\u2018The Trust Crisis\u2019<\/a> with a suitably serious-sounding American voice-over and the obligatory MadMen clip.<\/p>\nAs is so often the case, Sir Martin Sorrell is the only one of the large holding company CEO\u2019s to appear. His contribution is to say he prefers the term \u2018relationship issues\u2019 to any suggestion that there is a trust crisis.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a \u2018life-is-so-unfair\u2019 segment in which Stephen Allan CEO of GroupM\u2019s MediaCom bemoans the shortcomings of e-auctions as an element in new business pitches.<\/p>\n
Stephen has a point on e-auctions but to dismiss them on the basis that the agency cannot control pricing and that (by implication) some of the bidding agencies were promising prices they couldn\u2019t possibly deliver, doesn\u2019t sit all that comfortably with his agency\u2019s use of value pots.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also strange to hear a media agency CEO complain about being \u2018outbid\u2019 on price. Isn\u2019t it the agencies\u2019 historic focus on price above all else that has led to this unfortunate situation?<\/p>\n
Certainly client procurement officers have taken this focus to extremes, but (to coin a phrase) the agencies started it.<\/p>\n
After all, agency-wide deals pre-date client procurement officers.<\/p>\n
What is weird is that everyone taking part in the media agency trust debate seems to be dancing around the key issue.<\/p>\n
This is not rebates \u2013 important though they are as a lightning rod \u2013 but that agencies have taken to recommending media forms on the basis of the advantages delivered to them as opposed to their appropriateness for their clients\u2019 budgets.<\/p>\n
For all the holding companies\u2019 bluff and bluster about rebates, and about how unfair life is when procurement officers drive a hard bargain no-one has yet denied that this practice of the buy driving the plan is widespread.<\/p>\n
Agencies are well capable of writing great plans. But great plans are based on client needs. They\u2019re not based on justifying a buyer\u2019s commitment to hit his volume target.<\/p>\n
Trust breaks down when your professional advisor is suspected of putting his own interests ahead of yours.<\/p>\n
\u2018Relationship issues\u2019 are the result.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Suddenly the T word is all around us. We are in a crisis of trust; trust has broken down between agency and client; consumers no longer trust advertising (did they ever?); the lack of trust is responsible for the growth in adblockers. And so it goes on.<\/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\/818"}],"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=818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions\/819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}