Steve Grubbs: The Pitfalls of "Efficiency First" Buying Strategies

Over the last few years the Scientists have seized the kingdom and the Artists have been banished to the northern wall yes quotGame of Thronesquotamp160 There are several reasons for this but in part it is the outgrowth of media agency reaction to client procurement officers demanding lower media costsamp160 No doubt the Scientists are best equipped to manage this taskamp160 They have architected big data teams and upgraded audience targeting capabilities which in turn contribute to more efficient media buysamp160 They have implemented automated buying systems to improve the efficiency of the buysell processamp160 By their nature they have turned a blind eye to some of the pitfalls of the quotefficiency firstquot buying strategy such as overdelivering frequency at the expense of reach ad placements that are never actually viewed or placements that appear in remarkably incongruous environmentsamp160 To argue with them is akin to defying the Lannister clanamp160So I was pleasantly surprised last month when I read that PepsiCo announced it was disbanding their marketing procurement team and turning those responsibilities over to individual brand managersamp160 I don39t know the motivation behind this moveamp160 Maybe some of the procurement team had moved on or maybe they realized that they had pretty much squeezed all the blood from that stoneamp160 Or maybe one of the most creative marketing companies of the last 50 years realized that the pendulum had swung too far in favor of the Scientists at the expense of creativity and impactI believe the marketing procurement function has instilled some much needed purchasing discipline into the media buying processamp160 It certainly shined a bright light on some traditional buying processes that needed more rigor and validationamp160 For years media buyers have struggled to respond to clients asking the question quotHow do I know if I got a good buyquot The procurement folks and auditors have helped frame the answerBack to the Scientists amp8230 they will rule the day so long as marketers grade their media agencies and choose their media agencies primarily on cost savings guarantees This is even more perplexing when many of these cost savings guarantees are derived from numbers reinterpretation or simply buying cheaper ratings points without regard for context Cost savings do not equal more impactful advertising amp8230 nor do more impressions and GRPsIt39s no surprise that we find ourselves in this positionamp160 It is so much easier to demonstrate how you saved a client 10 on their media buy vs quantifying the impact of contextual placements or branded content integrations on building brand valueamp160 The Scientists can point to realtime results and industry standard data that are accepted by all while the Artists have fewer measurement standardsamp160 Some brilliant quotgutquot calls by Artists are never acted on because they can39t be justified by precampaign estimatesamp160 Their brilliance is only appreciated postcampaignFor many years Pepsi Anheuser Busch and a handful of other marketers produced phenomenal creative campaigns enhanced by brilliant media placementsamp160 Yes they cost a lot of money but the combined effect was powerful brand advertisingamp160 Given that TV programming websitesamp160and mobile devices are increasingly cluttered with ad messages and consumers are increasingly finding means to filter or avoid them amp8230 and given that fragmentation across all media is making the longtail even longer amp8230amp160 maybe it39s time we return the Artists from exileImage at top courtesy of Corbis The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecom MyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggers

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Steve Grubbs: The Pitfalls of "Efficiency First" Buying Strategies

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