‘ I’ve got a fantastic team which has taken me a few years to build up. We’re particularly proud of Survival Billboard for Xbox, which was Europe’s most- awarded campaign of 2016’
together and it’s important to talk to people and understand the breadth of the business. I also appreciate people who come to me with solutions rather than problems.
What particular challenges does the finance function face at McCann? I’ve got a fantastic team which has taken me a few years to build up. When I arrived the team was very functional; but I’ve been able to create a team of proactive, interactive and commercially-minded people who understand the importance of fostering strong internal partnerships. The challenge for me now is finding the
right talent in the existing marketplace: people with strong interpersonal skills who can talk about finance without sounding like a finance person aren’t always easy to come by.
And how about the challenges in the wider advertising industry? As a member of IPA [Institute of
dofonline.co.uk
Practitioners in Advertising]’s finance business group and as treasurer of the Advertising Association I am lucky to be in a position to help tackle industry challenges alongside my peer group. The key challenge for the marketing
communications world is the gradual dilution of our offer – there are no longer the clear lines of delineation that existed 20 years ago between, for example, advertising agencies, PR agencies and even tech giants who are now creating their own content. While the growth of technology brings great opportunity, that overlap can be confusing for clients and our challenge is to prove that creativity gives us the edge. Creativity is at the very heart of the agency; it’s our way of life. But this presents our other major challenge: we sell ideas, but what value can you put on an idea? If a creative took three minutes to come up with a ground-breaking strategy that tripled the client’s share of market and grew their business, is that worth only three minutes of billable time? Our goal as an industry is
to become a true partner to our clients – and that means sharing both the risk and the reward. As Tom Lewis, finance director at the
IPA, said: “If effectiveness is all about creating value for our clients, agency business growth is about capturing a share of the value.” Others are endeavouring to achieve that, but we have 100 years’ experience on them.
How would you sum up McCann’s recent performance? We have excellent talent and strong client relationships – many of which span more than a quarter of a century. This is because we deliver work that has a tangible effect on our clients’ bottom line. And this is now being recognised through accolades in the wider industry: in 2016, we were named in the Gunn Report’s list of the Top 10 agencies in the world. And this year is proving fruitful too, with over 55 award wins under our belt so far. Long may it last... n
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DIRECTOR OF FINANCE 49
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