The Institute of Communication Agencies has already made it clear that change is coming with the hiring of its new president and CEO, Scott Knox. After a decade of reforging relationships and building out its offering, it seems the agency association wants to change its voice, its attitude and its activity within the sector.
Penny Stevens, current chair of the ICA board of directors, called Knox “an advocate writ large.” Are we about to meet a new, noisier ICA? Knox hasn’t landed in Canada yet, but Marketing asked him what we should expect once he does.
What’s your to-do list when you arrive? What mandate have you been given (or, perhaps, what mandate do you bring with you)?
The first thing I want to do is get under the skin of the ICA and its members. I want to ask if the ICA were to be started again tomorrow, what would it do, how would it act and what should it prioritize. That’ll mean an agency tour and fact-finding sessions. I want to create an action-orientated trade body, much as I have done with the MAA.
Tell us a bit about the job you’re coming from. What was the MAA’s place within the U.K.’s industry?
The MAA is the challenger brand as far as agency trade associations goes, with our big sister being the IPA [Institute of Practitioners in Advertising]. We are more assertive, up front and out there, whereas the IPA is a bit dated and slower. Sometimes the world needs less convivial round table chats and more action. The MAA is more action-orientated. We have one board, not 15 committees, and just get things done. A typical challenger brand.
We have a service called Pitch Watchdog where agencies can tell us about bad client practice and we act on it, we have won many a successful battle with the likes of AB InBev, Philips, Arla Foods, GSK and more.
We also have training that runs from junior to board director, trade bodies tend to focus training at junior levels, when arguably it is senior level resilience and commerciality that needs sharpening up at the moment. Then there are the MAA awards, the #dodifferent awards, celebrating the new landscape of the sector, awarding for best idea, best intellectual property development, best content, best strategy, even a PrideAM award for best communication representing or targeting LGBT+ people.
Your bio shows some strong advocacy accomplishments… the forging of PrideAM for example. Given that, should we view your hiring as heralding of a new kind of role for the ICA president/CEO?
Completely. I will be driving a fresh approach, a collaborative, action agenda, one with punch and pride. The agency sector is an amazing part of the world’s economies and should be recognized as such. We transform brands, businesses, governments and people and we should be briefed for more of that and valued much more for it. I intend to be loud and determined.
Relatedly, should we expect to see big changes within the ICA after your arrival? If yes, what?
That will depend, change for change’s sake is a bad thing. I know what I want the ICA to be, I know what the agency sector can be and I was recruited on that basis, if change is needed to make this come to life then so be it. That includes me, I’m not too proud to know that this is a different market with different approaches, so the change may need to include me. Which is exciting.
It’s early days, but are you seeing big differences between the industry you’re currently representing in the U.K. and the one you’re coming to in Canada?
It is very early to call, but I am already picking up on some of the similarities — that being the over commoditization by clients of the the work that agencies do. It’s all too much about the hourly rate card and not enough about value and outputs.
That said, I have noticed a more passive approach by the Canadians I have spoken with so far. There is also a tendency to be quite literal, spelling everything out, when nuance and ideas can push through and be a bit more exciting and engaging. It will be interesting to see if this translates through to creative output.
