Worldwide Partners Chooses “Prudence Over Panic” – Interview with CEO John Harris

Winmo CEO Dave Currie talked with John Harris, President and CEO of Worldwide Partners, an independent agency network with agencies across 40 countries, about the ways in which they are adapting amidst the global pandemic. Harris says that the general theme that has emerged is “prudence over panic.”

“I think that everybody is realizing that a crisis represents an opportunity for transformation and so you’re seeing agencies take, in some cases, some dramatic steps that we’ll talk a little bit about. Some are realizing there are small steps that they can take to enhance their overall proposition to their clients and to businesses. But everybody’s acting.”

He discussed the industries he’s seen impacted most, the opportunities emerging, and how agencies can pivot to adjust to a socially distanced world.

Who’s impacted most? Where are the challenges and opportunities?

“Everyone has been impacted to some extent. Not surprisingly, travel and tourism is probably taking the biggest hit. Retail and restaurants are obviously navigating a really challenging environment but at the same time, financial services are doing very well. Business to business software and tech seems to be doing extremely well. Healthcare, obviously.”

Who’s poised to win new business?

“I think that the agencies who are identifying what’s a position of strength that they have that they can lean off of and going into other categories. For example, anybody who has experience with multi-unit retail, whether that’s franchise space, whether that’s restaurants, anybody who has that experience can offer the council for those brands who are now having to really amplify and optimize their online presence.”

What should agencies do with this “downtime?”

“One of the councils that I’ve given agencies is lean into your existing clients pretty aggressively. It’s a tremendous opportunity to work with those clients who have in house teams to refine processes, to help them because one of the challenges for the in house groups is that they’re isolated and working within their own confines. As an agency, we have the opportunity to bring fresh thinking from other categories in how they’re responding to this. I think one thing is don’t see this as downtime.”

Have the difficult discussions.

“I think we have the opportunity and the permission and, quite honestly, the obligation to our employees and to our businesses to be having those conversations with the clients. Don’t be afraid to have the conversations. We’ve seen some agencies who are actually offering clients some incentives to prepay fees. Many of them are now, who weren’t already, asking for at least 50% of production costs on media buys upfront. That’s dependent on the client and the client history and the category that they’re competing with.”

How is the pitch process changing?

“The process is expedited. The rules aren’t as rigid. We don’t have to do a five-minute cultural video. We’re doing a living, breathing cultural video of what our agency is like. You’re seeing a more efficient process, a high level of collaboration that’s going on, and no waste of time. It’s like, ‘Let’s get to the point. I guess what I would end it is many of these things that we’re talking about are outcomes of this crisis.”

What’s the prognosis for the future?

“I think as an industry, it may be a tough couple of quarters ahead of this. But, I think there is some learnings and some practices that hopefully will stick that we’ll all be stronger coming out of this than we were before. I guess I would say, guys, there’s been such a high level of just support that I’ve had, that our agencies are having, that everybody in the industry is really wrapping their arms around each other right now, figuratively speaking.”