citizenbay

Media Agency and Media Owner: The power of the personal relationship

 
In the world of media buying today, computer optimisation rules. The actual trading of TV, radio, press and online buys is done with little human input. Here I mean not the high end strategic input or the macro negotiations by the senior agency folk with the media owner. I mean the detailed selection of each and every spot/placement/banner...

This makes complete sense, given the enormous breadth of choice, to utilise optimisation tools.

However, back when I started out as a TV spot buyer, the job was more like a craft than it is today. It involved great amount of human input and care over each spot selection, choosing each break that each spot would fall into. It was like Superbowl for every spot on the schedule. Mind you, we were only talking about a bunch of regional TV stations and (with the arrival of Channel 4) one national station in the UK back in the late 1980s.

I started in the media and marketing world as a young TV buyer at McCann Erickson. TV time-buying involved manual selection of the time slots for your client’s advertising, a huge amount of persuasion, quite a bit of shouting and a lot of luck.

There you were, thinking you had your spot buys for the week-end all done, including the centre break of the James Bond Movie on Saturday night (always good for big ratings back in 1987!), when you got the dreaded call on Friday at 4pm…

(a pretty, but unconnected, picture)

A Sunday newspaper had decided to buy up all of the great spots across Friday night and Saturday at top rate for a big promotion, so knocking out my carefully chosen schedule for my client. As the newspaper took over the best slots, the knock-on effect was a little like the butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon…chaos ruled. Between Friday 1600 and Friday 1759, I would try to secure whatever I could using three techniques:

1            Plead. ‘My boss will kill me’, ‘my client will kill me’, ‘my mum would kill me’ kind of thing.

2            Shout. It is alleged that someone at McCann Erickson TV buying unit once throw a phone out onto the street out of anger, and that there was a budget specifically to replace broken phones. I couldn’t possibly comment.

3            Trust. Leverage my long developed relationship with the sales person at the TV channel came into play. With so many brands looking to salvage their campaign in the heat of the moment and supply now restricted, why should a sales person go to fight your cause if there is no Trust or bond?

Route 1 was just a disaster.

 Route 2 might have felt good for a short time, but did nothing for long-term relationships.

 When it came to such moments of chaos and pressure, Route 1 was always the most effective route.

 It still is.

I learned many things during my time at McCann Erickson TV buying unit - the skill of negotiation and the ability to present complex issues in language that people outside of the TV-buying cult actually understand, to name two.

Nothing was more important though than the importance of building and maintaining strong personal relationships where trust is central to that relationship.

The world of media buying might have moved on significantly but the value of trust and the personal relationship between agency and media company folk is as critical today as it was back in the 1980s when I started out. 

Venice: The Art of the Soft Sell

Whilst at Venice, a number of media brands took to the stage, including Discovery Networks, JC Decaux and Eurosport.

Media brands often debate between themselves whether media agencies truly see them as business partners. As for clients, in many markets the media brand is still relatively distant from direct contact with the client brands.

It is true that some media agencies still treat media brands as an outsourced idea generation department that often fails to get the credit for their contribution. Also, some clients still see media brands as meremy a source of advertising space, so treated as simply a part of the supply chain.

Yet this is changing. The smart marketers and agency folk are realising the potential for truly powerful communications solutions if a more open approach is taken with media brands.

As for the media brands, speaking at conferences about the business of partnership with the agencies and client brands is critical to show why media brands should be taken more seriously.

Yet all too often, the media brand fails dismally. I have been to too many conferences where there will be a media brand who cannot grasp the importance of the platform, and reverts merely to giving a 15 minute sales pitch...and often not even a thinly disguised one.

The major culprit at Venice? Eurosport. Pure sales pitch, no vision for the industry. Added little to the debate. Gave a poor impression of wishing to build partnerships other than airtime sales. Shame.

Esther lays out the challenges for the media industry

Here are the communications challenges as seen by Esther Lee of Coca Cola...

We need a new kind of communications leadership

Here is Esther Lee, Chief Creative Officer of Coca Cola Global at the Venice Media Festival, making her call to action...

An excellent idea from J&J

Kimberley Kadlec of Johnson & Johnson demanded that creative and media agencies get closer, without needing to return to old models. Not the first person to demand it, but clearly spoken from the heart. However, I did not agree with her view that there are certain core elements of communications planning that will always rest with the creative agency. Why should this be so? It is in the interest of the ad agency that this is so, but why is it in the interests of the client? Should it not rest with the agency who is best placed to provide a holistic approach to communications?

Meanwhile she made a hugely practical and effective suggestion to the audience at the Venice Festival of Media.

At J&J they run a cross-training project, inviting people in from agencies and media owners to work at J&J for a set period to improve their understanding of their business.

I am sure that such strategies have paid dividends for all involved. Not just in terms of better understanding but also increased trust between all parties. Excellent idea. Simple too. Another example of a Brave Brand. Maybe more should try it.

Searching for the Big Idea

The Big Idea. Who owns it? Where do you find one? What does one look like?

A number of speakers shared their thoughts on the Big Idea. Clients talked about the need to find it; agencies shared examples of Big Ideas from their portfolio, whilst auditors and consultants agreed that the Big Idea can be found in places other than the ad agency…

However, defining what it is seems to be a slight problem.

The phrase is used with such frequency, that it is losing its focus and importance.

Kimberley Kadlec, Chief Media Officer Johnson And Johnson, encouraged the media industry in her opening speech to be more creative. Fair enough so far, but then she offered up an example of what she sees as the Big Idea - A tall statue covered by a huge condom. This is clearly a Big Stunt, but is not necessarily a Big Idea.

As discussed in my previous post (Steve King has the answers), such a narrow scope of what the media industry can deliver is disappointing. Surely Ms Kadlec has higher hopes for innovative communications solutions from her media agency than Big Stunts? Or is this what clients desire for their brands?

A Big Idea is not a Big Stunt. Big Ideas effecting change in consumer habits, effect change in society. So, it was so refreshing to have heard from Esther Lee, Chief Creative Officer of Coca Cola Global.

In a hugely impressive speech, Esther referenced democracy or fast food as a Big Idea, rather than massive spinning Coke Can in a shopping mall.

In the citizensound session on music marketing (See here), I also gave my view on Big Ideas. Included were the Sony Walkman which made music mobile, the car radio which liberated kids, the Chart Show had everyone waiting to find out what was number one, the iPod has changed people's lives.

There is a place for media creativity at an executional level. We should celebrate it. Yet the media industry should be careful not to see such work as anything more than icing on the cake. Daryl Simm rightly stated that real creativity is the cake not the icing.

A celebration of more cake and less icing would help keep the momentum going forward for media agencies into the higher echelons of the client companies…Darryl’s words were wise and we should ignore them at our peril…

Steve King of Zenith Optimedia has the answers...

I enjoyed a good chat with Steve King, CEO of Zenith Optimediaon the flight over to Venice. Discussing the future of the media industry perhaps? Not exactly. He let me know about a funky little mobile service called Any Question Answered, where you ask a question and it will text you back with the answer. Seems to have a high rate of success in getting the answers right, though at €1.40 a go, it should do!

Steve gave us a wonderful quote at the Venice Festival of Media.

Marketing is no longer the chassis of the car, it is now the sunroof

. Lovely one Steve. However, not sure whether many boardrooms would agree that marketing has ever been the chassis.

In his speech, Steve warned the industry that a focus on executional creativity would be a dangerous path to tread. Just showing a nice stunt does not hit long term business targets for brands. He is absolutely right.

The Venice Festival of Media is a great opportunity for the media industry to provide a forward thinking alternative to Cannes Lions. Rather than a celebration of mere creative executional excellence, in itself not a bad thing, Venice has the chance to celebrate the media industry's growing contribution to business and marketing planning and success. If the industry runs down the route of celebrating mere tactics, the opportunity to take up the reins of lead agency will pass it by. My fear is that what we often try to pass off as intense insight and the bold Big Idea turns out to be just shiny window dressing.

I saw too few examples of great strategic insight and creative flair at the conference. I saw a fair few stunts and a number of poor case studies that left me numb. I am still trying to work out why Alfonso Rodes Vila, CEO of Havas Media, would show such poor examples of Havas creativity, when clearly the agency delivers some great work for their clients.

Mind you, Steve King did also show the monstrous Toyota Aygo with it's DJ booth (Paul Oakenfold involved no less), so Zenith Optimedia are not immune to a little window dressing too...

A view from the Lido

Waiting for the Water Taxi...

Venice Festival of Media

Well the Venice Festival of Media happened last week, and for a first time out I have to say that it is hats off to Charlie Crowe and CSquared for pulling it off. Great city, well organised and a stunning line of major speakers.

On top of that, little citizensound ran a workshop on how brands should best get involved with music marketing. Here is the flyer for the citizensound session (put together by fellow citizen Nick Watt, and inspired by the design ethics of Factory Records).

If you click here, you will find a host of posts on the citizensound session over at the citizensound blog