Agencies have to step up as industry organisations work hard to remain relevant

The 4As may be best known for its award shows and events, but Angus Fraser, MD of JWT Singapore and also a member of the local 4As executive committee, notes that the association does a whole lot more, including lobbying for fairer systems for agencies with media owners or working with government bodies to help retrenched staff during the recession.

While industry bodies have acted well as bridges to external organisations, one of the more contentious issues continues to be how they can help agencies make a stand on fees and remuneration, while achieving cohesion among agencies on this.“It’s probably too much to ask of industry bodies to be the unifying factor,” says Maggie Choi, CEO of OMD Asia-Pacific. “Pitch fees or a fee system are all highly sensitive subjects for agencies to agree on, especially in the face of competition and time.”

Malaysia’s Media Specialists Association (MSA) has rolled out an agency fee guideline, but MSA president and MediaCom MD Tan Siang Lin hopes more discussions can get underway for its adoption and promotion, so as to “raise the bar of our industry in terms of the remuneration model versus the work delivered”.

But guidelines alone are the first step. Agencies have their own responsibility in this regard and need to stick together better for the good of the whole. “It’s all well and good agreeing to remuneration guidelines and policies on ‘bad paying’ clients but if one agency breaks ranks, it undermines the whole concept,” says Paul Corrigan, GroupM Malaysia CEO.

A more productive area in which industry bodies can help is attracting and nurturing talent. David Mayo, president of Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, Asia-Pacific, says that for an industry that has great people in creative and planning departments, talent in account servicing is underwhelming.

In the PR sector, Allison Lim, MD of Burson-Marsteller Singapore says that industry bodies like the Institute of Public Relations of Singapore need to develop better accreditation for talent to meet the acute shortage. Lim notes that it is not fruitful to hire graduates with good results on paper, as not all of them possess the proper training and credentials to become good practitioners.

No matter what role they adopt, however, the continuing weakness of industry bodies in the region is that they tend to be hamstrung by a simple lack of participation from agencies.

“The 4As can only do so much without more support from the industry,” says Fraser. “It is staffed by volunteers and a small secretariat. The more agencies get actively involved, the better it will be.”

Choi agrees: “Most people start off enthusiastically and fade away, leaving the mid-level to junior people to take things on and nothing gets done. Senior people need to get involve and they’re often stretched and starved for time.”

Industry bodies could do worse than to follow the example of a body like the IAB, which has all the makings of a committed and body so far. Most of the individuals inside are pooled from a variety of sources to work on a common goal, which is to see digital marketing take off.

“It takes two hands to clap,” says Paul Soon, regional director at XM-Asia. “While the associations are actively reaching out to more and more agencies and clients, the industry is not as eager to share and contribute.”

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This article was originally published in the 25 February 2010 issue of Media.