In the beginning there were media buying agencies. In fact, somewhat disappointingly here we are 40 odd years later and this is still the descriptor used by most clients to describe the organisations responsible for handling their media budgets. All that investment in people, research, tools and techniques and they\u2019re still \u2018my media buyers\u2019.<\/p>\n
Of course there was media planning but that was always the soft underbelly of the operation; the bit that won the awards; the bit the trade press got excited about; the bit paraded at conferences and at new business pitches; the bit that filled in the silence that would otherwise precede the words: \u2018Look, we\u2019re going to buy it really cheaply, cheaper than anyone else.\u2019<\/p>\n
As one buying head of my acquaintance once put it to one of his agency\u2019s planning team: \u2018you may win the business; but we make the money\u2019.<\/p>\n
Agencies have always found it hard to charge for planning. Clients don\u2019t really understand it, or to put it another way, agencies have failed to convince them of its value. On the other hand everyone understands \u2018cheap\u2019.<\/p>\n
The trouble is in the fully accountable, always on, hugely complicated, digital world we are all in, not everyone understands \u2018cheap\u2019 after all. Because \u2018cheap\u2019 can \u00a0it turns out mean non-transparent. It can also mean a lack of control, and oddly a lack of accountability at least on the metrics historically used to measure such things (like media audits).<\/p>\n
Because even if agencies haven\u2019t been so good at charging for planning they are and always have been extremely good at making margins on the buys. The Australian piece here<\/a> explains some of the many ways agencies make money far better than I could.<\/p>\n And so we arrive at a situation where agencies in the round are not trusted by their clients. Not all clients know quite how what\u2019s been going on for years goes on, and many let\u2019s be honest have no particular interest in blowing the whole game wide open even if they do know chapter and verse. But the situation has changed from a few agencies making a bit on the side in lieu of fees or commission, to huge holding companies in some cases choosing not to reveal how and where their clients\u2019 budgets are being spent.<\/p>\n