ANALYSIS: Why clients want to lure ad chiefs

Client marketing’s elite is under threat from an invasion of admen and women. Julian Lee looks at the reasons for the transition

Selfridges is the latest client marketer to add an adman to its ranks.

The department store has announced that Bartle Bogle Hegarty’s

international planning director Nick Cross is moving over to take the

marketing director’s role.

The top jobs in the industry are no longer the preserve of the elite

among client marketers.

Top board account directors or agency planners are parking their tanks

on marketing staffs’ lawns with regularity.

‘The old distinctions are breaking down,’ says Cross.

This is a reflection of the closer relationships that clients and their

agencies have developed. Agencies are playing a larger role in mapping

out brand strategy.

So what can agency staff offer by moving over to client advertising?

A senior account director who has worked on a brand and understands the

company methodology is in a good position to make the switch.

Cross was working on a ‘brand vision project’ for Selfridges before BBH

was awarded the account. Selfridges did not need to look further. There

are other factors. As one senior agency director put it: ‘Clients are

relying more on outside expertise, as they don’t have the numbers they

used to. So that puts the people who work on the account in a strong

position.’

Job insecurity and the recession have deterred many from making the

switch, says Steve. Ingham, managing director of Michael Page Marketing.

‘But if they have been associated with a number of big fmcg names there

is an attraction.’

‘Agency people are the exception not the rule. Clients love their advice

but they don’t always want them on staff,’ says David Pakeman, chief

executive of recruitment consultant The Lloyd Group. ‘It’s symbiotic.

They co-exist but they are not the same breed.’

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Movers and shakers

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James Kydd            Euro RSCG to Virgin

Charlotte Pinder      Grey Advertising to PepsiCo

Dominic Owen          Bartle Bogle Hegarty to Prudential

David Grey            Young & Rubicam to AT&T

Peter Buchanan        Saatchi & Saatchi to COI

Dave Wheldon          Lowe Howard-Spink to Coca-Cola

Neil Simpson          Bartle Bogle Hegarty to Coca-Cola

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This article was first published on Marketing