Winter of Discontent Looms for Nimble Newcomers

Winter of Discontent Looms as Nimble Newcomers Leap Forward

Growing disenchantment with traditional advertising and a hunger for fresh ideas amongst New Zealand’s top corporates is fuelling new growth for the industry’s alternative thinkers.

Business is buzzing for ‘outside the box’ agency Running with Scissors, founded just 18 months ago in response to client demand for a more effective way to engage with consumers rather than accepting the wastage that comes with traditional advertising. Running with Scissors is boosting staff numbers by 40% in order to free up agency founders Andy Mitchell and Friday O’Flaherty to spend more time on idea generation and driving business solutions for clients.

With a number of new clients coming on stream in the next few months Running with Scissors is investing in new account handling staff, most of whom come from non-traditional advertising backgrounds.
Andy Mitchell, Boss 1 of 3 at Running with Scissors, reveals: “We’ve found some of the biggest names in New Zealand coming to our door recently. While they all want to explore different ideas, the common theme is a need to innovate to stay ahead in business.

“Clients are rapidly realising, as budgets bite and recessionary pressures continue, there’s a more effective way of marketing. They’re looking for fresh ideas and different viewpoints. It’s going to be a challenging winter for the advertising industry as budgets are put under the microscope and return on investment and creative thinking is challenged.

”While TV is still a force to be reckoned with, unless you have massive budgets to cover market fragmentation and achieve sufficient penetration, you’re just not getting the best bang for your buck.”
Friday O’Flaherty agrees: “Agencies are always quick to say it’s the clients who remain obsessed with TV and can’t move away from it to explore new avenues, even though the reality of a changing marketplace is staring them in the face. But from what we’ve seen, it’s actually the agencies who are locked into this mindset. When you think about it, traditional agencies have huge resources tied up in pumping out TV commercials – they’ve created whole structures around what has been central to their businesses for decades.

“Firstly, it’s where they make big money. Secondly, they have expensive editing suites, legions of creatives and studio staff – all these mouths have to be fed. So it makes sense, for the agency, to create campaigns to keep these people gainfully employed – whether or not they’re actually right for the client.”

O’Flaherty and Mitchell believe clients are wising up to the myth of big agency integration being the holy grail of effective advertising.

“Nothing much has really changed – the core thinking’s still the same,” they explained. “Agencies have bolted on digital or PR departments and given them fancy names – but in reality, the answers they’re delivering to client problems are still the same as they’ve ever been. Nothing’s really moved, they still make ads the same way they did years ago, yet the marketplace has broadened beyond measure and media consumption habits are constantly changing.

“The reality of integration is simply more people in the same room fighting for their share of the budget.”

Running with Scissors has a unique eclectic ideas generation method which sees disparate groups of people from widely varied walks of life coming together to brainstorm business problems. Clients are often invited to take part and witness the creative energy these sessions generate.

The resulting ideas can be as wide ranging as the contributors – from experiential, ambient and alternative ideas, personal targeting of consumers, changing distribution models, , adjusting customer loyalty programmes to improve sales, unconventional collaborations, removal of cliché connections and replacing the traditional audience.

Sometimes, the Running with Scissors directors muse, the answers can also involve advertising, but it should not be considered the only tool to solve marketing problems.

The new hires for Running with Scissors’ expanded team, are Eddy Helm as Account Director who joins from Consortium and previous PR, sponsorship, event, website development and experiential work with DDB, WRC and Mango Communications. She is also director of yMedia, a pioneering campaign to connect tertiary students with community groups and businesses through new media projects. Matiu Sadd takes up the role of Account Manager, coming onboard from his current role as a producer of Pulp Sport. New AUT graduate Georgina Harris completes the trio as account executive.

ENDS

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