THE Media Federation is preparing to release an industry-wide profit and loss benchmark for the media industry to help agencies fight back from consistently eroded profit margins. The benchmark is expected to be available in the first quarter.
Mediaedge:cia CEO Mike Porter said the P&L benchmark was a step in the right direction to assist agencies in creating a more profitable business, but ultimately, Porter said members of the media agency community were "too cagey" to be able to establish margin benchmarks the way creative agencies have with the Advertising Federation of Australia.
Porter said in that environment, the only way for media agencies to remain profitable was to be flexible and create new revenue streams. He said Mediaedge:cia had spent the past 12 months developing such revenue streams and bedding in the merger with CIA. The company is on the verge of launching new services in this area.
Porter said media inflation would again be a big issue for agencies this year, especially with demand for TV in February up significantly versus last February.
He said as a result of the higher prices advertisers were paying for TV, radio in particular was suffering because budgets were being moved to accommodate the higher prices for TVspots.
Meanwhile, Mediaedge:cia has added two staff members. Mark O'Brien has taken on the role of buying director and ST Ang is strategic planning director.
Danielle Veldre's Media Eye column runs each week in B&T magazine.
