Amid the “Restlessness,” What Do Advertisers Want?

A recent piece in AdAge suggested that advertisers want a new media agency model but arenamp8217t too sure what such a model might look like Actually I suspect advertisers know very well what they want Whenever I speak to advertisers which I do quite often two key principles emerge that need to underpin any new model Integration and transparency Thatamp8217s what most advertisers claim to want yet it seems hard for agencies to deliver to either concept Why might that beThere has been quite enough from me about transparency recently Although there is more to come Iamp8217m afraid So letamp8217s take a look at integrationThe first thing to note is that amp8220integrationamp8221 is not the same thing as a amp8220land grabamp8221 In the former the roster agencies working handinglove with their common client put in place processes and procedures that ensure that they are encouraged and indeed rewarded for working well together to the benefit of the clientIn the second one agency typically these days the media agency claims to be able to do everything thus delivering integration inhouseThereamp8217s a kindof middlepath landgrab within which one holding company claims to be able to deliver an integrated service across its operating units Sometimes this works sometimes the agencies within the holding company fall out over who gets the largest slice of the cake A kindof internal landgrabThe problem with the landgrab approach is that noone is utterly brilliant at everything Skilful people want to go somewhere where their skills are recognized and developed and where they can learn alongside other skilful peopleItamp8217s ironic that media agencies are scornful of clients taking media inhouse or of developing their own trading mechanisms That will never work Itamp8217s all far too complicated and anyway theyamp8217ll never attract the top talent they mockYet they do the exact same thing themselves The agencies have a point the main reason that most client inhouse media experiments of the past havenamp8217t worked is lack of resource lack of commitment from top management and lack of top talentBut isnamp8217t it the same when the media agencies try and pretend to be hubs of creative excellence Or providers of content Or when they set up marketing science units in competition to far better resourced expert organizationsOne thing clients do tend to say is that they get tired of managing warring factions within their agency roster Refereeing between those intent on landgrabs Wasting time seeing agency presentations on topics about which they know far less than specialists simply in order to keep the peace Herding cats is fun in comparisonYears ago at Leo Burnett we had an approach called ICS if memory serves The idea was to offer a fully integrated service across communication channels maintaining the purity and integrity of the original big ideaWe once presented to Cathay Pacific Our pitch was that we should do everything that communicated with the public including the design and production of the antimacassars on the backs of the seats on the planesThe Cathay client said something Iamp8217ve always remembered In effect amp8220Yes I buy the principle of taking an idea across channels including antimacassars But you had better be at least as good as the best antimacassar supplier If youamp8217re at least as good thatamp8217s good enough the benefit of integration will win you the day But if youamp8217re one degree worse than the best then that failure in quality will definitely impact how we see the rest of what you doamp8221None of us are the best at everything and landgrabs often end in tearsThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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Amid the “Restlessness,” What Do Advertisers Want?

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Brian Jacobs

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Amid the “Restlessness,” What Do Advertisers Want?

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