In Mark Leone’s latest column for B&T, the partner and managing director consultancy MadClarity, ponders what the world might be like if media agency strategists and planners weren’t around any more. And if it would be that different at all.
Sir Martin Sorrell shared some extreme and controversial sounding opinions at MAD Fest in London last week. Amongst them, media planners would not exist in agencies of the future. An estimated 250,000 people globally no longer needed. Interestingly, there has been little pushback. For the record, there is no connection between our own Mad people and MAD Fest, in case anyone was confused.
Ignoring the implications for media buying from his comments, as that train has long departed, what does a world without either strategists or planners in media agencies look like? Is it all that different from today, just with fewer people?
We would argue, not that different. The industry has been on this trajectory for years. The role of strategy in agencies has been diminishing. Chief Strategy Officers are rarely seen outside pitches. Beyond pitching, the role of the most senior strategy resources has been relegated to creating frameworks, guidelines and templates for those less experienced to populate. I am not criticising the strategists and planners; good people still exist. I am critical of the way they are deployed and the relative importance placed on their work in large media agencies.
This then extends into decisions around channel selection, weights and measures, the role of each channel and how each will be used. Sixty, 70, even 80-page agency response documents that already appear to be the output of automated tools. If they aren’t, given their quality, they should be. Predictable, lacking inspiration or creativity.
We see hundreds of agency responses to briefs each year and the simplest way to describe most is cookie cutter. Dominated by marketing science, or how it has been translated into media guidelines and “best practice” principles. We could swap out the brand name and in most cases no one would notice. This is not positive progress.
For years now, you cannot start a conversation about media and strategy, without figuratively being joined at the table by at least one of Byron, Les & Peter or Dr Karen, if not all of them at once. There is an overwhelming desire in agencies for MMM to be implemented, used to dictate strategy rather than inform it.
Is anyone surprised by Sir Martin’s predictions?
As an aside, one of the most memorable “strategy” presentations from a media agency over the past few years I was fortunate (or misfortunate) enough to witness contained approximately 30 to 40 slides of screenshots from an agency planning tool, pasted into PowerPoint charts. It was part shopping list crossed with sales pitch, with no insight.
A new high in pointlessness.
Of all the things AI can do, taking large amounts of data and applying broad brush rules and generalisations to get to consistent and predictable outcomes is high on the list. We are hurtling towards a future where all these decisions are made by machines. Whether these machines are owned by the media owners, media agencies or the advertisers themselves.
The question is, when did consistent and predictable become the desired outcome? Homogenised approaches that do nothing but reinforce the position of market leaders.
We have said it before and will say it again. Real progress will come from smart, inquisitive and experienced people harnessing the power of today’s tools. Not being replaced by them. If we don’t understand or value the contribution of these people, the alternative is inevitable.
