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 9th European
Conference on
Knowledge Management

Southampton Solent University

Southampton
UK
4-5 September 2008

Edited by
Deogratias Harorimana and David Watkins
Copyright The Authors, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

No reproduction, copy or transmission may be made without written

permission from the individual authors.

Papers have been double-blind peer reviewed before final submission to the
conference. Initially, paper abstracts were read and selected by the
conference panel for submission as possible papers for the conference.

Many thanks to the reviewers who helped ensure the quality of the full
papers.

Further copies of this book and previous year’s proceedings can be

purchased from http://academic-conferences.org/2-proceedings.htm

ISBN: 978-1-906638-11-5 CD

Published by Academic Publishing Limited

Reading
UK
44-118-972-4148
www.academic-publishing.org
Preface
These proceedings represent the work of presenters at the 9th European Conference on
Knowledge Management (ECKM 2008).

The Conference is hosted this year by Southampton Solent University. The Conference
Chair is John Rees and the Co-Programme Chairs are Deogratias Harorimana and David
Watkins, all from Southampton Solent University.

The opening keynote address is given by the Chief Executive of Ordinance Survey, UK;
Vanessa Lawrence. On the second day of the conference Professor Frank Land from
London School of Economics leads a round table debate on “The Management of
Knowledge and Knowledge Management”. To further enhance the conference experience
there is a Knowledge Café led by David Gurteen.

A primary aim of the event is for academics concerned with current research findings and
for those from the wider community involved in Knowledge Management, to present their
findings and ideas to peers from Knowledge Management and associated fields. A Second
aim of ECKM is to allow practitioners and academics across the field of Knowledge
Management to meet those who hold ideas in a face to face interaction, forge long-lasting
networks and linkages with colleagues from similar areas of interests. We hope that the
conference will help attendees advance in their understanding of how firms and countries
generate and exploit knowledge to achieve a competitive advantage, and drive their
innovations forward. The range of issues and mix of approaches followed will ensure an
interesting two days.

210 initial abstracts were received for this conference. However, the academic rigueur of
ECKM meant that, after the double blind, peer review process there are 107 papers
published in these Conference Proceedings. These papers reflect the growth in the field of
Knowledge Management, and they represent truly global research from some 32 different
countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan,
Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA.

We hope that you have an enjoyable conference.

Deogratias Harorimana and David Watkins

Co-Programme Chairs
September 2008

Acknowledgements:
The conference committee would like to thank the support given to the conference this
year by Ordance Survey UK

xi
Knowledge Management In The Field Of Advertising: How
Advertising And Media Agencies Manage Knowledge?
Sema Misci and Ebru Uzunoglu
Izmir University of Economics, Turkey
sema.misci@ieu.edu.tr
ebru.uzunoglu@ieu.edu.tr

Abstract: In order to survive and to become more competitive in today’s business world, companies need to use
knowledge efficiently and effectively. Knowledge has become one of the most valuable and strategic resources
for companies aiming to distinguish themselves from their competitors. The better the companies manage
knowledge, the more they benefit from a competitive advantage.

Many companies tend to use knowledge management as data or information management since the knowledge
management framework is very much a current issue in the modern business world. Although these concepts are
related, they should in fact be considered and managed differently. Of the two, knowledge management is a
much wider subject, consisting of data, organizational culture and information management.

Business-to-business services, such as advertising, which generate much creativity, are highly intangible,
competitive and carry high risks. Therefore, managing and selling knowledge are the essential functions of these
services. Advertising and media agencies need to use knowledge management in order to win, provide value to
and maintain profitable clients.

Today’s clients give greater importance both to specialization, and to processed, construed data and information
knowledge. They require solutions based on knowledge gained from data specially analyzed and formed to meet
their own needs. Information and data for the field of advertising is gathered from different areas, such as
marketing, consumer behaviour, media, and communication technologies. It is the agencies’ job to manage and
sell the knowledge relating to advertising, consumer, media and creative crafts by using this information and
data. The main aim of our research is to show how agencies gather information and data from these fields to use
as knowledge for their clients. Our research is based on qualitative data obtained from leading advertising and
media agencies (including both international and national companies) as published by the Turkish Foundation of
Advertising Agencies.

Keywords: Knowledge, knowledge management, advertising and media agencies

1. Introduction
The acceptance of knowledge management (KM) as a specific way of doing business has been
recently recognized although the concept has been discussed in the literature since the early
ninetees. While many organizations follow the steps of the KM process, they are not aware of KM as
a strategic tool to solve specific business issues. Advertising and media agencies are examples of
these organizations. Advertising and media agencies usually have a high proportion of highly qualified
staff and knowledge-based jobs. These agency people are considered as knowledge workers who
can create a competitive and distinctive advantage for the reputation of an agency’s competence.
Moreover, Leiponen (2006) suggests that knowledge-intensive agencies provide a useful empirical
context for exploring the relationships between knowledge management and innovation, as the
purpose of the service itself is to transfer information, data, or knowledge to the client company. As a
result, management of knowledge and intellectual assets is of great importance to these companies.
Advertising agencies are good examples of organizations which manage and sell knowledge about
advertising, consumers and creative crafts (Hackley, 2000).

Agencies benefit from different kinds of research conducted either by themselves, by independent
research companies or by their clients. Besides research, agencies also benefit from the latest
developments in information and communication technologies and managing knowledge is needed in
order to follow these developments and derive some results by using these technologies. Agencies
are also technologically-driven companies which need to manage knowledge, gained with the help of
technology, effectively. The purpose of this paper is to provide understanding about how agencies
use KM in order to be successful, competitive, efficient, effective and creative.

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2. Literature review
Many companies tend to use knowledge management as data or information management since the
knowledge management framework is very much a current issue in the modern business world.
Although these concepts are related, they should in fact be considered and managed differently. Data
are composed of numbers, records, symbols and facts that can be gained from both environmental
and internal sources. Information is the formed and shaped data which is transformed into a
meaningful form (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1994). While information is an important tool in gaining and
structuring knowledge, knowledge consititutes a deeper, richer and wider meaning (Eren and
Erdoğmuş, 2004), and is comprised of strategy, practice, method and approach. Knowledge can be
defined as processed and interpreted information which depends on facts and data. Knowledge is
information combined with experience, context, interpretation, reflection, and perspective. Knowledge
is a high-value form of information that is ready to be applied to decisions and actions (Martensson
2000: 209). According to Martensson (2000), knowledge cannot be easily stored; should be studied in
context; depreciates in value if not used; usually is not coded, audited, inventoried, and stacked in a
warehouse for employees to use as needed; is scattered, messy, and easy to lose. Information has
little value and will not become knowledge unless processed by the human mind.

Knowledge can be held either by individuals or groups in an organization. If an individual has certain
skills and abilities, the organization cannot be aware of these capabilities unless the individual puts
them to use. Unless knowledge is shared, distributed and owned collectively within an organization,
the departure of key people will have a negative affect on business. Therefore it can be said that
ownership and accesibility of knowledge determines the success and future of organizations. Since
this is accepted by most successful business organizations in today’s world, companies are more
likely to share collective knowledge between their employees. Tacit knowledge depends on expertise
and skills, whereas explicit knowledge depends on educational and professional knowledge.
Tacitness also determines the transferability of knowledge in organizations (Leiponen, 2006: 242).
Tacit knowledge is nonverbalized, intuitive, unarticulated (Leiponen, 2006) and accepted as a
strategically important resource (Quinn, 1992). Tacit knowledge resides in the human mind,
behaviour, and perception (Duffy, 2000), evolves from people's interactions, and requires skill and
practice (Martensson, 2000: 209). Tacit refers to hunches, intuitions and insights (Guth, 1996), it is
personal, undocumented, context-sensitive, dynamically created and derived, internalised and
experience-based (Martensson, 2000: 209).

According to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) explicit knowledge is documented and public; structured,
fixed-content, externalised, and conscious (Duffy, 2000). Explicit knowledge is what can be captured
and shared through information technology. Explicit, or codified, knowledge is easier to circulate than
tacit knowledge. Codification and collective ownership of knowledge thus both facilitates knowledge
sharing and integration in the organization (Leiponen, 2006: 242).
Table 1: Dimensions of knowledge in knowledge-intensive business services (Leiponen, 2006: 243)

Individual Collective/organizational

Tacit Expertise, skills Joint routines, processes

Automatic knowledge Collective knowledge

Explicit Education, profesional knowledge Intellectual property, products,

Conscious knowledge services
Objectified knowledge

Nonaka (1994) develops the idea that knowledge is created out of a dialogue between individuals’
tacit and explicit knowledge (Blackler, 1995: 1033). It can move to different forms, such as from tacit
to explicit or vice versa. To exploit knowledge more efficiently, organisations are now attempting to
codify and store individual knowledge, i.e. making tacit knowledge explicit and transposing individual
knowledge into organisational knowledge (Martensson, 2000: 212). In summary, it can be said that
explicit knowledge cannot exist without tacit knowledge and tacit knowledge cannot exist without

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explicit knowledge. Managing and coordinating the explicit and tacit knowledge of individuals in
organizations can sustain a competitive advantage among different organizations.

Typically, knowledge management (KM) is defined as the generation, representation, storage,

transfer, transformation, application, embedding and protecting of organizational knowledge (Schultze
and Stabell, 2004: 551). Bierly and Chakrabarti (1996) define KM in terms of the strategic choices
organizations make regarding the information sources for their learning processes, the style and
speed of those processes, and the depth and breadth of the knowledge bases to be built (Schultze
and Stabell, 2004: 557). In short, KM can be called a concept in which an organization consciously
and comprehensively gathers, organizes, stores, retrieves, shares and analyses its knowledge in
terms of resources, documents and people skills.

Growth and globalization, and recent developments in information technologies are considered to be
primary in the improvement of KM systems for companies that want to achieve a sustainable
competitive advantage (Ofek and Sarvary, 2001). Reducing costs and creating added value in order
to increase product quality (Ofek and Sarvary, 2001) are the roles of KM systems.

An analysis of various knowledge management approaches reveals common steps in the KM

process. These steps are knowledge creation, knowledge storage and retrieval, knowledge
distribution and knowledge application (Davenport and Prusak, 1998; Angus and Patel, 1998; Alavi,
2000; Martensson, 2000).

Knowledge Knowledge
Storage and Knowledge Knowledge
Creation Distribution Application
Retrieval

Figure 1: Knowledge management process (Alavi, 2000: 7)

Knowledge Creation starts with collecting facts and data obtained from internal and external sources,
researches, primary and secondary sources and networks. Knowledge Storage and Retrieval is the
second stage which involves organising and filtering general information to meet the requirements of
a specific community of users and thus, producing contextual information (Martensson, 2000: 208). In
this stage, information is entered into a storage system and organised logically (Martensson, 2000:
209). Unless created knowledge is stored, it can be lost and cannot be retrieved when needed. In the
Knowledge Distribution stage, individuals assimilate the contextual information and transform it into
knowledge with their experiences, attitudes, and the context in which they work (Martensson, 2000:
208). Technology plays a significant role, in reference to the use of intelligent agencies to customise
information delivery, email, data mining, Intranets and Web portals (Liebowitz, 2000). The final step of
the KM process, Knowledge Application and Use is the stage when knowledge becomes behaviour or
action. Unless knowledge is utilized, it has no value. This process begins with people sharing
knowledge by talking and socialising with one another or by exchanging information in digital or
analogue form (Martensson, 2000: 209).

KM in business service organizations has implications for the productivity and effectiveness of
innovation (Leiponen, 2006: 239). Since these organizations offer highly professional services and
knowledge to their clients, all tacit and explicit skills are necessary resources for them (Leiponen,
2006). Business service companies usually prefer to hire highly trained individual experts (Leiponen,
2006) to point out their KM strategies. However, holding collective knowledge and sharing it through
accessible networks/servers with a common codification is required in order to provide an innovative
and creative service. It has been suggested that a knowledge-creating company should consistently
create new knowledge, share it throughout the organisation and capture it within new technologies,
processes, products and services (Ensor, Cottam and Band, 2000: 147).

It is observed that business service companies usually work with different teams according to the
projects and target-audience of the clients that they serve. According to Leiponen (2006),
accumulation and documention of created knowledge among the members of these teams and
between teams improves the competencies of sharing knowledge in business service organizations.
These practices can improve the efficiency of services and accelerate the creation of new services.
Improving existing services and developing new ones can be achieved through the strategic
orientation of knowledge management in business service organizations.

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Data, information and knowledge must be managed effectively in an environment where creativity and
finding new ideas are expected from the working people in their daily routines. Since it is very difficult
to present competitive ideas to clients, the agencies have to supply a creative work environment with
all its organizational and supervisory encouragement, impediments, pressures, challenges, resources
and supports (Ensor, Cottam and Band, 2000: 148).

Organizational encouragement includes sharing a vision, taking risks, offering support, recognition
and evaluation of ideas, encouraging the collaboration of ideas. If employees are encouraged to
share their knowledge and information within the agency, it can become a creative place to work.
Strategic planners and creatives are more efficient when they work in an environment full of sufficient
resources, since they are able to use these resources for finding new, creative and effective ideas.
The tacit and explicit knowledge sufficiency of agency members may lead the work environment to a
freer organization where they can work with relatively high autonomy. This freedom gives them the
opportunity to choose how they will accomplish tasks. The support and motivation of brand teams,
their tacit and explicit knowledge, and the constructive criticism of ideas are essential for current
advertising and media agencies. Supervisory encouragement becomes important, particularly in
national agencies in Turkey. They usually depend upon the comments and knowledge of supervisors,
since an international training program or the sharing of ideas globally is not usually available.
Agencies are communication-intesive organizations which “emphasize on encultured knowledge and
collective understanding” (Blackler, 1995: 1030).

A review of the literature on the usage of KM in agencies shows that, clients are delighted to get
monthly reports mapping key competitors’ trends (Smith, 2008). Additionally they give importance to
the industry knowledge of the agency. The development of the agency depends upon how the data
are created, stored, distributed and used.

Strategic planners transform the marketing brief into an advertising brief (that is, expressed in terms
which support the client's marketing strategy and which can be achieved through communication)
(Hackley, 2000: 240). While they are writing a creative brief, they need to add consumer insights
through qualitative researches, combine these insights with marketing data, and state the reason
behind the advertising strategy. Most agencies have similar processes, but it is important to know
how, where and when to use the data. There can be a huge amount of data which can be used for
developing the client’s creative work. Interpretation and representation of these data as knowledge
are the main factors that the clients give importance to. The knowledge in the translated creative brief
written by the strategic planners can stimulate the creative team.

Advertising and media agencies are engaged with the problem of how consumer insights will be
converted into marketing offers (Hackley, 2003). Agencies are seen as problem-solving organizations.
In order to solve the problems of the clients, they need to know the reasons behind the problems.
These reasons can be gathered through different kinds of research.

According to the qualitative research of Hackley (2000), the representations of knowledge (knowledge
of consumers, knowledge of clients, of markets and marketing, of art, popular culture and creative
craft) provide political power for the agency and its employees in meetings with the client. Agencies
are required to justify their campaigns, creative ideas, and innovations rationally. Therefore they
gather data about consumer insights, media, markets that will throw a light on creative ideas and
innovations. These data are stored and retrieved within their process and it is shared as knowledge
with their clients and employees.

The accountability of the campaigns is important for the clients. They want to see where their money
has been spent. The media agency may develop a new planning model. Once the plan is on air, they
collect all the data about this new planning model, and they prepare a final evaluation report or a
presentation about the advantages and disadvantages of this new planning model. As a result, they
justify their suggestion by interpreting all the data that have been gathered and change the data into
knowledge for their clients.

Strategic planners can be considered as the people who use knowledge management mostly in
agencies. Their jobs include market research, data analysis and interpretation and moderation. They
have the ability to analyse, interpret and “make sense” of market data and information (Baskin and
Pickton, 2003: 420). They can be considered as the information centre where the creatives and

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account executives can collect all the data and interpretation about consumer insight, market and
media information. They are also creative catalysts because they translate the marketing brief into a
creative brief enriched with knowledge. They are required to provide information for brainstorming
sessions in order to facilitate the brand team (Baskin and Pickton, 2003). The planner is an eclectic
user of information, is a knowledge manager and an information gatekeeper on behalf of the agency
(Baskin and Pickton, 2003: 421). The information gained from the consumer, the client’s culture,
marketplace/category, competition, brand (past, present, future) values, product qualities, advertising
and the communications conventions of the category (Baskin and Pickton, 2003: 422) are changed
into knowledge and mined as insights by the strategic planners for the creatives.

Jon Steel (1998) states that planners make a difference in a way by finding things out, filtering them,
re-thinking them laterally and using that knowledge to help creative people come up with a better idea
more easily or faster by working in different teams.

The people who follow up product developments, new models and results of research can easily
manage knowledge and generate new ideas. In the KM process, it is important to create, use and
manipulate the knowledge into value. Productivity and effectiveness are dependent on
implementation and development of new knowledge and on the contributions of knowledge workers in
modern organizations.
3. Methodology
The objectives of our research are:
ƒ To understand whether agencies apply the KM process
ƒ To find out if the process is managed strategically in agencies
ƒ To examine how much importance they give to KM
ƒ To discover how agencies convert knowledge into value
The research was done through semi-structured telephone interviews with the leading agencies in
Turkey identified by the Turkish Foundation of Advertising Agencies’ members list. All of the agencies
which took part in the research are based in İstanbul. The total number of members of the Foundation
of Advertising Agencies in Turkey is 94. Out of 94, 15 agencies were contacted during the research,
although only 10 agencies agreed to participate. In total, 14 representatives from 10 agencies of
various types (network, national, media agencies) were interviewed. The interviews were conducted
with senior managers who had at least five years of experience in the advertising business. 4 of the
interviewed were network creative agencies, 3 were national creative agencies and 3 were network
media agencies. The interview guide was constructed from the reviewed literature and from the
authors’ previous personal and academic experience in the advertising business. The intention was to
keep the interview as non-directive and open ended as possible. The qualitative data was analysed
and research findings are stated in the next section.
4. Research findings
Among the 10 agencies interviewed, it was observed that knowledge management is actively used in
advertising and media agencies. All of the interviewed agencies accepted knowledge as a crucial
value for finding creative and effective solutions for their clients. One of the important indicators given
to the value of knowledge is reflected in the high level of employees’ education. More than 75% of the
interviewed agency employees are university graduates from different fields, mostly from
communication and fine arts; economics, business administration, psychology, sociology and
literature. The variety of these fields provides an interdisciplinary environment for agencies where
employees can suggest numerous points of views with creative ideas.

Although explicit knowledge is essential at junior levels, it is found out that experience, which is
represented as tacit knowledge, becomes more important at senior levels. Experience is also a
requirement that an interviewed media agency expects from a new employee and for this reason,
internship has become a lengthy trial period to assess and enhance trainees’ knowledge and
capabilities. One of the representatives from a national creative agency said:
“Our internship is for a 6 month period in which they take on-the-job training for
advertising. We decide on the most appropriate department for them according to their
skills during this period.”

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Training is important, not only for interns, but also for all employees. Half of the interviewed agencies
implement a yearly plan for the required training programs. The other half runs training programs
spontaneously, according to the want and need. All of the interviewed agencies have a budget for
training programs whether planned or not and this indicates their emphasis on knowledge creation.

All of the interviewed agencies have very effective and cooperative relations with the Turkish
Foundation of Advertising Agencies. They usually send their employees to training programmes
organized by the Foundation, such as S.T.E.P. (Basic Sectoral Training Program). The other
accepted training resources are independent training companies (such as Mediacat Institute,
Management Centre) and partners from advertising and media (AGB, Bileşim, Nielson, TGI, HTP,
TNS and so on). Employees of network agencies seem to have more opportunities to go abroad on
exchange programs for training. One of the representatives from a network agency stated:
“We developed a training model which enables our employees to work in different
departments for 5 weeks for other network members within a particular exchange
program. The knowledge and experience gained through this program extends their
global vision and improves their skills in creating new ideas.”
Another network agency highlighted their knowledge-based arrangement with their “company”
university:
“We have a “company” university in Europe where senior employees can be trained
professionally on special topics about advertising. Cost of the training is funded by the
local network agency.”
As it is stated previously in Table 1, Leiponen (2006) has explained knowledge in two categories
within two dimensions. According to our research among interviewed agencies, these categories and
dimensions can be defined as follows:
Table 2: Dimensions of knowledge in advertising and media agencies

Individual Collective/organizational

Tacit Internship at junior level, Trainings for all employees

experience at senior level

Explicit Agency employees graduated from Creative campaign ideas,

different fields: communication, fine creative solutions, invention and
arts; economics, business generation of new ideas
administration, psychology,
sociology and literature

4.1 Knowledge creation

Past models of research departments in creative agencies have changed into strategic planning
departments where all required data are gathered, analyzed and translated from information to
knowledge. All of the interviewed agencies have a separate strategic planning department within their
organization. In addition to the strategic planning departments, most of the interviewed media
agencies have research departments with research specialists:
“Our research department consists of 12 specialists from different areas. They work on
business development; advanced technologies; and data analysis gained through
different researches and then develop new modules according to the needs of brand
groups.”
All of the interviewed agencies stated that they use various knowledge sources such as independent
research companies, the Internet, network sources, media monitoring companies, specialized
publications on advertising, international trends reports, daily newspapers and monthly/weekly
publications. Agencies also conduct their own research in addition to the sales and marketing data
supplied by their clients. As Smith (2008) stated clients are delighted to get monthly reports mapping
key competitors’ trends. It is also mentioned that agencies can encourage their clients to conduct

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required research. Clients have become more conscious about providing various knowledge sources
through researches which have positive effects on efficiency. One of the network agencies declared:
“We conducted a special system that monitors the trends, tastes, likes and dislikes of
three different consumer groups each month. This system improves and strengthens our
strategic planning and decision making skills. In this way, creatives can hear the voice of
consumers simultaneously”
It is obvious that most of the agencies are able to access various sources, but, as one of the
interviewed agency representatives highlighted, the major skill is to change obtained data into
meaningful knowledge:
“….Today we can easily reach many data sources with the help of communication
technologies. However, it is important to sort, analyse and interpret knowledge from data.
Otherwise, agencies are unable to provide value for clients.”
As consumers have become the most important isssue of all marketing communication efforts,
agencies tend to concentrate on research about consumer behaviour. Regarding today’s complex and
demanding consumers, agencies try to understand them and discover the reasons that lie behind
their behavioural decisions. This point stresses the importance of consumer insight research. Media
preferences and the motto of the audience while they are consuming media are also crucial indicators
of consumer insights.

Agencies benefit from both qualitative and quantative data. They are of the opinion that they can use
qualitative data if they need to find out the reasons behind statistics. Qualitative data are able to
supply in-depth information, which enables them to gain broader vision and generate creative
solutions. Qualitative data ('talking to people') are considered as a good source of knowledge, in an
advertising strategy particularly for gaining insight about the reasoning processes of consumers
(Hackley, 2000). Agencies use numerous research techniques, such as focus groups, in-depth
interviews, ethnographic researches and Internet surveys in order to collect data. As one
representative stated, observing consumers in their own places is widely preferred among agencies
since they reveal clues about their lifestyles and rituals:
“If we want to address the young generation, we prefer to observe them in their own
rooms at home. Everything in the room can give a message about their lifestyles and we
can translate this message into significant data for the creative brief. A poster on the wall,
a book on the shelf, a bag on the floor gives us clues.”
Although creative agencies mostly conduct qualitative research, they also accept quantative research
results as valuable knowledge. Most of the interviewed agencies mentioned that quantative data are
obtained from the clients. It is also noted that participant media agencies intensively use quantative
data for preparing effective media plans.

4.2 Knowledge storage and retrieval

As it is stated by Alavi (2000), creating new knowledge is not enough; people and organizations
should be able to reach knowledge when needed, and this stresses the importance of knowledge
storage. During the interviews, it was identified that general knowledge is shared on a common server
that all agency members can access on demand. If the knowledge belongs to a specific account
group, it is accepted as confidential and shared only by related brand teams. Whether online or
offline, every participant agency has a library where all documents, subscribed publications, research
results, databases and books on advertising are stored, and all still think that their libraries can be
enlarged.

4.3 Knowledge distribution

When agencies are analysed from the view of knowledge distribution, most of them are of the opinion
that their executive managers support knowledge sharing:
“Our CEO checks out news about different account groups from Adage, Campaign,
Archive and national publications and sends them to the related brand teams with
highlighted notes.”
One of the agencies asserted that sharing knowledge between clients and agencies has become
more pervasive. Clients are more willing to offer their sales and marketing information. Sectoral

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developments are also followed in order to acquire knowledge on current issues about advertising.
Some of the interviewed agencies also gave importance to the perception of their own organization
among advertisers. They conducted different researches to measure how they are perceived by
various advertisers.

In some of the interviewed agencies, strategic planners summarize the results of research and share
them within the agency. If one of the employees loads new information concerning all the brand
teams, he/she sends an email to everyone to let them know about the new information.

All the participant media agencies send weekly/monthly bulletins, reports or presentations, including
brief information about the media, consumers and media consumption to their clients. However, this
system is not regularly applied in the creative agencies that usually share information by emails sent
to different client groups. Network agencies can also distribute information via network Intranet
systems which enables them to announce news globally. Some of the agencies share information not
only with their clients or employees, but also with other stakeholders when there is something worth
declaring about them. They usually get press endorsement to convey their business success which
helps them to promote their agency. Furthermore, the advertising and media knowledge provided by
some agencies’ web sites can help people who are willing to look for information about this sector.
Sharing knowledge is crucial, not only for the existing clients’ loyalty, but also for getting the attention
of potential clients’, as stated in the interviews with the agencies.

According to Alavi (2000), the storage of best practices and learnings in organizations can provide
benefits for organisational memory. On the other hand, sharing of best practices and learnings is also
essential for knowledge distribution. During the interviews, it was discovered that best practices and
learnings are shared widely in the agencies, but each has its own implementation of this process:
“….Although we are not a network agency, we select some interpartners from other
countries with which we share success stories….”
“…We also share some different examples from all over the world such as the Cannes
analysis with our employees….”
“In addition to our best practices, our international clients send us successful case
studies from their countries.”
“…We have advantages as a network agency. We have ambassadors in every country
in the network. We can get necessary information about different sectors, advertisers,
competitors, campaigns from these ambassadors. This system gives us the opportunity
to gain insight before we get new clients from new sectors.”
It is obvious that the role of this ambassador is to gather knowledge and share it when needed.

4.4 Knowledge application

Managing knowledge efficiently gives an opportunity of finding creative, effective and innovative
ideas. When the use of knowledge in agencies is observed, it is found that agencies can suggest new
media alternatives, change of target audiences, and even new sales channels:
“…Knowledge has a significant role in generating new ideas which will fit the clients’
communication objectives. We can even suggest new sales channels to our strategic
partners: our clients. Therefore, knowledge has high value in ensuring our success.”
“A creative brief supported by knowledge prepared by strategic planners leads to
creative work. Data are processed by our strategic planners to achieve the steps of
brand identification, positioning and communication strategy development. At the end of
the whole process, knowledge is transferred to a creative brief.”
As a result, KM process in the interviewed advertising and agencies can be shown as:

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Knowledge Storage and Knowledge Knowledge

Creation Retrieval Distribution Application

Gathering data from various

knowledge sources such as The exchange
Storing
independent research of knowledge
gathered Implementation
companies, the Internet, with the
information in of creative
network sources, media creative team
the agency ideas derived
monitoring companies, and related
library, Internet from
specialized publications on clients, sharing
and Intranet, knowledge in
advertising, international of tacit and
databases, campaigns
trends reports, daily explicit
books,
newspapers and knowledge
publications
monthly/weekly publications, through
Figure 2: Knowledge management process in advertising and media agencies
Agencies that are able to put knowledge in use in order to create new ideas can be distinguished from
the competition. They generate different modules from which they can track marketing plans and
consumer trends. Clients are not classified according to their advertising budgets; rather, they tend to
provide the same qualified service for each client. Using the Internet efficiently, offering systematic
approaches, tacit and explicit knowledge and variety in the client portfolios are the main factors which
help agencies to position themselves one step ahead of their competitors. However, as stated by
most agencies, knowledge itself does not carry a competitive advantage; it is the interpretation,
integration and use of knowledge within the business processes which makes a difference.
5. Discussion and conclusions
After analysing research findings, it was found out that all the participant agencies use KM somehow,
although they are not consciously aware of the steps and the processes. As Hackley (2000) has
underlined in his discourse analysis about one of the top 5 UK advertising agencies, agencies are
knowledge organizations which manage and sell knowledge about advertising, consumer and creative
craft; however “concrete source of authority and direction, ‘management’ seemed silent yet as a
discursive construction its controlling presence was psychologically pervasive” (Hackley, 2000: 239).
It can be said that although agencies do not have a formal procedure of KM, they are psychologically
aware of the importance and benefits of knowledge. Essentially, they give high importance to
knowledge creation, storage and retrieval, distribution and application (see Figure 2) since they
ultimately achieve a competitive advantage and create value for their clients with this process.

Consumer insights are accepted as one of the vital data in knowledge creation. All new and
experienced employees are equipped with knowledge through national/international and
internal/external training programs. Extended internship periods provide trainees with the ability to
improve their tacit knowledge. Knowledge-based agencies give essential roles to strategic planners
who are organized within a separate department. They are considered as the people who create and
interpret knowledge in agencies. Collabration of different teams such as strategic planners and
creatives, or account executives and planners, is the power behind the agency. Knowledge creation,
mining the created knowledge and sharing it are the key steps for agencies, and computer supported
cooperative work systems can help to carry out all these processes. Special software is used in order
to retrieve and analyse the results of different reserach by the strategic planners and media planners.
Online surveys and the agencies’ own public relations efforts are also remarkable among the
interviewed agencies.

Employees can easily access information from stored knowledge from one location via file servers,
databases, emails and web services. This facility enables employees to spend less time on searching
for information and more time on creating efficient solutions.

The success of the Turkish Foundation of Advertising Agencies in the distribution of knowledge
cannot be underestimated in the sector. Their trainings, workshops, seminars and conferences
provide alternative sources of knowledge, and help to enhance the level of knowledge in the
advertising sector. Although top managers and network agencies encourage knowledge sharing,
agency representatives think that it can be improved. Developments in communication technologies
have significant roles in knowledge sharing among agencies, networks and clients. Best practices,

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learnings, current trends, research findings and other news are distributed among employees and
clients, but not on a regular basis due to lack of time in their busy routine.

As a result, it can be said that KM is a way to improve performance, productivity and competitiveness
in agencies. Sharing and use of information within agencies, finding creative, innovative and efficient
ideas and solutions and capturing best practices can be accomplished through the KM process. It is
observed that agencies which can put knowledge into application can gain a competitive advantage.
This study attempts to contribute to the field of advertising and knowledge management about how
agencies implement KM process in order to create value by changing data into knowledge.
6. Further research
This paper may encourage future studies on KM among agencies. Collaboration of academics and
agencies could be strengthened and extended. Findings suggest that the KM process is applied
effectively among the interviewed agencies but there must surely be other agencies that cannot or do
not apply the process. The main obstacles to implementation could be discovered through further
research. Quantative research could be applied to measure the effects of KM on the success of the
advertising business. The Turkish Foundation of Advertising Agencies as a non profit organization,
could be considered as a good model for other sectors. The organizational structure and operations of
the Foundation and its bonds with agencies could be analysed in a further case study.
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