I guess we have to talk about Facebook first. I was astonished to catch a recent Facebook Live broadcast in which Vice President Global Marketing Solutions Carolyn Everson hosted a conversation with
Sir Richard Branson and his daughter Holly about — I kid you not — combining purpose and profit to change the world.
This was on the occasion of the launch of the
daughter’s book, called “WEconomy.” The book’s website states: “Customers will get behind products that do good, and dedicate spending power to companies that make a
positive impact on the world.”
Talk about being tone-deaf, Facebook. Was that your priority?
This was five days after the scandal broke, and six hours before Mark Zuckerberg
finally spoke up about #FacebookGate.
I think for the time being, we should now wait to see if (a) regulators and governments either side of the Atlantic are truly ready to step in, and (b) if
Zuckerberg and his leadership team will demonstrate that real and meaningful change will be implemented.
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Instead of #FacebookFail, let’s focus on the very different approaches that WPP
and Publicis are taking to address their fortunes as agency holding companies.
WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell gave an interview at Ad Week Europe explaining how he sees his business and the
industry transforming. Arthur Sadoun, chairman of Publicis Groupe, held an investor day where he addressed the same challenge.
Unsurprisingly, both leaders anticipate major changes to the
business model and future of agency holding companies, but each has a radically different approach.
Sorrell acknowledged that the pressure is on and seemed to approach the challenge from
a typical business management perspective. His reasoning is that because clients are no longer prepared to pay for all the layers of bureaucracy, he will need to execute some major cost restructuring
by eliminating head count and implementing what he called a zero-based budgeting approach to project planning.
The other part of his strategy is to continue consolidation within the WPP
empire, and to selectively buy additional service providers to keep growing. All in all, a typical corporate restructuring approach.
Over at Publicis, Arthur Sadoun, less than two years into
his job, outlined a radically different plan to grow and transition. The company will pivot the main deliverable of Publicis away from being a “traditional” agency holding company that
delivers creative, media, digital, PR, etc., towards three service pillars driven by: (1) PeopleCloud, its cloud-based platform that will help identify sources of client growth at an individual level,
(2) “dynamic creativity,” all about the creation and delivery of personalized content; and (3) technology and consulting through Publicis.Sapient. And as with WPP, Publicis also expects
further consolidation and cost-cutting to allow its plans to be implemented.
Sorrell is an amazingly successful businessman and survivor (how many times has he bested opposing shareholders?).
And Sadoun is obviously also a smart and experienced business leader who grew up creating and managing agencies. He is also 27 years younger than Sir Martin.
So which strategy will prove to be
the better one: business experience or agency savvy? Time will tell, but in the meantime, update your Facebook App permissions — though by now that might be as meaningless as Facebook’s
book launch session.