The agency launched 6.5 STM as our new creative positioning this year.  It’s a powerful initiative right at the intersection of strategy, creative and analytics.

We’ve taken the opportunity to reassess some of the tools and paradigms that came out of the Draftfcb merger, even though we still hold Success Sessions, Strategic Rumbles and Creative Rumbles.  

The Wheel, however, is more relevant than ever.  Why?

1. It’s still revolutionary.  When we reinvented the Wheel, we reinvented how an agency can be organized.  Almost every single agency includes in some way the same four functions:  creative, planning, media and account.  The Wheel adds a fifth function, Customer Intelligence, which is proof positive of our promise in the marketplace, Return On Ideas^SM. 
   
2. It enables us to deliver on 6.5 STM.  The Wheel is a tight, focused team of strategic leaders who can arrive at the 6.5 STM strategy and then decide which disciplines to involve.  To be clear, the Wheel is not the full range of disciplines offered by Draftfcb.  The Wheel is the team whose members lead the discussion as to which disciplines we should employ.

Those disciplines keep us sharp.  Every day in the office we see experts in direct, digital, retail, promotion, shopper marketing, advertising, etc.  Because we work together every day, Wheel teams can make informed judgments as to which disciplines are right for a client’s particular business objective.  On some projects we install a discipline from the very start, for example, if a client assigns us a retail project.

Even if your client relies on Draftfcb for only one discipline, the Wheel should be your organizing principle.  Having all five functions represented for important strategic discussions will make the strategies and the work better – and possibly earn us additional assignments in other disciplines.