Oct 8, 2006
Dan O’Donoghue, Publicis
Sponsored by 
In this thought-provoking chat, Dan O’Donoghue tells Olaf Willoughby why the end of advertising agencies is nigh, why planners should return to their roots as consumer champions, and why researchers shouldn’t expect guidance from ad. agencies during this time of media flux
STARRING
- Dan O’Donoghue, Worldwide Strategic Planning Director, Publicis, and author, “Born in 1842 – A History of Advertising”
- Olaf Willoughby, The Willoughby Partnership (Host)
PODCAST
Dan O’Donoghue has an impressive track record.
He helped to change Ogilvy’s research department into a planning department back when Spaghetti Bolognaise was an exotic dish.
In 1983, at ad. agency McCormicks, he renamed the account planning department to ‘Strategic Planning’ so the French could understand what it did, and also developed a way of using research to improve the input to creative rather than correct the output.
In 1990 he became joint Chief Executive of Publicis and was the planner on the famous, or infamous, “Papa? Nicole?” Campaign for the Renault Clio.
TIMELINE [31m13s]
00m00s Intro.
02m54s Born in 1842, a history of advertising.
03m25s A shift from advertising to communications.
03m53s Changes within the planning and creative functions.
06m57s Stimulation through creativity.
09m29s Implications for the research industry.
11m59s Is the research industry too risk averse?
13m54s A culture of conservatism.
15m23s Breaking through the conservatism.
17m01s The trend towards consumer insight planners within clients.
17m44s The story behind renaming ‘Account Planning’ to ‘Strategic Planning’.
19m34s Why Dr. Bob Cook, Firefish, won the 2006 AQR P R-S award.
22m27s The future of measurement.
26m39s Challenging traditional research methodologies.
28m52s Panels – “the underbelly of the research business”.
29m28s Final thoughts.
NOTABLE MENTIONS
AQR.
ASA.
BBH.
BMP.
Dr. Bob Cook.
Firefish.
Google.
John Hegarty.
Millward Brown.
MRS.
P&G.
Prosper Riley-Smith Effectiveness Award.
Simon Lidington.
Tremor panels.
Video diary.
WPP.
QUOTES
On the online ad. revolution: “We’re going to see the end of advertising agencies in the next few years. We’re all going to start calling ourselves communications agencies.”
On the implications for the planning function:
“Planning is a bit under pressure…planning is gradually morphing to be much more central to managing the communications process…”
“My problem with planning recently is it’s been pushed much more to justification of what agencies do rather than the old notion that they were the voice of the consumer or the voice of effectiveness.”
On the implications for creatives and planners: “…the digital area is one where the creative people have to really know what happens…and the planners equally are having to become a lot more creatively inspired or inspiring…”
On ad. agency structure: “My personal opinion is that in the future there are only going to be two departments – service and production.”
On creativity: “…[ad.] agencies have got to focus on stimulating the targets rather than stimulating themselves.”
On the way research is handling the changes: “…we’re in a revolution, not an evolution… things are happening so fast…and so the research industry is in a bit of a quandary I think as to what it should do and following us at the moment isn’t the right answer.”
On the increasing complex ad. market: “I’m on the ASA council and one of the worries we have is that regulating the [ad.] industry used to be easy, but when things are on the internet and they’re put into TV programmes, how are we going to regulate that?”
On the conservatism in research: “…the research industry is like the Young Conservatives, always having discos with buffets.”
On breaking the conservatism:
“When you’re in revolution there are only two sides, the side that wins and the side that loses. And the side that wins is the one going forward…buying into the modern world.”
“I was pleased to see Simon Lidington getting appointed head [of the MRS], because he is an innovative thinker…”
“The one thing the research industry and advertising industry has really understood much better than clients is how important research really is…research within the clients hasn’t had the profile and importance.”
Music courtesy of: Theatrimus and The Blue Mile from the PMN
Thanks to MrWeb for sponsoring this podcast.
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