Stéphane Fouks, CEO of Euro RSCG France, and chairman and CEO of Euro RSCG C&O, visited Dubai last month. Communicate sat down with him to discuss Euro RSCG’s regional partnership with the Chaloub Group, the dangers of digital obsession and how outsiders view the Arab world.
Communicate: Your regional partnership with the Chaloub Group’s Promopub is strictly 50:50 on paper. Who really has control, though?
Stéphane Fouks: We have control as Euro RSCG, but the local expertise comes from the Chaloub Group. At the end of the day, it’s a real joint venture because if we don’t use the level of regional understanding and connections of the Chaloub Group we could not be as good as we are. It would be stupid from our point of view not to use that.
So I’d say we drive it as the agency but with great respect for our strong local partner. We are very happy with our operation because we have double-digit growth with a very good level of quality. In the two days of client meetings since I’ve been here, I’ve met happy clients. Which is always a good sign in this business.
Communicate: Chaloub is also a distributor of brands, though. Does that restrict you in any way? Is there a potential conflict of interest?
Stéphane Fouks: At this stage, at least, it’s an opportunity, rather than a conflict of interest.
Communicate: It’s hypothetical, but what happens if you have a globally aligned client that is a competitor to a brand the Chaloub group represents or distributes locally?
Stéphane Fouks: So far, that hasn’t happened, because – by chance – our international clients were also with the Chaloub group. But if it did happen it’s not a problem. We are not restricted through this agreement. … They will go with somebody else. It’s not an issue, not a problem.
Communicate: What about your expansion strategy? Specifically into Saudi Arabia?
Stéphane Fouks: There’s a clear opportunity. Riyadh has become a media hub with five million people so it’s a real market. But it’s not an easy market to operate in yet. We are in Saudi Arabia – in Jeddah – but we go carefully, because we can only follow the evolution of the market, we can’t anticipate it too much. We have to take the world as it is.
Communicate: Do you feel that censorship in the region – particularly Saudi – is restricting the market?
Stéphane Fouks: Yes and no. Frankly speaking, it’s a little bit more complicated than just censorship, although, of course, censorship is an issue. But it can also be a problem to find good expatriates – especially North American and other English speakers – to come and work here, because of their perception of the region: They consider the Middle East to be very dangerous. For example, if you say to your global network that you are going to hold your annual general meeting in Dubai, the Europeans will be very happy, but the North Americans will say, ‘Never! You’re crazy. We will not go.’
At the same time, that creates opportunity, because when you do find someone, they tend to be good. More open, more cultured, more educated. They understand that just because you are 100 kilometers from the Iranian border, you’re not in great danger in Dubai.
Communicate: Do you think that the talent pool in the Middle East can contribute to the global mix?
Stéphane Fouks: In some ways, yes. There’s not a fantastic level of expertise here – you are not in Mumbai or Bangalore. But what is interesting for me here is that there’s a reserve of arts and crafts design. There is a culture of print. That can be used in a very interesting way. I really believe that communication has to fit with culture, and often in this region – because people want to appear Western and modern – they don’t link with the Arabic culture.
In terms of design and print there are a lot of interesting things, here. You don’t want to reflect the architecture though, especially the hotels. We want to imagine a culture which is not artificial, and it’s definitely there, in terms of design.
Communicate: There was a trend for several years towards fragmentation and specialization within agencies. Do you think it’s coming back?
Stéphane Fouks: I never followed this trend. We don’t believe in the idea of silos. I really think this is a model of the past which is going to die, where you put all your siblings like that [makes chopping motion along table]. Like a hot dog. And you’re very happy because you have put all your beautiful silos on the table and you say, ‘Look, I am a global network because I have a lot of silos.’ But they never work together.
For example, the market today is crazy about digital. My competitors are all looking to buy digital agencies with totally crazy multiples and they are creating a digital ghetto. But communication is not about one expertise. All our business is impacted by digital and online, undoubtedly. And clients should incorporate the online they need. But at the moment there is this stupid idea that there is now a new god, which is online. It’s not like everything is dead except online.
You can have specialization and experts, fine. But what’s interesting is to put this expertise in the service of your clients throughout the network. It’s OK to have a place where you develop one specialization which serves the entire network – provided you don’t destroy the ability of all your front offices to integrate it. They should all be able to offer the digital expertise that they need. So you need to integrate digital solutions inside global solutions and not as a silo.
Communicate: Do you think it’s going the opposite way then? That we may see the return of full-service agencies?
Stéphane Fouks: I think that we have entered a time when the differentiation between agencies is not based on discipline but on culture. Take what we’ve done in France, as an example. We have created a brand agency for clients who are mad about brand strategies, brand architecture … they speak about brand creativity.
Obviously, all clients think branding is important, but you have those that say, “Yes, my brand is important, but my company has the same name as my commercial brand and my company is very important because I have to think of my shareholders and not just consumers.” So they want to take care of the corporate brand and not just the commercial brand. So for that we have designed another advertising agency which has won very big accounts in France.
Then you have clients who are just focused on business. On return on investment. No individual brand is the most important, not even the corporate brand; what they want is to create traffic and business. And for those people we have also designed a specific agency.
So I really believe that the way the market was differentiated – here you have advertising agencies, here you have PR agencies, here you have marketing services agencies – that’s over. Agencies are on another path now.
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