Marketing & Media Interview South Africa

Getting to grips with the Scopen Agency Scope 2017

The results of the second edition of the Scopen Agency Scope are in! I caught up with a few of this year's big winners as well as Scopen's global CEO Cesar Vacchiano and Johanna McDowell of IAS, partner for Scopen South Africa, on the importance of client-agency relationships, particularly with BEE being a uniquely SA component within the global advertising landscape.
Scopen’s global CEO Cesar Vacchiano and Johanna McDowell of IAS.
Scopen’s global CEO Cesar Vacchiano and Johanna McDowell of IAS.

The Scopen Agency Scope study involved 232 professionals from the country’s largest companies having undergone face-to-face interviews with Scopen researchers, between June and September 2017. The client-agency relationships in particular were explored across creativity, execution, strategy and even account services.

With the results currently being presented to subscribing agencies, Promise Group was voted by clients as a foremost agency in South Africa for client satisfaction for a second time in a row, and is the only agency in SA to maintain its position in the top five after last year’s survey debut.

Promise Group CEO James Moffatt says, “Given the tough competition in this year’s wave of research, this achievement demonstrates our consistent performance in this regard.”

More specifically, they were voted by clients as the leading agency in South Africa for commitment to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and transformation.

In response to my question of why that’s so crucial in the SA business landscape, Moffatt explained:

Success and diversity go hand in hand and this can only be achieved through transformation. I see transformation as a process for a specific outcome – and that is equality. Everyone who has lacked privilege and fair opportunity should be given priority to succeed. We must actively apply remedy to the disadvantaged as much as is possible, in order for the business landscape to facilitate opportunity for all.”
Clockwork Media was this year voted as best performing agency in South Africa with the country’s highest rate of client satisfaction, according to the Scopen Agency Scope 2017/2018. Agency MD Tom Manner comments that this accolade proves the importance of “building a relationship based on trust and accountability.”

Again on the importance of relationships – a good response considering the current business environment, which makes client satisfaction more important for business success than ever before. McDowell elaborates:

"In a tough economic environment where every rand counts, an agency with satisfied clients is in a much more sustainable position and is able to grow their own business along with the business of their clients."

So accountability itself is a huge component of Scopen, with some confusion in the industry over how the BEE vote for the Scopen agency scope survey works in particular.

Vacchiano clarifies: “80% of Promise’s clients stated in response to the questionnaire during their face-to-face interviews, that Promise was an agency that commits to Black Economic Empowerment. No other agency had this level of client response to the question. Market average across the 340 client-agency relationships analysed regarding this question was 46,5%. Promise was therefore way ahead of the average.”

James Moffatt, CEO of Promise Group.
James Moffatt, CEO of Promise Group.

McDowell added: “With BEE being a uniquely South African component within the global advertising landscape, we have deliberately included this additional question for the past two editions of agencyScope in South Africa so that we can track the progress and importance of BEE in our market among clients. There has been a significant uptick in response to this question and its importance in the past two years – as we would expect.”

So we can expect renewed focus on client satisfaction across the board going forward. On the secret recipe to Promise’s continued success in the marketing and advertising industry in this regard, Moffatt said it’s critical to continue to diversify your service offering and maintain a strong agency culture. It’s an ongoing project which revolves around talent acquisition and retention as well as effective marketing solutions.

In closing, Moffatt shared the following tips for those businesses looking to become more client satisfaction-focused:

  • Completely immerse yourself in your client’s business. Understand what keeps them up at night and solve these challenges on their behalf.
  • Senior oversight of client business is also crucial, along with the quality of the client-agency relationship.
  • And of course, the foundation on which client satisfaction is built is performance. Without this, client satisfaction will remain elusive.

Click here for Hein Kaiser from Mix 93.8 FM’s chat with Vacchiano and McDowell on some of the key findings and trends from the latest Scopen marketer research.

About Leigh Andrews

Leigh Andrews AKA the #MilkshakeQueen, is former Editor-in-Chief: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com, with a passion for issues of diversity, inclusion and equality, and of course, gourmet food and drinks! She can be reached on Twitter at @Leigh_Andrews.
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