PLANNING DIRTY GUIDE TO
INTERAGENCY COLLABORATION
EXPLAINED THROUGH AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL
Mackenzie Beer, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
Katie Chatfield, Apparent
Leslie Clifford, Colfax Marketing Group
Christopher Colter, UM Australia
Rogerio Colantuono, Grey NY
Julian Cole, Sabbatical
Carolina Dennin, Ogilvy Consulting
Michelle Jacques, Octopus Farm
Scott Lukas, Dosage
Carlotta Monzani, Hey Human
Max Richards, Karmarama
Roen Roomberg, Cluse
Anita Schillhorn, TBWA
Steve Shames, Publicis
Kate Worthey, Giant Spoon
CONTRIBUTORS
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WHAT’S AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL (AFL)?
A team sport which is a mix between American Football,
Basketball and pure chaos
THE WARM UP
THE GAME
TRAINING
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
THE WARM UP
CHAPTER 1
THE WARM UP - PRE-MEETING
The Warm Up ensures that everyone is game ready.
For Interagency projects the warm up takes place in a
pre-meeting and covers 6 key steps.
Roles Comms Platform Language
Money Timings Goals
6-STEP CHECKLIST
ROLES
Choose your captain and the role everyone will be playing.
CHOOSING YOUR CAPTAIN
Expected to run the process from start to finish,
make calls on creative, budgeting and timing.
“There needs to be 1 defined Project Director, that way, irrespective of how many agencies and people are in the mix there is 1 person responsible for making sure that everything is completed on time, and no confusion on who should have the last say.”
Michelle Jacques, Marketer at Octopus Farm
CLIENT CAPTAIN
The client will be in the majority of meeting and in charge of making all hard calls. Hands on in adjudicating agency disputes.
Works best when a brand has multiple deep agency partners, client has a strong understanding of creativity and how to connect ideas
“Early on leadership must let everyone have the opportunity to create the customer-based client’s need, even if it isn’t in an agency’s traditional lane. Then, at some point, hard roles and responsibilities must be assigned so experts can execute at a high level. A strong client at the center is best for this but that’s not always the case.”
Scott Lukas, Consultancy Founder at Dosage
AGENCY CAPTAIN
One agency will lead all the other agencies in the process, they will be the ones who will come up with the idea and also the ones who will work to stitch the whole idea together
When it works best is when the agency partner has the best understanding of the idea and how to connect that idea.
DEFINE EVERYONE'S ROLES
RACI THE SUPPORT
To clear the air around what the role is of everyone in the team, you should always use RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) to clearly define the swim lanes.
Example of raci for lord of the rings
SIZE OF TEAM
Agree on the size of the team. Who is key from every agency. What meeting do they need to be at. Identify captains from each agency who will be pulled in for different parts.
“Avoid frequent "big group meetings/calls" or simply distributing tasks and bet more on small team presential work groups. Physical presence and working together with few people makes them get to know each other, build stronger bonds and get a bit more intimate. In the long run this pays off a lot.”
Rogerio Galarraga Colantuono, Strategy Director at Grey NY
“The larger the group, the less likely things are to move forward. Having 10 people in the room not saying anything is actually a big-ass energy-suck.
The best solve I have come up with is the core plus extended team. Extended team is bigger with subject matter expertise. Sometimes things should be big, sometimes things should be smaller.”
COMMS PLATFORM
Keeping everyone in the loop but not having everyone there,
is key to keeping things moving.
“Open as you can with all the information about the project, this makes everyone feel included, keeps strategic adherence aligned and helps eliminate the ego problem.
Use online tools to manage the project. Slack, Jira, Smartsheet and our own bespoke Client portal - helps keep everything ticking along!”
Michelle Jacques, Marketer at Octopus Farm
LANGUAGE
Start off with agreed upon language for the whole team,
this avoids confusion later.
“There are as many definitions of strategy as there are strategists.”
Katie Chatfield, Strategy Director at Apparent
CREATE THE GLOSSARY
One way to avoid confusion is to create a joint glossary of terms for what you identify as the key parts to the project.
Different discipline agencies (Digital, PR, Retail, Creative, Media) usually have different definitions of an idea.
MONEY
Make sure everyone is scoped for planning work
Client needs clear guidelines on how they will divide production dollars
“Some agencies don't join in the strategy stage because the client (or agency) doesn't feel it's the best use of budget. Unfortunately, these agencies risk getting a brief they can't execute. Ensure each agency invests time in the beginning to save hassles at the end.”
Leslie Clifford, Co Founder at Colfax Marketing Group
TIME
Agree what the plan looks like for the next couple of weeks.
This lets everyone know when they are ramping up or down.
GOALS
Understand the group goal and then the specific agencies goals.
Grounds conversation for later on what everyone is aiming for.
“Understand the team goals and individual goals of each agency in the mix. This should be public and kept in the centre.”
Rogerio Galarraga Colantuono, Strategy Director at Grey NY
THE GAME
CHAPTER 2
FOUR QUARTERS OF FOOTBALL
AFL is broken up into four quarters, there are four key steps in interagency collaboration too;
1) Planning, 2) Idea, 3) Tactics and 4) Execution
PLANNING
1ST QUARTER
PLANNING MEETING
Planning meeting is when all agencies share information on the consumer and brief and initial comms tasks are agreed upon.
It is key that everyone feels like they have buy in upfront as this will keep them engaged in the tail end.
“We use the same tools with partners as we do with clients: opening up the brief writing process, sharing challenges or open questions we have to spark debate, and evolving our work together.”
Mackenzie Beer, Senior Brand Strategist Goodby, Silverstein and Partners
Planning Dirty 30+ Key Planning Stage Questions
“Getting everyone on neutral territory (aka customer-first perspective) gets them out of their roles and unifies the team. When you are thinking about people, you aren’t thinking about your agency’s role, profitability, control, etc.”
Scott Lukas, Consultancy Founder at Dosage
“Treating strategy as a team sport -- Every agency needs to participate, challenge the thinking on the table and set-up their fellow players / agencies to score goals.”
Leslie Clifford, Co Founder at Colfax Marketing Group
BIGGEST PLANNING MISTAKE
The biggest mistake Planners make is not being offside with Creatives.
Planners can be really collaborative when it is the kick off of the project however when creatives come in with them they often get caught offside, being out of step with their Creatives who will over rule them in the creative development phase.
Engaging the Creatives during the process – this means the Planner both framing things for the creatives as well as creative involved (appropriately) upfront.
THE IDEA
2ND QUARTER
“An idea is easy to kill and a tactic is easy to buy.”
Katie Chatfield, Strategy Director at Apparent
LOCK STEP WITH CREATIVES ON DEFINITION OF IDEAS
Upfront you should have aligned on the definition for what an idea is and what you are looking for. You need to make sure that all parties are inline with the definition and are onboard especially your own Creative Director.
Example of Definition of an Idea
USE THIS OR CREATE YOUR OWN DEFINITION
Take this or adapt to your own process but make sure you are lock step with your creative director on what this is.
If you’re struggling, get out of the hypothetical and talk about ideas in current work. Reference: Brand Actions Library
TACTICS
3RD QUARTER
TACTIC STEP CHANGE
When the tactics come back, it is time for the planner to change roles and start helping to connect all the pieces together and make sure the tactics align to the idea.
Create Blueprints and Ecosystems to show how all the work rolls out together.
“Challenge others thinking, but do so by asking why they’ve made that choice verse telling them what they should do - and always direct it from a place that helps you do your job, and make your output more effective.”
Christopher Colter, Strategy Director at UM Australia
“No consumer wants to be surrounded 360-degrees. Consumers don’t want it, and it’s a waste of clients money. As one strategist once told me, own the 3 degrees of the journey, not 360 degrees.”
Steve Shames, Brand and Business Strategy Publicis
EXECUTION
FINAL QUARTER
WHOLE TEAM EFFORT
The key to the execution is the relationship you have built.
The tables will turn, whoever was leading the project now relies on the followers to execute the idea.
If all parties feel like they have been listened to and they still have pride in their work, it will show.
“A psychological trick where being in the same office and same war room, day in and day out, made us into one team.”
Kate Worthey Associate Director of Strategy at Giant Spoon
“Interaction with the teams with AND without client build trust and grow ideas.”
Anita Schillhorn, Planning Director, TBWA
“You need to put in effort. Interagency relationships -- just like any relationship -- take work.”
Kate Worthey Associate Director of Strategy at Giant Spoon
PICK UP MATCH
BONUS MODEL
THE PICK UP MATCH
In amateur AFL you have impromptu “pick up” matches, a group of random people come together to play an informal match.
In interagency collaboration sometimes this is the case too, where one person organises a whole team specifically for that project, also known as the Hollywood Model.
AKA THE HOLLYWOOD MODEL
Someone acts as the producer who pulls in all the relevant agencies, one point of accountability for the client and procurement.
When it works best - When the client has a clear idea and they’re looking for an execution partner
“It’s about building the right team to build a blockbuster of a project. There are 3 stages to a movie - planning, shooting and editing. When you think of it - how is this different from what we do? It’s just taken our industry a little while to catch up.”
Michelle Jacques, Marketer at Octopus Farm
TRAINING
CHAPTER 2
TRAINING, TRAINING, TRAINING
Interagency Collaboration takes a lot of practice. Training is key.
You need to search it out and practice it where possible.
“Join a sporting team or read team manager biographies on how to work on individual strengths while building a successful team.
Or play music with others and see how harmonies are created and how to get into a rhythm i a group.”
Katie Chatfield, Strategy Director at Apparent
“Theater and Improv are good models. Everyone has as different role but working together to same end game.”
“I look to talk shows for inspiration. If people are entertained they'll want to play a part in what you're creating. I'm inspired by the way John Oliver educates without seeming too preachy, how segments like Lie Witness News bring in a new perspective, and the conversational format of most talk shows. They show you how to bring different people with a diverse set of opinions around a table.”
Mackenzie Beer, Senior Brand Strategist Goodby, Silverstein and Partners
STUDY WHAT LOSES MATCHES
Understanding what loses games is key. Identify when this happens and what you can do to avoid this.
Ego
Do we accept the lead role of the other parties? Who has the last say?
Money
Who owns the relationship with the brand? And the overall budget? Who decides how to spend it?
Management
Who owns the idea and activation?
Who's the captain when stuff gets complicated?
Loyalty
Does the brand as a company (so not jut the marketeer/cmo) give enough support to the team of agencies to make this work?
Short term
Is there a healthy balance between the projects equity and the overall brand equity, are we building a brand as a group or doing projects?
Roen Roomberg, Creative Director at Cluse
BIGGEST PROBLEMS WITH INTERAGENCY COLLAB
TRAINING RESOURCES
Humble Leadership - Edgar H. Schein (BUY IT)
“About the value of more human leadership and how leadership must become more personal to insure open trusting communication that eases collaborative problem solving and innovation.”
Rogerio Galarraga Colantuono, Strategy Director at Grey NY
3 ways to manage successful relationships (CMO)
Mange inter-agency partnerships (Zazzle)
IPA Communication Strategy Guidelines, Carolina Dennin, Director Ogilvy Consulting
Hollywood Model
Hollywood model used in future work (NYT)
3 Reasons to adopt the Hollywood Model (INC)
Hollywood Model Work (HRDaily) �Adapting the Hollywood Model (GothamCulture)
Compiled by Julian Cole
1996 East Malvern Football Club U12 - Half-Back Flank
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APPENDIX
EXAMPLE OF GLOSSARY
Barrier - What is standing in the way of the consumer from coming closer to the desired state outlined in the consumer journey
Brand Purpose - The brand’s ‘north star’; its reason for existing, its view of the world and its key belief
Brand Landscape - What’s the brand situation? Who are their competitors, what’s the brand about, what’s it’s positioning, who is the brands audience?
Campaign Blueprint - A illustration/visual depiction of the potential shape of the campaign, showing the production budget for the different activity
Campaign Ecosystem - An illustration/visual depiction of all the media touch points in a campaign
Communication Platform - Is an action orientated statement that helps guide all parties for what type of actions the brand is going to take, this statement is used to brief all agency partners
Channel Neutral Brief - The idea is media agnostic
Channel Specific Brief - The idea must live specifically in a channel or platform (i.e., the channel is dictated in the brief)
Creative Idea/Platform - The creative articulation and consumer facing interpretation of the brand purpose
EXAMPLE OF GLOSSARY
Communications Plan - The layout of all the communication elements you will use to deliver your campaign and achieve your goals
Communications Tactics - The individual tactics that communicate your message
Communications Task - The specific solution for the major barrier at that stage of the consumer journey
Consumer Journey - The steps that the consumer goes through to reach a specific goal that is related to the brand problem
Day in the life journey - The day in the life journey looks at what are the steps that the target consumer takes each day, this is used for low involvement/feeling products
Human Journey - Looking at the steps in a major event in the consumer's life that the brand has some relationship with, this is used on high involvement/feeling products
KPI’s - Key Performance Indicators: The specific goals or metrics we must achieve
Path to purchase - A type of consumer journey that has the end goal of the consumer purchasing the product, it is usually used on high involvement/thinking types of products
CONNECTION IDEA
What we want people to do (the fish we want, the pond to fish in, the bait to use)
Who and where/when and why would they?
The frame of the problem worth solving (Get every customer to spend one pound more on every transaction)
CREATIVE IDEA
How we can get people to do it (narrative hook to plate)
What idea worth engaging/ exploring (Try Something New) that talks to all the audiences, where ever they are and inspires them to want to think/ feel/ do.....
DEFINITION OF IDEAS
Definitions courtesy of Katie Chatfield, Strategy Director at Apparent