Vodafone: What agency would want to work with Australia’s most toxic client?

Well said. Nice to see Mumbrella taking it to poorly behaving clients, not just agencies…

Sadly there is always some desperate and deluded agency who thinks they can handle it. It is a useful signal to potential clients : if an agency touches it don’t touch them.

I agree with @Jon. Nice to see some journalism that is focused on those that are not doing the right thing in our industry, as opposed to slagging the good guys (as was the trend in the old days). Mumbrella really has picked up it’s game I think.

It is sad to me to see an agency invest so heavily in setting up an office just for this client and then be shafted like this, on more than one occasion.

I certainly think that relationships with agencies can be coached to be improved collaboratively, without having to re-pitch all the time. What a cost to everyone, including the brand – especially to the brand.

Seems straight forward to me… consolidate your operations and communications in house (between sales and marketing), determine a strategy for the brand and products (including responsive and defensive retail strategies), get all the suppliers on board to execute, stick to the plan.

Perhaps it all drills down to leadership? In all my time as a business coach for our industry when I’m called in to ‘fix the business’ it is nearly always management and leadership that need the work. It all comes from the top, down.

Time for business leaders to question their approach, rather than their agency. It may be an agency model isn’t right also.

Hope others learn from this too. Problems with the agencies are really just the symptom.

Well done on calling Vodafone out on their behaviour, as an agency person, their name makes my heart sink.

The track record of dumping agencies is longer than you reference if you review the multiple agencies 3 worked with from its launch in Australia through DDB, who it dumped after two years, and then the procession of agencies that followed. 3 obviously merged with Vodafone in 2009, with the management of 3 running the new entity. I believe it’s 3’s culture and operational ethos that has defined the way the company has treated its agency partners since.

The most disprespectful client to work for.

@James

I worked with Voda long before the 3 merger. Over a 3 year period they had 5 creative agencies. One time someone at Voda asked me to recommend a PR agency. I told them that I honestly couldn’t think of anyone they hadn’t burned already. So this is something that’s been going on since they came into the market and seems to transcend whoever is leading things at any given moment. It’s something embedded into their culture and how they work with suppliers which yes, was chaotic and lacking any long-term vision. Being terrible is the only thing they’re consistent at.

The short lived stint with ‘Brain Surgery’. 1 x $1 million dollar ad later…

The courage to sack a client is the one true test of an agency’s culture and integrity.

Kudos for refusing to repitch a client that treats agencies so badly.
I worked at an agency that pitched for this client – and even from the very start of the pitch the staff were told that they were pitching despite the reputation of the client… and partly because they were promised improvements in how they work with agencies.

Clearly that hasn’t yet materialised. Which is sad, because versus Telstra and Optus there is a huge opportunity for the brand – if it could just start working like a decent company instead of a continuous clusterfuck of calamities.

Vodafone have their name on everything and anything to the point their brand doesn’t mean anything …

Don’t worry, there’ll be no lack of competition for the business, nomatter the past form. it’s all about the money, honey.

So clearly can’t work with their customers or their agencies. Good job Vodafone.

Vodafone just need to remember the venerated prophet Buddha’s words:

“Try not to be a c * * t”

Based on this article, it seems almost irresponsible for an agency head to take on Vodafone given its proven culture-killing prowess.

I prefer Bill Bernbach’s approach:

Life is too short to spend it working with bastards.

I can’t speak of the current team, but I’ve worked with the VF team at a point in time and been involved in one of the transitions the article refers to.

It was an incredibly toxic culture. We lost some good people along the way as their self respect and sanity was worth much more than working through the daily berating and shrieking down the phone.

A few years down the track… a little older and wiser… I would urge my agency to avoid responding to VF briefs – it’s simply not worth the bodycount.

Vodafail is bad, but its not the only one in the industry. If there was a vote for worst clients (now there’s idea), Optopus and Hellstra would be high on the list. Highly competitive, ever changing CMOs, plenty of cash – a recipe for destructive, disrespectful behaviour

Vodafone’s issue is that they focus on exclusive offers and require speed to market to compete with the other telcos. This is pressure that the product managers push onto their marketing managers who in turn push the agency to breaking limits. Instead of partnering with a production house, they partner with big creative agenicies and burn them out with insane deliverables and time frames.

Vodafone – get a production house to do most of your work. If you get an agency, leave them to the TV and photography.

And let’s not forget Voda and Lowe Hunt’s falling out, with a rescue from then sister agency Draft Worldwide and their successful “Go there” campaign…

they get overcharged coz they do
they fail to say one thing well
they don’t get their target audience

that said, I’d go there again but I’d want Russell H beside me

I thought media agencies were there to help clients solve problems. It seems some here are more interested in scoring points for themselves or others to review how clever they are.

The last few years have been difficult for Vodafone as a result of poor network / infrastructure planning and investment combined with the rapid take off of smart phone data usage.

In essence too many customers, not enough capacity combined with a price position which meant its difficult to charge what’s required to invest in network.

Telco marketing is immensely difficult as you look for a balance between product (network, handsets, bundled value) and price (revenue, profit etc), non-linear capex investment etc. Trying to grow or maintain ARPU while hitting GA / churn numbers, responding to competitive pressures and then finally developing a brand / call to action plan that you can leverage through your disparate sales channels.

How many “marketers” from media agencies truly understand the challenge of telco? How many are truly looking to help their customer solve problems?

Since we’re into predictions, here’s mine. Vodafone will find a new lead creative agency. I don’t know any agency MD / CEO who could report back to Europe / North America that they didn’t pitch for work because the client is too hard to deal with (sic).

You seem salty, how is working at Vodafone working out for you?

You are kidding yourself if you think a media agency is going to have the intimate knowledge around telco challenges that you speak of.

“Trying to grow or maintain ARPU while hitting GA / churn numbers”

Geez, you have some 20 yr old agency kid building your plan, he/she doesn’t care about your ARPU.

You said it best yourself, the last few years have been a disaster for Vodafone. I jumped ship and couldn’t be happier, I’ll never return as the bridge has been burnt.

A disaster for agencies, a disaster for the consumers of Australia.

Of course they’ll find an agency, but they’ve alienated themselves from many of those with the best talent. They’ve also likely ensured that any agency willing to take that gamble would be hard on negotiations to ensure they don’t get decimated when the inevitable happens.

Of course telco business is hard, but ALL business is hard. Agencies are there and (mostly) willing to work hard and late hours to help their business – they just have to let the agencies do their job properly and not treat them like dicks.

Agree with the logic above of using an agency for big work and using a production house for quick materials.

I think the only agency to have a long term relationship with Vodafone was JWT and RMG Connect – 4 years

There are plenty of fast, responsive retail clients out there that get this right. In my experience banks are one of the fastest retail businesses, despite what they seem. Political campaigns and Electoral Commission, too. They don’t all act like this. Some of them get it right and do it well. I’ve worked on massive volume based executions on many large retail businesses, at one time the most in Australia by a single agency, and I can’t say any of them behaved like this. We put in place some great work that allowed for responsive activity, and remained on strategy. It is do-able.

A production solution is important, but it needs to be strategic or it is hit and miss, even exacerbates the problem in my experience. Going direct to a production company equally has flaws.

It may be time for a new model here.

Good call @I wonder
It is a repairable situation for the brand.

Given Ben did 17yrs at Harveys, would not be surprised to see the volume-based, work-a-day retail marketing be carved out to some form of dedicated in-house production solution a la GP.

I predict, Core, will win this piece of business.

Since when was GP a production house? That being said I wouldn’t be surprised if it does end up there as they are part of WPP now. GL to them.

Vodafone + Ogilvy has done some tremendous work in India including some of the best campaigns that global advertising has seen (Network and Zoo Zoo’s). I then wonder why their marketing leadership team is not able to work cohesively in a market like Australia which is relatively less diverse (language and culture per se) compared to Indian market which requires national a campaign to be as diverse as 20+ different cultures and a minimum of 8 mainstream languages. It seems the agencies here are fair to say what they’re saying here however; Vodafone team seems to have missed and continue to miss a huge marketing opportunity if at all they can work together with an agency full of talents that can truly bring a huge turn-around for any brand. As for the work volumes, now-a-days, every sizeable company requires midnight oils burning. Just a bit of human touch to this working style can really do wonders.

Worst clients in Australia?

1/ Lion
2/ Vodafone
3/ Tobacco

Ahh the silent Monk ad.

You sir / madam, are clueless. Either a Voda marketer, or another terrible client.

If the telco space is so unique – which I’d suggest banking, insurance, QSR and retail are all equally nuanced and complex – how would changing agencies every year help resolve this? Or treating agency staff like shit and having them leave?

Look at it this way, if I got married and divorced five times in six years, it would be a certain sign I’m a massive arsehole. Equally, Voda is an evil, arrogant basket case.

Couldn’t be further from reality. Vodafone group cleaned out the remaining 3 executives when it installed Bill Morrow as CEO back in 2012 and since then the company has being running under instruction from Vodafone group. The irony is that if Vodafone group had stuck with the 3 network and the 3 culture the subsequent network disaster of the Vodafone network never would have occurred which would then have meant a very different marketing approach.

Dear I Wonder,

I think you’re right that it is hard to report to overseas HQs that an agency won’t pitch for a client that’s ‘hard to deal with’.

But the behaviour of Voda reported is far beyond that.

Agencies are getting better and better at recognising the indirect costs that come from staff churn and dissatisfaction. I think there’s evidence enough to support a no-pitch decision on Voda that HQ would support.

As for the criticism of the media agency, well all I can say about them not understanding your problem is that you’ve not invested the time to share it. Every media agency I’ve worked with is very keen to understand the problem, and maybe it’s to show how smart they are, but that’s another problem altogether.

Worst client I’ve ever worked for…… ever.

We got in touch with Vodafone, only because the same agencies mentioned above are equally notorious in their own ways. Just because an agency’s work is high profile, highly awarded and you senior management are great at PR-spin, doesn’t mean you’re not an operational shit show with wide ranging talent issues too. Too many agencies sow their own discomfort by staffing the account with junior AMs and creatives that treat retail work as funding for award fodder.

To works both ways

You’re an idiot.

When an agency decides to take on Vodafone staff, build a bespoke offering for the client and put everything on the relationship being successful…i think your points are arrant nonsense. Dont guvebthis client the benefit of the doubt…too many agencies have suffered at their hands

in my time in the industry, the only client that would be in the argument with Vodafone would be Westfield.

plenty of other difficult clients in challenging categories, but neither with such a widespread history of toxicity, bullying, disorganisation and promiscuity

I’ve worked on both. Vodafone were worse.

Agree

“…a continuous clusterfuck of calamities.” < Best.

@ Works both ways : You got in touch with Vodaphone? If the worst client in the country doesn’t want to work with you what does that say about you?

I am so glad this article was written. Having always worked publisher side, I haven’t been directly subjected to the mess that is Vodafone, until last year.

We watched them rip shreds off Bohemia, have unrealistic demands and be so disorganised and unaware of the media landscape. I felt so sorry for the media agency – we were made to work directly with Vodafone and bypass the agency.

It makes it hard for people agency/publisher side to create/implement great campaigns when the people on the approval end 1. have no idea how media works 2. lack basic respect for other people.

To the creative/media agencies they have pulled down with them – I high five you for hanging in there.

What a crock @Mitch … When 3 Merged with Vodafone, which was almost a reverse takeover, the then 3 execs ran a gourmet restaurant like a local fish n chip shop and ran both the network & the brand into the ground. It has sadly never fully recovered from the bad taste/experience it left in the mouth’s of users, due to the ignorance of those in charge at the time … My comments are specific to brand damage & network failures, not marketing specific, but you can put lipstick on a bulldog & it’s still a bulldog, so marketing (& agencies by extension) are then in the unenviable position of trying to repair damage created by the poor management of other key areas, departments & management of the business

I agree! They tried to partner with agencies pre-2009, then it went downhill. The fact that it’s a global brand but the business in Australia is only 50% owned by Vodafone Group further adds to them being confused about who they are as a brand, which is reflected in the advertising.

The only telco’s that have had any moments of good advertising and the most days of positive agency relationships are O2 in UK, Voda in Germany, AT&T in US, and Vimpelcom in Russia. Everyone tries to copy them as quickly as they can, with no success. By and large, telco’s hire process flunkies and money-chasing agencies. It’s up to you to deliver on the brief.

Vodafone’s business across marketing and everything else in there is just beyond horrendous. Would tell every person, every agency and anything that comes in close contact with them to BACK AWAY! Wouldn’t do any type of business with them EVER. Worst Telco by far!