The B of the B's

Had great fun yesterday, even though I was a tad nervous at the beginning.  I had 'volunteered' to be involved in 'The Battle of the Buyers' an event that our trade magazine - Supply Management was running.  Yes you guessed it - it was the Buying exercise that you see on The Apprentice with Sir Alan (superbly replicated by Dr Dick Russill yesterday).

We were split into 2 team, given £150 and had a list of items to get to pull together for a Hamper to be launched for Charity.  Some of the items were a VHS video of a Tom Cruise video (we were on the phone at one point to the kind old ladies of Age Concern whilst they routed through their VHS collection); 2kg of Saffron (a well known Supermarket may still have 10 bags for us on hold) and a Kazoo (yes what is it).

But it was a great exercise in teamwork (there were 6 on each team - 2 teams); planning (the key to many a  good negotiation); research; sourcing and negotiation (seeing if we can get the items for free or at a discount).  Both teams had very different approaches - as the Judges said one was a Hare and the other a Tortoise. 

Read the 5th August edition of Supply Management to see who won, and thank you to my contacts and friends that helped.

ANA survey

Ad Age have published an article this week about a study that the ANA has conducted in the US re agencies view of Procurement. The headline being that unfortunately agencies are still sceptical about the role and the value that Procurement can play in their relationship with their client organisations.  Here is a link to the article - Ad Age Survey.

What do you think ?  Have perhaps the relationship in the UK market got better ? Do more than 14% of us know the marketing category ? All comments welcome.

Positive PR

There is a good article published this month in the US issue of PR Week. It says that PR companies must accept the role of procurement and learn to work with them. One fantastic quote is "Perhaps procurement's growing involvement in PR is the impetus the industry needs to up its game in this area".  Excellent - hope to see more of this articles this year.  Here is the link to it - thanks US PR Week - US PR Week article

Top tips and another Conference..

I mentioned in a recent posting a seminar that I gave for Upfront Business Development.  They asked me to build on the Top Tips section that I presented.  They have put it up on their website so of you want to see my view on the top tips on dealing with procurement; how to respond to a tender and how to negotiate - just click here - Upfront Seminar.

The IPA have their annual Finance Conference on the 8th July.  I used to go when I was agency side and it is always really interesting and good to catch up with mainly agency folks.  You can go if you are an IPA member or a guest of an IPA member.  Here is the link to it - IPA Finance Conference 2010

Today's updates

Iris have had to move their procurement breakfast from Thursday 17th June to Thursday 22nd July. Contact details if you are interested as per my blog entry of last week.

I think my presentation to agencies this afternoon went well.  It was about how to understand procurement and how to work more effectively from both sides to order to achieve what we all want from it - great results at a fair commercial arrangement.  I like presenting to agencies as a few of them tend to have had (in their view) a negative experience of dealing with procurement and by the end of the talk, hopefully I have given them some insight that can help them build up the relationship with procurement in the future.

But sorry Procurement readers it is my fault if you get cheaper biscuits from your agencies now, I have said we look at things like that !!

Media Auditing guide

Bit of a blogtastic week I have had - hope that you have found all  or at least some of the postings of interest.

The WFA have just published a really good guide that helps you when looking at selecting a media auditing company.  I think that they are essential in any media pitch and also vital in helping the ongoing relationship of the client and the media agency.  They have to be careful of the line that they tread.  I have seen recently a relationship that appears too cosy with the agency and that rings alarm bells for me.  But if they are well managed and have clear objectives and a reporting structure, they more than earn their fee.

You can access the document via the WFA website - click here - Media Audit paper

A talk

I am running an early evening seminar next week for Upfront Business Development.  It is aimed at agencies and is called ‘How to make your agency more attractive to Procurement’ (and no it won't just be a slide with a picture of money on !! that is at least on slide 15!). 

Here is a link to it - Upfront Seminar.  I think that numbers are getting a bit tight now but there is a waiting list if any agency folk would like to attend.

When is a bribe not a bribe?

Pretty sure that the headline caught your attention !.

There is an article in this months 'The Marketer' entitled 'Marketing or bribery'. 

This autumn, there is potentially a new Bribery Act expected to come into force, replacing existing bribery legislation. As the article says "what constitutes “bribery”, and how could this new legislation affect marketers and advertisers?"

It says that potentially three areas need to aware of this - Corporate Hospitality; B2B Incentives and Rebates and Volume discounts.  The latter being especially applicable to media agencies.  We all know what a soft market it was last year with TV deflation at around 20% in the UK, and agencies are saying that many agencies have over promised and will under deliver on the savings promised to clients. So the article says that we as clients could start to add “good faith” and “impartiality” language into contracts and agencies may want to review their current supplier commercial arrangements. 
Could be interesting to watch if the Act gets passed.

Another event....

This time it is a CIPS Branch event for the Thames Valley area (go on - they are worth a try).  Sarah from Tickling the Trout is going to be covering the relationship triangle between marketing, procurement and agencies. I may be assisting her in a panel discussion.  Here is a link to it - it is on the 17th June - CIPS Branch event

Iris Procurement Breakfast

Iris are holding their 4th (free to attend) procurement breakfast on Thursday 17th June at 8.30am.  The topic this time is Sustainable/Green procurement with the main speaker being Simon Brown who worked with M&S to develop their Plan A programme. It is always a really good debate and with a good turnout of procurement folk and other interested suppliers.

Contact Nicola Osmond at Iris (Relationship Marketing Manager) if you would like to attend -  phone number is  +44 (0) 20 7654 7343.