#MediaSnack

We start this weeks episode with news that Tom was included in a new documentary film, commissioned by Campaign magazine, about trust and transparency in the advertising industry. Tom appears alongside industry leaders including Martin Sorrell CEO of WPP, Cindy Gallop, Claire Beale editor in chief of Campaign, Keith Weed, the CMO of Unilever, and many others. The documentary explores the theme of trust, why it's needed and where it's missing. It's well worth a watch. Getting into this week's #MediaSnack episode we discuss news from America that investigations firm K2 Intelligence as well as media auditor Ebiquity we have launched media contract services specialist companies following their collaboration on the ANA media transparency report published in June. For K2 specifically this is a very new service, and makes sense for them to leverage their knowledge and insights gained from the ANA #rebategate work. For Ebiquity, they are partnering with lawyers Reed Smith to offer a contract management service. We ask what the scope these companies will fulfil for marketing organisations and consider whether any conflict of interest might exist by grouping this spread of scope into single companies.Next, we discuss news that telecoms giant AT&T has awarded it's $3 billion US media account to agency start-up Hearts & Science which you may remember was the agency set up by Omnicom in 2015 to pitch to Procter and Gamble which it won.For Hearts & Science to win AT&T is media account is a huge endorsement of that agency model and means WPP lose between 50 and $100 million revenue to a business with currently only one client. This also means that Hearts & Science ranks as one of the leading agencies in the US having only been in existence for less than a year. Very impressive. 

After more than five years and over 200 #MediaSnack episodes on YouTube, we are migrating the show to LinkedIn. Now you can all participate in every show!

Over the years we have really enjoyed getting live questions from viewers during the show, in fact its really our favorite part of #MediaSnack so we wanted to change the format and open up the show to be more inclusive and discursive.

The global media industry has faced innumerable challenges, many of which we have documented and discussed on #MediaSnack over the years.

Now the industry is at an inflection point, new ideas are emerging, new leaders, new companies, new techniques. We believe we can all build a better media industry and a better media solution for the brands we all love.

Our focus for each show will be an angle or trend on the media industry, always with a positive and optimistic spirit. We keep our can-do attitude, driven by a belief that we can all be doing things a little better, improving the industry for the next generations.

#MediaSnack on LinkedIn audio is a powerful forum to share ideas, build relationships and grow the media industry for us all.

Bring your ideas and be a part of the show!

For this launch show I'm inviting a whole family of previous #MediaSnack guests so we can all find out...

"WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES THE MEDIA INDUSTRY NEEDS TO ADDRESS?"

Never miss your #MediaSnack - subscribe for updates every FridayOn this week's #MediaSnack we look at the phenomenon of British Christmas TV ads, kickstarted by John Lewis, now a dozen or so retailers are investing large sums in building anthemic, must-see TV adverts focused on brands rather than products. We discuss how the Christmas TV advertising market is starting to show similar behaviours from both advertisers and consumers as that of the Superbowl in the US. Some brands have begun teasing their ads before release and people are searching for Christmas ads on YouTube before they are even released. We are agreed that the Christmas TV excitement shows that good advertising works and gets people excited, remembering ads and talking about them. John Lewis has shown how this drives business success. The heightened competition amongst brands creates pressure with produces amazing work. Perhaps this can spread further across the year and improve quality of advertising generally.Here are some of the best worth watching:JOHN LEWIShttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw1Y-zhQURUTESCOhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSUkAURUU1IALDIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJGpOYKXcSEM&Shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfaSxIkLslEAMAZONhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9SCZwh8TvgEDEKA 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxVcgDMBU94&t2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6-0kYhqoRo2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aknucxb0xSoGood Christmas Advertising Week:BBChttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PstSiTCk74Bad Week:Sainsbury's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU50dLLy7CwQuestion of the Week: Are Christmas Ads the Superbowl of the UK? Yes, No, Whatever.... Please vote. Check back for the results next Friday.

#MediaSnack 106: THINKING: The Media Action Plan for 2018 by ID Comms

Think you know what the modern media director's role is? You might be surprised.
The job has changed a lot in recent years.
Here's the #MediaSnack alternative perspective on what makes a successful media director plus we share THREE GREAT TIPS on how to be a star media director and some insights about how you can work more productively with a media director.

#MediaForGrowth

#MediaSnack is brought to you by ID Comms, the award-winning growth consultancy specializing in media and advertising. Advisors to the world's most ambitious brands.

On this week's #MediaSnack we kick off with some more troubling transparency news from the US, where the Wall St Journal reports that the Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into major US creative agencies, which it accuses of "bid-rigging" on creative production. A similar investigation years ago ended up with agency people in jail, so standby. Why is this on a media vlog? Well, the DoJ launched their investigation following receipt of information from K2 Intelligence, which the intelligence firm had discovered during their reporting earlier this year on behalf of the trade body Association of National Advertisers (ANA) into Media Transparency. The evidence on the potential rigging of production costs (bid rigging is in violation of US anti-trust laws and wholly illegal) was not included in the ANA's final report. But now the DoJ are following up and have announced this latest scrutiny over agency behaviours. They have, according to WSJ issued, K2 with a subpoena to collect relevant information - this information currently sits within all the evidence K2 gathered in their media transparency investigations - so there may some nervous media agency execs in US hoping the DoJ don't get visibility of K2's media rebate evidence and launch a subsequent investigation aimed at them. It's a realistic possibility. Major holding group IPG has admitted they have been contacted by DoJ, we wait to see how far this will reach. If you remember, the K2/ANA report suggested that un-transparent financial practice amongst media agencies was "pervasive" but the ANA felt it (rightly) appropriate not to name any individuals or agencies. The DoJ may not be so cautious. What we find also amazing in this story is that marketers have evidently been asking their creative agency to manage a rendering process for them in which the creative agency themselves will bid, and are now wondering why this created a conflict of interest which may well turn out to be against the law. This illustrates the pitfalls of blind trust, you really need to engage with a specialist independent who can help you validate agency scope and costs, don't ask agencies to mark their own homework. Next, we discuss findings from a report by research boffins Nielsen which has analysed 44,000 digital marketing campaigns across Europe and found that nearly 50% of all served impressions did not reach the intended Target audience. This is alarming news for marketers who have been confronted this year with numerous questions over the way digital marketing is measured. What was promised as an era of data-fuelled accountability is turning into a right mess, which some had foretold. This comes on the back of reports earlier this year that there are estimates of huge volumes of fraudulent clicks to digital display advertising, and continuing revelations by Facebook of errors in the methodologies of their own performance measurements. Looking ahead to next year, we consider how marketers will want their digital marketing partners to help them solve these issues and inaccuracies. Finally, in the continuing saga of the big consulting firms eating the agencies’ breakfast, lunch and dinner is news that Accenture Interactive (their marketing services division) has paid $50m to acquire leading UK independent creative shop Karmarama which is their most high-profile agency purchase so far. It sets a new milestone in the spread of consulting scope into traditional areas of agency work. Accenture has stated an ambition to offer an "end-to-end" marketing service which questions how they might consider moving into traditional areas of media buying, which could be a conflict of interest based on Accenture’s global media auditing business. It seems unlikely that the industry would tolerate Accenture buying media themselves whilst also auditing the prices paid by other media agencies, this is something that they are going to have to resolve.

Are remote agency pitches here to stay?
They've been a necessity over the last year, but savvy advertisers are seeing many benefits, so will we ever have in-person pitches again?
Here's the #MediaSnack alternative perspective on how the best remote pitches work plus we share THREE GREAT TIPS for advertisers on how to plan the most effective agency pitch, based on our recent experiences (good and bad) designing and managing agency pitches for some of the world's leading advertisers.

#MediaForGrowth

#MediaSnack is brought to you by ID Comms, the award-winning growth consultancy specializing in media and advertising. Advisors to the world's most ambitious brands.

We are on YouTube. Is anyone still there....? So, on this weeks’ #MediaSnack (not that anyone in adland will see it having decided to boycott of YouTube), Tom and David sink their teeth into the big juicy story that won't go away, the ‘scandal’ of Google allowing advertisers to be placed against extremist and unsavory content. So, who is actually to blame? Well, its marketers of course. Really. We will explain why and what can be done about it.

#MediaSnack 124: 500 words that will change an advertising industry by ID Comms