A couple of weeks ago the Cog Blog commented on the growing importance of planning to the network agencies as they strive to replace the grey revenues lost to the era of transparency.<\/p>\n
I made the point then that those from a planning (as opposed to a trading) background) were increasingly in the ascendancy at the major networks.<\/p>\n
This week the point was rammed home by an interview Tom George, now the head of GroupM in the UK gave to \u2018Campaign\u2019<\/a> in which he spoke of the need for a greater open-ness in agencies\u2019 dialogue with clients, and admitted that \u2018Perhaps there\u2019s room for improvement in our communications and business models\u2019.<\/p>\n The same \u2018Campaign\u2019 piece quoted Tom\u2019s predecessor Nick Theakstone, a trader, who described ISBA\u2019s suggestion that maybe some agencies \u2018don\u2019t have the best interests of their clients at heart anymore\u2019 as \u2018an insult\u2019.<\/p>\n Theakstone is from the generation who had a hand in creating the mess of self-interest (a mess in which advertisers were at the very least guilty of a lack of interest) that was eventually exposed by Jon Mandel, the ANA, ISBA and others.<\/p>\n