Never miss your #MediaSnack - subscribe for new episodes every FridayOn this #MediaSnack special we celebrate the 100th episode by looking ahead at some major trends for 2018. First we quickly look back on what’s happened in the last two years and then lay down three big predictions for media in 2018, from a marketers perspective. It goes without saying that a lot has changed in the media industry in the last two years, but we say it anyway. It’s been a challenging time all around in many respects but the major positive that we’ve seen has been that media has risen higher on the corporate agenda. Marketers are taking media more seriously and applying resources internally to manage this last amount of money. Hopefully, more are seeing media as an investment rather than a cost. This has happened for two reasons. Firstly, marketers are seeing the power media has to drive their business outcomes and therefore striving to make it more accountable and more effective. At the same time media has become hugely more complex and needs more governance and resource to manage it. Second, concerns over the supply chain of media especially in digital has caused marketers themselves to become more accountable and demand greater transparency of how their money flows through the supply chain. This has been highlighted by significant milestones over the last two years notably the work done by the WFA, ANA and ISBA to shine a light on the supply chain, the speeches by P&Gs Marc Pritchard outlining an action plan for media transparency and thirdly the ongoing worries about ad fraud and brand safety. So onto our predictions - here are 3 behaviours that we think will be at the forefront of #MediaChange in 20181. Operating Models for Media - advertisers will define long term internal strategies for media management and build capabilities and process into an operating model for media. This means being clear the value of media, not just the price of media, and determining what resources are required internally and externally. We reference some great research by Matt Green and the team at WFA which highlights the progress that has been made and the clear intentions of WFA members to build up media capabilities and define an operating model.2. Fragmentation of Media Scope - marketers will want to understand the entire process of media activation from data and analytics, insight and strategy through to media activation and tactics. We expect more advertisers to interrogate these processes and identify which parts they need to exert more control over and then build an operating model for media which gives them controls they need. Driving greater accountability and transparency over media budgets to consider them an investment not a cost. This may lead more advertisers to bring some of that capability internally but its more likely to be the upfront data and strategy scope rather than the media buying. 3. Action Plan for Media - we expect many more brands will follow P&Gs lead to define an action plan to reduce wastage of media dollars and implement greater accountability and transparency from the media supply chain. We close episode 100 with some clips from our recent #MediaSnack 100 party where we gathered clients colleagues partners and friends from across the industry to celebrate.
