Three weeks into 2016 and the marketing press is full of predictions for the year ahead.
The two trends I’m most excited about are the “rebundling” of specialisms and workplace diversity. I happily tell anyone who will listen that I created some of my best work while working in Sydney. The reason for this was that clients gave us the responsibility for their full (albeit small) budget and it was our task to find the solution. No preconceptions of channel or agency turf wars. Just people with all kinds of skills making great work that had a disproportionate impact.
Rebundling of specialisms
UK clients are increasingly seeking this rebundling of specialisms. But unlike Australia, it’s not because money’s tight; it’s because they have too many agencies
fragmenting their communications. As Keith Weed, chief marketing officer of Unilever says: “There’s a real risk for brands that we end up working with individual agencies that maximise a particular channel rather than maximise the overall brand.”
To address this problem, we at MullenLowe Group are bringing together people from our four key specialist units (MullenLowe, MullenLowe Open, MullenLowe Profero and MullenLowe Mediahub) to solve our clients’ problems through whatever means. Our unique “hyperbundled” model thrives on the collision of skills working towards a common outcome. Our new branding, launched on Monday, celebrates this.
Workplace diversity
This is another topic receiving ever-increasing airtime, though it clearly needs much more. It should by now be apparent to everyone that more diverse workplaces are more dynamic, creative, inspiring and better for business.
Our executive creative director Emma Perkins is heavily involved in a number of initiatives that involve immediate, direct action to increase diversity at all levels. She runs a female mentoring scheme for She Says called Who’s Your Momma and is a founder of Token Man, an initiative to give men a better understanding of the challenges women face in our industry. Most recently, Emma was invited to mentor for the Great British Diversity Experiment, highlighting the benefits of more diverse teams and encouraging agencies to change their hiring policies.
These are groundbreaking initiatives that go above and beyond roundtables and panel discussions. They’re aimed at confronting head-on the frankly shameful lack of diversity seen in our industry today and forging an effective way forward.
Anthony Hopper is global CEO at MullenLowe Open
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