I singled out this session seeing that I'm a consultant married to a media agency person, and given that it would be good to validate our dinner table discussions with an industry-wide view. Or maybe we should just talk about the kids…?
L-R: Mark Howe (Google & Moderator), Pippa Glucklich (co-CEO Starcom), Martin McNulty (CEO Forward3D), Claudine Collins (MD UK Mediacom), Dan Clays (MD OMD UK), Mark Creighton (UK CEO Mindshare),Ben Wood (Global President iProspect)
How has the operating structure of the media agency changed? What have you put in place and who is doing it well?
Ben Wood (iPropect): As part of Dennis publishing we specialise in search and performance marketing, we try to bring pockets of specialists together around a client. You need an operating model and a culture as well as deep pockets of specialism to drive an integrated approach
Dan Clays (OMD): Clients are increasingly demanding an omnichannel approach beyond digital, need to ensure specialists are well versed in advanced media, content, data, creative, partnerships
How is the culture of your organisation changed? Who do you hire and how do you retrain?
Claudine Collins (Mediacom): Culture hasn't changed, different skills don't mean people will have different values. Buyers have always been more extrovert then planners.
Pippa Glucklich (Starcom): Our job is to simplify the complex for our clients. Now there is more systemisation and automation. Business has gone from 5% to 60% in data and content. Today there is much more breaking down of silo's and collaboration.
How does your best work go into your day job rather than the constant pitch treadmill?
Mark Creighton (Mindshare): We don't chase a client that looks large in billing terms but rather something meaningful to our agency. You need to spend time with your clients understanding the business problem rather than just looking at the media brief. Obviously we need to consult if the problem can be solved by media. WE still need to educate them.
Martin McNulty (Forward3D): Work in the pitch is the same work as we what we do day-to-day. We don't use big platforms which kill innovation. We teach people to build tools. All our analysts speak to clients. We don't have client service people.
Accenture, McKinsey, Deloittes are hiring consultants in the digital space. What do you think of this development?
Mark Creighton (Mindshare): We are closer to the touch points with the media so from that perspective we are better equipped to consult on that.
Is complexity diluting the value of media?
Mark Creighton (Mindshare): The difficulty is selling it in to one person. Luxury brands spend a lot on TV and print becomes it creates footfall. There is still an education piece to sell this "thing".
Is the future one of generalists or specialists (ref Karen Blackett article about agency needs to be all things to all people).
Data will help specialist agencies to be generalist (Martin McNulty) whereas it will also help generalist agencies to be more specialist (Mark Howe).
Martin McNulty (Forward3D): We want to go into the direction of understanding the customer relationship, lifetime value and first/last purchase.
Mark Creighton (Mindshare): Customers are still asking for a 10 week campaign but the agency needs to be able to work across all (marketing, PR etc) departments to evolve the relationship over 3 years and if we can get that then it's "gold dust".
Mark Howe (Google): We need to educate clients to respect their agencies more.
The battle between media and creative agencies is a hot topic at Adweek because of recent press. What impact does data have on creative agencies? Are they using data to validate an idea? Or are you getting on the bandwagon of content distribution?
Ben Wood (iPropect): Search and content marketing are 2 sides of the same coin. A destination needs to be engaging around a brand. There is a massive opportunity for creativity to use data to provide consumer insights. For example, there is so much available from search data.
Pippa Glucklich (Starcom): The days of just pushing out content are over. The future is marketing being realtime addressable content and then media agencies have a fantastic role in explaining customer journeys. The big idea can and should only be enhanced by data.
Martin McNulty (Forwaard3D): Data provides insights and allows us to spot pockets for improvement yet it can hinder creativity. I think people overstate the data side of things, there is still a place for pure "out there" creativity.
Claudine Collins (Mediacom): As a creative agency you do need to know the clients' business outcomes.
Dan Clays (OMD): Data is nothing until it becomes an insight, creativity is something everyone should be driven by and data is one way to get through to it.
What is your business going to look and feel like in 5 years?
Ben Wood (iPropect): A heavy combination of art and science.
Mark Creighton (Mindshare): A strategic business consultancy.
Claudine Collins (Mediacom): A content and connections agency as we are now.
Martin McNulty (Forward3D): No idea but twice as big. ;-)
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