According to a recent ID Comms report, marketers and their media agency relationships have gone from bad to worse. Marketers are continuing to view media as a cost, focused more on pricing and efficiency than on it being an investment. The marketers also view their agencies as commodity suppliers, not strategic partners.
One of the most telling set of responses is that marketers who take a more strategic and thoughtful approach to media will deliver a stronger marketing performance, yet marketers lead media decisions from a procurement rather than marketing perspective and their agencies are unable to provide neutral and objective planning recommendations.
This report is heavily driven by larger companies and their global media agencies. It’s an indictment on the state of the industry from agency financial practices to lack of risk taking and inability to train and adapt to change.
When marketers call media a complex headache more than exciting these days it screams that their agencies are unprepared to lead them through those complexities. From junior level planners who run the day-to-day operations to inexperienced buyers who are simply focused on achieving impression goals and then moving on to the next client, there is a disconnect between strategy and execution at the media agencies. Since their view of “an impression is an impression is an impression”, it is understandable why clients view media as a commodity and focus to paying as little as possible rather than on the creative and effective use of all media.
OCD Media has always been a strategy first media agency focusing on integrating channels that make sense for a brand. We’re not distracted by shiny objects. With no silos in place, our strategists, each of whom has 20+ years of experience in this business, are able to work across media platforms to create truly integrated communication platforms focused on the customers, not just distressed inventory which they can buy cheap. This does not mean that we do not avail ourselves of cost efficiencies. The difference is we negotiate and create these efficiencies through advanced targeting and by leveraging our commitments at the corporate vendor levels.