On this week’s #MediaSnack we celebrate an epic list of the 50 Most Innovative CMOs In The World written by Lara O’Reilly at Business Insider. Business Insider segmented the world’s marketing leaders into 4 interesting categories; The Connectors, The Rebels, The Integrators and The Storytellers. It is interesting to note the mix of old and new, notably that the CMO’s at Google and Netflix account for the top two positions. The word ‘media’ appears 25 times across the 50 CMO profiles, whilst the word ‘advertising’ only appears 17 times. Perhaps an indication of the shifting focus of the CMO to take a more pro-active interest in media? What’s certain is that this list tells us the individuals within the world’s most ambitious and exciting brands who will set the narrative for the future of the industry. Also in the news this week, a Dominic Mills blog lifts the lid on an apparently highly secretive plan by Dentsu-Aegis Network to launch a digital media buying (or is it audience selling?) platform akin to GroupM’s Xasis, that is a non-disclosed media buying model which would allow advertisers no right to audit media prices. These types of buying methods, which exist in most all of the other agency groups already, are regarded as delivering particularly healthy profit margins by allowing the agency to mark up media inventory in opaque ways. They operate as ‘Principal-based buying’, that is the agency buying and then selling on the media opportunity to the advertiser (see here for more explanation on PBB). The (perfectly valid) argument in support of this approach is that in not disclosing the price paid, that the agency can negotiate lower media prices for the advertiser compared to using a fully transparent model. Some advertisers love this approach, getting more for less always sounds like a good idea. Whilst many other brands can’t tolerate the lack of transparency. Whichever side of this barbed fence you sit, it still begs the question as to why Dentsu-Aegis thought that a ‘cloak-and-dagger’ approach to launching this to US advertisers would serve them well in the long term. These things have a habit of leaking out and it was only a matter of time before questions were raised about the need for secrecy at a time of low trust in media agency digital media operations. We will wait to see if Agyle Advantage - for that is what this secret plan is called - becomes a serious proposition, giving advertisers more choice in the principal based / arbitrage approach to media buying. But it does seem to sit against the underlying trend to offer more transparency, visibility and control to the advertiser. The agency in this case obviously sees a demand (or a tantalising margin) which has driven this new product release. It is time to ask ourselves, who will actually define the media agency of the future? We have the simple answer, its the Marketers. As we’ve discussed many times before, the blueprint for a media agency will be defined by the marketer, typically based on a narrative and vision set by the CMO. Which is one of the reasons why the Business Insider Top CMOs list is so important. It is their marketing ambition and vision which will determine the role for media, how brands will invest in connecting with customers and therefore what will be required from the media agency landscape. We can already see this taking shape in some pitch briefs for 2017, brands are having a very clear point of view of exactly what media agency resources they need to support and reflect their own internal media management operational structures. Many are following best practice in preparation for media agency pitches by really defining the blueprint for a new agency model and ensuring a well-organised, accountable and transparent process. It is the only way to be a priority pitch in a busy 20176 market and to get the best out of competing agencies.
