Westfield creates ‘bespoke’ agency setup using STW group assets
Batistich speaking at last year’s Mumbrella 360
Westfield is shifting all of its marketing agency functions into a new bespoke STW Communications offering, as it looks “free up resources from administration and put them into creative”, Mumbrella can reveal.
STW group agencies Moon Communications and Ikon Communications currently handle the shopping centre giant’s creative and media buying accounts, although the new entity will be housed and staffed separately to them.
John Batistich, director of marketing for the Scentre Group which owns Westfield, confirmed the move to Mumbrella this morning, saying the new offering “is designed only to work on our business and no other”.
Alex this is nothing new and a familiar STW practice. It started many years ago with CommBank, which lead on to Myer, Vodafone and NRMA. They called it a village model. It’s done for economies of scale, eliminating duplication and centralising back office functions. The idea that this model will improve thinking suggests the thinking wasn’t great to begin with, evidenced perhaps by the fact One Green Bean got its hands on a project. So faced with losing a significant piece of business and one that is strategically important for their shopper marketing credentials, STW have bastardised their brands and people and given the client a single apreasheet. Bandaid approved.
Just ask Myer how well this has worked in the past.
So they have created a full service agency with one client – that’ll be fun for the team – for about 6 months…
This so-called “bespoke” model was in place when I joined the advertising department of Grace Bros years ago. The beauty of this model for retail operators, as Westfield and Harvey well know, is the retailer, not an agency, makes and owns all the decisions, especially what’s in the ads.
Retail is soley about retailers doing ads that sell stuff. If that has changed in the past 50 years please tell me what the new paradigm is, I’m very interested.
In my mind this makes perfect sense. Having worked agency side I know only too well that staffers run around in an disorganised state flitting from one client campaign to the next with little or no concentration. And when the client demands they’re treated with the upmost distain.
Smart move Westfield.
“And when the client demands ” that pretty much says it all really, doesn’t it.
Clients “demanding” is surely not the ideal path to a great partnership.
No wonder everybody runs around in disarray.
Maybe clients planning,requesting communicating and working together with their agency, no matter what the model, is a better way forward.