THIS WEEK: DOES SIZE MATTER?

Dear DOYLE,

I run a Europe-wide drinks distiller and I’m looking to freshen up our marketing. We export our grog throughout the old continent and we might look to go further afield over the next few years too. The company we use at the moment, a network agency, are good and will be asked to participate in the pitch process but some of the work I like seems to be from smaller shops. However I’m worried they might not be able to take on my business because of their boutique nature. Are my fears founded?

Bruna, Porto

The author shall cut to the chase; original, high-quality thinking and ideas are not the preserve of big business and can come from anywhere.

You are looking for partners with a global mindset, those who may be small in size but not in mind.

Traditionally the model you employ now was, if not the only one, certainly the most dominant. An international business such as yours needed global partners, and in practice that meant a physical presence in many of the markets the client operated in, aka, an office. There were some notable exceptions (the advertising agency BBH was able to serve worldwide clients from its London base for many years before opening its first international outpost) but generally speaking, if you wanted to work on big, global pieces of business you needed flags on the map.

Now I feel it’s different. Flexible ways of working have allowed for the rise of distributed teams, who stay in close contact with one another using a myriad of technology. The world feels smaller than it did a few decades back, and you simply don’t need an office in a foreign land to be able to operate effectively there. Practically speaking, you can develop work for one location from another using insights gleaned from a small, tight team on the ground team (perhaps even freelance), detailed desk and in-person research and using technology such as email, Whatsapp and regular video and conference calls to stay in touch with colleagues and clients. 

The most important criteria when selecting any knowledge based-business is the quality of the thinking on offer. It doesn’t particularly matter if that thinking is delivered by someone in London, Paris, Madrid or New York, or if behind the curtain there is a cast of thousands or just one man and his dog, so long as it makes sense and shows an understanding of your business, the market and consumer. You want the best minds working with you, not necessarily the biggest.

Coca-Cola, a giant by any measure, use an innovative world of suppliers to great effect – big networks, micro-networks, hotshops, freelancers – all that matters is the quality of the work. They’ll find a way to bring it to life if it’s good enough.

Don’t rule out companies based on your assumptions –meet with who you like, and they’ll find a way to make it work if they want to. Put the ball in their court, pose questions and let them come up with solutions, such as:

• Partnerships between agencies in different countries should your colleagues abroad desperately want a door to knock on
• Partnerships between complementary agencies – if your preferred partner can’t fulfil all your needs, can they link with someone who can (for example, advertising and PR practitioners)
• A hub and spoke approach to asset development, where the heavy lifting of campaign development is done by the main office and adapted for each market by a larger production partner (although still approved by the same central team)
• Weekly calls and monthly visits to develop relationships and aid the smooth operational running of the account

All that matters is that you work with people who know what they are doing and can come up with ideas and thinking that can travel.    

So yes, David can beat Goliath, or in this case, work with him too.

DOYLE

NEXT WEEK: MANAGING A GLOBAL BRAND

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