Hasta La Creative!

How can Procter & Gamble Co. lop hundreds of millions of dollars off agency and production costs and still “raise the bar” on creativity? As Global Brand Officer Marc Pritchard sees it, “cutting the crap” holds some promise.

Mr. Pritchard focused heavily on his “craft over crap” message in a panel appearance and speech at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last week. In an interview with Advertising Age there, he discussed how the philosophy is also central to how he hopes to simultaneously raise creative effectiveness and cut agency and production costs, which topped out at a high of around $2 billion annually two years ago but are now closer to the $1 billion level where they stood a decade ago.

He also came to the defense of much-maligned procurement people. And in the wake of an Association of National Advertisers report on media agency transparency, he said he’s willing to share contract language and processes with other advertisers to help them deal with the problem. Other parts of the industry, such as media companies, need to be more transparent too, he said.

Continue reading at AdAge.com