I was kindly invited to the World Media Group's ThinkTank lunch yesterday at L'Escargot. Great lunch. Challenging topics for discussion. Intriguing collection of guests that made for a lively debate.
Much discussion centred around the relationships between media/content owners, media agencies and clients.
For my part, I have always believed that the relationship between Media/Content owner and brand is nowhere near as strong as it should be.
A Media/Content owner is a brand. They have business challenges, a need to better understand their own consumers, a desire to grow this consumer base and a requirement to strengthen the ties with existing consumers...just like the clients that they and the media agencies serve...
So the business issues that Media Owner brands and 'client' brands are similar.
Yet 'client' brands all too often view the Media Owner brands through the lens of 'media' as opposed through the lens of 'business'.
Hence why many boardrooms around the world view 'media owner' brands as merely sources of advertising space and 'brand exposure' rather than potential business partners.
On our mondaymediachat blog, Bernhard Glock and I discussed how the Media Owner / Brand relationship might evolve in the future and how Media Owner brands need to be more assertive and confident about their contribution.
Here is the video:
One other thing that might help, and which I sense is improving dramatically with Media Owners, is a deepr understanding of the 'client' brands' business. There is nothing a client likes more than an agency or supplier company that builds their idea upon deep insights of the client's business - obvious I know, but not as common as we would hope.
