Media agencies ‘will be dead by 2020’ claim leading Scottish experts
Media agencies will be dead by 2020, according to keynote speakers at the Scottish Media Forum.
Stuart Feather, managing partner of Feather Brooksbank, told the assembled audience at the Media Buying Debate that as far as the industry was concerned “media buying was dead already”.
“About 70 per cent of our income is derived from what would have been considered core income 15 years ago,” he said. “Most of our work isn’t actually media buying – it’s coming up with strategies for clients and looking at brand positioning.”
Feather was joined in the debate by Euan Jarvie, managing director of Mediacom Scotland, Caroline McGrath, managing director of The Media Shop Scotland, and Nick Stewart of Mediavision.
Jarvie agreed with Feather’s assertion that media buying was dead, but said he didn’t see the creation of a new full-service agency genre as a possibility. “What’s likely to happen is that you will see the birth of truly centralised planning functions that will take a strategic place,” he said.
Both Stewart and McGrath felt that there needed to be more interaction between media agencies and owners, with Stewart saying: “We have to see media people expand and be able to talk a lot more intelligently about a lot more subjects.”
McGrath pointed out that her company had found it difficult to get media owners to engage with them on performance-related training, and said the lack of clients at the forum showed Scottish clients’ disinterest in the subject.
But Mike Anderson, managing director of News Group – and a speaker on the forum – defended media owners, saying: “You’re obviously selling media owners an idea, and what you’re getting is an objection to that idea and a cry for more information.”