Meet the Client: Clare Salmon, RSA (formerly Royal & Sun Alliance)

by Staff Media Week 01-Jul-08

RSA controls 47 different brands in 130 countries. Clare Salmon lets Media Week know how to manage a global concern.

What's your job title? Group strategy, marketing and customer director

Media agencies used: We're present in 130 countries, so it's difficult to be generic. We use different people globally, as media isn't managed on a centralised basis. Also, a large proportion of our business is B2B, so a lot of marketing "media" is our people. In the UK, we use Universal McCann.

What are the big media issues? Out biggest media issue is people - how to engage and motivate them to deliver messages. We have 47 brands and brand awareness is an issue in some emerging markets, so finding the right media to get messages across is an issue in those markets.

What are the main criteria you use when selecting an agency? Creativity has to be top of the list in any selection process - we look for an agency that appreciates that creativity is also about driving the bottom line. Commerciality is very important to us, as is the people-fit and chemistry. Someone who talks in UK cliches wouldn't fit our international sensitivity.

Do you use a media auditor? In some places, but it's not very effective, because our budgets are not heavy in TV across the group. It's not always relevant, so we use other metrics.

What role does procurement play? I have a close relationship with my group procurement colleagues - when we've done a significant pitch they would be partners throughout the process.

Which medium can't you live without? Magazine-wise, I couldn't live without Polo Times, The Economist (a great aeroplane read) and Grazia, mainly for the pictures. In terms of TV, I liked The Fixer on ITV1 and Channel 4's My Name Is Earl and Ugly Betty, which I watch with my daughter. I listen to Radio 4, which is very middle-aged of me, especially the Today programme and The Archers. I love the Saturday Guardian for The Guide and the FT on Thursdays for Lucy Kellaway.

Best thing about working in media? The people I work with, the travel and the unexpected. The best thing about media at the moment is YouTube. I'm a real consumer of the absurd.

Comments

- 01/07/2008

Sorry Clare, but media auditing IS relevant within non-TV media. There's ample proof since Billetts started it in 1995 that it adds just as much price/quality determined effectiveness to the relevant media as telly....and with the accompanying return on investment.