'Functional Integration' - Advertising's Hot New Buzzword. Plus: Why No TV Nets at Cannes Lions?

Functional integration: the cohesive organization of people with diverse functional skills, products, resources and tools who collaborate to accomplish highly focused tasks.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last week attracted more than double the number of American attendees, 1,400 compared to 700 in 2010. Missing again this year were executives from the major legacy TV and print media. While Google, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Apple, Vevo and most digital media were well represented onstage and at hosted events, U.S. television networks and leading magazine companies sent a message to the thousands of agency and client executives: they simply do not consider the international gathering worthy of their time or attention. Most of the agency holding company executives CEOs including Michael Roth, Martin Sorrell, John Wren, Miles Nidal and Maria Louisa Francoli, (who chaired this year's event) were actively involved in the Cannes Lions gatherings that often lasted well into the wee morning hours. Nick Brian, Alan Cohen, Laura Lang, Irwin Gotlieb, Daryl Simm, Page Thompson, Mainardo de Nardis, John Partilla, Tim Spengler, Andrew Maclean, Jackie Kelley, Charles Coutier. Dominic Proctorwere just a handful of the hundreds of influential agency leaders who interacted morning, noon and night with representatives from media companies – usually accompanied by senior client executives. Many major advertiser clients of the national TV and magazine media are represented at Cannes, yet their leading traditional media partners leave the territory to digital competitors. While the nets could argue that the Cannes Lions fall right into what could be a key Upfront negotiating period, even the digital execs of the networks fail to appear. And magazine companies have no excuse. (Paul Caine of Time Magazines was there as was Phil Kent, CEO of Turner Broadcasting.) CBS Radio's Last FM, represented by CBS Radio executive David Goodman, and Vevo hosted a late night party and concert, so even radio has entered the fray.

At the Vevo panel session, among the best attended during the week-long conference, producer and rap artistPharrell Williams reinforced the importance of marketers to the future of the music and entertainment business (and vice versa), sharing insights with Vevo president Rio Caraeff, Digitas CEO Laura Lang and Universal Music president Rob Wells (moderated by Jack Myers). AOL's Kristin Kovner shared her observations as AOL's unofficial conference blogger here, accompanied by an excellent video outlining the state of the music industry produced by Digitas.

For me, the most valuable among many main stage talks and panels was the explanation by R/GA chief Bob Greenberg and R/GA's chief growth officer Barry Wacksman of their vision for the future of their agency, a member of the Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG). "Brands will be defined by their mission," said Greenberg, identifying Nike as an example. "All companies will pursue this (model) through 'functional integration', instead of the typical vertical or horizontal integration." Functional integration has many definitions, including a hands-on form of tactile, kinesthetic communication; a collection of results in mathematics and physics; an outdated Microsoft practice for predicting results; and "a tool useful to study general diffusion processes, quantum mechanics, and quantum field theory." Greenberg believes organizations will shift from a product-centric focus to an emphasis on services integrated with products and centered around functionality, including experiences, events and causes.

I interpret functional integration as:

the cohesive organization of people with diverse functional skills, products, resources and tools who collaborate to accomplish highly focused tasks. As they gain experience, they educate their functional colleagues and pollinate the organization with enhanced knowledge, capabilities and best practices for future initiatives.

Confusing perhaps, but consider breaking down the traditional silos within your organization. Instead, create small highly energized groups with functional skills and the tools required to support them. Individuals from these teams spread throughout the organization providing their services as required, relevant and valued. As these team members return from each engagement, they bring added knowledge and experience with them to share with their colleagues, thereby spreading best practices in every functional area throughout the organization. If a media sales organization is targeting a specific client, bring together the resources required to develop and implement a program and constantly update and upgrade the group as appropriate to the client's needs. An agency developing a new client strategy might pull from more than 100 functional areas during the development process and other groups for implementation.

"This will require complete organizational remodeling," Greenberg believes. "In 2000, our emphasis was on relationship marketing, digital and e-commerce. In 2006, it became about analytics, social media, mobile and retail. In 2011, it's brand development, data visualization, product innovation, and live events." For 2013, Greenberg believes his organization will require global consulting capabilities built around functional resources in hundreds of major and micro marketing related categories. And, he adds, "in a time of procurement we need a new pricing model."

Greenberg and Wacksman are engaged in a large scale organizational remodeling that assures global scale for clients and builds on the "importance of context in creating teams for functional integration." Their goal, they commented, "is to utilize enabling technologies for management tracking, collaboration, diversification, integration and communications." The organizational future, Greenberg added, depends on video for live conferencing, streaming, and meetings.

An overview of R/GA's global expansion model was outlined by Joe Mandese of Mediapost. "There is no really global, digitally centered agency out there," Greenberg asserted. He says to get there will "require a different organizational structure" than any major digital shop has today, including R/GA…. Wacksman wrapped up the session, concluding that the new global organization may change the way R/GA defines itself. "We really have no idea of what to call ourselves anymore, just like it is impossible to describe what Apple is anymore," he said.

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