Media by Mother<\/a>, which aims to \u2018rethink the media agency\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis paragraph from their \u2018manifesto\u2019 caught my attention:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMedia planning needs to be about business and content planning. That means analytical talent who create better inputs for media and understand attribution. It means having content creators who can turn around a meme because they know culture. It means copywriters working within creative management platforms so banners aren\u2019t the shitty posters of the internet. It means experts in media buying platforms who can work like producers, managing activation through the right access point with a deep knowledge of ad tech and data.\u201d (David Gaines, CEO, Media by Mother)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Going back to Wavemaker, media agency networks need tools. They\u2019re a key ingredient in the cement that holds the network together, they\u2019re the answer to the inevitable question \u2013 \u2018but what differentiates you from the others?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They also define a way of working. In the eyes of those at the centre, if the local markets all have the same tools they all work consistently. A key requirement for international clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s never that simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Will all local markets understand and use the tools? How will the centre check? How and how often will they train? What will they do if the tools aren\u2019t used?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These aren\u2019t hypothetical questions \u2013 we faced the same issues building the Carat network way back when.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are certain lessons that have stood the test of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, if the local market doesn\u2019t understand the tool they won\u2019t use it. The first time a client asks them to explain the inner workings, and they can\u2019t is the last time that tool will be used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In another lifetime I once had to present how we estimated cross-media reach to a large client (I was my agency\u2019s head of media research at the time). Being a smart-arse, I put up a long formula to demonstrate 1) how clever we were and 2) the scientific rigour behind our approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My line was \u2018I\u2019m sure you don\u2019t want me to take you through the formula..\u2019 Unfortunately the client had a deep and abiding interest in statistics and asked me to do exactly that. I couldn\u2019t, looked and felt like a fool and never made that mistake again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Incentivising offices to use the toolkit can work well. At Carat we used to visit local markets, ask to see examples of the tools in action, check their use with international business, and adjust local bonus payments accordingly. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nTools are great, but the clue is in the name. You need to have smart humans to work the tools. Smart humans need training in why they should be doing this when local market custom and practice dictate otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The danger with the Wavemaker approach is that it will stop people thinking about what they\u2019re really trying to do \u2013 which is not to maximise the media numbers (a means to an end) but to use commercial messaging to drive business success for the client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The alternative approach \u2013 followed by Mother, and agencies like MediaHub and VCCP is to bring media planning in far closer to the creative process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a question of whether you focus on the ads, or the algorithms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This week, while the rest of the industry was in post-Superbowl creative ad fever Wavemaker, the GroupM media agency announced a breakthrough. They\u2019ve used artificial intelligence (big tick) to build a tool (called Maximise, obviously) that can analyse gazillions of media plan options in a nanosecond (I may have got those numbers wrong).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1432,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions\/1432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}