It's time for media agencies to collaborate and connect, writes Havas Media's Paul Frampton
The days of Don Draper are well and truly gone. Many still lament this, but there is good reason to hark back to some of the principles of this era. Media and creative operated together under the same roof and the 'agency' talent together obsessed around a single big idea that would connect with people and drive business return.
Paul Frampton
In 2015, we find ourselves in a world where the media landscape couldn't be more different. Friction between those managing medium and those managing message is still rife. Media agencies are arguably in the ascendancy due to the speed with which they have adapted but that's tittle-tattle too. TV remains a strong force but all marketers are eyeing the rise of video and the opportunity for social and mobile to connect, build and retain stronger relationships.
Real-time trading has brought with it infinite possibilities for micro-targeting and a more effective, data driven approach. But – and there is a big but – the day-to-day reality on most accounts in town is the planning is disjointed at best. Media and creative are frequently ships in the night and thanks to the proliferation of specialist agencies, it is often wrongly left to the CMO to piece together all the jigsaw pieces.
Many marketers have been vocal of late about having too many agencies and not enough time to join the dots. There is a lot of talk from agencies about becoming more horizontal and moving to a more joined up P&L structure. But let's face it, the one thing that agency folk have always been good at doing is storytelling. If you peel away the layers, how many agency groups are genuinely making clients' lives easier by removing P&L silos and encouraging collaboration and collective behaviour?
Over the last decade, we have all fallen into the trap of setting up numerous vertical, specialist teams. These continue to be essential, but today the missing skill is the omni-channel connection back to the 'single big idea'. In today's model, whether it be agency or media owner side, there are too many kings, all with their own kingdoms and self-fulfilling egos. In the new world, there must be fewer kings and more coalitions. I do not believe this is simply about horizontal connections; it’s about top-down leadership.
Agency leaders must take responsibility for putting the plumbing in place and creating 'common' purpose. It's also about investing in more polymaths: those skilled across multiple disciplines and that understand people. To use a sports analogy, we have become used to playing a solo sport like tennis, but now we need to adapt to playing football, where the strength and depth of the squad is all important.
This means agencies evolving to become partners and collaborators. To be a partner you need trust and to build trust, you need regular dialogue and shared objectives. Generosity is key. Media agency heads must involve and invite their creative cousins in more often and vice versa. Data will not kill creativity, if it belongs and benefits both media and creative teams. With half of digital display ads predicted to be programmatic this year, it's beyond time for creatives to lean in. On the flip side, brilliant content ideas rarely originate from media folk but they are experts in amplifying and measuring.
All groups today enjoy the luxury of having media, content, data and tech experts on their books. The critical factor is whether they spend any time under the same roof and whether they are targeted on the number of assists they make on the pitch.
Paul Frampton is chief executive officer at Havas Media. He tweets @paul_framp