So why would they give two hoots about a new report — The Gunn Report for Media — which ranks the most- awarded media shops? Does anyone else but OMD care that it won more gongs than Starcom in 2006?
“I’m afraid I don’t give much credence to awards,” says Tim Parkinson, Southeast Asia marketing director for Nike — which, according to the report, won more at media awards shows than any advertiser in 2006. But what the report rightly recognises, says Parkinson, is that media shops should offer more than buying brawn. “The market is no longer about volume. It’s about quality of connection with consumers.
Marketers need to deliver deeper, more customised consumer engagement. So, in a world where the consumer is king, finesse matters,” he says.
Patrick Stahle, CEO of Aegis Media Asia-Pacific, agrees. He’s in the process of positioning Carat — not the region’s biggest player — as a leading communications planning agency. His decision to pitch for the Singapore Airlines creative business three weeks ago was to alert SIA — and the entire market — to the idea that media choices need to be considered before creative execution. “In Europe, where the major agencies are all relatively big buyers, around 30 per cent of clients choose media agencies because of their clout — and 70 per cent based on agencies’ channels planning skills. In Asia, the opposite is true,” he says.
This may be because media unbundling happened relatively recently in Asia, Stahle notes. So, many clients believe ad agencies still plan and buy media. “But Asia is changing faster than anywhere. Clients increasingly think about consumer media behaviour first and creative execution second.”
As for awards, Stahle reckons few clients pay any attention to agencies with bulging trophy cabinets (Aegis is bottom of the pile in the Gunn’s media ranking). He should know, he says, because he was once a marketer himself. “Clients are impressed by an agency’s ability to interpret their business, and little else. Awards are a gloss on top.”
For Irving Holmes Wong, marketing director of L’Oréal Malay-sia, one of the country’s biggest advertisers, creativity is not top of his list in choosing a media agency. “Bargaining power, a solid media plan, good tracking tools, insightful consumer research and astute trend-spotting are in my top five...There’s no point being super creative if you buy at poor rates.”
It is becoming less clear, Wong says, which discipline takes the creative lead. “MindShare won awards for a Malaysian celebrity singing contest it created for us last year. It was their idea and not the creative agency’s.”
Parkinson says media agencies have plenty of changing to do. “Media agencies need to leverage intellect over clout. That has fundamental repercussions on the way they charge, hire, operate and measure the effectiveness of what they do. Are they prepared to do this? I’m not sure there is much of a choice.
Otherwise, marketers will eventually look elsewhere.”