Finding New Frenemies Is Good for Business - Michael Kassan - MediaBizBloggers

Ever since WPP Group chief Sir Martin Sorrell first started using the word "frenemy" to describe Google, probably sometime around 2006, the term has become a fixture in the communications lexicon.

Sir Martin later called Google a "froe," which hasn't really caught on like "frenemy" has, probably because of its unfortunate similarity to the hairstyle. And I'll grant that it is a bit disconcerting that we have so enthusiastically adopted a word first used to describe a certain kind of friendship among high school girls.

But in our business, frenemy -- as The Urban Dictionary defines it, "someone who is both friend and enemy, a relationship that is both mutually beneficial or dependent while being competitive, fraught with risk and mistrust" -- is a perfect descriptor.

However, I would argue that the "risk and mistrust" part in our case is balanced by the constant potential for new alliances. In fact, the idea of frenemies seamlessly fits the reality, even the necessity, of maintaining ever-shifting relationships in an ecosystem of unending change.

You could argue, in fact, that the central motivating force in our industry today -- the integration of content, channels and corporate structures -- almost mandates that we think about our business connections as flexible and changeable.

Clients already are comfortable with the frenemy concept. Verizon, for example, has joined Microsoft and AT&T in leading opposition to Google's proposed purchase of mobile ad company AdMob. Yet Verizon partners with Google on Droid. Speaking of smartphones, Apple and Google, once mutual admirers, are now frenemies, with Apple launching its own mobile ad initiative, iAd. And, of course, everybody advertises on everybody else's platforms all of the time.

In fact, some of the most innovative clients are restructuring in ways that encourage -- if not demand -- frenemy relationships. Consider Microsoft and AT&T, who are advertisers, channel providers and content developers, all at the same time.

We need to explore the potential of new allies and innovative new unions in areas that we formerly considered antagonistic, with as much vigor as we explore new types of content, or emerging distribution platforms, or more relevant metrics. Like everything else in our business lives, the definition of who is and who isn't a frenemy is always changing.

Today's opponent can be tomorrow's ally in this fashion. Isn't that, after all, the very essence of a cross-platform deal? Opposing forces coming together to create a mutually beneficial program? When buyers and sellers join forces to improve metrics, isn't that frenemies working in concert for their common good?

Well, those are obvious examples of "frenships" producing positive outcomes. But there are new ones. And we should be actively searching for them.

For example, I've mentioned in this space before how uneasy I am about purchasing's growing power in the media business. Clearly, we don't think of them as friends. But what if we engaged purchasing executives to educate them about our business and show them how evaluating performance on cost alone can cost them in the marketplace? Maybe we should stop complaining about them and start thinking about how to make them frenemies--to everybody's benefit.

And what is the iPad, after all, but a "frenemy" for a magazine publisher?

Sir Martin, as he so often is, was prescient when he used the word "frenemy" in a media business context. But we should go further than simply throwing the word around as an ironic aside. We should pro-actively seek new alliances among those who we might otherwise consider opponents.

We might find that making frenemies can be really, really good for business.

Michael E. Kassan is Chairman and CEO of MediaLink, LLC, a leading Los Angeles and New York City-based advisory and business development firm that provides critical counsel and direction on issues of marketing, advertising, media, entertainment and digital technology. Michael can be reached at michael@medialinkllc.com

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