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'Agencies should think like consultancies': Colenso taps former Accenture exec to lead transformation

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By Shawn Lim, Reporter, Asia Pacific

May 15, 2018 | 6 min read

The former digital strategy lead for Accenture in the ASEAN region has left the consultancy world to return to the agency world to promote consultancy thinking within agencies.

rozells

Edwin Rozells spent the past three years in Singapore growing Accenture’s digital strategy capabilities. Photo: Facebook.

Edwin Rozells spent the past three years in Singapore growing Accenture’s digital strategy capabilities through thought leadership, service offering, training and recruitment of digital strategy resources around the region. This will not be the first time he has crossed the divide however, having previously worked for XM Asia Pacific and Ogilvy in similar roles.

Rozells will now join Colenso BBDO in New Zealand as its head of digital transformation, where he will work with the 180-strong team to develop new capabilities in customer experience, data and technology that will help Colenso to collaborate with its clients to uncover customer challenges and opportunities, capitalise on the masses of data available and deliver the best customer experiences in the world.

This new role was specifically created in line with the recent redesign of the agency’s model, focusing on creative collaboration, clients’ customers and new ways of working.

Speaking to The Drum from New Zealand, Rozells says having experience across both agencies and consultancies has been interesting for him, as consultancies are great at defining the people, process and technology gaps, designing a multi-year roadmap and building a business case for investment, while agencies are the choice for clients who are keen to execute work with speed and agility.

“They are usually seen as the choice for clients who are seeking a steer and influence at the board level. On the other hand, agencies are adept at uncovering customer needs and opportunities, imagining truly stand-out experiences and taking ownership of the work that goes out into the market,” he explains.

“I will help Colenso achieve digital transformation by working in partnership with the Executive Team to set the future-state direction for the agency and track our progress towards this vision. We recognize that there is a window of opportunity for agencies to evolve and are moving ahead of our industry, at speed.”

While the debate on whether brands are starting to choose consultancies over agencies is still ongoing, Rozells believes the ideal solution for clients is to have a hybrid of the two working with them as a trusted advisor, stressing that his job is to bring the consultancy thinking into Colenso in partnership with its creative teams so that the agency will have a seat at the table when the future-state vision of its clients is being discussed.

“At the end of the day, Colenso helps brands design and solve problems that enables them to fulfil their purpose. It is in our DNA to work upfront in the process with clients and I believe we can get closest to be the ideal end-to-end partner for the brands we work with,” he says.

As the major holding networks start to consolidate their agencies, in part due to consultancies encroaching in their territory, Rozells feels that consolidation is also driven by the realisation that agencies need to become more client-centric and easier to work with, aside from business practicalities and financials.

He also points out that clients are going through a consolidation themselves, where centralised or hybrid operating models are becoming the norm as key capabilities such as customer experience, data, innovation, content, marketing operations and social are being built within global and regional centres of excellence.

“In such an environment, clients would naturally gravitate towards partners that mirror their structure and who can provide highly skilled and experienced counterparts to support and challenge their internal capability leads. At the end of the day, clients care less about how their partners are organised and more about having access to experts at the right time,” explains Rozells.

“We have found a way for Spark NZ to access the best of the Clemenger Group (of which Colenso is part of) through innovative ways of working, inspirational leadership and shared measures of success. We will continue to do this for all our clients where needed and make the commitment to bring forward the best talent at our disposal to design and solve business problems as their partners.”

Aside from the threat from consultancies, Rozells notes that as agencies undergo digital transformation, they might struggle to be a credible partner, to attract and retain the right talent, to work with speed and quality and to deliver credible business outcomes to clients.

That is why Colenso has introduced a four-pronged approach of setting stretch goals, building from the bottom, aligning the organisation and building with key clients.

“Ambitious goals will create momentum behind a change and unite the agency under a common goal. At Colenso, we have the ambition of doubling revenue that comes from digital, data and customer experience over the next two years,” he explains. “There is no value in building a high-performing ‘new’ agency as a separate entity. Transformation within Colenso will be driven through all our teams – from account management, production, planning and creative – from the ground-up.

“Alignment of the vision is important, but it is more important to align the agency investments behind the transformation. To build our new capabilities, we have committed to hiring new skills, training our existing staff and investing in proprietary research. Trust in the face of issues around fraud and data protection are not an issue if you align your transformation plans with the goals of your key clients. At Colenso, we are transforming with our top clients, including Spark, BNZ and Fonterra as they embark on their own journeys in parallel.”

Anthony Gregorio, the newly installed chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi Australia previously told The Drum that heavy consolidation is on the cards for agencies in the post-Sorrell future but believes creative agencies’ strengths in building brands will keep them safe.

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