Disclaimer – the Company mentioned in this post, Qustodian is one in which I am a founder shareholder.

It is generally acknowledged that ‘engagement’ is a good thing. It is better, at every level if your message (whatever form that takes) is not only ‘seen’ (whatever that means) by a large number of people, but that a good number of those people choose to do something that approximates to actually reading it, hearing it or viewing it and furthermore that they indicate that they have done so in some way or other.

The problem with the notion of engagement is that there are almost as many definitions as there are conferences on the subject.

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I am indebted to my ex-colleague Maarten Albarda (once of Coca-Cola and AB-Inbev) for posting the summary of a recent WFA survey of its members. The WFA, or World Federation of Advertisers is the global equivalent of ISBA in the UK, or the ANA in the USA. In other words it represents very large global advertisers whose views and opinions are (one would have hoped) of some relevance to the media agency community, given that where sophisticated advertisers go today the rest of the market will go tomorrow.

The WFA study makes grim reading. 87% of their members are unhappy with the levels of transparency offered by agency trading desks; 54% said they had been asked to sign separate agreements with their agencies limiting (amongst other things) the right to audit performance; 57% were aware that the practice of arbitrage exists, with 82% of that group believing the practice negatively affects the agency’s ability to act impartially.

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There are far too many pitches in this business. I appreciate that they’re the fuel that drives much of our trade press; I understand that they are the reason we have so many fine new business directors (not to mention pitch consultants); I get it that they’re a great example of agencies at their best – with disparate specialists coming together in a common cause, namely to beat the other guy.

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The late great English comedian Kenneth Williams (1926 – 1988) once gave an interview in which he said: “Everyone’s becoming better and better at less and less. Eventually someone’s going to be superb, at nothing”. Sadly perhaps, LinkedIn wasn’t around then, because if ever there was proof that Ken was wrong it is to be found in LinkedIn’s endorsement facility.

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