Advertisers Doing It for Themselves

Only this week we had the latest from the World Federation of Advertisers the WFA claiming that 80 of advertisers use inhouse marketing services of one sort or another and that 75 are only quotsomewhat satisfiedquot or less with their current agency rosterIt would be interesting to see the percentage who were quotsomewhat satisfiedquot after all that39s still quotsatisfiedquot even if less than idealIf 80 of respondents are using inhouse expertise it39s hardly surprising that 75 are only quotsomewhat satisfiedquot with their agencies Presumably one follows the other if you were fully happy with your agencies39 services you would be less likely to invest in inhouse resourcesHowever august the organization commissioning studies like this those writing the reports and the press releases don39t it seems have either the time or the inclination to research the background They39re not old gits like me in other wordsBut us old gits have our uses We know for instance that clients have always done some marketing stuff inhouse Typically this has involved media in some shape or formWhen it comes to creative work it39s hard to define neatly and concisely what makes advertising work so that it can be replicated at willCreatively it39s easy to demonstrate that inhousing more often than not doesn39t produce great workBut media is different It39s numbers so surely the more I get for less the better RightPreonline channels quotdoingquot media inhouse wasn39t quite so simple Take buying TV You needed BARB though BARB was expensive to buy and analyzing it was both expensive and needed some skill and knowledgeThis has all changed The likes of Facebook and Google can give data away to anyone they likeSecond Facebook et al have impressive clientfacing teams that disintermediate the agenciesIt39s up to the inhouse team to use the data but far more importantly it39s also up to them to carry out whatever validation they believe to be necessaryIn truth the degree of validation is nil nada zilch quotTrust me I39m a platformquot pretty well sums it upAnd so we have a situation where a massive percentage of total adspend goes to media forms whose principles of measurement are untouched by any form of independent evaluation or auditAs long as some humongous number is produced preferably even more humongous than last time everyone39s happyWhat about bots What about the lack of correlation between likes and outcomes What about changes in definitions of what constitutes a viewer leading to apples being compared with orangesThese are details dismissed by the true believers as too technical to worry about Well of course they are when the option is to admit that you39ve been wasting money for years chasing rainbowsWith some inhouse media teams not even reporting to the CMO the lack of real accountability is indeed startlingAdvertisers have convinced themselves that the numbers given them by those doing the selling are correct and valuableThe fact is they39re neitherThe emperor has no clothes and nobody is too keen to be the first to point this out Or rather there are people pointing it out from stages around the world but none of the speechifiers are it seems doing much about it if ad revenues on the platforms are any indicationAdvertisers need inhouse experts with the nous to use their agencies to advise them as Nick Manning39s excellent piece suggests Agencies have the skills but what they39re too often missing is the backbone to tell the client that what they39ve been doing is wrongWhich is what they would do if they were true advisors or consultants as opposed to reactive executorsThis whole situation is a mess It39s what happens when you have unvalidated data being treated by those nonspecialists receiving it as gospel truthISBA the advertisers39 trade body in the UK is acting to deliver on the promise of Origin the crossmedia planning initiative by hiring the exagency leader Tom George as CEOThis isn39t the nonsequitur it might appear to beOnce advertisers are in a position to compare exposure data on a likeforlike basis across channels then life will become simpler Plans can be constructed on a firmer more professional footing and buys can be made that deliver the plansResponsibility and accountability for online spend needs to be with the CMO and agencies39 honest advice on planning needs to be encouragedHappy days Easy peasyClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Advertisers Doing It for Themselves

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Brian Jacobs

Don’t’ Back Down; Double Down on DEI Investments - By Jack Myers

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Advertisers Doing It for Themselves

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