November 15 2010
Six months into his new job as CEO of McCann Worldgroup, one of the world’s largest marketing communications groups, Nick Brien is in no doubt how unhappy his clients are that they no longer get the same focus and consistency they used to enjoy when media and creative services were housed under one roof.
Solving this problem could benefit media owners too, as long as they can adapt to ongoing media fragmentation and technological disruption, two trends undermining traditional approaches to advertising.
“I’ve met a lot of CEOs since I’ve took up this post, and they’re questioning how much money they’re spending on marketing,” Brien said, speaking in Hong Kong at the annual conference staged by pay-TV trade body Casbaa. “They are frustrated, because it should be delivering greater business impact for less money.
“We all have to ask ourselves within the ecosystem, whether on your side – the media side or pay-TV side – the agencies and with the clients: how do we all find a way to work together in a more collaborative, strategic and ingenious way?”
Talk of new collaborative business models proliferated in markets most impacted the downturn, which loaded more risk onto agency business models as advertisers cut budgets and demanded extended payment terms. Longer-term digital transformation, however, is also applying pressure for change.
“Ultimately, there’s one constituency that’s waiting for no-one,” Brien said, “and that’s consumers.”
Such approaches could spell an end to, or at least tone down the combatative nature that typifies many media owner/agency relationships today. This could affect pay-TV in particular, well placed to benefit from current marketing trends with its focus on niche audiences and content.
“There’s so many wonderful brands that have a huge equity and rich heritage directly with those passionate people who are paying to have that relationship,” Brien enthused. “That’s hugely valuable. I don’t think they need to be anonymous impressions – they can be communities to create content or work celebrity angles or develop a commerce angle – there’s a different nature of the conversation. Your future is very bright.”
This doesn’t necessarily mean branded content deals – although these are likely to increase, they are costly and difficult to measure, and consequently fewer big deals than media owners might imagine.
“It’s a creative challenge as well, not just a strategic one,” Brien said. A lot of clients jump in with massive enthusiasm, and lot of them come back burnt. Some of them stay, but I think it depends which way you start the conversation.”
Pay-TV however can expect to experience the same media buying trends shaping online media, where standard inventory is increasingly traded automatically through networks and exchanges, while agencies and sales teams focus on creating bespoke executions around premium content. Brien, himself seeking new ways to harness digital media’s potential for both greater measurability and creativity on behalf of his clients, distilled three recommendations for pay-TV channel owners after more money from advertisers: make it easier to buy media space, stay focused on core niches and audience groups, and foster relationships with creative as well as media agencies.
As large global clients start releasing cash they had stockpiled during the financial crisis, Brien told attendees that media owners should realise that marketing communications groups such as McCann have two, quite different relationships with advertisers: one with CEOs and CMOs, concerned with driving growth through marketing and innovation, and another with procurement specialists, more concerned with efficiencies and cutting costs.
Media owners risk missing out on marketing conversations with CEOs and CMOs by dealing solely with media agencies, which tend to negotiate with procurement directors.
“Not that it doesn’t mean there’s not going to be creativity, there’s not going to be brand building, but there’s a whole community of strategic and creative marketing professionals who don’t see this world, they don’t really understand what the offering is,” said Brien, who ran McCann’s media agency network before his promotion.
“There is no doubt that big brands and emerging brands in this part of the world, who need scale but are also looking for great targeting, and more sophisticated and ongoing relationships with their consumer groups. I think that’s a real opportunity for innovation.”
His words were echoed on another session by Robin Nayak, head of strategy in Southeast Asia for TBWATequila, an ad agency within Omnicom Group. “The last time I spoke to a content producer as a regional strategist was – never,” Nayak said. “That’s the issue.”
Ad agencies have become more distanced from media-related conversations since the unbundling of media and creative, limiting their input on areas such as branded content, Nayak noted. “Myself and all the creative agencies out there are desperate to talk to interesting creative people.
“Today’s conversation is about creativity in the value chain,” he said. “If we just talk more and understand each other’s opportunities more – what makes TV great, what do our brands really want to convey – we’ll be able to start sparking some really interesting ideas. We just need to get more conversations going earlier.”
Brien feels the days of one agency offering bundled media and creative services are over, as the marketing challenges agency groups face are so different today. However, he has already started exploring new models, launching an experimental unit called UM Inside in McCann’s New York office, controlled by the media agency but sited the creative agency.
The quest for new marketing models is increasingly leading agency groups them into areas traditionally occupied by media owners such as content creation and media sales – a less straight-forward world, Brien mused, where companies can find themselves collaborating in the morning and competing in the afternoon.
At the same time, slowly building pressure on companies like McCann to replace existing business models with more nimble approaches is perhaps one that media owners, themselves juggling the needs of tomorrow with the realities of today, can empathize with too.
“We’ve got to recognize that while the advertising model may be challenged compared to the traditional way, the marketing model offers a lot more opportunity,” Brien said. “We just have to discover what that is, strategically and cretively.”
Source: http://www.asiamediajournal.com/executive.php?id=454
