The Primacy of the Client

Duffy made the point that many have made before him back to 2019 including this blog that Origin isnamp8217t seeking to replace any of the existing JIC services quotOrigin does not seek to replace other projects or solutions instead it39s trying to complement themquot he said His speech is comprehensively covered here on MediatelOne of the more interesting aspects is who funds Origin I39ve argued from the stage at the original asi launch and since that a levy is the best bet Indeed that is apparently still under considerationIt was interesting that Duffy listed current quotfunding partnersquot of OriginTwentysix advertisers five agency holding groups why no Havas one indie agency The Kite Factory not the usual suspects eight platforms media owners Facebook Google Amazon but no broadcastersHow comeWhen I started in the fullservice agency era the most important person in any of our lives was the client It was clients who paid our wages agencies rose and fell on the back of work they did for their clientsAnd what did clients buy CreativityThe best bought great work but defining quotcreativityquot was always hard Many clients struggled with a definition of quotgoodquot let alone quotgreatquotMedia on the other hand was binary Cheap was good cheaper was better And defining quotcheapquot needed a currency measureAlong came media agencies in the UK in the early 197039s They flourished because they focused on buying better They cut advertisers39 costs two ways lower commissions and lower media pricesOver time they worked out as media supply increased at a far faster rate than demand that they could make money from vendorsClients weren39t engaged the agencies made hay The relationship between agency and vendor was what mattered Clients were sidelined more to the point they let themselves be sidelinedThen along came Jon Mandel transparency and all that stuffSuddenly clients were paying attention in spades The agency gravy train hit the buffers and here we areThis is I know massively simplistic but there is one important piece in the middle of it all Agency and vendor was the relationship that mattered Clients came and went changing agencies on the back of trading promises made and rarely keptAgencies had come to realize they couldn39t make decent money from clients so they looked elsewhere to allow them to live in the manner to which they had become accustomedWith hindsight they could have changed focus from buying to planning from volume to highend consulting but it39s hard for a management leopard to change its spots Agencies were largely managed by traders so trading is what they did If one trading avenue closed another would open soon enoughBut recently clients have been moving center stage Origin is a worthy attempt to deliver something all planners need as a first step in a process that will ultimately help them assess the value of their multichannel communicationsAgencies have been left not as initiators or drivers but as contributorsBroadcasters still seem to be living in a world of costdriven deals where the cake was forever growing and their only worry was their share It is so obvious that the game has changed Broadcasters are now up against Facebook Google and the rest companies multiple times their sizeMoney has for ages been flowing the way of the platforms and away from the broadcastersThey can continue fighting over an eversmaller cake and become irrelevant to the guys who ultimately pay them the advertisers Or they can change the game After all if you can39t win at volume of audience you can either moan on about audience definitions and still lose or focus on what you can deliver an attentive audience comparatively seeing the message on a large screen comparatively surrounded by trusted editorial content comparativelyBroadcasters should realize advertisers are doing what they and furthermore the industry as a whole needs to do That happens to include an ambitious research program based around planning needs not buying numbersThe buying numbers bit is well catered for by the JICs That39s the bit where the broadcasters have historically felt most comfortable but the game has moved onCalling foul on the technicality of definitions which is what it is albeit a very large and important technicality will lose the broadcasters advertiser supporters influence and moneyAnyone will tell you If you39re losing then better to change the game than complain about the rulesAnd if you39re being beaten up better to get onsideBroadcasters should join Origin SharpishClick 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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The Primacy of the Client

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Brian Jacobs

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