ecommerce, retail and shopper marketing. We manage leading brands such as P&G, Samsung and Tigerair in our Singapore office. |
| List the top few agencies that you do/will compete against most often: | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | JWT O&M TBWA |
| In the eyes of clients, what do you provide of value, that none of your competitors do? | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | 1. Integration - being the single lead and bringing other partner agencies on board eg. PR & Media 2. Past client experience and know how |
| In the eyes of clients, what do your competitors provide of value, that you do not? | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | 1) Speed 2) Price |
| Are there any negative perceptions about the agency that might hold your new business efforts back? | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | Before 14 Aug 2015, it was about the leadership of the team as our MD's seat had been vacant since Feb 2015. |
| What are top 2 or 3 trends you see in terms of how clients are interacting with agencies in your market? What most makes clients unique in your market? | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | 1) Clients today seem to be rather interested to get agencies to pitch for every business 2) They do not seem to value relationships like before Not sure if this is unique to Singapore but we're noticing more and more clients do not seem to understand their marketing/branding function. Many come from different fields and therefore its an education process journey we have to take with them. |
| How has most new business come into the agency (i.e., competitive reviews/RFPs, proactive prospecting, organic growth, referrals, etc.)? How many competitive reviews/RFPs have you pursued over the past 2 years? How many did you win? Please explain. | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | 1) Proactive prospecting - the situation in Singapore is such that 85% of our business is from P&G SKII whilst 15% is local business. For local business, we only had one retainer account as of last year to manage and there was a competitive done for both the local account and SKII. In the last year or so I've been here, as of June 2015, new business rev increased 83% vs 2014. The other good news is that we've managed to bring accounts that are retainer based vs project based (62% retainer) The hit rate of conversion from pitch is about 50%. |
| Please explain how your particular client roster is made up of multi-national vs. local clients. What is the current situation and what are your goals moving forward? | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | Currently 85% MNC, 15% local clients Moving forward: We would like to move the dial to about 30% local in the next year or so. |
| Please explain how your office is currently experiencing AOR vs. project-based client work? Are you seeing a shift? What are the biggest challenges you’re experiencing? | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | Definitely seeing a shift as per item 1. Challenges are per item 1 as well |
| On a scale of 1-10, how well do your presentations back up the agency’s recommendation with an irrefutable logic trail? In other words, how well do you typically build a strong argument for the agency’s recommendation? (10 = we are always strong in this area) | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | 8 |
| On a scale of 1-10, how well do you build your presentations around a new and unexpected strategic consumer insight vs. a predictable consumer insight? In other words, how well do you always have something brand new to share about the client's target audience? (10 = we are always strong in this area) | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | 7 |
| On a scale of 1-10, how well do you build your presentations around a new and unexpected creative/concept/program/tactical idea? (10 = we are always strong in this area) | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | 8 |
| On a scale of 1-10, how well do you demonstrate the business impact of your recommendations? (10 = we are always strong in this area) | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | 7 |
| Overall (and as you consider the questions above), what do you believe most holds back the effectiveness of your client and new business presentations? | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | Clients today ask for us to challenge them but many a times, they do not dare to take the risks and therefore they go with something safe. |
| Bottom line, what do you think the agency most has to do to improve at new business? | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | We need to get our work out as sadly, the past 2 years, not much good work has been out in the market. We need to then PR and get people talking about LB Singaproe again. |
| Any advice for us as we prepare the training program for you? | |
| Rebecca Ang, General Manager | Just some context on Singapore right now. We're now in a rebuilding phase, where we have new management as well as we need to get the buy in of our people as well as to instill pride in our staff who work here. As I am also new to the agency world, it would be great to take this opportunity to learn the right processes for new business. |