As data becomes one of the most important components of the modern marcomms landscape, a round table of industry leaders including Mat Baxter and Mark Buckman has challenged local agencies to pick up their game.
The concept of data and what brands are doing with it is a hot industry topic, as can be seen by the extreme prevalence of the topic at Cannes this year. But despite the talk, leaders are claiming the local market is struggling to keep up.
In particular, it was suggested organisations like Google or foreign data businesses like Javelin in the US are leading the space, and could pose either a threat for agencies trying to develop their own competitive capabilities, or an opportunity for collaborative agencies looking for partnership.
UM chief executive Mat Baxter said: “Media agencies are struggling to deal with the amount of data that they are getting because they are not technology companies, so they need to grapple with their capacity to process and make sense of all this data.”
Telstra chief marketing officer Mark Buckman said: “Agencies really need to think about companies like Javelin in the US which are not ad agencies or media agencies, they are absolutely pure data companies, and the way that they’re thinking and giving advice to clients is at a completely different level. There’s a real threat to the way agencies are currently structured and the type of business that they do.”
In response, Google Australia managing director Nick Leeder said companies with strong data capabilities should be seen as potential partnership opportunities rather than threats.
“We don’t want you to see us as a threat,” Leeder said. “The way we can help is by bringing platforms and technologies and data, but I don’t think we see ourselves in the media buying game.
“We can play a useful role in providing tools because there is a lot of data and it has to be processed fast and run on real-time. There’s a good role for Google and other players like us to participate in that.”
The round table event was hosted by NGen, the Media Federation of Australia’s young talent development organisation.
This article first appeared in the 24 August 2012 edition of AdNews. Click here to subscribe for more news, features and opinion.
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