Dell, WPP Form Project Da Vinci Marcom Agency to Serve Dell

Dell and WPP are getting together to form a specialized marketing communications firm that does one and only one thing - serve Dell. The computer maker will invest invest $4.5 billion in billings in the agency over the next three years, PR Week reports via John Battelle. Note - several WPP agencies compete with Edelman, my employer. Andy Lark has a bit more.

On the surface, this seems like a good deal. Dell gets to drive efficiencies - something it does well - by consolidating their business with one shop that they own. If the agency performs then one assumes Dell benefits in multiple ways. Further, WPP gets a big piece of client business exclusively for at least three years, perhaps longer.

The real proof point is going to be Dell sales. The dirty little secret of the marketing community is that competition for business and talent is what keeps many agencies sharp. It's very easy to move an entire account from one agency to another across town and then again until you find the next big idea to replace the last one. So Dell will have to make sure this newco stays fresh and continues to pump out creative ideas.

Mending cultures will be interesting too. Which personality will this new company adopt - that of its very efficient, practical mother or very creative father or both? Some kids don't show their personality until age three so let's hope that Project Da Vinci establishes this early on.

Comments

[Andrew Lark]

You make a good point here on culture. This is the greatest risk we have. In some areas we want cultures to work. In others we want some cultural tension.

[Lenster]

Personally I find the idea laughable. I worked at a Creative agency serving the Dell business (outside the US) and can safely report that they were the least creative culture I ever dealt with.
They seemed to believe that communication is all about input, of the school forever trapped pre-1950, assuming that what is 'put in' is what the consumer gets out. They even said 'brand' was a dirty word at Dell. Amusing then to see how woeful under-investment in brand left them beached like a whale as PCs became commoditised.
There's no doubt that Dell is built on a clever disintermediation idea, but empathy, emotional intelligence, grasp of branding and open-mindedness are unkown to them.

[ST]

I want a sexy tungsten-finish laptop with all the cutting edge jazz inbuilt. Rest all of this is noise.

I'm talking webcam, fingerprint authentication, Windows xp (not Vista, and at no extra cost), fastest dvd burner, four gig of memory, and a kickbutt 15 inch screen all in a laptop.

Vaio seems to be the only option in the Windows camp.

Warm fuzzy brand or no brand, who gives a fig anymore. I don't see any marketing from Sony Vaio, or Sony for that matter. Online, all my ads drivel is filtered in Firefox. But I love their stuff and recommend it like crazy to everyone I care about.

Which is instructive, because about five years ago I was doing the same for Latitudes even when they looked like the bricks they still do.

Some brands learn, others don't. Dell is still the K-mart of computers. Profitable? May be, borderline. Desirable? Nope.

[ST]

As for this new initiative, the fact that WPP was competing with IPG is evidence enough that Dell is hardly the marketing goliath it once was.

Sounds like same wine in a slightly redesigned bottle. Here's a quote from Lark's blog:

"We’ve got some great agencies working with us and we will explore ways of keeping it that way, albeit in a new operating construct."

Yeah, call a spade a bloody shovel and hope for the best :)