Collaboration between media and creative is never more than talk, reckons Havas Media Australia boss Mike Wilson. There are too many agencies desperate to eat each other's lunch.
The return of full-service has been a growing talking point in recent years, with the likes of AdNews Agency of the Year Cummins&Partners, Havas and 303Lowe proselytising the benefits of a one-stop shop that can provide clients both services under one roof.
Brands including Pernod Ricard have also come out taking about the need for a return to closer working and clients including Citroen have shifted their services to hybrid agencies. The industry is divided on whether it's a genuine shift in the agency model, or a flash in the pan fad. We'll be discussing it further at the AdNews Media Sales Summit in may. You can register here.
The global Havas network is building its Havas Village hybrid concept into its global offices and currently operates it in 19 shops including Sydney where it offers both creative and media. But Mike Wilson rejects the term “full-srevice” as a way to describe the model. Instead he says it's about the need to have context and content produced at the same time.
“Media used to be about deployment, but what clients need now is strategic advice up front, at the same time as developing the creative idea,” he said.
"It's not hard at all [to offer both], there are no obstacles except the political and structural side of things. The industry has created such a division that it is almost impossible to put it back together. Media agencies breaking away was never in clients' interest."
Sean Cummins, Cummins&Partners founder, is also flying the flag for the new breed of agencies. "Everyone knows it's the right and the obvious thing to do but there's a structural' flaw that multi-nationals will have difficulty with. It doesn’t suit their business structure," he said.
"Clients are calling on it and we must follow the call of the client. We cannot impose an outdated model on clients any more we did it before but we cant do it again. Clients really want collaboration and everything in one place."
Not everyone is agreed.
Maxus Melbourne managing director Nick Keenan questions the need for a new model and the sustainability of the movement towards hybrid agencies, likening it to the emergence of strategic planning houses like Naked six or seven years ago.
He believes the demand is coming from clients with smaller budgets where combined services are cost-effective rather than a desire for a different model.
“The thing with Havas and Cummins&Partners is that it's a new model, and so it gets all the attention in the press ... but it all blows up in the end,” he said. “The sustainability is what I question. There's a lot of chat about it but clients look at it and say, 'I want a media specialist and I need a specialist in creative.' You can see a need for a new business model if the existing system isn't doing a good job but on the whole media companies are doing a good job."
Ian Perrin, chief executive of ZenithOptimedia, disagrees and thinks that there is room for improvement, but that it doesn't necessarily need a new model.
He said it's not something the industry can just pay lip-service to, adding that the debate on hybrid creative and media agencies isn't just the latest fad that will blow over leave the status quo as is.
“Havas and Cummins&Partners are great because they can offer a creative sitting next to a media strategist but they don't have the same depth of scale that a media agency can offer. There has to be learnings in the full-service offer but we need to have a more modern solution to the agency turf wars,” he said.
“If we can have a media, digital and creative strategist sitting together and working together no matter what respective agencies they are from, we've got to find a way to do that because otherwise we all become redundant and clients get frustrated.”
Perrin adds that all the best creative agencies in the world, like BBH or Wieden+Kennedy, have media planning at the heart of their offer – but that hasn't reached Australia yet.
ZenithOptimedia is hoping its Open platform will help gets its people working better with their counterparts in creative and digital agencies.
It's easy to talk about, but more difficult to do in practice. Wilson says that as long as he's worked in media, with countless creative agencies there's rarely real collaboration.
“It's one of those things where people claim something but the reality is very different. There are too many agencies, particularly in this market and they are all desperate to eat each other’s lunch. Sitting in the same room is not positive collaboration.”
Keenan believes that it will be easier for media agencies to move into the creative space than for creatives to get into media because the cost to do so is prohibitive. It costs millions of dollars to subscribe to the necessary software and data platforms.
“Two of the agencies making noise about [offering hybrid services] don't subscribe to them, media comes down to scale and even Cummins&Partners doesn't have scale in its media team. If I want to get into creative, I can hire the talent today,” he said.
Sean Cummins is hopeful that a raft more independent agencies offering hybrid services will emerge but is familiar with the costly barrier to entry.
“Hopefully there will be more [independents starting up with a joint approach] but many can't afford to do it. We really took the bit between the teeth but it costs a lot of money to run a media company and it's hard for an independent to start,” he said.
While clients like Pernod Ricard and Citroen which moved its media and creative work to 303Lowe earlier this year are keen for the combined services, others are not convinced it matters as long ads agencies get better about working together.
Kellogg implemented a new system of working with its five agencies last year and has reaped the benefits according to CMO John Broom. As long as agencies work collaboratively, it doesn't matter whether they are from one agency of multiple.
“It's about the people you have in the room, whether it's five agencies or one doesn’t matter to me. It's irrelevant if the work is not good,” he said.
The Media Sales Summit on 22 May will shed more light on the industry debate. Nick Keenan, managing director of Maxus Melbourne, Ian Perrin, CEO of ZenithOptimedia, Simon Rush, founder of Razor Media, Mike Morrison, managing director of Innocean and Anthony Gregorio, group CEO of Havas Worldwide Australia, will speak on a panel about the crossover of media and creative agencies.
Sean Cummins, CEO of Cummins&Partners, joins MediaBrands executive chairman Henry Tajer and Rob Morgan Clemenger BBDO Group executive chairman as a keynote speaker at the one-day event.
More information on the AdNews Media Sales Summit here.
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