Show your working to prove you're thinking...

We've been doing a lot of work this summer with clients who are preparing to make commitments in the media upfront for BY19 which has been challenging and rewarding in equal measure.

The clients work with large network agencies who all have well established approaches to the TV upfronts which should give the clients a good deal of confidence in the recommendations they are being given, but that's not always proving to be the case.

One of the things that we are seeing more and more, especially in larger (and more complex) agencies is the separation of different work streams to the detriment of the end product (for the agency and the client). Too often we are having to request details from the agencies and they either don't have the answers or, more worryingly, they don't know how to get them. This is a result of agencies separating responsibilities between different departments and those departments not communicating effectively to each other the information that is critical to the recommendation they may be making to the client.

One example of the above went a bit like this (and sadly, this is not uncommon):

The media agency made a presentation to the client with a recommendation for upfront investment that was challenged at the time by the client team. The agency was asked some pretty basic questions about audience differentiation for different types of advertising and also about investment levels - the agency team that was presenting the recommendation could not answer these questions and alarmingly, didn't give the client any confidence that the agency had even considered these factors when creating their recommendation.

The client then tasked the agency with reviewing their recommendation with the explicit task of enabling the client to better understand how the investment recommendation was being made and the contributing factors that were being considered in the approach.

We have been working alongside the client and agency to help get to a recommendation that truly delivers on the clients objectives and one thing I have consistently had to encourage the agency to do is to 'show their thinking'.

Too often, we see agencies make presentations that are heavy on technology and tools but really light on the actual thinking that has gone into the work. It's as if agencies have been discouraged from talking about the strategic thinking that underpins the end result. I have no doubt that the tools being used can help get to a recommendation but, if the client asks a simple question and the only answer they get back is 'the tool told us the number' then we can't be surprised that confidence is being eroded between clients and agencies.

The reality is that there is no faster way to commoditize your services that automation. If all that separates media agencies is the specific tool that they use to draw up a plan then the industry is doomed. But, if the truth is that agencies have some amazing strategic thinkers (as I believe they do) then its essential that they are allowed to shine when the client needs them to.

My plea to media agencies -

Please don't hide your best people behind a tool or technology. Let them be the reason that clients value their partnerships with your agencies and continue to recognize that what you provide is essential to their success. If you don't, it won't be long before media strategy is the next piece of the pie that agencies lose to in-house teams and/or consultancies.