The Future of the Media Agency – Part 1 - Brian Jacobs

It is generally acknowledged that the whole field of communications has changed unrecognisably over the last 10 years or so And that the speed of change has been accelerating Given this is it still appropriate that those charged with advising their clients on how best to use communication channels to change behaviour build brands sell product are structured pretty well as they always have beenThe next few Cog Blogs will explore the future of media agencies Have they lived up to their early promise Are they set to prosper in the futureMedia agencies began life in the 197039s The exact year varies by country and anyway doesn39t matter much Their reason for being certainly in the UK and it can be argued elsewhere too was born out of a failure by the old fullservice ad agencies to take the subject of media seriously A group of talented entrepreneurs left the ad agencies set up on their own and promptly walked off with large chunks of businessToday media agencies are somewhat schizophrenic On the one hand they do genuinely interesting creative and actionable work that brings the early promise of the media agency being positioned at the centre of all communications activity closer on the other they behave something like powercrazed lunatics making free with their clients39 budgetsSomething has gone wrong somewhere Rather than focussing on buying the plan the buying end of the business now seems to be at least as much about inventing ways of making money for the agency as doing the best for their client Sometimes these things coincide amp8211 but often they don39tFor those who doubt the full extent of media agencies39 creativity in enhancing their margins this excellent article published in Australia a few weeks ago explains it all far better than I could httpmumbrellacomauwhatyourmediaagencymightnotbetellingyou168038 What drives agencies to behave like this Many in the agency business would say it39s as a direct result of clients cutting 39official39 fees to the bone So the agency has to look elsewhere for its revenue That39s a cop out agencies like any provider of any service have to justify the value they deliver As long as that value is defined in simple price terms then clients will continue to push fees down If the agencies weren39t prepared to accept that fact then there wouldn39t be so many of them taking part in competitive reviewsThe agencies have a choice Either they can continue to accept lower fees and make their money unofficially Or they can help clients understand the true value they bring and charge accordinglyTheir future lies in the latter In Part 2 of this Cog Blog series we explore whyBrian 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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The Future of the Media Agency – Part 1 - Brian Jacobs

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