Pitch Mania, Part One: Account Shockers!

This is not I feel a coincidence We are not talking about those small lesssophisticated advertisers many of whose main driver is to reduce costs Thatamp8217s not to suggest that even the largest arenamp8217t interested in a better deal itamp8217s just that the big guys understand the value of great plans and the benefits of data management and put factors like these alongside straight costAgency managers have been quick to herald this flood of pitches as proof positive that advertisers have finally recognised what they the agencies have been preaching for years Their futuregazing is they say finally coming to pass This they contend is the dawn of a new model based around integration joinedup thinking Big Data analytics and the restIamp8217m afraid this is selfdelusion writ largeI suspect this flood of pitches is about a new model but I doubt it is being driven by agency farsightedness My suspicion is that this has come about as a result of our old friend amp8220transparencyamp8221 along with his mate amp8220fraudamp8221I spend a fair bit of time with large advertisers Indeed I was invited to speak to a WFA group some months ago about agency models After my remarks I was approached by several large players wishing to speak to me oneononeThe general message was amp8220We have been with our agency for many years by amp8220agencyamp8221 they mean MindshareMediacomStarcomCaratetc and we love them They do great work But we are not happy at all with their digital trading desks by which they mean XaxisAmnetVivakiAnnalect and the like Our agency contacts are equally unhappy with their trading colleagues but they seem unable to do anything about their behaviour What should we doamp8221Since then weamp8217ve had the Jon Mandel revelations in the USA as well as the thoughts of the analyst Brian Wiesler Wiesler has already commented on the pitch flood as justification for his decision to advise his clients not to invest in the holding companiesThe stakes have been raised the holding companies who and this has to be a guess as they donamp8217t publish financials by operating division make disproportionately more margin from their media operations than from anywhere else are under pressure from their advertisers to act The dilemma is how to do so without killing the goose responsible for all those lovely golden eggsWell now the advertisers have spoken If as an advertiser youamp8217re told that your partner agency is unable to interfere in trading matters for contractual reasons then what do you do You change the contractAnd if your friendly partner holding company isnamp8217t happy about doing that and tells the middle managers at the client that theyamp8217re not prepared to negotiate then your best bet is to remind them whoamp8217s money this is and call a pitchOf course these pitches could all be the most extraordinary set of coincidences But like Bob Hoffman the Adcontrarian I donamp8217t believe in coincidencesThe interesting thing to watch over the coming weeks will be to see who wins After all if all the holding companies are up to the same tricks within their media operations then itamp8217s a fair bet that the winners will be those prepared to offer up a new model amp8211 one based on fairness and full transparencyAnd wouldnamp8217t that be a thingThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage management or associated bloggersamp160

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Pitch Mania, Part One: Account Shockers!

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Brian Jacobs

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Pitch Mania, Part One: Account Shockers!

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