When MRM Worldwide, the relationship marketing arm of Interpublic, wanted to overhaul its UK office after the departure of CEO Alastair Duncan last year, it reached for a seasoned agency pro in the shape of Mike Cornwell.
MRM could turn out to be the biggest challenge yet for the former TBWA\GGT and Joshua G2 chief executive. Cornwell has already made serious changes: a cut in headcount, a rebrand of the agency to ‘MRM London' and the departure of its executive creative director, Matt Mayes, by mutual consent. There have been new hires and big business pitches too.
Eight months into the job, Cornwell talks about his progress.
Q: You took over at MRM London just as the recession got serious. What immediate adjustments did you have to make?
On my second day I had to inform the whole agency that their jobs were at risk. We have big global clients and when the crash happened, budgets were slashed. Clients saw a lack of liquidity and reined everything in. We laid off about 10% of staff at the time - quite a difficult way to start the job.
Q: Were there any upsides to what you were doing?
It was difficult but [the experience] enabled me to see how senior people worked and dealt with it. It enabled me to get around the agency very quickly and ensure the right people were in the right roles, more quickly than normal. And to look at our proposition, with a view to restoring confidence in the agency quickly.
Q: So what needed to be fixed?
We are part of MRM Worldwide but MRM had ceased to compete within the UK market. It had become network oriented, whereas you need good field of domestic clients as well as network clients.
We have brilliant people but the agency had lost its way - it didn't have a vision. A lot of process things - for instance training and development and appraisals - had fallen into disrepair.
The agency didn't have a clear idea where it was going and how it was going to get there. Nor a real sense of its own identity, yet we're an agency that comes from a marketing background and we've got a brilliantly digital-oriented business. Digital marketing is DM on speed and our client base is growing around digital, which is where those diminished budgets are going.
Q: And have you rectified these issues?
We are now branded MRM London, which is about giving people who work here their own identity and giving MRM a sense of the market in which we compete.
The good news is the network is very strong but the difficulty with [network clients] is you're not always responsible for your own destiny and origination of work. You want to be in control of your strategy and having direct relationships with clients.
We are now competing in the UK market regularly, which wasn't happening a year ago.
Training is easy to let go in a recession. It wasn't part of the agency's DNA ever, but from 1st January next year it will. Training is one of the few ways we can demonstrate to our staff that we value them above salary - it's what every good employer should do.
Q: Can we just go through MRM's key clients and what the agency does for them - for example, MRM's acquisition work for BSkyB...
Our key clients are, in no part order, Microsoft, Mastercard, Intel, Vauxhall GME - General Motors Europe, Sky, Dell - for whom we do a huge data operation and analytics task, evaluating and optimising its marketing spend across Europe.
We've got strong relationships with the network clients - Intel for instance. We have to produce strategies that work across the EMEA region, so we can't be UK centric. But there are UK-only campaigns for Intel too. We're working on unbelievable things that are not in the public domain. We're hoping to take this future thinking and technology to more of our clients.
We also work for Carbon Trust and Disney. We've been working on a BSkyB acquisition task and are now working on a broadband assignment.
In a year like this you have to work harder on existing clients - lots of clients are under threat of losing their jobs and all these things make you work much harder than ever before.
Q: And new business?
We are COI-rostered and through OJEC notices [we see] a number of tenders. We're working on two.
You have to work very hard to be on the COI's roster. There's a number of fantastically interesting assignments and the government is the largest marketer in the country, which shows no sign of abating.
We've also at RFI stage with a major food retailer and [have] two huge data hosting and analytics pitches [in hand] - one's an EMEA opportunity and we've pitched for that.
Assuming our RFIs have been of enough quality, we'll be busy this Autumn.
Q: What sectors would you like MRM to be stronger in?
We're weak in retail and pharmaceutical and strong in consumer, B2B, technology and automotive, entertainment and FMCG, and very strong in service-oriented business.
Despite the fact that we don't have a big financial services client, we've got a great capability there. Yes, we have MasterCard but we'd like a retail bank, an investment bank and a building society.
They say one's a client, two's a conflict and three's a specialism and we'll work quite hard for the rest of the year [on plugging those gaps].
Q: What can you offer banking clients?
We'd help them deliver a personalised service to their customers, whether [they hold] one product or several. If I have four products with one bank, [it should] communicate with me through one portal without random emails and have all my information in one place, turning that into a financial dashboard and plan. In other words, it's the digitisation of the customer experience.
Q: Presumably you go to one of your Interpublic or McCann sister agencies for search expertise.
We don't need to collaborate on search. We don't need to - we have some seriously good search guys and girls in-house. MRM London's search capability is as important as our data and analytics. Search skills are so helpful in determining acquisition especially - you have to include it in a planning process.
Q: The DMA is going great guns promoting its awards. Will you be entering?
I like awards - they're good oxygen for agencies and clients but I only want us to enter awards that, hand on heart, we know we can win. In Cannes [this year] we got to be a finalist but no gong and that was disappointing. Awards are a terribly important part of the industry.
Q: The AAR's Tony Spong says there is no connection between winning awards and winning business...
I'd like Tony to run a big agency and say that! Awards should be about effectiveness, a celebration of the idea and how you've worked your socks off for the client.
Q: MRM - what does it stand for now?
We stand for an agency that connects people with brands on their own terms, in this highly connected world where technology drives so many things. It's our job to get people's attention for our brands and then get them to do what brands want them to do.
The concept of ‘Customer Utility' is at the heart of what we do - finding relevant ways to engage people over time. Content can come from anywhere - as much content about brands comes from consumers as from brands.
Q: You've got some of the great agency brands on your CV: MD of Rapier New York, then managing director of Ogilvy&Mather Direct, chief executive of TBWA\GGT, exec chairman of Soup, then CEO of Joshua G2... Were there low points as well as high ones?
I've had a fantastic career - the lows are always disappointing and are largely about broken promises. The highs are too many to mention. It's a brilliant industry. I'm still an account man at heart who has learnt how to run agencies.
Q: Can creatives make good agency CEOs?
The cleverest ones would because they'd know how to organise an agency around the creative product.
Q: Your friends in DM - who are they?
I've worked in integrated agencies and alongside ad agencies so I've loads of friends in the overall marketing industry. In DM, it's Steve Harrison, Martin Troughton, Richard Madden, Nick Moore, Simon Marshall at the Marketing Store and Darren Savage, the planning director at RGA.
Q: Your view of direct marketing now, 17 years on from running your first direct agency...
There are so many great agencies in this market. RGA, Dare, Proximity, Tequila, EHS – you name it. There are no lines any more - there are just ‘agencies' and your orientation is determined by what you've done in the past.
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