Tom Holmes talks to Simon Mahoney President of the Marketing Agencies Association Worldwide (MAAW).
The MAAW is the only global organisation made up of the CEOs and Presidents of the world’s top marketing agencies, and has members from virtually every country across the world.
Its primary role is to help the principals of marketing agencies maximise the potential for their clients, their teams, and ultimately their businesses. The association also runs the prestigious Globe Awards.
TH: Simon, what is the MAAW and what’s the vision behind it?
SM: The MAAW is a unique organisation primarily made up of multi service marketing agencies from across the world. The vision is simple. “To ensure The MAAW is the Association of choice for Principals, CEOs Presidents and MDs of select Marketing Communications Agencies by offering unique commercial and personal benefits to its members and the wider global marketing community”.
TH: The marketing industry is full of associations, what makes the MAAW unique?
SM: The membership benefits of the MAAW are very different, so it would be wrong to compare us with other marketing associations. For over 40 years The MAAW has focused entirely on understanding and addressing the personal and business needs of senior agency principals from across the world Indeed, the MAAW has often been described by its members as the “best kept secret” in the agency world. When new prospect members try us out at either our spring retreat or fall conference they sign up immediately. We have a 100% strike rate based on the common comment “I wish I’d known about this before?”
Networking with our agency peers is just one of the many unique benefits that membership of the MAAW brings. Our members are representative of every type and size of agency, across every discipline, from right across the globe including Japan, Brazil, Australia, Russia, India, Europe and North America. Many of our lifetime members have built and sold their agencies and hence provide invaluable (and often free advice) to those aspiring to to do the same. We have members across every discipline and every skill set, so building up a trusted global network of like minded agencies with similar or complimentary skill sets is another benefit of membership.
With the singular emphasis on peer-to-peer learning, individuality and diversity, members are constantly stimulated, not only by truly comprehensive programmes but also by spirited interaction with other members. Each provides expert business building strategies which lead to ideas and insights that are invaluable to members on both a personal and business level
And where else do you get the opportunity and time to chat openly with other agency principals from all over the world who very often face the same issues as you do yet are happy to share advice, realise opportunities and overcome the hurdles and challenges that face any agency in any country We have members who, through The MAAW, now work with other member agencies and principals providing their business and their clients with a global network they can use as and when they want. An obvious advantage over the large groups
TH: As President what are your key responsibilities?
SM: To deliver value to our members
TH: What attracted you to the job?
SM: Like everyone one else who joins The MAAW I was completely blown away at my first meeting in Italy, not only by the ability to talk with my peers from across the world, but by attending the creative workshops that helped me realise and develop my own personal skills as well those of my colleagues at SMP. We joined immediately. In addition the World class Fall conferences deliver the unique opportunity of not only listening to the world’s best marketers but also talking with them one to one and networking with them well after the event has ended. The calibre of speakers and the post event testimonials they give are truly outstanding!
“As a featured speaker, my content simply opened the dialog – the global leaders that make up the MAAW interact with one another and their guests in a way that benefits all involved. The quality of the interaction, the character of the members, and the camaraderie among the group make it a unique experience. While I provided expertise on a specific topic, I found I benefited from the engagement overall—sharpening my own content and my breadth of knowledge. “ Lynn Neal. P&G. Retail Strategy Leader
The MAAW fuels, drives and in many cases rekindles the passion we all have for marketing. In my 30 years in both client and agency camps from launching Almay cosmetics to being part of an agency team that has won more awards than any other agency, my greatest honour was to be asked to MAAW President. And I don’t even get paid!
TH: What benefits does MAAW membership really deliver?
SM: Apart from all those mentioned above – they alone justify membership! • With emphasis on peer-to-peer learning, individuality and diversity, delegates are constantly stimulated, not only by truly comprehensive programmes but also by spirited interaction with other members. • Each provides business-changing strategies, ideas and true life and business changing insights. • Just about every aspect of growing and managing an agency can be learned. • The latest, most powerful business-building sales strategies. • The most effective emerging online and offline marketing trends. • How to save time and eliminate waste. • How to quickly create a positive culture within your organization. • How to motivate your key managers to get the most from them. • How to implement the latest powerful marketing offerings. • How to get known and build a national or international reputation.
TH: You are a worldwide organisation, what are your key markets and, in those markets, who are your key members?
SM: Our key markets are, in essence, wherever brands and hence by default, agencies exist…so pretty much everywhere. But of course different geographies are at different levels of marketing and media development.
Unlike other associations we are truly global and attract a multitude of agency type and apologies for the cliché but all our members are key, simply because they are all different. Some have evolved over many years, some are still evolving, some are start ups, some are stalwarts, some have been bought by groups but still attend and our lifetime members, our mentors in fact, are some of the most famous (and infamous) names in marketing history, all offering wisdom and knowledge that can only be a result of years of experience.
TH: What sort of new members do you want to attract?
SM: Membership is only open to Principals, Presidents, CEO’s and directors of marketing agencies of any discipline. Inevitably, we attract independent agencies and this year will be introducing strict criteria for membership.
That’s because we want to maintain a cross section of agencies across all disciplines from all over the world whether they are start ups (and membership is invaluable here) or established agencies who want to fine tune their skills, broaden their network and deliver true benefits to their agency teams and hence their clients.
TH: Within the global business and political communities, do you think marketing’s contribution is recognised and valued both economically and culturally?
SM: It depends upon the country and the marketing economy within. I personally believe marketing in its broadest sense, i.e. brand focused has become restricted creatively, it’s now process and price driven which often confines creativity in a straight jacket. This is very evident in the UK and NAM…yet nonexistent in countries like Brazil, Israel and Russia. As for value I once read out of the Footsie 100 companies only a small percentage have marketing represented on the board.
From my agencies point of view and working as we do in NAM and across EMEA, the primary budgets are now often held by the sales function. But they don’t give the money straight to retailers as we tend to do here. So I guess marketing’s contribution is recognised but I worry that some brands have lost the ability or desire to add value and tend to always opt for price promotions…. or even worse give the stuff away!
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