#MediaSnack

Media For Business Growth: Media Operations #MediaSnack 161 by ID Comms

My guest for this episode is Belinda Smith, Global Head of Marketing Intelligence at EA (Electronic Arts) one of the world’s largest video game and entertainment companies. 

For the last couple of years, before she moved into her new Marketing Intelligence role, Belinda was the Global Media Director of EA and to those in the know, she has been one of the real pioneers of what has become called “the in-housing of media”. And you will learn in this episode why she detests that phrase, as do I. 

I first met Belinda a few years ago at an excellent ANA Media conference where she was speaking  about EA’s plans to build their internal media capabilities. This was in 2017 and up to that point I had not heard someone talk about in-housing (that word) with such a clarity of vision and so articulately. Since then, Belinda and her team at EA went on a fascinating journey which she details in this episode, some things worked, some did not and needed refining. It really is a masterclass for anyone thinking about how to approach in-housing of their own media operations.

If you pay any attention to the media industry then you have probably either seen Belinda at an event or you have read something she has written about media. She has also become an important voice for diversity in the industry, in 2019 being named the Diversity Ambassador for the World Federation of Advertiser and she still sits on their global media board.

I always appreciate Belinda’s view of what we all do because, in these often divided and confrontational times she approaches the industry with more humanity than I think I see in anyone else. She wastes no time dwelling on negatives and always seems to have an optimistic and pragmatic view forward. 

Welcome to #MediaSnack Meets where we meet the individuals and organizations doing great work to inspire success and drive change within the global media and marketing industry.

My guest for this #MediaSnackMeets episode is Freddie Liversidge, VP of Global Media at HP

Find out:
- What is Freddie's experience in the industry?
- What he sees are the industry's biggest challenges and how we might address them?
- What does he do to unwind and recharge?
- Plus best industry leadership tips and more!

You can find Freddie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/freddie-l...

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#MediaSnack​ Meets is a regular interview with the curious media professionals who are reshaping the global industry.

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Never miss your #MediaSnack - subscribe for updates every FridayOn this week's #MediaSnack we look at the gathering rumours (and plausible evidence) that one of the major advertising holding companies will be an acquisition target by one of the big consultant or audit firms. These whispers first became acknowledged in Cannes this year when a few people were suggesting a WPP / Accenture merger was being discussed, which WPP quickly refuted. We take a look at two companies that might be in the mix of acquisition talk, Accenture Interactive the 'agency'-like division which has been on an acquisition spree in recent years, most notably buying some creative agencies like Karmarama outright.We compare the relative sizes of Accenture and Publicis to highlight that the consulting giant does indeed dwarf the French marketing services group both in revenues and headcount by more than 4 times. The fortunes of the company are equally different, Accenture has seen a progressive rise in share price over recent years in a straight line that has seen 70% growth, whilst Publicis is at the same level today as it was two years ago. Publicis is likely to be one of the major holding companies which are best positioned to sell, or be bought. The challenge and arguments over leadership which caused 2013's failed Publicis Omnicom merger would seem to be removed with the departure this year of long-standing CEO Maurice Lévy. His successor Arthur Sadoun, who has continued Levy's restructure of the group and is understood to be readying the business for a leaner future, is less likely to be an obstacle to a merger or acquisition. The due diligence prepared ahead of the failed Omnicom deal from 2013 would have given Publicis Groupe a good insight into their business, its strengths and weaknesses and synergies of integration. They will know that the consulting groups still covet Sapient their digital consulting business and would also be keen to acquire stellar agency brand names like Saatchi, BBH and Burnett. We would anticipate a deal like this within the next 6-12 months. But if Accenture is the most likely to buy and Publicis the most likely to sell then is this the perfect marriage? Cultural alignment could be a barrier, although the fact that Accenture has a French CEO might alleviate Publicis shareholder concerns. An alternative might be for Accenture to look at fellow American IPG, whilst the French consultancy Cap Gemini has made noises of their interest in a future acquisition and so might make a better suitor for Publicis. On this week's Good Week Bad Week we celebrate the fact that its a good week for the eager next generation of media agency leadership as 4 agency CEO's announced their departures in the same week leaving gaps for fresh new ideas and new leaders. It has been a bad week for Dentsu-Aegis Network in the UK as their largest client, and one of the UK's largest advertisers, the UK Government announced a review of the contract and a £140m buying pitch planned to start in February next year. The government's lead marketer Alex Aitken has laid out a bold agenda to drive greater transparency this time around and focus on greater value creation from media buying not cost price reduction. ID Comms attended the initial agency briefing on Thursday at HM Treasury with leaders of the UK's major networks agencies and independents, we were pleased to see the government open to a more collaborative approach, setting up a process which will seek input from agencies on the process itself in advance. Question of the Week: Who will Accenture buy next? Publicis, IPG, Whatever.... Please vote. Check back for the results next Friday.

The Top 10 Review Of The Year 2018 #MediaSnack 141 by ID Comms

Back from the Croisette, Tom shares his first-hand takeaways from Cannes Lions 2025 with David. While the festival had all the usual glamor and platform presence, this year’s true themes came down to three A’s: Appreciation for the power of community, a renewed focus on Agencies and their evolving role, and the real-world applications (and noise) surrounding AI. Together, they unpack what stood out, what fell flat, and what media leaders should really be paying attention to as the second half of the year kicks off.

00:00 – Setting the Stage: Why Cannes Still Matters
03:32 – Appreciation: The Role of Creativity and Craft
07:29 – Agencies: Still Central to Media’s Future
13:48 – AI: From Sizzle to Substance
18:15 – Final Reflections and What Comes Next

#MediaSnack is presented by ID Comms, the global media consultancy helping brands achieve better media results.

Related links:

The New Vibe: Cannes 2025 and the Evolving Landscape of Agency and AI https://www.idcomms.com/blog/the-new-vibe-cannes-2025-and-the-evolving-landscape-of-agency-ai

Want to stay ahead in media? Visit https://www.idcomms.com
Follow ID Comms on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/id-comms/

On this week's #MediaSnack we consider how strategy is more important these days than media buying in determining success and giving a competitive advantage to marketers. As we continue our theme of looking at the key areas of change a year after the ANA's Media Transparency Report, this week we focus on 'Media Thinking', which includes a strategic approach to media, the quality and process of good strategy and planning and what actually drives business success for marketers. For the last decade, the media industry has been on a race to the bottom, obsessed about lowering the price of media and treating it more like a commodity rather than a lever for growth. The entire media industry has been largely engineered around this concept: Giant media buying agencies, giant media selling companies and giant media auditing companies. This has created an asymmetric marketplace with far more many advertisers on the 'buy' side than there are agencies and vendors (who have largely consolidated into a handful of dominant players and in some places may operate more like a cartel than an open market). This asymmetry is about to change. What's changing all that is technology: Tech which is empowering marketers with access to information and the tools to take a more active role in media decision making, and forcing a more transparent marketplace to evolve (we are still some way of that, give it a few years). We consider if, once a marketer is empowered with data and analytics, that they become the smartest component of an asymmetric system, they become the ultimate decision maker (its their money after all) and therefore will be able to control more media buying decisions, ultimately setting the price of media based on how they value it. This requires a fully open and democratic marketplace, but that's just a matter of time before the legacy conflict of interest and resistance from the larger players in the supply chain to be eroded. Next up, we consider a report from EACA (the European Association of Communications Agencies) which has just published a report into the standards of media auditing, calling for anyone in the broad space of advising advertisers (media audits, contract compliance, price benchmarking, pitch management and other advisory services). You can access the full report here and its well worth a read. http://eaca.eu/media-auditing-report/Next, and somewhat related to thoughts about media audit practice, we read a great thought piece by Dan Gilbert, CEO of BrainLabs written in The Drum about how TV will actually become fully able to be bought programmatically. This has been a lingering question and for many an indication of how Programmatic might only be 'one' way that media will be bought. Dan shares our perspective that ALL media will be bought programmatically at some point soon. His piece is an excellent case for HOW the world's biggest and richest media (yes, that's TV) will shift to a fully programmatic model soon. Well worth a read. Tom and David consider how this will completely change the media auditing business, because when all media is traded in an auction style, then there is zero need for pool benchmarking of media pricing (actually it becomes impossible to do) and little need for historic media performance audits. So what happens to the media auditors then? Well, like everyone else they adapt or die. http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2017/0...Finally, we are off to Cannes next week, see you on the beach.

In this episode of #MediaSnack WINNERS, Tom Denford is joined by Fredrik Borestrom, President of the International Advertising Association (IAA) and a trusted voice in the global media and marketing community. With over 25 years of leadership experience, Fredrik brings a sharp, international perspective on the future of marketing.

Tom and Fredrik explore what the rest of the world can learn from Nordic markets — some of the most tech-forward and transparent media landscapes anywhere. They also dig into the gaps in measurement and why trust in the agency model is eroding. Fredrik shares his vision for developing the next generation of industry leaders and why local insights still matter more than ever, even in an AI-driven, global marketplace.

Learn more about IAA Global: https://iaaglobal.org
Want to stay ahead in media? Visit https://www.idcomms.com
Follow ID Comms on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/id-comms/

Never miss your #MediaSnack - subscribe for updates every Friday"It is the media mess that is distracting marketers from being great marketers" - that is the hypothesis of this week's #MediaSnack episode.We discuss a hypothesis of how media mess keeps distracting marketers. Over the past couple of years, we've seen a significant decrease in the quality of advertising. Recent reports from publishers, content companies and other ad-funded businesses show that they are now struggling to hit their financial targets. The latest report from GroupM called 'The State of Video' suggests that we are now becoming more intolerant towards advertising. And the biggest indicator if this is the raise of ad-blocking technology. Ad blocker usage surged 30% in 2016, according to a new report from PageFair, a company that helps publishers regain revenue lost to the software. There were 615 million devices blocking ads worldwide by the end of 2016, 62% (308 million) of those mobile. Desktop ad blocker usage grew 17% year-on-year to 236 million. The other interesting piece of research from Harvard Business School shows a negative trends in the audience's attention to TV advertising. The report highlights that the percentage of ads considered fully viewed and getting high attention has decreased dramatically, from 97% in the early 1990s to less than 20% 2012 and so the trend continues. And the trend continues nowadays, as the viewers now have an ability to skip commercials on smart TVs and other devices.The desire to escape from advertising by fast-forwarding commercials and installing ad-blocking software is perhaps a symptom of the poor quality and viewer experience of ads today. Many content businesses have seen the opportunity in offering ad-free experience and built their business models around that. People subscribe to the premium version of Amazon, or get Netflix accounts and watch their favourite shows without ads. A large number of mobile games are also offering ad-free experience in exchange for paid version of the apps.Spotify was also a pioneer in an ad-funded versus a subscription model. Last week, AdAge published an article suggesting that Amazon is developing a free, ad-supported complement to its Prime streaming video service, according to people familiar with its plans. After publication, an Amazon spokeswoman said the company has no plans to create a free, ad-supported version of Prime Video. But if not Amazon then we expect that one of the OTT TV companies will offer an advertising funded free version. This brings to life the concept by Prof. Scott Galloway that "advertising is a tax that only poor people will pay" and you can see how that becomes the reality in this situation. That clearly defines advertising as an irritant to be avoided if you can, which is a damning indictment on the global commutations industry. What has lead us there? The crappy media supply chain is likely the guilty party and has distracted marketers and encouraged then to be lazy in reducing the quality of the advertising experience but targeting more closely, expecting the same results. People accept good quality advertising, what if the deal was, whatever you wanted to do, watch a movie, login to Facebook, play a game that there would always be one great advert? We think that would be a good model and puts the onus on the advert and the placement to be more relevant and of better quality. Next year, following P&Gs lead, more company CMOs will want to stop being distracted by media mess and allow their organisations to focus back on the craft of advertising.

On this week’s #MediaSnack, Tom and David take an opportunity to look back across 2016 as a landmark year and indulge in looking ahead to 2017 in what they believe is likely to see a pivotal change in the future of the media industry. They review their experiences this year, notably the ongoing impact of the ANA’s media transparency investigation, which is still causing after-shocks around the world (see last week’s #MediaSnack for details of the latest media transparency scandal, this time from Japan). The full results of the ANA shining a light on “non-transparent practices” are still to be seen, but ID Comms can feel the wind of change about to sweep the industry, driven largely by a mindset change amongst some major advertisers. Brands that may have been neglecting their media investment and not providing sufficient oversight and governance have been woken sharply by the ANA findings and global press coverage, and now they are starting to think differently. This is apparent in the number of brands taking time to properly consider their future requirements for media, at a strategic level. If you consider that many advertisers contract with agencies might be 3 or 4 years old, and they are starting to look 3 or 4 years in to the future, the media landscape has changed, and will change dramatically. So has consumer behaviour. So has the relationship between advertiser and their media agencies. So has the shape and design of marketing organisations themselves. Its all change and its gathering pace. Just look at recent news that P&G have hired Gerry D’Angelo as global head of media, the closest thing to a Chief Media Officer that you’re likely to find. Brands are investing in media management again and are taking it seriously. Perhaps as brands start to look ahead and consider their future needs for media with a more strategic approach, so too are they rethinking their requirements from a media agency. Change in the media agency landscape has been happening this year, just look at Publicis Media's restructure, IPG’s media resurgence, Omnicom’s recent new business triumphs with innovative agency models. Tom and David expect this disruption and innovation to pick up even more pace into 2017 as more and more marketers make demands of a new kind of media agency service. One fit for a post-#RebateGate world. One thing that may be a good illustration of this change in strategy is the recent news that GroupM have changed their global CEO, Kelly Clarke taken the reigns from Dominic Proctor. Is this indicative of a changing of the guard at the top positions of media agency groups? Perhaps we’ll see more of this in the next 12 months. Future leaders of media agencies are going to have a different set of challenges in the next five years to those faced across the last five years, not least in defending their businesses from the onslaught from management consultancies, AdTech companies and now from marketers looking to fundamentally re-design the agency resources.Advertisers are going to be more forthright in their demands of agency resource and the terms of business, which will be somewhat painful for agencies to adjust to but ultimately will help them grow their businesses in new and exciting ways. The first part of this will be advertisers pushing to closer align their agencies to company business outcomes and incentivise them financially on some shared goals. This will (in time) flush concerns over transparency and conflict of interest out of the systems and leave us with a media agency landscape more in tune with advertisers requirements.Change is coming. We’ve got to all move away from obsessing about cheaper pricing, bigger discounts and more (and more!) auditing as being what media is all about. Instead, the fear of the complexity of media must be replaced by the excitement in the opportunity of media. Let’s hope so.