Agency Reboot

Farmeramp160was reacting to the latest ANA work on the lack of transparency in the ad production business amp160His counter argument runs that yes agencies have been guilty of opaque business practices but that on the other sideamp160advertisers have been guilty of undervaluing their agencies for many years amp160Although the quotbut they drove me to it officerquotamp160defense is a weak one he still makes a good pointIndeed The Cog Blog has made the same point albeit from a different perspective My view is driven by the various reported misdemeanors of the media agencies keeping rebates and becoming so infatuated with the ever more Byzantine deals of their trading divisions that they39ve lost sight of the immense benefits of objectivity in media planningAgency CEOs who read this blog or at least those who have reacted to it have in the past accused me of being unrealistic and naive amp160quotClients won39t pay for planningquotamp160they say amp160As a result the agency is driven no doubt despite its better nature to earn a crust by in effect defrauding their client even if a linebyline examination of many contracts may well make the point that they39re within their legal rights to act as they doWhose fault is it that clients don39t think planning is worth paying for amp160Procurement officers is the kneejerk response but that39s not fair amp160Sure they may be the last link in the chain but this story starts to go wrong way before they get involvedThe truth is that the agencies themselves haven39t valued planning sufficiently to be able to make a strong enough case for them to be paid for the service amp160If they don39t value the skill why should their clientsImagine yourself as a media agency CEO facing this dilemma amp160You39re short of your revenue targets amp160Given that there39s no magic new business tree your only options areamp1601 convince your clients to pay for a service you39ve been giving away for yearsamp160or 2 beat up your favorite media owner for a slightly larger rebateMost go for option twoThere39s a useful analogy in the market research world amp160A few years ago BJampampA did some work for ISBA on the role of procurement in negotiating market research contracts amp160We interviewed several procurement chiefs whose main aim was to do all they could to understand the MR business some market research leaders some of whom were determined to stop their procurement colleagues presumably in an attempt to maintain the mystery and a few research agency CEOs who were all too often caught in the middleOne of the research agency people we spoke to made a good point amp160He said that for years many of his colleagues in market research agencies had charged for fieldwork the quotdoingquotamp160if you like and had given the interpretation the quotthinkingquotamp160bit away for freeWhen fieldwork switched to being more of a commodityamp160delivered online the agencies tried to start charging for interpretation amp160The client response was unsurprising quotWhy should we pay for something you39ve been giving us for years amp160What39s changedquot amp160If you substitute buying for quotfieldworkquotamp160and planning for quotinterpretationquotamp160you have the selfsame problem as faced by the media agenciesHeaven forbid that the media agencies might have something to learn from anybody else let alone the market research world but actually they do Demonstrate the true value of what you do is the basic lesson amp160And if you believe that what you do goes far beyond negotiating cheap prices as it surely does then prove your worth amp160Furthermore embrace procurement and explain why what you do is worthy of their support amp160Deliver quality thinking demonstrate business benefit after all you do this when there39s an award at the end of it and charge amp160Work with the 4As and the IPAamp160even go so far as to collaborate with your competitors if that39s what it takesTrading is being cleaned up and anyway it won39t be long before much of it is automated quotfieldwork goes onlinequot amp160The management consultancy businesses are coming after planning about which more in the coming weeks amp160Now39s the time to rebootClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160

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Agency Reboot

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Brian Jacobs

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