On Trust and Planning

One of the characteristics that makes agency people interesting is their ability to be curious about everything which is a good thing except when that behavior manifests itself as a failure to focus on any one issue for very longamp160 We all know the adage that a reputation takes years to build and seconds to destroyamp160 Well the agencies and in particular their traders have managed through their behaviors to set the sector the task of rebuilding its reputation which will take years not momentsThis is really down to the big network agencies owned by the holding groupsamp160 The likes of the7stars Bountiful Cow Horizon Media and Goodstuff are all benefiting from living by their transparent and objective principles and a very good thing too but for the sector to flourish it needs the big guys to step upFrom observation there are some promising signs There39s much more talk of planning skills and of collaboration as opposed to confrontationamp160 When did Campaign last carry a headline about ABC agency39s trading dispute with XYZ broadcasteramp160 Agencies are slowly realizing that the way out of this massive selfinflicted mess is via planningamp160 And furthermore planning that39s worth paying foramp160 Which means planning that delivers a recognizable business benefit to the advertiserThis shifting of focus from buying to planning is becoming recognizedamp160 A new study from Forrester which ranks media agencies by their skills across multiple disciplines via a sample of advertisers concludes quotIn a programmatic environment buying clout becomes less importantamp160 The smart agencies are making strides to build consulting marketing and data analytics services beyond conventional media servicesquotIn the early days of The Cog Blog I was regularly harangued by those agency managers whose route to riches was given that no one will pay for planning the future lies in datafuelled trading mechanisms employed by those bastions of best practice the financial tradersamp160 That plan hasn39t worked out too well with more and more clients realizing that data is far too important to be left to their agency39s often sketchy and underresourced data teams and who are thus choosing to take the data task inhouse to a greater or lesser degreeTo repeatamp160 In an entirely related finding 40 of advertisers say that trust in their agency is quotlowquotThe large agencies pride themselves in having the skills to advise their clients on what to do when faced with a reputational crisisamp160 At least some are taking a long hard look in the mirror and working out what they can do to best deliver to their clients39 as opposed to their own current and future needsLook after your clients and the rest will take care of itself as someone probably saidDisclosure BJampampA has done consultancy work for the7starsClick 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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On Trust and Planning

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Brian Jacobs

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