McCann-Erickson and WPP Group extend marketing reach
Global marketing communication groups are gearing up to diversify and intensify all the ways in which products and services are sold to Polish customers.
This month, the McCann-Erickson WorldGroup will launch three specialized communication companies in Poland, while the WPP Group unveils its customer-relationship management agency.
"After analyzing trends on the communications market in Poland, we have come to the conclusion that a considerable development potential exists for non-advertising marketing communication services," said Marek Janicki, general manager of McCann-Erickson Polska. The creation of the new agencies reflects a belief that smaller agencies staffed by specialists in different areas of communication would guarantee the highest levels of professionalism, Janicki said.
McCann's three new companies Momentum, McCann Relationship Management (MRM) and PRisma Communications will replace McCann Communications.
Momentum will focus on experiential marketing, PRisma on public relations, and MRM "will offer services connected with direct marketing in a broader sense (direct response advertising, loyalty programs database management, custom publishing and telemarketing)," said Kinga Lewandowska, general manager at McCann Communications.
According to McCann-Erickson WorldGroup's web page, Momentum's experiential marketing will attempt "to bring a marketer's products and services to life" through various events and promotions.
The new companies will join McCann's current communications roster of the full-service ad agency McCann-Erickson Polska, media house Universal McCann and online communication agency Thunder House/Zentropy.
The WPP Group, which is represented in Poland by a full-service ad agency, J. Walter Thompson-Parintex, opened its media house MindShare last year, and also works with the PR company Inc. & Co.
"The advertising sector in Poland is quite well developed, relatively speaking, to other marketing services sectors," said Stephen Mangham, managing director at J. Walter Thompson. "If you look at developing markets around the world, the percentage of total communication spending in the ad sector is much higher in developing markets than in developed ones." In the United States, advertising accounts for about one-third of total communication spending, while in developing markets, ad spending makes up half of total communication spending, he said.
"What we want to do is to develop the advertising agency and make our advertising products better," Mangham said. "But we also want to develop other services too."
"We are in the business of building lasting brands and our business is (providing) total communication," he said.
WPP is launching its new company, Parallel, this week, and also has plans to launch other agencies this year, Mangham said. He wouldn't disclose any details.
Like MRM, Parallel will focus on customer relationship management (CRM). "A lot of people think that CRM ends with direct marketing," said Robert Loj, Parallel's general director. Direct marketing companies that don't go beyond purchasing databases and mailing flyers simply don't have any more effective ideas, Loj said.
The growth of special communications companies such as Parallel and MRM could be a response to a change in emphasis within the marketing sector. Loj said that until now, companies concentrated on reaching the largest number of people possible. Such blanket penetration is currently more difficult due to the proliferation of television stations and print media, Loj said. Therefore, companies are now focusing on reaching target groups more effectively.
