Planning The Future; The Future for Media Agencies - Part 2 - Brian Jacobs

In the first blog in this series on what the future might look like for the media agency we focussed on the difference between the public face of the agency based on a deep and often profound understanding of consumers and their relationship with communication channels and the more private reality based around supplementing their meagre earnings through unofficial kickbacks and payments in kind from media ownersThe unpalatable fact is that whenever surveys of client attitudes are conducted media agencies are neither trusted nor particularly wellregarded by their customers They are still referred to as 39media buyers39 they still speak in strange tongues especially if they are a digital whiz kid whose terms of employment demand that they frequently use words noone else in the room understands and the benefits they bring to their clients are all too often described by commentators and even some of these clients as being largely about price Look at how the less wellinformed noise around the planned Publicis Omnicom merger focussed on buying muscleMany have argued that digital channels and access to data changes everything and up to a point they39re correct The ability to analyse large tranches of data improves the important business of tying business results and media activities together marry that with the opportunity for a far greater degree of accountability than ever before and the result must be a good thingMedia agencies and their owners were indeed quick to embrace the digital and data worlds through acquisitions new talent and internal structures But once again the story has mushroomed out of control with the suspicion that on too many occasions the agencies have simply used the growing complexity surrounding digital matters to feather their own nests through such practices long abhorred ironically by many of them in traditional media as broking The opportunity to become known for smart uses of digital or brilliant data analytics might not have vanished but it39s a lot harder when the backdrop to any such story is all around what is seen as dodgy behaviourEven in today39s digital world the same basic rules still apply Planners still plan campaigns to reach a defined target with a defined purpose in mind Research is still used to help planners plan and to learn from results Data analytics is an aid to planning learning what works helps you do more of itThe problem for the media agencies is that they have made the planning bit hard to understand and to interact with It39s all presented as being a bit mysterious a bit scientific a bit overengineered Organisations have become too siloed with specialists too separated from generalists separate businesses generally in separate buildings does not aid teamwork Planning the bit closest to the client39s business is often undervalued and rather overlooked within a process that focusses far more on the easytounderstand bit the prices discount levels and kickbacks achieved50 off the wrong thing does not make it the right thing The plan39s the thing not the buy For media agencies to move up the value chain they have to become better known and better regarded for their planning skills as opposed to for their buying muscle They need to change the agenda away from brawn alone to brains driving brawnIn the next and final blog in this series we will propose a new structure for the media agency one that more properly recognises the values they bring to their clientsBrian Jacobs spent over 35 years in advertising media and research agencies including spells at Leo Burnett UK EMEA International Media Director Carat International Managing Director Universal McCann EMEA Director and Millward Brown EVP Global Media He has worked in the UK EMEA and globally out of the USA His experience covers shifts from fullservice ad agencies to media agencies from traditional singlecommercialchannel TV to multifaceted digital channels and from media planning to multidisciplinary communication planning Brian can be reached at brianbjandacom Read all Brian Jacobs39 MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Brian Jacobs amp160Check us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentariesImage courtesy of cooldesignFreeDigitalPhotosnet

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Planning The Future; The Future for Media Agencies - Part 2 - Brian Jacobs

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