Capitalizing on his seasoned experience in both the interactive and direct marketing arenas and his strength in cultivating successful partnerships with clients, Fred Rubin oversees the interactive and direct divisions of Deutsch Inc. to provide clients such as Revlon, Monster, Novartis and Coors with seamlessly integrated programs and comprehensive business solutions. He joined Deutsch in 2000 with over 25 years of interactive, direct marketing, general advertising and consulting experience.
iMediaConnection: iDeutsch was named "2002 Interactive Agency of the Year" by AdWeek. Is it still a leader and if so, why?
Rubin: My goal is to switch off every year with RGA, just kidding. Part of our success is that we own the integrated formula. When I first got here, we had a decent group of interactive clients, but we couldn't just look to be the best interactive resource. We also had to compete with stand-alone services and meet that standard of identity. The award had proven we were better than anyone else as a pure play interactive shop. I'd like to tell you that we're coming up with a magical formula, but mostly now we're just trying to find new and different ways to solve clients' problems and at the same time keep our skill set at or beyond the state of the art.
We are leaders on the metrics side. The good and bad news about online advertising is that it's measurable. Just because I can see that interaction, I still have to determine the relationship between a click and a TV ad campaign, as well as the advertising value of the ad for the people who didn't click. Every marketer in a sense looks at his business the way direct marketers do -- we want to put money in things that work across all communication channels. Everybody in media wants to know how to twist the media dial to make marketing most efficient. Our customer and data strategy group looks for offline/online correlation and ways to tweak cross media effects so that we can be more efficient at how we allocate money.
iMediaConnection: Clients praise Deutsch for consistently presenting integrated plans and pitches. How do you make this work internally?
Rubin: First, we put our money where our mouth is. We have one profit center at our agency. I've been through the "school of hard knocks" at general agencies and understand how things don't work. What does work is taking money out of the equation so that you're able to work on the "people" aspect of the process.
Second, we have seven years of working on this type of process and are evolving it for more and more with integrated thinking. We come up with a business objective first. Unlike most agencies, Deutsch never put media in the back of the bus. We structurally change as needs arise on different businesses. In terms of new business, the same group of managing partners representing all the disciplines of the agency always shows up at the first meeting regardless of what the client asks us for. This consistent "people" approach combined with a lack of financial walls gives us the ability to come up with a client solution.
iMediaConnection: What is the optimal compensation structure between clients and agencies?
Rubin: Compensation is a huge issue across the entire communication industry. Agencies are trying to use the leverage they have to negotiate. There is no account that we can "coast on" anymore. Clients should get the best of our thinking all the time because there are other agencies out there that are willing to work more cheaply. This is just a business reality. Agencies are getting involved with procurement, but business-boosting ideas can't be priced like widgets or raw materials and they aren't fungible. I'm not sure how agencies can solve this problem and there are few agencies that are in the financial position right now to solve it.
iMediaConnection: Where do you see the Web fitting within the overall marketing plan?
Rubin: Interactive media is not a separate group from our media department. When we put our plans together, interactive is just another tool in the arsenal. Online advertising is an essential part of the mix. It offers the best of both worlds: You can leave an advertising impression but you also give people the root to more information instantaneously. As we try to develop more conversions, the online advertising model becomes the model for advertising in the future.
Interactive is a business that has been driven by a lot of hype and it has lived and died on "silver bullet" theories. Today we're starting to see more natural growth. I remember the database marketing frenzy in the 1980s when marketers scurried to get a database without having a real reason for one. When the smoke cleared, only those companies who should have been using it were doing so and were becoming more sophisticated about it. This is the same effect happening to online advertising. We've had the dip, which was the reaction to the boom, and now we've come to understand that online is not just a click-through or transactional medium but rather an advertising medium.
The problem with advertisers is that everyone uses the Web, so not all ads are high quality. Some even look like late night television. Recently, online creativity has improved. Publishers are hungry and willing to experiment. Our own creativity or lack of imagination is the only limit to what we can do. The power is in the hands of agencies to define how this medium works and this translates into better business results for the entire industry. As barriers are breaking down, now is a great time for people who are inventive.
