Just over 10 years ago, WPP supremo Martin Sorrell was busy lambasting creative agencies in general for allowing and, in part, facilitating, the unbundling of media. He surmised that the Europe-focused trend, which was picking up pace in Asia as well, was happening “because the people who ran advertising agencies did not think media planning and media buying were important” (Media, 8 August, 1997).
Fast-forward a decade or so, and he’s probably not so worried anymore. WPP’s GroupM giant MindShare is celebrating its 10th anniversary after combining the media operations of Ogilvy & Mather and JWT, with GroupM regional CEO John Steedman confidently noting the only thing he would change “would be to grow faster”.
Key rival - or at least one of them - OMD is also hunting around for a similar number of candles for its anniversary cake, after launching at virtually the same time - they’re still arguing over who launched first - with a combination of media departments from DDB Needham, BBDO and TBWA.
Since their inception, the pair have demonstrated impressive growth, boasting more than US$26 billion and $23 billion in Recma-monitored billings respectively, thousands of staff globally and a ‘who’s who’ of advertisers on their rosters. Universal McCann too unveiled its first tentative steps in the region during that year, and Carat and Zenith, both of which launched earlier, were displaying early signs of the growth potential across the region.
According to at least one agency executive, unbundling was a natural conclusion to years of marginalisation. “Most advertising people at that time didn’t think highly of media people. They essentially got rid of media because they didn’t understand it and didn’t even want to understand it,” recalls Aegis Media CEO Patrick Stahle.
But while the growth has been impressive, it has not exactly been an easy ride. Most agree managing that growth — both from talent resourcing and agency infrastructure perspectives - has been one of the most difficult growing pains to overcome.
Clients have also grown increasingly sophisticated. Procurement-led reviews are becoming more common, with a commoditised media landscape forcing agencies to spread their wings horizontally, ramping up their investment in research and developing laterally into new growth areas such as sports sponsorship, events, marketing services and branded content.
“You can’t be competitive and not offer a range of diversified services in those areas,” explains departing OMD CEO Mike Cooper. “The big pitches are all focused on clients who ask not just ‘Can you do things more efficiently’, but also ‘Can you be creative and can you help us plan media?’.”
Creatively speaking, Batey CEO Alan Fairnington - who was responsible for launching MindShare along with Ogilvy’s Miles Young — admits that media agencies have plenty to gain from the current landscape.
“(A lack of market data) is still the biggest issue facing creative agencies today,” he says. “Media agencies are so large and powerful that they now dwarf most creative agencies, which have learned that they can’t just do words and pictures any more. (But) media agencies aren’t yet anywhere near being able to offer genuine, brand-building creative ideas.”
The need for creativity, it seems, is nowhere more obvious than in the digital sphere. Innovations in online and mobile are being complemented by the digitisation of traditional media such as television and outdoor, providing new touchpoints at which to connect with consumers.
Combining an agency’s digital offer with its other diversified services and ever-evolving research capabilities, and it seems you have something of an arms race, as Zenith’s regional communications planning director Guy Abrahams wryly points out.
The victor? It’s difficult to predict, he says, but it’s likely to be an agency which discovers the perfect balance “between the mathematics of media and the psychology of people”.
“If you look at a classic search engine marketer, they require mathematical nous to understand algorithms, but also a deep understanding of psychology and copywriting,” Abrahams says. “That’s going to be the media agency of the future.”
But while the blurring of lines with creativity that digital causes has cleared the way for media agencies to enter the search for the big idea, few dispute the fact there’s a long way to go. “If you look at the big groups and how digital is run, I’m not sure anyone would sit there and put their hand on their heart and say they’ve got it cracked,” observes Universal McCann Asia-Pacific’s deputy regional director Jonathan Thurlow.
