If there was ever such a thing as a typical media man, Jeffrey
Merrihue isn’t it. He may have the
wouldn’t-want-to-meet-him-up-a-dark-alley looks of the media bruiser but
don’t be fooled.
Sure, when he pitched up as chief executive of Initiative Media last
month, media luddites scoffed. What does the man know about media? He’s
a client for God’s sake. Doesn’t belong in an agency. Worse still, he’s
American - and what the Yanks know about media ain’t worth knowing,
right?
Wrong. Merrihue has more than a few media credentials tucked up his
sleeves.
Or he would, if he hadn’t already rolled them up, flexed his muscles and
banged his fists on the negotiation table with the frightening prospect
of a single Interpublic Group media buying operation. The idea is to
pool the media negotiation muscle for IPG’s media brands - Initiative,
Western and Universal - into a single pot that would represent the UK’s
biggest media player.
We’re not talking merger, although Western and Initiative are already
joined at the hip. This is about maximising size, and with two handsome
brands and one ailing runt (that’s Western for those of you who haven’t
been reading about the Vauxhall review), IPG could be on to
something.
’IPG has a clear view of what needs to be done,’ Merrihue explains
’We’ll maintain separate brands but lever IPG’s size. We’re planning the
holy grail of media - the ultimate in service exclusivity in what will
be the biggest negotiation point in the UK.’
Under the new model the three brands will remain but will work much more
closely together across Europe and, ultimately, around the world to
combine administrative and negotiating power. They already share poster
buying in Germany, for example, and broader media buying in Eastern
Europe, but a formal plan is now in place to expand the strategy.
’Combined agencies in other markets have leveraged clout and synergies
and we can learn from that in new territories,’ Merrihue says.
It will need careful handling, of course. In a market where client
conflict is still a major concern, how comfortable will advertisers feel
sharing crack negotiation skills with their competitors? Merrihue is
very clear that the client is king and nothing will be pushed through
without the clients being on board. ’We will do it, but it will only
occur when and because our clients urge us to go ahead.’ Not all of the
requisite conditions exist in the UK right now, but agreement has been
reached in principle.
In the UK, though, this would mean persuading Unilever - one of the
biggest advertisers - to share the advantages of its volume with other
advertisers.
Surely the big clients have little to gain and much competitive
advantage to share. ’We wouldn’t even consider doing this without making
sure Unilever is comfortable with it. But we believe there are
significant and tangible benefits for Unilever. We’ve done our homework
and because they’re the largest client they will proportionately benefit
the most.’ It’s a question of demonstrating the benefits, ’like Jerry
Maguire, it’s ’show me the money’,’ Merrihue adds.
In actioning all this, Merrihue brings with him his experience of
launching the dedicated Kellogg’s European media operation through J.
Walter Thompson last year, which operates as a separate unit but adds
its media volume to MindShare deals. As a key client, Merrihue has also
lived through the birth of MindShare and you can bet he won’t be able to
forget all the insight he gleaned from the combining of the JWT and
Ogilvy & Mather media brands.
But for all his enthusiasm for greater co-operation between IPG’s media
companies, Merrihue’s main task is to drive Initiative Media in Europe,
taking it ever up-stream and into the heartland of the client’s
communication needs.
Many clients may still be more interested in price and discount than
strategic communications solutions but Merrihue believes if you don’t
deliver on the former, you don’t even have the right to get into the
latter.
It’s a model the UK office has been working on for some time and one
Merrihue has embraced from both sides of the client/agency fence. So it
comes without the superficial fluff that some media agencies succumb
to.
As Merrihue himself says: ’At the end of the day there are two types of
company, those that win and keep happy clients and those that
don’t.’
THE MERRIHUE FILE
1986 Nabisco Equador, marketing manager
1988 Nabisco Venezuela, director of marketing
1992 Nabisco/Del Monte Europe, marketing manager
1993 Kellogg Colombia, marketing manager
1995 Kellogg Mexico, director of marketing and sales
1997 Kellogg Europe, market development manager
1998 Initiative Media, UK chief executive and European regional director
