When does an isolated activity become important enough to start a trend? Leo Burnett may well have done just that after becoming the first ATL agency to commission the Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) and Institute of Sales Promotion to train its client and account management staff in specific BTL principles.
The Certificate programme, which covers database marketing, project and campaign management, as well as modules on how DM relates to customer relationship management, is the first time the two trade bodies have come together to do a joint course, and also marks the first public commitment from an ATL agency to learning BTL principles.
Elliot Moss, director of integrated communications at Leo Burnett, says the move stems from its refocusing to offer truly multi-channel advice, over and above what its direct subsidiary Arc already delivers.
"We can't offer a proper solution in isolation," he says. "The growth of DM has been such that if we're snobby about ATL, then we deserve to be screwed."
Two levels of the course have already been completed - a junior and middle management course - and a third level, for Leo Burnett's client-facing staff, started last month. According to Fidelma Havery, director of in-company training at the IDM, the course is a clear sign that advertising agencies are taking BTL disciplines seriously and need such specialists in-house.
"Although we don't want to produce hands-on DM practitioners, the aim of the course is to give people an understanding of DM beyond just branding."
But will the course be seen as a belated attempt to catch up with what some other agencies have been doing for some time?
Jeremy Miles, chairman of agency Miles Calcraft Bringinshaw Duffy, says he has been training his staff in BTL skills since starting the company in 1999. "We've always found it imperative that DM and sales promotion principles belong in the agency. Everyone is taught these in addition to their expected role as a traditional ATL agent."
Far from BTL agencies seeing this development as a threat, or a worrying move by the IDM away from its core agencies, the course has been well received.
Mike Dodds, management partner at OgilvyOne, the direct agency of Ogilvy & Mather, says: "Leo Burnett has been positioning itself as an integrated agency for some time and it's a welcome move. The more we understand each other the better."
As Moss says: "It's a mark of our respect for what DM agencies are doing now that we feel we need to know and understand what they're up to."
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