Let's face marketing in this rapidly changing era with a "non-partisan" approach that transcends corporate boundaries

Advertisers, media, advertising agencies, creatives, and academia. The Borderless Marketing Community (BMC) aims to create interaction and discussion among professionals with different specialties, and to realize seamless, holistically optimized marketing. The third regular event bringing together members of the community was held online on Wednesday, July 3, 2022.

The event was divided into two parts: a "seminar" where experts from various fields spoke, and a "lab" where practical knowledge on the topic was generated through two-way communication between the speakers and participants. This article reports on some of the content of the seminar.

【Speakers】

Former Managing Director of Hakuhodo and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners
External Director of C Channel Corporation / External Director of DataBiz Labs, Inc.
Mr. Masaki Mikami

Joined Hakuhodo in 1982. After working in the IT department and business and promotion departments, in 96 he was involved in the establishment of Hakuhodo Dennotai, the first Internet-only organization in a Japanese advertising agency. Since then, he has led the digital field by implementing integrated marketing and data-driven marketing. He is committed to accountability to client companies for marketing effectiveness and optimizing advertising communication. In 2010, he became an executive officer of Hakuhodo. In 11, he became an executive officer (concurrently) in charge of the i-Media field at Hakuhodo DY Media Partners. In 13, he served as a Media Lion judge at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In April 2016, he became a senior executive officer of Hakuhodo and a senior executive officer of Hakuhodo DY Media Partners. In 4, he served as a judge in the Innovation category at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In June 16, he retired from Hakuhodo DY Media Partners. From July 21 to June 6, he served as a full-time auditor at Digital Advertising Consortium Inc.

Ignite Inc. Representative Director and Executive Producer
Mr. Yoshihiko Kasamatsu

After working at NEC, Hakuhodo, and Dentsu, he founded ignite. He is a communications strategy integration producer. He has an extensive track record in integrated planning and AOR consulting that takes into account synergies with creativity and promotion. His business experience also includes five years as president and CEO of Media Shakers, a joint venture between Dentsu and Recruit, where he promoted the R5 project. He is skilled not only in communications production, but also in developing internal communications from a business perspective. His publications include "To the Advertising People of the Future" (ASCII Shinsho). Since 25, he has been the Executive Director of Advertising Week Asia.

KazePro Inc. CEO and Creative Producer
Mr. Naoki Toneri

Born on February 1964, 2. Joined Daiichi Kikaku (now Asatsu-DK) in 6. Assigned to the Osaka branch sales department. Transferred to the Tokyo head office in 1986. Left Asatsu-DK in October 1993. Participated in the establishment of real-time creative agency Kaze to Ballad in November of the same year. Established kazepro, a new company that combined advertising sales and graphic design in December 2004. Joined kazepro Inc. in March 10. Published works include "11 Keywords to Understand in Winning Advertising Sales" (Seibundo Shinkosha). Has given numerous seminar appearances, including "Training Course for Advertising Sales Skills" and "Training Course for Proposal Sales Skills" (Sendenkaigi).

※listener:

XICA CEO
Mr. Yoshiaki Hirao

*This is an excerpt from the contents of the day.

The "fragmentation of expertise" and "fragmentation of information" are calling into question the value of advertising agencies

The third regular event seminar featured three speakers who have been active in the marketing industry for many years working for advertising agencies.

Masaki Mikami joined Hakuhodo in 1982. In 1996, he was involved in the establishment of Hakuhodo Dennotai, the first internet-only organization in a Japanese advertising agency, and for the past 30 years has consistently led the digital field, including internet business, digital marketing, and data-driven marketing.

After working at Hakuhodo and Dentsu, Yoshihiko Kasamatsu founded Ignite, a group of integrated communications producers, in 2010. He brings together advertising agencies and advertising-related companies with their own areas of expertise, such as digital, creative, PR, and promotion, to form the best team and solve the problems of his client companies, who are advertisers.

Naoki Toneri joined ADK's predecessor Daiichi Kikaku in 1986 and has been in charge of advertising sales ever since. He left ADK in 2004 and participated in the establishment of the creative agency Kaze to Ballad, before founding KazePro in 2011. The company is made up of advertising sales (producers) and designers, but in recent years it has also taken on areas other than creative, such as promotion and media buying.

The theme of the seminar was "How to build an ideal partnership with an advertising agency to lead to successful marketing." First, the three speakers shared their impressions of the two barriers to building a good partnership between advertisers and advertising agencies: the "division of expertise" and the "division of information."

"It seems that many advertising sales people feel challenged by the role of bringing together various expertise and promoting a single project," said Toneri, who has consistently worked in sales (producer) throughout his 30-plus year career.

Nowadays, each field, such as creative, marketing, PR, and digital, continues to increase its expertise, and the "division between fields," which is also a problem felt by the BMC (BORDERLESS MARKETING COMMUNITY), is progressing. One of the important roles of a general advertising agency, and especially of a sales person, is to bring together that expertise and create integrated communication. However, the reality is that there are not many people who can act like a producer.

"The level of expertise of marketers and strategic planners is rapidly increasing, and I often hear veteran salespeople at advertising agencies admitting, 'The truth is, even when I'm in meetings, I don't really understand what they're saying.' In addition to the increasing level of expertise, remote work has become more common these days, making it difficult to ask about things you don't understand and recover on the spot. It's true that it's a tough environment for salespeople," says Toneri.

In today's advertising and marketing industry, where expertise is becoming more refined and measures are becoming more sophisticated and complex, Toneri emphasizes that advertising agency salespeople should not give up on their role as coordinators.

"Advertising agencies and advertising salespeople are being asked to study the new ways of thinking, methods, tools, and media that have emerged as a result of the evolution of data and digital, and to assume the role of coordinating these activities with a broad and somewhat deep understanding. I think so, and I say this with a sense of self-reflection," says Toneri.

While agreeing with this, Mikami reflected that the "division of expertise" has been a persistent problem in the advertising and marketing industry since before the digital age.

Specializations such as creativity, promotion, PR, and research have existed since before the digital era, and the challenge and mission of comprehensive advertising agencies has been how to bring these together and elevate them into a single form of communication. Although difficult, advertising agencies were able to fulfill this function to a certain degree before the digital era. However, since the digital era, the segmentation and sophistication of fields has accelerated, and advertising agencies are no longer able to keep up.

"Moreover, over the past 20 years or so, this trend of segmentation and sophistication has spread not only to peripheral areas that are "nice to have," but also to the areas that form the foundations of marketing and communication. A prime example of this is 'data.' This area is rapidly segmenting and sophisticating, while at the same time infiltrating the essence of marketing and communication. This is making it difficult for advertising agencies to play a coordinating role, and is one of the factors that is driving the fragmentation of expertise," says Mikami.

Before the digital era, "data" in marketing often referred to data obtained through marketing research. However, in today's digital era, actual data such as online behavior history and e-commerce purchase history can be obtained in real time. All elements that make up integrated communications, such as creative, promotion, and PR, must be assembled based on that data, making compilation much more difficult.

In relation to this data, another major divide that exists in the marketing industry that Mikami is concerned about is the "information divide."

Data is now an indispensable element in marketing and communication in the digital age, but it is also an extremely important asset for companies and a management resource that creates a competitive advantage.

"To achieve results, it would be desirable to share this data with advertising and marketing partners. However, at present, it cannot be said that advertisers are proactively disclosing this data. I think that both advertisers and advertising agencies are wavering and struggling over how much data they should share and how far they should go in moving forward with projects," says Mikami.

Now is the time to overcome divisions and build true partnerships

Ignite, led by Kasamatsu, is establishing a system that goes beyond the "division of expertise" and works on integrated communication.

"Eleven professionals with strong personalities come together, work together to achieve a big goal, distribute the results, and then disband. Ignite is a company that was founded in inspiration from the style of the movie 'Ocean's Eleven,'" says Kasamatsu.

Assigning in-house staff who are not the best suited to a project just because they are from the same company. Trying to complete a project within the scope of your company's capabilities in order to pursue your own profits. This is neither essential nor healthy. Working with the best team to solve a problem should lead to greater results. This was Kasamatsu's idea behind the launch of Ignite.

Taking a completely neutral stance towards agencies, Ignite producers put together the best team based on the client's issues, with this person in charge of creative, this person in charge of PR, and this person in charge of media planning. This has been the approach they have followed for 12 years, from the company's founding to the present day.

"There are cases where you should make a bulk request to one company or group in order to pursue efficiency, but fundamentally, building an open and neutral team is more likely to lead to results. If advertising agencies have the mentality of trying to monopolize projects within their own company or group as a way of "licking wounds" or "showing sympathy," I think they need to change this," warned Kasamatsu.

Toneri agreed. KazePro also considers the best creators to work with based on the client's requirements and puts together a team.

Toneri raised the issue that "perhaps it is time to fundamentally reconsider the relationship between advertisers and advertising agencies."

In a competition, multiple companies' planning ideas are lined up and compared, and the advertising agency with the best proposal is selected. The same process is then repeated the following year, and the year after that. Toneri believes that the era in which results could be achieved through such "once in a lifetime" relationships born out of such short-term competition between advertising agencies is coming to an end.

"I believe that advertisers and advertising agencies should build a more fundamental relationship, one in which they work together to make profits. To do this, rather than evaluating advertising agencies on a one-off idea, they need to evaluate them on the scale of what they look for in a true advertising and marketing partner. Of course, advertising agencies will need to continue to hone their capabilities so that they can become true partners to advertisers. When this happens, advertising agencies may no longer simply compete with each other, but will share the client's challenges and objectives, and share their wisdom and skills to solve problems and achieve goals," says Toneri.

This relationship can be said to be an ideal partnership for the digital age, eliminating the "division of expertise" and "division of information" and allowing advertisers and advertising agencies, and advertising agencies themselves, to work together toward the same goal, transcending barriers.

In response to Toneri's suggestion, moderator Yoshiaki Hirao of XICA responded, "I feel that in many cases, advertiser companies that have achieved results with data-driven marketing have taken a bipartisan approach, using data as a central axis to break down barriers between related companies such as advertising agencies."

Advertisers and agencies need to stop bargaining and start thinking together

Regarding the direction that advertising agencies and advertising professionals should aim for in the future, Kasamatsu stated his personal opinion, after prefaced it by saying, "That is not necessarily what all companies should adopt as their policy."

"Whether you're an advertising professional, marketer, planner, or creator, if you're going to work in this industry, it's more fun not to limit yourself to your own area of ​​expertise, but to actively "invade territory" and try everything. That's what I try to convey when I speak to the industry," says Kasamatsu.

This is also in line with what Toneri said, "You need to understand new fields broadly and somewhat deeply, and not give up on playing the role of coordinator required by advertising agencies." With each field becoming more sophisticated, it is not easy to expand the field you cover. However, it is a message that only Kasamatsu could convey, as he makes the most of the marketing environment he has found himself in and makes us feel the significance of actively playing a role in eliminating the "division of expertise."

Kasamatsu continued by mentioning that one thing that advertisers and advertising agencies should keep in mind in order to build an ideal partnership is "being willing to move forward together while racking your brains."

"In the past, we spent two years and hundreds of millions of yen to thoroughly research the relationship between advertising spending and sales. What we found out was that 'factors that cannot explain the correlation account for about 2%.' This is true for stock prices and horse racing, but in human society, it's rare to be able to predict accurately. If marketing is about searching for the right answer in a world where there are no right answers, it's more fun if advertisers and advertising agencies work together and rack their brains. Some people might think that since they're paying money, they don't want to work as hard as possible, but I think marketing work is more enjoyable if you find a partner who will walk with you, face the results together, reflect on them together, and think about the next step together." (Kasamatsu)

To create a relationship where both parties can think about their own problems, it will be necessary to eliminate the "information divide." As Mikami pointed out, it is by no means a small hurdle for advertisers to disclose the necessary data to partners such as advertising agencies and lay the groundwork for discussion on an equal footing. Is there anything we should keep in mind to gradually eliminate the "information divide"?

Drawing on his own experience, Toneri suggested that one idea is for "advertisers and advertising agencies to not negotiate with each other."

"During my time at ADK, I thought that the job of an advertising salesperson was to acquire accounts by negotiating with clients and competing advertising agencies. However, after launching KazePro and implementing a "business model that does not make enemies" by taking on work from both clients and advertising agencies, I no longer had to negotiate. This naturally led to clients sharing all kinds of information, including data, and we were able to use that data as a base to collaborate with partner companies other than KazePro, building relationships in which we thought and built things together. Perhaps during my time at ADK, I behaved in a way that made clients want to avoid doing that," he said, suggesting that changing the way advertising salespeople think could be the first step in eliminating the "information divide."

What became clear throughout this seminar was what is necessary to eliminate the "division of expertise" and "division of information" and lead to successful marketing.

That is, advertising agencies must take pride in their role of bringing together the various areas that are becoming increasingly fragmented and sophisticated amid digitalization to create integrated communication. Advertisers must share data and other information with advertising agencies in order to build a relationship in which they share challenges and goals, and can sit down to discuss and work together.

In addition to this, it became clear that the relationship between advertising agencies needed to change. Instead of a relationship of taking and taking projects, they wanted to become partners with advertising clients, thinking together about what the best plan would be to solve their problems and achieve their goals, and sharing their wisdom and skills.

Hirao concluded the seminar by saying, "If these things can be realized, an ideal partnership will be created that will reap the greatest rewards for both advertisers and advertising agencies."

 Questions from participants in Part 2, "Lab"

In the second part, "Lab," held after the seminar, various questions were asked by members who attended the event and they exchanged opinions with the speakers. Here we present an excerpt of some of the questions posed by members.

"What do you think advertising agencies should look like in five years' time?"

"I would like some tips on how to communicate with clients to get them to talk about internal company matters other than the orientation sheet."

"What is the ideal way to think about KPIs to help advertisers achieve their goals?"