Chris Walton managing director of Nunn Media was in London last week attending ‘Advertising. Who Cares?’. Here, he gives us his top takeaways from a confronting session.
Last week I was fortunate enough to join two hundred other people at the Royal Society of Arts in London to attend ‘Advertising. Who Cares?’.
For the unaware, let me give you some background. This is an initiative triggered by a chat between Nick Manning (founder of Manning Gottlieb OMD, ex-CSO Ebiquity) and Brian Jacobs (ex-Leo Burnett, Carat, UM and Millward Brown).
Having lamented about the parlous state of the advertising industry, they put the word out via a blog post to see if this feeling was simply a couple of crusty old farts grouching about things ‘not being as good as they used to be’, or was a view shared by others.
In no time at all nearly 400 people (yes – 400!) had made contact from afar afield as Canada, China, Australia and New Zealand saying yes, they feel the same.
Fast forward four months, and I found myself in a packed room listening to many people whom I have admired for years from a distance speaking with authority and vision about an industry they love.
The event was very carefully labelled as a ‘working meeting’ rather than a ‘conference’, with a clear desire to be positive and forward-looking. However, after listening to presentations covering everything from talent to transparency and from creativity to commercialism, one couldn’t help coming to the conclusion that the industry is…well…buggered.
Why do I say this? Let me summarise the main points I took away:
- Creativity – there is far too much dull crap being produced. And the kicker? Dull advertising requires a lot more money behind it to cut through;
- Business models – are f*cked. Agencies are being paid less to do more and don’t have the minerals to push back and say no;
- Media – transparency? trust? There’s largely an absence of both;
- Measurement and accountability – too little thought is given about what to measure and why. Too many people know the price of everything and the value of nothing;
- Recruitment and retention – the industry has literally no profile amongst the young. And those who are aware don’t think very highly of us – they’d rather work for the Civil Service! Plus, the pay is crap. At the other end of the age spectrum, the industry is leaking wisdom and experience at an alarming rate as cost/margin pressures are seeing increasing numbers of senior people get cut or decide to leave;
- Brands and journalism – brands have misleadingly come to the conclusion that news is a poor environment in which to appear. And the importance of quality, objective journalism has been lost in a morass of bile, toxicity and misinformation online masquerading as ‘News’.
Sorry if I’ve depressed you! There is reason to be positive, and I’m not just saying this. As was stated during the afternoon – A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved. I think we’re on the way to sorting the first part. Plus, there were inspirational words from the likes of Sir John Hegarty. I hadn’t heard him speak in person before, but he made compelling arguments. I’ve little doubt he has a bright future ahead of him 😊.
So what’s next? There was a lot of material covered in a short time, so now there is a period of review and reflection. That said, I find myself coming back to points I took out of Michael Farmer’s session on business models. I think if these aren’t addressed then nothing material will change:
- CMOs need to be on board with the need for change. Otherwise, nothing will happen. But agencies can’t just sit back and think this will occur – they need to lead better than they currently are;
- Agencies also need to have the balls to say no to clients. Give clients what they need, not what they want;
- Marketing needs to become strategic again. Too often ‘strategy’ is a term used in hindsight to describe a bunch of loosely related tactics;
- The alignment between the work agencies do for clients and what they get paid for needs to be much better than it currently is;
- Agencies need to be able to pay their staff more, especially at junior-to-mid levels. This will help to attract high-quality staff into the industry and retain the good ones that are already here. Therefore, remuneration must improve (at this point, circle back to point 2);
- The current operating structure of the traditional large holdcos is not fit for purpose.
But will anything actually happen? We are now at an inflection point. Has this just been a well-intentioned talkfest, or will there be change? Sir John Hegarty said ‘Hubris has got us into this mess. Humility will get us out.’
Whilst I am not sure I agree with the words, I agree with the sentiment that it is possible to change, but to do so will be bloody hard. It will require hundreds of people to make thousands of decisions big and small (and some painful) over a long period of time for any meaningful change to happen. Are you up for the challenge? I’d love to hear your thoughts (chris.walton@nunnmedia.com.au )
