Each week we will give you a tasty, bite size tour of some of the most interesting stories, letting you know just what you need to know and providing our expert perspective where we can.
ID Comms #MediaSnack - Get your fill each Friday, in just enough time it takes to eat a sandwich!
#MediaSnack Ep. 27: Time to split planning and buying?
On #MediaSnack Ep. 27 - we review The Wall Street Journal reporting that the hotly anticipated report by the ANA into US media rebate practice will be published "imminently".
On this week's #MediaSnack - we review The Wall Street Journal reporting that the hotly anticipated report by the ANA into US media rebate practice will be published "imminently". We discuss the likely fallout and some implications of the report. We share what we think US Media Directors should be thinking and preparing for including carefully managing the message internally and seeking a mandate from their boards on a considered and strategic view on how to apply better governance to media investments in the future.
Next, we review Tom's perspectives of the Media360 conference which touched on many of the same themes, notably Media Transparency, media agency business models and the so-called "Talent Tsunami". One of the highlights of the conference was a panel which debated the pros and cons of splitting media planning duties from media buying scope. One of the panellists from Mars, Marc Zander highlighted how their splitting of planning and buying globally had given them the benefit of greater transparency and worked for them.
Finally, we remind you that the ID Comms Media Talent survey closes today so please take 5 minutes to complete it if you haven't done so already.
#MediaSnack Ep.28 #RebateGate - what now? How should marketers react to the ANA Media Rebate Report
This special episode of #MediaSnack is devoted to the review of the ANA’s long-awaited report into media rebate practice in the US. Following a 9 month forensic study by corporate investigations firm K2 Intelligence, the report is an alarming wake-up call to a global industry riddled with speculation about bad practice on behalf of some media agencies. The report calls media rebate activity “pervasive” and that they have evidence that agencies "across the spectrum” have been involved.
We take a look at the report findings, consider the implications on the wider industry and discuss what should a media director be thinking right now after reviewing the report
Before the report was widely released, we were invited to join a briefing call hosted by the ANA and K2 Intelligence for interested parties and journalists, on the call ANA President and CEO Bob Lionise stated clearly that “the media business is not transparent”.
K2 then spent 20 minutes detailing the executive summary of findings and opened up to Q&A. We understand that the accompanying guidelines being drawn up by US media auditors Ebiquity will follow in a couple of weeks.
There have been very robust responses from the large media agency groups questioning the integrity of the ANA’s approach and K2’s report. This has included an accusation from Publicis Groupe that the report has “diminished and maligned" the industry. Clearly, battle-lines are being drawn and this is probably just the start of a bigger fall out between marketer and agency.
Look out this week for The ID Comms “Post-K2 Media Manifesto” offering some initial practical guidance for marketers feeling exposed and unsure of how to react to the report findings.
#MediaSnack Ep. 29 : The Client view of #RebateGate - WFA's Matt Green on ANA's Rebate Report
In #MediaSnack Ep. 29 Tom Denford is joined by Matt Green, Senior Manager Media and Digital Marketing (a.k.a. "the voice of global media") at the global marketer trade body the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA).
They discuss the role and membership of WFA, which includes global brand companies like P&G, Unilever, L'Oreal, Nestle and many others with a global marketing spend of over US$700bn.
The WFA represents around 60 national marketing trade associations across the world and is the voice of marketers worldwide, representing 90% of global marketing communications spend – through a unique, global network. The WFA champions responsible and effective marketing communications worldwide.
In the first part of the episode Tom and Matt discuss WFA’s most recent initiative - 'WFA's Compendium of Ad Fraud Knowledge for Media Investors'. The document identifies clear actions to enable brands to reduce their exposure to ad fraud in four key areas: Standards, People & Technology, Education & Communication, and Governance.
In the second part of the episode, Tom and Matt discuss WFA's perspective on the ANA's report into US media rebate practice, called “An Independent Study of Media Transparency in the US Advertising Industry” and written by K2 Intelligence. For information about the report watch #MediaSnack Episode 28. In Matt’s word’s the ANA report contains a lot of constructive comments and is a helpful step forward for their marketer members. He says "we endorse the document completely".
Matt Green of WFA believes that the ANA media Rebate Report (#RebateGate) will be a "catalyst for behaviour change" on the client side because some client behaviours may have "provoked the transparency problem".
Finally, they discuss WFA's most recent member’s survey on media transformation which highlights that Talent is becoming one of the biggest concerns amongst WFA members and how important it is to ensure that they have the right resources and capabilities to face the future.
This month ID Comms completed the ID Comms 2016 Global Media Talent Survey, that will be published in the next couple of weeks and will feature on future episodes of #MediaSnack.
#MediaSnack Ep. 30: Cannes we talk about #RebateGate?
On this week's #MediaSnack we ask whether the ANA's report into US media rebate practice, which has become known as #RebateGate has had any effect on Wall Street (and other financial markets) valuations of the large marketing services groups like WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, IPG, etc. Analyst perspective seems mixed, Morgan Stanley report the removal of the "overhang", whilst Brian Wieser is more cautious. The typical analyst questions to ID Comms have been: is this getting LEGAL? (maybe, unlikely, but not immediately) and will this trigger MediaPolooza 2.0 / Media Tsunami 2.0? (probably, again not immediately, likely to be in 2017 if so)
We report on some of the many client calls and meetings we have had in the last 10 days which have tended to involve a calm and considered perspective and focus on immediate and long-term actions. We announced the release of the "Post-K2 Manifesto for Media Change" a simple 6-step practical guide to short and long-term actions which marketers need to consider, links to this are below.
Next, we discuss our plans for Cannes - Tom and David will be attending the world's largest annual communications festival which brings together leaders from the marketer, agency and vendor communities. We will be bringing #MediaSnack to Cannes with some great interviews lined up, check back next week.
Finally, Tom is speaking at #TheIndieSummit - a gathering of some of the world's best independently owned creative, media and PR agencies.
#MediaSnack Ep. 31: £160m media pitch, in Cannes
We bring this week’s #MediaSnack from Cannes in the South of France where David and Tom are attending the annual Festival of Creativity, which gathers some of the world’s leading marketers and executives from the world’s leading agencies and vendors. It was historically an advertising festival but in the last decade has been overrun somewhat by big spending media and technology companies.
We broadcast from the beachside Cabana of the International Advertising Association (IAA), the sun is shining and the dark clouds that had been gathering over the media industry recently have definitely been left at home.
This allows for more positive, collaborative and unguarded conversations on the sensitive issues facing the industry.
We highlight the important role Cannes plays to bring together the industry to celebrate good work (for only around 10% of the time) and engage in meaningful and different conversation with many different people you don’t typically get to talk with in the same way.
We had the opportunity to talk with many senior client, agency and vendor leaders about the challenges and opportunities for the global media industry. #RebateGate was being talked about a lot, but the tone of the conversations has changed in most cases (thanks to Cannes), becoming less emotional and more open, sensible and rational.
We announce the publication of the ID Comms 2016 Global Media Talent Report and talk to agency leader Toby Jenner, Global Chief Operating Officer of Mediacom about his agency’s approach to identifying, motivating and retaining the best industry talent. We discuss some of the findings and consider the current state of advertisers’ media capabilities and how that might need to evolve over time.
Finally, we discuss the launch of the largest UK media review of the year. Communications groups BT and EE merged in early 2016 and currently split their media planning and buying across two GroupM companies (Maxus and MEC respectively). The combined account is worth £160m in billings and will be a big prize for the winner. We understand giants WPP, Publicis and Omnicom have been invited to fight it out.
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