What Is GroupM For?

Now that I39ve got your click the real question is What is the point of the media agency miniholding companies Do they even have a reason for being anymoreThe question as it pertains to GroupM in particular was posed by Gideon Spanier in the current print edition of Campaign He writes that he has made the point about the need for a reboot at GroupM before specifically in 2016 This time around Gideon writes quotGroupM has struggled to articulate its purpose in this changed market or even why it needs to exist as a brandquotThis never even used to be a question it was generally accepted by advertisers that the biggest buyers got the best deals That39s not to say that it was true just that certain figures within advertiser organizations believed it to be so And it suited the holding company bosses to play that tuneThe bigger you are the better the deals in other words So if you happened to have Mindshare MediaCom what was then MEC and the dearly departed Maxus in your stable why wouldn39t you aggregate all those lovely volumes together into one even lovelier anthology and beat the crap out of any media owner that dared to ask for some businessAs Cog Blog readers are a discerning and wellinformed bunch you39ll have spotted the flaw in this plan Or rather the several flawsBut flaws or no flaws on March 5 2015 the first small cracks appeared that would eventually lead to the world caving in for those whose profits and bonuses depended on mediavendor revenueThat was the fateful day when one of GroupM39s past employees Jon Mandel in his role as an independent consultant stood up in front of the US39s Association of National Advertisers the ANA and presented the results of his research into the admitted behaviors of the planning and buying communityMandel did not name names amp8212 and it is important to stress that the criticisms of behaviors have never been focused on any individual agency or agency groupThe point remains that the trend for aggregating spend volumes as a key element in negotiations has at the very least slowed in the wake of the investigation that followed Mandel39s original presentationGroupM and the other miniholding companies still have a role in a nonvolumeobsessed worldTheir very scale allows them to attract talent and invest in specialist businesses research tools and technologies that can then be made available to the clientfacing media agencies within the stableThey can or should be able to drive consistencies through their networks ensuring the highest standards and sharing best practiceThe individual networks do this too of course but their focus is rightly on their clients A supraorganization can play a useful role in setting operating principles and supporting their networksIt39s an interesting debate as to whether an organization such as Xaxis exists primarily as a center of excellence to the GroupM agencies or as a winner of direct business I can well imagine that the stakeholder debates on boundaries amp8212 where one stops and the other starts amp8212 were and are livelyThe media agency landscape is evolving as planning and related activities move centerstage and trading moves to sit alongside as opposed to above these more consultancylooking rolesThe miniholding companies need to evolve too Naturally some will do that better than others We39ll see how that goesClick the social buttons 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 writers

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What Is GroupM For?

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Brian Jacobs

Jon Miller | Cofounder Marketo, Engagio | The Gumball Machine is Broken - Rethinking B2B Marketing - By Mike Linton

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Brian Jacobs

Jon Miller | Cofounder Marketo, Engagio | The Gumball Machine is Broken - Rethinking B2B Marketing - By Mike Linton

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