SMARTENING UP THEIR BREAD AND BUTTER
“WILL 2019 BE THE YEAR WHEN AGENCIES FINALLY GET IT?”
wrote Cory Treffilette, chief marketing officer at Voicera, last year.
“Agencies still charge too much for undifferentiated services, are not competitive with in-sourcing and contractor resources, and are not expanding to offer more defensible service lines that could provide them with better growth in the future”.
In saying this, he called out media agencies in particular because the commodification of their buying and trading services means anyone can buy media and reach a targeted audience.
His solution for media agencies: think like a consultant and offer smarts.
“Large consulting companies focus on strategy and technology. So too should agencies.”
That idea of competing with consultancies is also raised when putting the scope on New Zealand’s media agency market.
When Simon Bird and Christophe Spencer, PHD’s group strategy director and chief technology officer respectively, were asked for their thoughts on the biggest challenges facing media agencies right now, they say the tech companies, consulting companies and creative agencies wanting to play in the media agency space.
On top of this, they also see in-housing as a bit of an industry trend at the moment, but it’s not necessarily an issue — rather it raises more complexities that need to be well thought out for each client.
“There is no one-size-fits-all-approach,” they say.
Alex Lawson, Carat New Zealand general manager, agrees, saying some clients will naturally move to an in-house, or hybrid in-house model and agencies just have to be ready for that and work out the role that they play in that process for the success of the client and their own business.
“There are benefits to using an agency in the type of talent you can access, buying power, tools and technology that you don’t have to pay to own outright and there is a benefit
