For more on
globalisation’s emerging brands, go to p.46
Wheldon’s complaints
On agencies “Why can’t agencies just say no?” continues Wheldon. “The answer is always ‘yes’ and it shouldn’t be.”
On advertisers
“My biggest gripe is that it’s fashionable to kick the agency. But those in the marketing community are worse when they complain the marketing function is not taken seriously. If it’s not at the top of a company’s agenda, it isn’t delivering as it should be.”
On arrrogant globalisation “It is easy to sneer and think you have nothing to learn from emerging markets. There is a great deal of marketing imperialism in the UK.”
Wheldon: getting things off his chest
are always willing to do it for less. They are offering 30-40% cuts. How? By screwing some other unfortunate client. This is the fault of the client – it’s saving them money, but at the same time teaching bad behaviour.” Wheldon also recognises that clients’
ability to brief, and organisations’ readiness for, and understanding of, what is suggested needs to improve faster. “International clients need to do a great deal of internal training,” he says. Referring to his experience at
Vodafone, and no doubt nodding to the local pitches where decisions were undone in a matter of months when the account was consolidated, Wheldon argues that agencies should forgive. “As an international brand, Vodafone is not yet 10 years old. Like a child that breaks lots of china we make mistakes, but we are well-intended. We’ve done local, global, then glocal. We’ve done it all, and now we’ve started again.”
BEWARE MARKETING IMPERIALISM Wheldon has had plenty of hands-on experience of establishing a global brand. Vodafone was just a UK name when he joined the company, and now it is the UK’s most valuable brand. His
www.mandmglobal.com
key learning is that “slow is good”. “Ten years ago, giving a well thought-out presentation to the leadership would get the ball rolling. It won’t cut it now – you need workshops, you need to internalise, you need everyone to contribute. Road accidents are the result of forcing your way through,” he says. His biggest surprise has been the
reverse synergies that can be achieved in expansion. “It is easy to sneer and think you have nothing to learn from emerging markets. There is a great deal of marketing imperialism in the UK,” he adds, pointing to the potential of Brazil where companies achieve phenomenal creativity for very low cost. Another lesson he has learnt while establishing the Vodafone brand is that many people will not take things that work elsewhere into their own market, regardless of their success. “It’s a pride thing. People want control. Ego gets in the way.” And this is a barrier that can be applied throughout the industry. Collaboration is key. But Wheldon
believes that successful collaboration is best left to individual characters rather than to corporates. “If you find the right people, things gel immediately,” he explains. “Leave your corporate ego at
the door, work in a coordinated fashion, and you will flourish.”
IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT THE MONEY “Any business that is focused on making money rather than delivering long- term success for stakeholders is wrong. People confuse objectives such as the long-term health of the company with targets like making money,” Wheldon argues. “Recession has brought that more sharply into focus.” He argues that the mobile category
used to have more money than sense. Now the main players, Vodafone included, have typically dropped back from being top five to top 10 spenders. “One of the good side effects of the recession is to make marketers smarter with their money.” Last year, for example, Vodafone held back from the usual Christmas promos. Wheldon has always been one for
experimentation – Vodafone was the first brand into, and out of, Second Life. But he is also pragmatic that budgets for innovation get cut in tough times. He is passionate about marketing, but the general sense from his conversation is that industry players should quit moaning and just get on with it. ○
M&M Q2 2010 37
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