Fantasy marketing league

Ultimately, it is the marketing team’s manager, better known as the marketing director, who is to blame for any marketing misfires, because he or she has patently failed to put together the right combination of marketing agencies to make the campaign successful.

So, as 2004 gets underway, The Drum has decided to let readers step bravely into the shoes of a marketing director as we launch The Drum Fantasy Marketing League, which will allow you to pick your dream roster of marketing agencies and watch how they perform this season.

To take part in the Fantasy Marketing League, readers must choose the roster of marketing agencies from five predetermined lists, covering advertising, media, design, new media, PR, direct marketing and sales promotion agencies, which will over the course of the coming ten months perform the best when it comes to winning new business, expanding staff numbers, bringing in new skills and expertise and diversifying its offer to clients. Basically, you want to select the agencies that you think will perform the best this year in these areas.

Over the course of 2004, The Drum’s editorial team will track each of the listed agencies’ progress on a fortnightly basis and keep a running score on which member of Scotland’s marketing fraternity has put together the best roster of marketing agencies, based on the points accumulated from the criteria listed.

The eventual winner will pick up the gleaming Fantasy Marketing League trophy before a 500-strong audience of their peers when they are invited on stage at the Scottish Advertising Awards 2004 on 22 October, the biggest night of the Scottish advertising calendar.

How to Play

To register to take part in the Fantasy Marketing League, all you have to do is visit www.thedrum.com and select the five marketing services agencies that you want to make up your Fantasy Marketing Roster.

Once you have chosen your five agencies, from the drop-down menus submit your registration and then sit back and, as the year’s marketing events and industry stories unfold, watch your points tally rise or fall, depending on how successful in the business arena your chosen agencies perform.

Each issue The Drum’s editorial team will decipher how many points your combination of marketing services agencies has earned during the previous fortnight and a leader board will be published in each issue of the Drum.

Every quarter we will publish a full update and look at some of the major stories that have earned participants big points.

The Fantasy Marketing League points system

Points will be awarded and deducted from each marketing agency on a weekly basis by The Drum’s editorial team, based on articles published in the magazine and other relevant information supplied to us prior to publication of the fortnightly magazine.

All marketing services agencies and participants will start the Fantasy Marketing League with zero points and points will subsequently be added and taken away depending on performance across a number of business criteria.

Points will be awarded to a participant’s points total as follows:

ï 5 points will be awarded to your team if one of your

agencies launch a subsidiary company or new division

ï 5 points will be awarded to your team if one of your

agencies is appointed to the Scottish Executive’s roster

ï 5 points added for a client win worth in excess of £1m

ï 3 points added for a new client win under £1m

ï 3 points added for a director-level appointment

ï 2 points added for a senior staff appointment

ï 2 points added for every creative award won between 16 January 2004 and 8 October 2004.

Points will be deducted from your team’s points total as follows:

ï All points will be deducted from your team if one of your

agencies goes out of business

ï 3 points will be deducted from your team if one of your agencies loses a major client

ï 3 points will be lost if an agency makes more than five redundancies

ï 3 points will be lost for a breakaway

ï 3 points will be lost for the loss of a director

ï 2 points will be lost for the loss of a senior member of staff

Variables will include:

ï If any agency is acquired, sold or merged with another then an editorial decision will be taken on the points to be awarded or deducted, based on whether it is a positive or negative move for the staff involved and the Scottish marketing industry as a whole.

ï If any agency wins a major piece of international business then an editorial decision will be taken on how many points will be awarded, based on how it will positively affect the agency and the Scottish marketing scene as a whole with regard to new jobs, budget implications etc.

How to choose your agencies

All those wishing to take part in the Fantasy Marketing League must choose one marketing services agency from each of the five pots, which are printed below.

When registering please note:

ï You can only choose one agency from each pot

ï You cannot have two agencies that specialise in the same area, e.g. if you choose an advertising agency from Pot 1 you cannot choose another ad agency from any other pot

ï You cannot choose the agency you work at to be part of your roster

ï Only one team can be registered per person

ï The closing date for you to register your teams is 12 noon, Monday 26 January, 2004

ï Points will start to be accumulated from Monday 2 February 2004 until Friday 8 October 2004

ï All points decisions, whether positive or negative, made by the editorial team are final and are not open to interpretation