Phil Jackson, the NBA Zen master who is now being wooed by several basketball clubs to be their next head coach, helped to create (with longtime assistant Tex Winter) the now-
famous triangle offense.
While he was coach of the Chicago Bulls, the strategy helped to make Jackson's star pupil Michael Jordan a more complete player by making his teammates better, resulting in
six world championships in eight years.
Last summer Matt Gonring, VP/Global Marketing and Communications at Rockwell Automation Corp. (Milwaukee), helped to create for a global research campaign what you might call
the PR version of the triangle offense.
Under the plan, Rockwell's longtime PR agency, Minneapolis-based Padilla Spears Beardsley, managed the messaging, Wyse Advertising (Cleveland) took care of the creative, and
researcher Roper Starch Worldwide crunched the numbers. Nothing earth-shattering there, but what was unique about the plan was that PSB was put charge, while Wyse and Roper Starch
had to give up some of their autonomy for the greater good. Normally, it's the PR firm that has to defer to its marketing counterparts.
After some initial trepidation from Wyse and Roper Starch, the triumvirate for the next several months worked together on execution.
The results were presented to management earlier this year, and the recommendations will be implemented this summer, according to Gonring, an Arthur W. Page Society board
member who says the plan was a "win-win" for both Rockwell's PR efforts as well as the marketing trio.
Asked why he put PR in charge of the overall plan, Gonring says, "PSB recognized who [among the three groups] was most equipped to deal with what, and it was able to develop
a detailed message for our go-to-market strategy that extends well beyond PR and has helped to reposition the company."
Another incentive: 10% of its billings fall under "client development," meaning that 10% fewer items are charged to Rockwell. "They recognized they had to give up some near-
term profitability for long-term interests," Gonring says. "It's clear the pressure is on agencies' margins, and we all have to be subservient to the CFO, but profitability can't
come before clients' needs."
PSB's apparent willingness to give up a few pennies in exchange for being considered a more valued business partner -- as opposed to a vendor -- reflects how agency-client
relations are changing.
Long gone are the days when agencies would present clip books that would land on the client's desk with a proverbial thud. They have been replaced by much more strategic,
top-line thinking among agencies for clients that want media exposure to be a result of improving the company's overall business goals rather than being an end in itself.
"Anyone can come in with a four-inch, color-coded clip book and point to four placements but are they the right placements?" says Peter Stanton, found and president of
Washington, D.C.-based Stanton Communications Inc.
He adds, "Are they the ones that are going to have the right tone and the messages that relate back to the business? Too often PR comes in and tries to focus exclusively on
creative. But clients need us to think strategically first, and then creatively. For a while, we had it backwards."
Stanton says that in the current climate agencies should be ask themselves the following questions if they want their clients to consider them truly valued partners and not
vendors:
- Are we concerned about their business?
- Can we show them we are committed to their success?
- Are we willing to suppress own interest in favor of the client's?
"Clients aren't just looking for arms and legs, but a process that's well-structured, well- organized and is directed to the business objectives," Stanton adds. "More in-
house PR departments are being downsized but the demands have increased."
Indeed, with more clients getting their budgets squeezed from their corporate gods -- and the cost of landing a client five times larger than the expense of retaining one --
agencies increasingly have to bite the bullet and, like PSB, not bill the client for everything that moves.
Still, "you need to know where the budget is coming from so you can have an impact on how they're going to communicate the results, which is going to affect the agency's
funding," says Robin Goodman, executive VP of Makovsky & Company (New York City).
As an example of how PR services are changing for their clients, Goodman points to a campaign she helped launched last summer for a financial technology firm that, after
being acquired, embarked on a campaign to revive its brand identity.
"They needed classic marketing and sales support, and we have moved aggressively to re-establish the customer base," Goodman says.
The campaign has included steering customers to new case studies about the company and new online seminars for sales reps as well as a user conference. "Everything we're
doing is not necessarily geared toward the media, but what the company has really needed," she adds, "and that was help with the sales process."
Systimax Solutions (Richardson, Texas), which manufacturers cable lines for both business and residential areas, is another firm that, after being purchased last year (by
CommScope) was hoping PR would personalize its message.
Before the two sides sat down to bang out a plan, Systimax's Dallas-based PR agency M/C/C conducted extensive research on the company and its competitors. "We do major due
diligence so we can come in there with very specific recommendations and ideas rather than being trained seals," says Mike Crawford, president and founder, M/C/C.
The agency created a multi-pronged plan focused on Systimax's customers. For instance, five PR reps attended a trade conference to interface directly with customers as well
as with Systimax's scientists; M/C/C reps also attended the company's "Road Show" stop in Dallas to pitch potential customers directly. Customer testimonials were then forwarded
to trade magazines, general tech publications as well as vertical markets, including healthcare and financial.
"We break it down into a team approach," Crawford says. "The person good at writing isn't necessarily as good at being a people person. We try to put the right people into
the right areas, that way we're not just a hired gun or a one-man band."
Rebecca Daniels, marketing manager at Systimax, says M/C/C is now considered "part of the [company's] team" because it's been "very proactive about learning the market. They
know how to interact with sales and it's no problem for them to answer marketing questions from in-house. That pulls me out of the middle, which is a huge help."
Contacts: Mike Crawford, 972.480.8383, [email protected]; Rebecca Daniels, 972.792.3446, [email protected]; Matt Gonring, 414.382.5575, [email protected]; Robin
Goodman, 212.508.9620, [email protected]; Peter Stanton, 202.223.4933; [email protected]