#MediaSnack

#MediaSnack 107: TALENT: The Media Action Plan for 2018 by ID Comms

2026 is shaping up to be the most disruptive year in media agency history. In this episode, Tom Denford (in New York) and David Indo (in London) unpack why this moment feels eerily familiar — and yet entirely unprecedented. From the post-merger shockwaves of Omnicom and IPG, to the unraveling of Dentsu International, to the rise of proprietary media and AI-powered operating systems, the agency landscape is shifting fast. And for marketers, that means one thing: it’s time to act.

Tom and David explore the growing disconnect between marketers and their media partners, and why the coming “pitch-pocalypse” could serve as a vital reset. They offer hard-won advice for CMOs and procurement leaders navigating a consolidating market: be clear on what kind of partner you need, inspire agencies with your vision, and don’t wait too long to move.

They also introduce ID Comms’ new offering — The Five-Figure Pitch — a fast, transparent, five-week process designed to help advertisers recalibrate agency relationships with speed, clarity, and control.

In this episode:

Visit FiveFigurePitch.com to learn more and schedule a walkthrough.

Learn more about ID Comms

Website: https://www.idcomms.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/id-comms

On this week’s #MediaSnack we look ahead into what’s likely to be another busy pitch year and echo the sentiment made by Charles Courtier (global CEO of media agency MEC) that this volume and scale of media pitching could be “the new normal” for media agencies. We offer some helpful tips and advice to CMO’s, in another crowded pitch market, what can brands do to stand out and make sure that agencies are making their pitch a priority and focusing the best talent, resources and value to their brands. We take a review of Omnicom Group’s Q4 results and look at the behaviours and movements behind the numbers, programmatic media buying revenues are driving 25% of their total group growth and we expect Omnicom to shortly announce details of their 3rd media agency network, which if you remember, was prompted by the recent big P&G media win in the US in 2015. Finally, we hit 100 subscribers (yay!) and as promised we invited our lucky 100th subscriber to ask us a topical question. The winner was Simon Peel, Global Media Director at adidas who asked us a great question about the hot topic of media transparency.Links from the episode:"Fatal February"http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article...http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/02/1...Omnicom Q4 results:http://adage.com/article/agency-news/...http://www.brandrepublic.com/article/...http://www.mediapost.com/publications...http://mandmglobal.com/omnicoms-third..._______________________________________About ID Comms:• ID Comms is a strategic media consulting company, founded in 2009 • We act as a trusted media partner to the world's leading advertisers, helping them to navigate the complexities of the changing media landscape.• Media is a very powerful lever for growth for brands, but the landscape is complicated, cluttered and confusing. Making sense of this and knowing what to focus on is a challenge for marketers.• It comes down to having the right knowledge to make decisions with confidence and the right controls to implement them, and that's what we do.• We provide clarity in this complex landscape by empowering our clients with the knowledge they need to take the right decisions and we provide the data and tools to give them more control over their media performance. Visit our website: http://www.idcomms.com

"Every single agency CEO talks about the same challenge; talent. Talent empowerment is the biggest challenge across all industries right now. "


My guest on this #MediaSnack Meets is Marla Kaplowitz, the CEO of the 4As. I've known Marla for many years since her previous leadership of agencies, Marla now heads up the leading agency trade organization in the US, the American Association of Advertising Agencies with over 600 agency members. 

What makes a GREAT media pitch? #MediaSnack 127 by ID Comms

On this week’s #MediaSnack, the first of 2017, Tom and David get excited about CHANGE, which they reveal is #MediaSnack Media Word of 2017 (in 2016 it was CONTROL) - as they foresee many advertisers implementing significant change this year in how they manage their media investments and work with media agencies. Tom and David detail 3 areas where they predict the biggest changes in 2017:The Advertiser - we expect a significant change in the internal narrative around media, from a cost to be managed downwards into an investment in growth. Advertisers will continue to take more control of media decisions, define a clear vision and ambition for media investment, set proper KPIs for media performance which focus investment against driving business outcomes. This change will be huge, with many advertisers who may have neglected their media budgets for years taking it seriously again and redefining media as a powerful lever for growth and a critical part of marketing success, so important to get right. The last piece of the jigsaw will be change in the relationship between marketing and procurement, we expect a change of internal narrative around media to drive far closer alignment between marketing and procurement stakeholders, which will have a very positive impact on media being seen as an investment in growth and the media agency being seen more as a strategic partner in success rather than a commodity supplier. The Agency - media agencies will undergo more change in 2017 than they’ve ever faced, driven largely by the change in brief and scope issue by marketers. The most significant change to media agencies will be driven by the big media pitches of 2017, as these tend to create the huge tectonic pressures needed to remould the media agency networks. The more strategic pitch briefs (rather than the clumsy, race-to-the-bottom eAuctions) will define a new blueprint for the media agency model, asking them to engineer their resources more specifically around marketers new requirements. We expect media agencies in 2017 to be more open to defining partner relationships with advertisers, aligning to the same KPIs, working to performance-based payment models and offering greater financial transparency. This in turn might have a huge impact on the shape of media agencies, perhaps shifting away from the being ‘buying giants’ leveraging scale to secure cheap pricing, to be more like objective, strategic consultants. But to do this legitimately media agencies are going to have to be very transparency about their business model, as its impossible to be wholly objective and neutral if your income is derived largely from the buying of certain media. Accountability - we anticipate big changes in how media investment is held accountable. This year, 2017 could be the year when metrics for media become more rationalised, with more standardisation and consistency. Accountability is the new thread that will link the changes in advertisers with the changes in media agencies, as both parties become more accountable to the CEO, CMO, CPO to account for how media investment is driving a business outcome. Over time we expect that this will result in the media market moving from one focused on cost, price, discount and auditing to one of value, growth and performance. Change starts from within, as Mahatma Gandhi said “You must BE the change you want to see in the world” which will be a good mantra for advertisers who became frustrated with media in 2016, not least over transparency concerns. The change starts with the advertiser

My guest for this #MediaSnackMeets episode, is Samuel Rueff, Global Media Director at Bayer.

Find out:
- What is Sam's role at Bayer and what is he most proud of professionally?
- What does he see are the industry's biggest challenges and how we might address them?
- What does he do to unwind and recharge (which includes supporting a good cause through The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride -- https://www.gentlemansride.com/)
- Plus Sam's best industry leadership tips


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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.

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Because the best are short of time, our guests answer only 6 questions in 20 minutes

We get to learn what is behind their success, what it takes to make change in the industry and what the rest of us can learn from that experience.

We ask:
1. What do you do, and what you are most proud of?
2. What is the best thing about working in media?
3. What do you think is the biggest challenge for the industry right now?
4. What is your favorite piece of business/leadership advice?
5. What is your passion outside of media?
6. Your hopes for the year ahead?

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

Thanks for watching, if you enjoy #MediaSnack​ Meets please give us a thumbs up (it really helps) and do share links and tell others. Subscribe to our channel to stay updated.  

Marketer? 
For tips, guides & other amazing free resources for marketers, get started at: www.IDComms.com/GROWTH

On this week’s #MediaSnack we devote the whole episode to reviewing the ANA’s Media Transparency Guidelines which were finally published this week after some delay. This draws to a conclusion the Association of National Advertisers’ year-long project to identify the scale of rebate and other non-transparent practices amongst US based media agencies and offer guidance to those advertisers (pretty much everyone) who may have been exposed to this practice or was entirely unaware of the risk.We look at the main points of ANA’s advice to marketers, including a strong suggestion that most marketers don’t currently have sufficient capabilities to oversee media management internally. They recommend appointing a Chief Media Officer, someone internally who can champion the role of media within the company, have more accountability for media as an investment for growth and someone who can define the relationship with the agency beyond just buying cheap media. We expect that the guidelines will now trigger many brands into action to upgrade their media skills and capabilities, to take back some control of media management from their agency if they have overly delegated this away. This, as regular viewers will know, is what ID Comms have been recommending for many years; marketers need to have control (ANA calls is “primacy”) over their own media investments. Those brands which do not will be at a serious disadvantage to those who decide to do the hard work to take back some control. For any brand looking to understand how to upgrade their own media behaviours, start by reviewing ID Comms 7Ts principles, the 7 media behaviours of successful marketers. This simplifies the major tasks and responsibilities of the Chief Media Officer, allowing them to benchmark their organisation and create a roadmap for improvements over time. One pleasant surprise as part of the ANA’s release was the inclusion of a media agency services contract. A template to guide marketers in creating the best media agency contract. This is a great asset, built on the good work that ISBA (the UK's marketer trade body) executed earlier in 2016. ISBA created a best practice media agency contract, ID Comms was heavily involved in the drafting of the contract and supporting guidelines so we can attest to its quality and robustness. The ANA have used ISBA’s template as a basis for their own version for US members. In our review, we believe that the ANA contract template is of best practice standard, but will be hard for advertisers to implement unless they have sufficient negotiation leverage over agencies to get them to accept these terms. That’s the next challenge for marketers, how to put all this stuff into practice. We certainly welcome the publication of the ANA's Media Transparency guidelines. We discuss that if advertisers adopt these guidelines then they will certainly be in a better position than they were 12 months ago. In that sense, the ANA have achieved their goal and done what they said they were going to do, the guidelines are sensible, reasonable, considered and fair. We highly commend the ANA for the rigorous process they have undertaken. We hope that, at the conclusion of the ANA media transparency investigations, this will draw a line under this difficult and toxic chapter for the industry and that advertisers and their agencies can build more productive relationships together for the future.If you have any responsibility of your company’s media investments, work with a media agency or work at a media agency, you need to be very well versed on this project. Happy reading, let us know what you think in the comments or email us at ID Comms. 

Echoing that iconic scene in Monty Python's 'The Life of Brian' we ask ourselves what the advertising trade bodies have ever done for us?

On #MediaSnack we give a rundown of some of the landmark work across the last 5 years from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA).

We thank them for their leadership and continued vision of what is possible.

Episode links:

WFA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Census - please take part before July 2, 2021
https://wfanet.org/knowledge/item/202...

Monty Python "What have the Romans ever done for us?
   • Monty Python   Wh... 

ANA Conference events: (see you there)
Media Conference: https://www.ana.net/content/show/id/m...
AFM: https://www.ana.net/content/show/id/m...
Digital & Social: https://www.ana.net/content/show/id/m...

ANA 2016 Media Transparency Study:
https://www.ana.net/content/show/id/i...
#MediaSnack

ANA + ID Comms Video series: The ANA Media Transparency Report: Five Years On
https://www.ana.net/content/show/id/i...

#MediaSnack 118: WPP 2.0 - The New Playbook by ID Comms