It’s The Way You Sell ‘Em

20 November 2025

I once managed to persuade Rupert Murdoch into Leo Burnett (I was Media Director) for ‘The Chairman’s Lunch’. This was held every month or so, hosted by the late great Richard Wheatly for senior clients. My job was to get a ‘media character’ along. I invited Murdoch; this was in the early days of Sky. He said yes. Amongst the clients present was someone senior at Kellogg’s.

At one stage Murdoch asked the Kellogg’s man how many boxes of cornflakes he sold. What would it cost to advertise Sky on the back of the packet? My memory is the Kellogg’s guy knew the volume of boxes sold but had no idea how to price an ad on the back. He said he saw no reason why this couldn’t happen.

To my shame (and against myself given the rest of this post) I didn’t contribute anything; I guess I just assumed this was an interesting exchange, nothing more.

The next morning, early, I had an angry Kellogg’s CMO on the phone. What was I thinking; didn’t I have any idea about the production timetable on cereal boxes?

Apparently, Murdoch had his people call the CMO first thing to close the deal and to ask when they could expect the first boxes with Sky ads on them to hit the stores.

It never happened.

Fast forward a few decades. A Board Advisor from one of the platforms arrives in London by private jet to see a major advertiser’s CEO. His message was ‘why are you wasting all this money on TV advertising? All you need is us’. Luckily the CEO is well enough informed, and close enough to his CMO to deflect and refer. The Advisor flew home with nothing.

Another couple of decades passes. I am on a call with a large US-based client. This client has decided to make a major advertising investment in one of the platforms. All dealings would be direct, not via any of the roster agencies. Everything would be via the client’s FD and team; marketing would not be involved.

I asked how the client would know if this activity was working. Easy, came the reply, the platform concerned tells us, they share the numbers.

What all of these stories – separated by 40-odd years – have in common is how great salesmen, Murdoch, the Advisor, the platforms themselves, go about convincing their prospects to buy whatever it is they’re selling. They bypass those who may be sufficiently well-informed to question what they’re being told and instead go to the top.

Agencies have increasingly become bit-part players; they’re not consulted by the upper echelons of their clients’ managements.

One large agency told me the other week (loudly, and slowly) that I had to understand that it’s all about JBPs (Joint Business Plans, for sake of clarity) these days, and that at the end of the day the agency can only advise.

Goodness.

Agencies, like any other professional advisor exist to advise. The point is their advice was once upon a time considered essential. It was rare for any client to agree an over-arching deal with a media vendor without the agency’s input.

But over time we’ve become note-takers, ciphers, rather than valued advisors. That’s what a lack of trust does.

The main platforms are remarkably good at selling. They avoid the ‘experts’, those with the awkward questions and go straight to the top. Let the grown-ups do the deals and then the foot soldiers can sort the detail. Keep the experts happy by sponsoring the odd talking shop. No top manager is ever going to admit being played.

Would the CEO call his agency? Nope.

There’s one likely outcome. The investment in advertising on the platforms to the exclusion of most everything else won’t work for brands. There’s already plenty of evidence it doesn’t work. The value of brands will decline.

And who’s fault will that be?

You have one guess.