| What is your background, in terms of agencies, accounts, and client-side experience? | |
|---|---|
| fdfd | fdfd |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | Starcom online media - 1.5 years (clients: Network Solutions, Sun Microsystems) Leo Burnett - 12 years (clients: US Army, PM USA, PMI) (Chicago, Australia, Ukraine, Japan) No client side experience. |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | Multinational agencies and clients. |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | 20 years creative. Last 10 years Tobacco, majority with WPP. Have experience with many segments. |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | I started my career at beacon as New grads in 2003. Client Experience :CCJC, Electronic Arts, TUMI, McDonalds, Symantec, Chrysler, Prudential, BBJ, Philip Morris, Coleman, T-fal, AXA |
| xxxxxx | xxxxx |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | Just joined Beacon from July from Ogilvy. Have worked at client side for AT&T / Dell. At agency worked on many accounts; FMCG, Tech, Finance, etc. |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | Before beacon communications, I used to work at DDB. |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | 30 years in agency market as accout management. 10 years for domestic 20 years for international. FMCG client was my main client in my career. |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | Used to work in a translation company, a productio house and PR agency |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | FCB/Basic Advertising (Manila) - Trainee Leo Burnett (Manila/Tokyo/Mexico) - Philip Morris, Diageo, Goodyear Tires, New Biz |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | 6 years in Beacon. MINI, Tourism New Zealand, Marlboro, Smirnoff + others. 4 years in BBDO, China and Sydney. Air New Zealand, GE, New Balance + others various other agencies in the past. |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | Leo Burnett Chicago, Leo Burnett Melbourne, Beacon. FMCG, Appliances, Digital Marketing, not-for-profit. Nestle Purina Portfolio, Coca-cola Social Activation, Whirlpool Digital, General Mills Portfolio, SEEK (job, education & volunteer websites), Philip Morris, Scope (not-for-profit), Make-A-Wish Foundation. |
| Miho Matsumoto - Account Director | Been solely on Agency side for over 15 years working on clients Nissan, Masterfoods, P&G with experience on both ATL and BTL. |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | Two different ad agencies before joining beacon, always as a strategic planner |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | Working solely in agencies, both domestic and global network, as a media planner, marketing scientist and account |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | 起業家／デジタルマーケティングコンサルタント |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | Leo Burnett / Arc Worldwide, Chicago – SVP Group CD (Jun 2006 - Jan 2015) McDonald's Logistix Inc., London – Senior Director, Strategic & Creative Lead (Dec 2004 – May 2006) Kellogg's, Coke, L'Oreal EMAK Worldwide, Los Angeles – Senior Creative Director (Jan 2004 - Nov 2004) Burger King Upshot Marketing, Chicago – Senior Creative Director (Apr 1998 - Dec 2003) P&G,Coke, Discover Card Manticore Products, Chicago – Creative Lead (1995 - 98) Museum & Speciality Gift Industry Landis Designs, San Francisco – Graphic Designer (1995) Apple, Intuit, Microsoft Landor Associates, San Francisco – Graphic Designer (1994) Fed Ex, LG, Frito Lay DMB&B, Detroit – Senior Account Executive (1989 - 93) Cadillac, Pontiac, Whirlpool, FTD |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | over 25 years of experience in agency, in both promotion/IMC dept and client service dept. have worked most of the major international clients such as Philip Morris, P&G, Disney, Kelloggs, McDonald's, UDJ, Sanofi, Club Med, etc. |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | Mostly on the agency side, experienced account, BTL planning and strategic/comm planning. |
| What has been your role in the new business and organic growth efforts of the agency? | |
| fdfd | fdfd |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | Organic growth through the Philip Morris client in multiple markets. |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | Business pitches, local & regional. |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | Zero new growth. Always looking to create organic growth through existing clients. |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | New business : Keep in touch with my ex-client and asking to invite pitch/new business for beacon. Organic growth : Creating strong connection/bonding with current client's manager and asking to give us new opportunity. |
| xxxxxx | xxxxx |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | Lead planner for new business pitches. |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | Increase business size and profit by expanding scopes and optimizing internal resources. |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | To focus on McDonald's to defend is my role upuntil now. (Sep 2015-now) |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | Participated in a pitch as an account leader. Negotiate the agency fee with the client directly. |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | Philip Morris business organic growth has always been an important part of agency's growth |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | Organic Growth, is my responsibility on all clients I manage. New Business, I have led multiple new business pitches, and do so regularly. The latest one was the mandatory MINI repitch. |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | Helped lead & won General Mills Digital pitch, adding to branding & above the line scope. Participated in British Paints Digital pitch, McDonald's NY Retail pitch, project-related Philip Morris Australia pitches, currently Philip Morris International Digital Media pitch. |
| Miho Matsumoto - Account Director | Working on large accounts ie P&G, helped to increase annual fees by building strong relationship/partnership which contributed to earn larger scope hence more fees. |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | Strategic lead |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | I've been focusing on organic growth in P&G business. |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | 自分の人脈から新しいチャンスを紹介してもらう、アカウント、ストラテジスト、プロデューサー |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | I've helped drive pitches (strategy & creative) on McDonald's consistently for a decade. As creative lead on McDonald's at Arc, the account experienced revenue growth of 35% since 2006 to $17 MM. I spearheaded creative development and new business initiatives at Logistix winning new business from Appletiser & Nestle. I helped secure EMAK as Burger King's promotional AOR in 2004. |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | Role for new biz: - hunting for prospective new business opportunity - once opportunity is identified, leading the pitch project For organic growth: - connect closely with client to search for additional project and/or new revenue opportunity |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | I'm not heavily involved in new business and rather responsible for organic growth within existing clients. I have been enhancing the agency's reputation of strategic thoughts and how turn it into executions across multiple clients. |
| As if you were writing to a prospective client, describe the agency in no more than 3 sentences: | |
| fdfd | fdfd |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | The best of east and west. We help western clients optimize their message and strategy for doing business in the context of Japan. We believe in acts not ads and the relentless pursuit of behavior changing creativity. |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | Understands You! |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | Beacon is a local agency with international pedigree that can provide solutions that go beyond the normal. It's an agency that thinks holistically and provides solutions to clients problems rather to the brief. It's an agency that believes the sum of many is stronger than the individual. |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | We are publicis groupe member and we can have great support from Dentsu. *Publicis groupe is one of the biggest Ads communication group in the world. *Dentsu is the biggest Ads communication company in Japan. |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | As being a new comer to this agency I don't know but my guess is; 1. International East meets West 2. Partnership with Dentsu 3. Creative Hot Shop |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | Beacon communications is the creative agency having the best mix of east and west thinking and approach. |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | Beacon is a communication company under the Publisis group, who are the 3rd biggest global marketing commucation holding company. We can deliver winning marketing execution as well as the strategy. |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | We are the global communication agency which develops and executes the integrated campaign including the traditional advertising, digital communication, PR and sales promotion. |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | Beacon is an agency that starts and ends with the consumer in mind. It is an agency that prides itself of providing thoughtful creative solutions in traditional and new channels. And an agency that has one of the strongest network globally composed of highly talented people passionate about helping one another. |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | Beacon is an integrated agency that helps foreign brands navigate Japan. We have multiple centres of excellence that all operate under one roof and one management team. We orchestrate those services to match the needs of the client and their business challenges. |
| Miho Matsumoto - Account Director | Beacon not only provides creative solutions AKA advertisements but partners with client to develop communication strategy from product development through launch communication activities. |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | Drive your business by the power of creativity with sufficient understanding of people and your brand. |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | All competencies in-house - under one roof with one name and one P&L The best of East and West in act and deed We believe that creativity has the power to change human behavior |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | ストラテジーとクリエイティブの融合、グローバルネットワークを使った確かなプロダクションデリバリー、顧客の期待に応えるために変わり続けるビジネスパートナー |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | Beacon's strength is grounded in consumer understanding across cultures and working with the world's top brands. With our philosophy that creativity has the power to transform human behaviour, the agency focuses on people & purpose. And by leveraging our global network of experts, we deliver powerful value to our clients by striving to be the best creator of ideas that truly move people, bar none. |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | Beacon excels in full-service client solutions; from market & business analyses, defining core business problems, surfacing meaningful consumer insights, crafting brand strategy, developing best-in-class creative and meticulous and efficient production. It has a media-agnostic approach lead by a combination of behavioural data & analysis and creative ideas & engagement opportunities. Beacon is part of a strong global network that maintains long-standing client relationships through delivery of best-in-class output and partnership style. |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | We are humankind company, and we believe ideas and creativity based on deep human insight can move the people. We would like to be a long partner with you to grow your business. In doing so, we have most of competencies equipped within the agency to best serve your need. |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | The biggest foreign agency in Japan market. The best mix of global resource/culture of Publicis (Leo Burnett) and local presence/knowledge of Dentsu. We believe that excellent creative can change people's behavior in their life. |
| List the top few agencies that you do/will compete against most often: | |
| fdfd | fdfd |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | Dentsu, |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | Multinationals |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | Ogilvy. Densu. |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | TBWA HAKUHODO / GREY Japan / ADK |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | I don't know but Dentsu, Hakuhodo, McCann, Ogilvy |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | Dentsu, Hakuhodo, Ogilvy |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | TBWA Hakuhodo, Ogilvy & Mather |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | ADK, Maccann |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | Ogilvy DDB JWT McCann |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | Dentsu, Hakuhodo, McCann, Ogilvy, JWT, TBWA, |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | TBWA/Hakuhodo, Dentsu |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | Dentsu, Grey, TBWA |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | TBWA, Dentsu isobar |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | TBWA & DDB |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | While only in the Japanese market for a few months, I've been hearing other agency names such as: - Dentsu, Dentsu Tech - ADK - W+K Tokyo Lab - AKQA - UltraSuperNew |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | Gray/Geometry, Hauhodo, McCann |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | McCann, JWT, I&SBBDO, Dentsu, Hakuhodo and Google |
| In the eyes of clients, what do you provide of value, that none of your competitors do? | |
| fdfd | fdf |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | Deep understanding of their business, true agency partner with a long history of working on their brands. True grit to rise to any challenge. |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | Understanding |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | We don't deliver what they want, we let them know what they need. |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | All competencies, under one roof, with one name and one P&L. The best of East and West in thinking, process and output. |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | An International perspective with a more integrated solution? |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | The best glocal approach (global + local) |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | Creative execution in line with Brand strayegy. |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | Depending on the client nature, domestic or global. For a domestic client our global culture could be a strength. For a global client our domesctic cuture could be a strength |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | Deep understanding of client's business and the market (people and culture) resulting in creative solutions that 'moves the needle.' |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | We are a joint venture with Dentsu, and clients perceive that to be of value. We are easier and faster to work with, yet retain the Dentsu buying power behind is. Having one management team and P&L means that there is far less internal competition over the clients budget, as it all ends up in one place. |
| Miho Matsumoto - Account Director | We won't wait for a brief to come just to develop an advertisement but work as partner with client to develop a product (concept) months ahead (1 or 2 years prior to launch) all the way thru total brand communication strategy at launch. |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | Powerful creative idea tied with strategy |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | Trans-creation of ideas through deep understanding on WHO and his/her behavior |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | 信じられるストラテジーと、信頼のおけるオペレーション |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | A breadth of experience on their brand globally and locally with valuable knowledge of their system and capabilities.Years of dedication to their business with a determination to inspire, energise and succeed across all their business including their internal groups and the agency's teams. |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | In my first three months of working for Beacon, I would say: - True end-to-end partnership; strength, talent & specialty areas to fully immerse in client business and provide strategic counsel across broad type & scale of requests - Unique combination of local & global knowledge through diverse staff and global resources (e.g. top-end Shopper Marketing research & innovation, Digital & Activation expertise, distribution of research & insights) - In-house CRM & predictive modelling specialties partnering with senior planning department to truly lead with consumer-first strategy using latest technology advancements. |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | We can provide 360 holistic services all from internal resources depending on your need. |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | To provide any required/necessary marketing/comm solutions with global cultural context. |
| In the eyes of clients, what do your competitors provide of value, that you do not? | |
| fdfd | fdfd |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | Scale, cost efficiency. |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | Missunderstanding |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | Yes, on a surface level they provide a quick cheap fix. |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | Typically Japanese business style. |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | Lower cost. Lots of staff. |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | Integrated campaign approach and scale by mega agencies |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | Digital/Social activities. |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | Although cannot say a specific value for each competitors. But can say our digital competitancy seems to be not so strong. |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | Specific subject matter expertise |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | Our digital proficiency and production is not as strong as others. |
| Miho Matsumoto - Account Director | Competitors may work on a very tight budget under tight schedule which ultimately may compromise on creative quality. |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | Wide variety of (digital) content strategy, Agility of implementation and optimization |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | Dentsu - cost efficiency with media buying and scale Grey - provide mediocre level of works with no challenges from agency TBWA - makes a home run, but not consistently - all or nothing |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | よりデジタル時代によったクリエイティブアイディア、クリエイティブアイディアを具現化するプロダクションにおける知見／技術力 |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | Detached POV with unusual thinking unaffected by McDonald's past limitations and parameters. |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | - Dentsu has mass scaled resources within the market as largest advertising agency, but Beacon is a partnership between Leo Burnett & Dentsu - In-house Digital development & content production |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | Lower cost (often outsourcing smaller and cheaper vendor) |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | Dominating media buying power, Cost reduction (fee discounts,) Richer digital expertise, Marketing automation for validating better ROI. |
| Are there any negative perceptions about the agency that might hold your organic growth and new business efforts back? | |
| fdfd | fdfd |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | Expensive, bit slow, too many eggs in one basket with us for some clients. |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | Internal efficiency ... |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | Yes, we could be seen as an outsider agency that has no business or understanding to be effective in Japan. |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | Most of client feels beacon's fee or production costs are expensive compared with another agency. |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | I don't know. |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | beacon is not seen strong at digital and BTL |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | Less capacity. Not strong negotiation skill to media owners. |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | Too late staffing because of a lack of resources |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | Not enough subject matter experts in new areas |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | Yes, as listed in the previous question. |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | Silo organization |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | beacon is known for 'expensive, slow, and OK works' |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | タレント不足とリソース不足 |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | Yes. The limited flexibility to evolve and react quickly to their needs especially in areas of digital technology and activation. A divided team structure that, more often than not, struggles to capitalise on the unique advantages of Dentsu & Beacon without faltering. |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | Not sure yet of full perceptions within the market, but perhaps seen as quite traditional compared to some smaller, cutting-edge style digital agencies. |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | We are expensive and sometimes it's a consequence of optimizing internal resources. |
| Miho Matsumoto - Account Director | Not that I’m aware of. |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | Resource limitation and internal process both reduces speed of reacting potential opportunities. |
| 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? | |
| fdfd | fdfd |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | Higher level of procurement involvement, more transparency and measurement for projects. Most clients in this market operate on a project cost basis, rather than retainer. |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | n/a |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | Clients want to deal more and more directly with specific expertise in the market rather than allow agencies to control. Clients want more and more value (and speed) from everything we do, so are encouraging us to cut more corners but still want the same quality output. |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | Tend to asking us supporting High level and communication level. Such as Marketing consulting support and execution level. |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | Depends on client but local clients are less sophisticated and want to engage with commissions not with fees. |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | Clients are tending to work directly with an agency with special skills, such as digital, CRM, event, promotion, SNS. |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | Integration slill (strategy, traditioal ad, digital and media buying) |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | Sorry but any specific trends do not come to my mind. |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | Passionate about getting to 'digital' A higher sense of efficiency Global companies managing global brands in Japan tend/are forced to manage it locally |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | Procurement is taking a greater role. Digital is bring separated from brand development. |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | More digital related works than before |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | Some domestic clients are expecting agencies to be more of servants vs. partners. Agility is a must with creative twists and other 'non-requested' stuff to come along. |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | 顧客と代理店という関係ではなく、共同でプログラムや製品開発を行うなど、リスクと利益を一緒にとること いままで代理店に外注していたような事を、顧客が自分たちで部署を持ち、行っていくこと |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | Heavier reliance on agency to develop and validate strategies and marketing goals. Increasing expectation to prove method of KPI on marketing efforts. Intensified desire for brand-building-creative driven by functional executional requirements within limited media framework. The calendar in this market is much more reliant on LTO programs. McDonald's is unique in Japan with specific consumer expectations & criticisms. McDonald's has a much more robust competition against Convenience Stores in Japan. McDonald's leverages celebrity partnerships and influencers to build the brand in Japan. |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | From limited time I've been here & limited exposure to clients outside of PMJ group, it seems that clients are looking for experts in defined areas and trying to deal with multiple agencies at times, versus relying on 1 lead agency. Within Beacon I think we have seen this approach fail a few times and eventually revert back to Beacon to playing Lead Agency role. |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | Like SKII, they would rather pick whatever the cheapest and most progressed they think will do the job, as opposed to tightly partner with one agency. Client also connect directly with the vendor or platform owner without agency. |
| Miho Matsumoto - Account Director | I can only speak of my client P&G but clients are becoming more global (Japanese clients too are forced to look at market expansion outside of Japan) so I’m sure agencies need to accommodate this need of becoming global minded – thinking globally executing locally. As for P&G, brand team working on Japan market is becoming less Japanese so providing more sharp Japan consumer (target) insight is needed/expected by agencies. |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | Emerging new competitors: non-agency competitors are seen in client's scope of work recently, such as Google. They provide content-media mixed solutions while agencies usually provide one of these. Weakened client's marketing function: They are becoming less and less effective and losing its power, and as a result agency has been required to replace some of their responsibilities (such as business strategy.) |
| 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? | |
| fdfd | fdfd |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | Mainly AOR, but some major Multinationals are toying with the idea of moving to a project based model. |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | n/a |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | See above - more focus on expertise in field and agencies are becoming somewhat facilitators of client's wish. Less relationship, more threatening to use 3rd party to facilitate. |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | It depends on each client but I feel change to AOR gradually. |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | I don't know. |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | Not many client cannot afford yearly base agency team. Their marketing budget fluctuate depending on sales, so their request becomes needs/project base. |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | We focos more on AOR while other agencies work more project base. Project base 'Chikien or Egg' story sometimes makes the reputation of agency bad. (Not enough money makes difficult to assign good/enopugh resoece, will lead the service worse.) |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | For AOR there is a fixed team and easy to respond urgent/sudden client requests. On the other hand the agency out put tends to have no newness and need to reflesh the team with changing some members, especiially a creative staff. For a project based client it is hard to respond urgent/sudden requests since there is no a fixed team. |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | A big part of the business continue to be AOR. However, project-based work are growing as client's transition to new areas like CRM, digital, and activation. |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | Personally I see no shift. Client's of a certain scale maintain an AOR whilst smaller clients often work on project basis. However, in both scenarios, digital is still often project basis only. |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | Sorry, what does AOR mean? |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | Most are AOR because of global contract and global clients are more skewed toward consolidating agencies globally. Hence, more clients are expecting deeper/wider SOW from us where we as an agency do not have competency. |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | だいたいはAORだが、新規のビジネスにおいてはプロジェクトベースが多い |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | We are being asked to do more for less as AOR. And we are being increasingly thrown into pitch mode against McDonald's other agency, TBWA. |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | Unsure across agency. Within PMJ, seeing that while client business is thriving, they are reluctant to commit much more up front to the retained annual fee, meanwhile project-based work continues to increase. |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | It depends on the client. If AOR, total revenue is getting less. Or AOR itself is becoming less, not necessarily because of the weakened partnership, but also sometimes small client can not commit annual budget. |
| Miho Matsumoto - Account Director | On my current client P&G, it’s all annual agency fee based payment. Whenever any out of scope work occurs, we ask client for fee calculated based on labor hours x card rate. |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | The agency is pretty AOR driven still, but AOR client such as P&G or PM has been changing their expectations to the AOR agency and it's difficult to catch them up especially at consumer engagement in digital and E-commerce. |
| 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) | |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | 6 |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | 8 |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | 7 |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | 8 |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | 8 |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | 7 |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | 7 |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | 6 |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | 7 |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | 4 |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | 6 |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | 6 |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | 7 |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | 7 |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | 8 |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | 7 |
| Miho Matsumoto - Account Director | 8 |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | 6 |
| 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) | |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | 4 |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | 6 |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | 8 |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | 5 |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | 7 |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | 5 |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | 5 |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | 5 |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | 7 |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | 4 |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | 7 |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | 7 |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | 5 |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | 6 |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | 8 |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | 5 |
| Miho Matsumoto - Account Director | 7 |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | 8 |
| 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) | |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | 6 |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | 8 |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | 7 |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | 7 |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | 7 |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | 6 |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | 7 |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | 8 |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | 7 |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | 6 |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | 8 |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | 7 |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | 7 |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | 7 |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | 7 |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | 8 |
| Miho Matsumoto - Account Director | 6 |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | 7 |
| 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) | |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | 5 |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | 8 |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | 6 |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | 8 |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | 6 |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | 6 |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | 6 |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | 4 |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | 6 |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | 4 |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | 2 |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | 6 |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | 10 |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | 5 |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | 8 |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | 6 |
| Miho Matsumoto - Account Director | 8 |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | 5 |
| Overall (and as you consider the questions above), what do you believe most holds back the effectiveness of your client and new business presentations? | |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | better strategic insight grounded in truth and trend. better setup of the creative idea. |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | Braveness |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | Trust. The ability for us to prove to our client we can make a difference. |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | I believe the most important things of our attitude is to understand client's thought/strategy deeply. |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | Lack of bravery, not working together, time constraints, bureaucracy |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | It should be strategy based on insight. |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | We focus too much on the AOR (Global) client, makes our atttitude prevent form a 'hunter' type of personality. Skill is enough. |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | Make them dream! |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | The ability to project a certain amount of impact to business needs to be improved. Demonstrating this in presentation will help provide a confidence that client's can share or buy into. |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | Communication between teams is often poor, we often miss the power of teamwork. We do not try to amaze the client, we too often try to answer their question and nothing more. |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | Little consideration on client's business goal (value and volume goal), focus only on creativity w/o estimating real business impact |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | Back of my mind I have to ask myself, 'are we truly ready to take this job??' as we are not only constantly facing short on resources and a lot of employees are already working long hours but also face challenges in specific competencies. |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | 統合的に各部署が連携して動くプロセスがないこと |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | Lack of alignment and strategic/creative brief from the clients and in a timely fashion. Limited brand knowledge & information on client research, sales and internal operational requirements. Sluggish acceptance of feedback & direction by current team from management. |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | Difficult to answer, as I have only heard briefly about some of the New Business presentations in the office since my time here. We are working to quickly craft one now for Digital Media. The presentation is getting solid, but the lack of response time available is limiting many of the new / revolutionary ideas. |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | deep insight and strong strategy, demonstration for business impact together with specific numbers |
| Miho Matsumoto - Account Director | Understanding client expectations & sweet spot and stretching that to a creative transformation that's not too far away. |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | How do we demonstrate the business impact of our proposal |
| Bottom line, what do you think the agency most has to do to improve at new business and organic growth? | |
| Brian Walton Group Account Director | Better processes to enable time to go after new projects/new ideas incentive program for new business opportunities |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | n/a |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | I think we need a agency wide strategy on moving forward. It sounds petty but capacity is a big big problem (who can we use and where to put them?). I'm not sure there is a massive amount of momentum to pick up new business as I feel there is nowhere to stretch. |
| Yoshihiro Ito / Account Director | Deep understanding the situation that client is in now. |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | I don't know anything specific for beacon but for international agencies in Japan, I think its more about offering more integrated campaigns with unexpected insights. |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | Proactive proposal to go beyond client expectation. |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | Attitude change. Most of person in AOR team do not think we need to get new biz or organic growth. |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | Appropriate timely staffing at least |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | A more measurable approach that starts with an analysis of the opportunity -a clear understanding of the business and the opportunity, the effort needed to win, the effort needed to manage, together with an understanding of competition. |
| Gavin Cranston. Group Business Director | For organic growth, we need to deliver more proactive ideas. We need to prove our value for clients business and focus our work on effectiveness. For new business, we could say no to smaller clients more often and focus our efforts on higher potential clients. We could also manage resources better when assigning staff to lead pitches. |
| Tamaki Maeda, Planning Director | Has to have business mind (for cboth lient business and our business) on top of our strength of creativity |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | Clarify the winning strategies in short and mid/long-term vision - especially where to play and how to win. |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | 新しい統合プロセスの導入とコミュニケーションデザイナーのロールをもった人 |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | Increase digital acumen across all teams. Build trust within the group overall to further communication. Be decisive and impart action (following direction) in a timely manner. |
| Michelle Whitesides - Account Director | I have not been around long enough or seen New Business cases here to advise... |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | Often it takes longer time to just get the internal team in place therefore we lose time to work o the project itself. It will be nice to have a practical 'talent archive' in the system as opposed to depend everything on the head of the department. It all also be nice to have some business 'forecast' analyst or specialist. |
| Miho Matsumoto - Account Director | What agency provide is creative ideas and not products so who we consist of is very important. We need balanced pool of people ie creative with different background and experience, digital expertise, planners sharp with human insight and digital knowledge, account people with flexible mind. |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | KPI based convincing story telling on how agency's creative solution can resolve client's business issues and move figures. |
| Any advice for us as we prepare the training program for you? | |
| M.Zimmer / Creative Director | n/a |
| Andy Mitchell, Creative Director | I'd like to hear more from the creative side on how we can add more value to the process and how we can best work with planning. |
| Akira Shimomura Planning Director | Nothing in particular. |
| Yasunari Aoyama / Account Director | The way to differentiate us from our competitors. |
| Masayuki Namiki, Group Accout Director | How to grow 'hunter' spirits in typical 'farmer' agency culture. |
| Mikiko Tamura, Account Director | Want to see a best practice with its story. |
| Sieg Penaverde (Group Business Director/Regional Account Director) | Be firm and get people out of their comfort zone |
| Yoshiko Abe, Group Business Director | Not all of us are focusing on new business opportunities, and I'm more focusing in organic growth thus approaches will be different. |
| 菅原理之／デジタルアカウントディレクター | リーダーといってもいろいろな種類のリードの仕方があると思いますので、その各人に適した方法の教授、また気がついていない良い点／改善点の指摘があると良いと思います。 |
| Ronald James Smith, ECD McDonald's | Clarify the expectations and goals of the program. |
| kyoko mitsui / business unit leader | Fee negotiation skills and business analyst/forecast skills. |
| Kiku - Atsushi Kikugawa / Planning Director | I'm interested to understand how clients think, feel and do with agency's proposals. So providing "client's POV" on agency's conventions would be really helpful. |