DiMA responds to FCB Electric Ocean pitching debacle

A group of ad agencies and internet web design companies took FCB Electric Ocean to task for indulging in what they called a bogus pitch. Evidently a company called JDI Events was commissioned by FCB Electric Ocean to put some business out to pitch for what Electric Ocean termed "research". FCB has sinced apologised for an "error of judgement".

[Refer report on Marketingweb; FCB apologises.]

Certain aggrieved companies took issue with DiMA, the industry watchdog on which FCB Electric Ocean serves on DiMA at board level, for not taking any censuring action.

DiMA re-opened the enquiry and responded thus:

In regard the press coverage on www.marketingweb.co.za relating to the above topic, I feel it necessary to comment on DiMA's actions and involvement in this issue.

A hypothetical scenario describing a bogus pitch was forwarded to DiMA by David Epstein. We requested that this complaint be formalised in order for us to address and discuss the matter directly with Diane Ritchie of Electric Ocean. A formal complaint was then received on the 5th of September and we called a DiMA EXCO meeting for the 9th September. In this meeting we established that the situation was not hypothetical and realised that we needed to obtain independent advice in order to evaluate whether the actions undertaken were contrary to the DiMA constitution.

Albeit that our Constitution aims to govern the industry and includes a clause like "protecting the members' intellectual property", it is not a legal framework and were therefore unable to take related action as an organisation, particularly given that the activity undertaken is in itself a 'grey area' according to advice received. We would however like to state that we strongly disagree with the conduct and do not in any way condone this activity.

We proceeded with a process of discussion and conciliation in order to ensure an appropriate outcome and set of actions with the specific intent to appease the agencies that were affected. We forwarded our thoughts in this regard to FCB Electric Ocean as input to a discussion set up for the 30th of September, the main aim of which was to finalise and agree on this action.

This meeting was held with the following outcome:

· Neil van der Weele (CEO of FCB) had already called David Epstein to apologise
· Diane Ritchie called David Epstein on 1 October to apologise personally
· A letter of apology will be sent to David Epstein and to myself for distribution to all affected parties
· Electric Ocean have undertaken to be subject to the DiMA Constitution & DiMA and Code of Conduct (still to be drafted) going forward
· Diane Ritchie's future representation on the DiMA EXCO is currently being evaluated

It is unfortunate that many seem willing to jump to conclusions without understanding the facts or the need for due process. We have, to date, specifically withheld comment from the press in order to resolve the matter internally within DiMA, realise an outcome and therefore avoid misinformation.

We have managed the above outcome in a very professional, pragmatic and fair way - we are after all obliged to do so in the best interests of the industry. We are also acutely aware of the need to develop and disseminate a Code of Conduct for the industry and our recent move into the newly formed Marketing Federation of South Africa (as a Special Interest Group) will assist us in achieving this goal more rapidly.

Yours Sincerely

David Blyth
Chairman of DiMA