Agencies on agencies: A roadmap for the future

This post is by Matt Green, senior marketing communications manager at the WFA.

For much of the year, the WFA's MEDIAMFORUM features clients talking about how they manage or plan to manage their agencies in order to secure better results and an improved relationship.

At Deutsche Telekom's offices in Berlin the tables were turned for the last MEDIAMFORUM of the year. We invited three agencies to reveal their vision for the future and to discuss some of the big themes that have emerged in recent years and are potentially preventing the client and agency relationship from becoming the powerful business partnership it could be.

Representatives of CROSS MEDIA, Havas Media Group and ZenithOptimedia created a panel with a diversity of company backgrounds to provide a range of opinions as to what agencies should be doing in the future:

• Reboot and reframe: the market is more complex than ever and brands seek advice from an increasing number of sources, including the global digital giants and suppliers from the exploding ad tech sector. An opportunity exists for agencies to become more consultant minded and to help guide clients through the maze;
• 'Programmatic' has unequivocally been the word of 2014 and the number of conferences on this theme in Q4 was in double figures in the UK alone. There remains more to be done in order to open up, provide visibility and educate;
• Take a more active role in examining and mapping the entire customer journey; accelerate the shift to "always on" communications and ongoing consumer relationships;
• Better orchestration and integration of disparate marketing activity; improved collaboration with other marketing services agencies and boosting project management skills to bring it all together;
• There are more than 50 distinct roles/disciplines in the average media agency, but the development of truly diversified capabilities and the technology to execute marketing across numerous channels, remains an ongoing priority for the future;
• Content is moving centre stage and agencies need to embrace the marketing opportunities this presents. Those that succeed in this space will be able to use data from multiple sources to take advantage of the opportunities unfolding in real-time, using data to adjust content and course-correct. It's an agile approach that requires the fusion of art and science.

Encouragingly, much of the above appears to be a response to the concerns of the global client community, communicated regularly on the subject of programmatic.

The panellists admitted that relations with clients are at a low point and the development of programmatic has exacerbated tensions, with the "business model appearing to get in the way" of the channel's full potential being realised, thus prompting a "downward spiral of mistrust".

Efforts are being made to resolve this tension and a panellist revealed that they are embracing hybrid 'platform agnostic' trading desk models – as espoused in the WFA guide to programmatic – to accommodate client needs and assuage concerns. Another suggested the way forward was to embrace transparency and provide clarity over contracts and line-by-line details for rebates.

Encouragingly, much of the above appears to be a response to the concerns of the global client community, communicated regularly on the subject of programmatic.

The panellists admitted that relations with clients are at a low point and the development of programmatic has exacerbated tensions, with the "business model appearing to get in the way" of the channel's full potential being realised, thus prompting a "downward spiral of mistrust".

Efforts are being made to resolve this tension and a panellist revealed that they are embracing hybrid 'platform agnostic' trading desk models – as espoused in the WFA guide to programmatic – to accommodate client needs and assuage concerns. Another suggested the way forward was to embrace transparency and provide clarity over contracts and line-by-line details for rebates.

All the panellists claimed that their trading desks do not to engage in 'arbitrage' at all, but it remains that 66% of client respondents to a recent WFA survey claimed not to be clear about the business model used by its trading desk.

It was recognised that "the legacy media buying approach encourages poor behaviour", but much can be resolved through discussion, which is why these sessions are so effective. One panellist recommended that both client and agency "put it all on the table" in order to establish a new and more productive way of working. The panellists were keen to assert that this process should also scrutinise the role clients have played with regard to the state of the industry. "Clients have fuelled the problem" through pressure on remuneration and requesting an "unfair share of rebates", said one.

The relentless pressure on media pricing was also identified as a problem, in part driven by clients. This is clearly a source of frustration for agencies, and panellists argued that the focus should not all be on pricing: "we can effect end performance and drive incremental revenue – effectiveness is what matters".

Much of the discussion conveyed the sense that 'media agencies' increasingly do not see themselves as this anymore, but as providers of broader marketing services, with the integration of said marketing being a large part of their remit in the future.

Integration is unequivocally a priority for many clients too, and the growth of dedicated agency teams taking a cross-section of talent from across holding companies is testimony to this.

But not all the clients in the room felt that agencies were ready to transition away from their core proposition, with more rigour required around the media measurement framework and transparency issues that are so fundamental to clients.

There is much to feel positive about with regard the future of media agencies and client agency relations, and closed meetings such as this where we can "put it all on the table" help to develop the discussion. Underlying issues do need to be addressed before the partnership can achieve its full potential. Until then, clients may suspect that something is being obscured under the tablecloth.