Can agencies survive clients' global expansion?(Brief Article)

Jeremy White investigates Boots' decision to pool its global marketing into WPP

You have to feel for OMD UK, McCann-Erickson and Grey Advertising after losing 80 million [pounds sterling] of billings from Boots. Why? In all intents and purposes, they were doing a grand job, fulfilling the briefs, getting results, building trust. After all, what more could an agency be expected to do than ensure that their clients are happy? Apparently, hope that those clients' bosses aren't considering the benefits of consolidation.

Last week, Boots, the UK and Ireland's leading health and beauty retailer with 1,400 outlets, announced that it was pooling its entire global marketing function into WPP. The reasons were blindingly simple: to have a unified approach to branding and ... to save money.

The company has its sights set on global expansion and, building on its joint venture in Japan with Mitsubishi in 1998, Boots has continued its advance into Asia with the opening of stores in Thailand and Taiwan. Korea is the next target. Last week, it acquired the Clearasil brand and the next move will be to connect with international consumers through different channels such as Boots products available via other retailers in Holland.

Alastair Eperon, the director of group corporate affairs at Boots, explains further: "In order to ensure consistency in the delivery of this expansion, we obviously need to have a totally integrated and seamless marketing function across the range of activities, and on a global basis. That calls for a unified agency approach."

As a result, Steve Russell, the chief executive of The Boots Company, contacted WPP's head, Martin Sorrell, with the proposal.

J. Walter Thompson has been handling Boots the Chemist's creative work in the UK since 1994 and it was felt by the board that it had a good understanding of the Boots brand. No surprise, then, when it was decided that JWT was the logical choice to take this understanding of the brand global.