Audi putting BBH to pitch isn’t a tragedy, it’s a statistic
When you consider that the average age of employees at IPA member agencies is a couple of months short of 34, Audi and BBH’s 37-year relationship is pretty astonishing.
No wonder its future in the industry is at serious risk.
Still, probably like yourself I was very surprised to read that Audi had called a review of its lead UK ad agency earlier this month, almost to the point where I couldn’t believe it. Not Audi? The same Audi that won the 2018 IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix? Not BBH? The same BBH that won five IPA Awards? Is there something darker at work here? How can it be that one party of a seemingly happy and bountiful relationship is suddenly demanding the other to go and sleep in the kids’ room while they “think things over”? And what will the ramifications be, not just to the two involved, but the wider agency landscape?
Because if you’re an ad agency and you had just delivered the best campaign a client has ever seen, traditionally, you’d be considered as a “safe bet”. The client would have to show a level of bone-headedness not seen since 10 minutes ago on Fox News to even consider putting you on notice! Yet here we are. If BBH isn’t safe, then no agency is. Audi may think it’s simply triggered a single pitch process — in reality, they may have just inadvertently pulled the trigger on an era of advertising where no agency is safe. Where uncertainty and instability reign supreme.
Or have they? This isn’t the first time it’s happened to BBH since their barnstorming success. Virgin Media announced in late January that it was reviewing its agencies (since won by adam&eve/DDB after BBH declined to return), following Barclays announcing the same. Barclays decided to retain BBH after a pitch process that was about as competitive as it gets. IAG Cargo appeared to move away from BBH in 2017, over a year before the awards were handed out. Adland’s black sheep would be forgiven for thinking that the awards are cursed, but I’m sure that’s not the case — still, it’s best not to let Tom Roach anywhere near Drake in the short term, just in case.
Most ominously for the industry, though, is that Audi isn’t the first big winner to pull this trick, just the most (in)famous recent example.
Who was? Initially I thought MoneySupermarket was the source of this malaise following their dropping of Mother after the “Epic” ads, but without proof of effectiveness (only by virtue of a lack of IPA or Effie papers — but come on, it was on the front of The Sun), I have discounted it. Plus I think it’s tough to criticise a price comparison website for choosing to shop around for a better deal instead of being loyal to one supplier.
I believe Lidl to be “Patient Zero”, last August. Lidl won Gold at the 2018 IPAs, and Grand Prix at the 2018 Effies and was named “fastest growing supermarket” numerous times by Kantar thanks to the incredible work of TBWA. How were they thanked? By being told the account was going to pitch.
And since that fateful night when the IPA refused to recognise my genius for a second (but by no means final) time, eight of the 35 winning partnerships have been put out to pitch — three of which, as mentioned, involving BBH. Make it nine (and four) when you include IAG dropping BBH in 2017. That’s too many to ignore. As Mr Burns said when he filled his baseball team with ringers to guarantee victory unless something terrible happens to them all individually, “Three misfortunes, that’s possible. Seven misfortunes, there’s an outside chance. But nine misfortunes? I’d like to see that!”.
That’s nine pitches from 35 partnerships. What does it say about the industry if one in four of the top brands of the current era are dropping or considering their agencies? And it’s been six months. How many more will have fallen by the 2020 awards?
And what can we do to remedy it? Boycott pitches? Where would you draw the line? If the Grand Prix-winners are boycott-able, how about Gold? Any IPA or Effie win? What about Cannes? A mantra of boycotting pitches has more grey areas than a Brexit Party conference. Plus, I’d consider myself a hypocrite if I advocated that, because if I was presented the opportunity to pitch versus the most officially effective agency in the land, I’d be fired up for it. You don’t see football teams refusing to play Barcelona simply because they’re the best, right? No, they embrace it and lift themselves to challenge those at the highest level.
It’s tough to come up for one answer for nine different problems. Nine clients each with their ‘own reasons’ for pitching their work out, be it procurement, new CMOs or mandated cycles.
What is clear is that the problem of short-term thinking isn’t just limited to the final advertising campaign. It’s a problem we face in all aspects of business. It may feel like a quick win by swapping one agency for the next, but the reality is that good results don’t happen overnight. They take time, and require multiple strong relationships within and outside of your business. And the best relationships are exactly that: relationships, founded on honesty and mutual respect. Not when one person calls all the shots. None of the winners of the IPA Effectiveness Awards or Effies won because they had a good five minutes — it’s because they worked bloody hard to get to the point where they worked bloody hard to get some outstanding results.
I’ll finish with a 2017 quote from someone else who has worked very hard over a long period of time and recently come out of a long-term relationship:
“When somebody congratulates [us] on a good quarter, I say thank you. But what I’m thinking to myself is: those quarterly results were actually pretty much fully baked about 3 years ago. Today I’m working on a quarter that is going to happen in 2020. Not next quarter. Next quarter for all practical purposes is done already and it has probably been done for a couple of years.”
Jeff Bezos, 2017
- This article was initially posted on LinkedIn on 25th April, 2019, with the conclusion of most pitches still undecided. As of 12th October 2020, four agencies were retained, and five were changed.
- Six winners from 2018 have re-entered for 2020. Best of luck to them.
