Change is Upon Us and All Around Us

Media agencies have always believed in evolving their services amp160It wasnamp8217t actually all that long ago that they simply bought media amp160Then they added basic planning amp160Then in no particular order research marketing science capabilities content creation event management sponsorship rights management adtech capabilities and othersIt could be argued that many developed too fast driven by the promise of easy profits and easier headlines and that they failed to integrate some of these added value services within their core offering amp160You could also quite legitimately claim that others provided some of these services better or more objectively amp160But you really canamp8217t fault the ambition or the visionMany including me would say that the large network media agencies is currently facing a collective crisis of trust largely of its own making amp160The old culture of profiting from media buying has retained a primacy despite the world moving on amp160Today as more and more buying becomes automated there is a need to shift the focus onto what might be shorthanded as planningThis shift has serious consequences amongst them a need to prove objectivity and transparency and to create a structure and a mindset that encourages integration as opposed to the sort of siloed specialization that has so often been divisiveamp160 There is also an implication on revenues and profits at the large holding companies amp160Moving from a murky opaque model towards something far closer to a consultancy will not happen overnight amp160Quite aside from threatening profits and thus share price such a move will impact recruitment policies pay grades measures of success contracts deal structures with media vendors and the basic principles of client remunerationBut the signs that this is starting to happen are all around us amp160GroupMamp8217s new leadership has appointed a Chief Transformation Officer the highly regarded Lindsay Pattison who retains her role as Global CEO at Maxus thus ensuring a key connection with the real worldHavas has announced a transparent programmatic system that claims to shine a light on the mess that is the digital advertising supply chainLast year Omnicom launched a media agency Hearts and Science that puts data at the heart of the operation and which promptly started winning major businessPublicis Media has been talking up its investment in understanding artificial intelligence and how this will they hope move them upstream with advertisersGroupMamp8217s Mindshare has brought its FAST unit into the mainstream agency as a step towards delivering a more integrated service to clientsIn the largest move of all Vivendi has taken control of Havas thus bringing a giant media owner and the Havas media agency operations under a single parentThis last raises the legitimate concern of the media agencyamp8217s objectivity being compromised a concern that canamp8217t be evaporated by the argument put forward by the Havas management that amp8220we wouldnamp8217t be that stupidamp8221Yes the merger brings the opportunity for collaboration between content owners and creators and advertisers but you donamp8217t really need to merge anything to achieve that goalIf nothing else Havas has handed its competitors a readymade sales argument to be used against themStay tuned folksClick the social buttons above or below to share this content 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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Change is Upon Us and All Around Us

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Brian Jacobs

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Change is Upon Us and All Around Us

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