Media and creative agencies are wasting time bickering over short-sighted, self-centred issues instead of focusing on the job in hand: solving clients' problems. But clients have to shoulder some of the blame. They need to take ownership of partnerships and stand up to procurement.
That's according to ZenithOptimedia boss Ian Perrin and MEC strategy chief James Hier.
Perrin told the AdNews Media Sales Summit yesterday that both media and creative agencies need to stop fighting over ownership - and CMOs should wade in to break up the spats.
"If you look at companies and categories that have failed, it's because they became very myopic and focused on their internal issues. What worries me is that's exactly what we're doing today - when we should be focused on what clients want.
"We should stop beating each other up and focus on what our clients want, and start delivering that."
Speaking on a panel session about the blurring of the lines between creative and media shops, Perrin said media agencies still have a "massive chip on their shoulder" over wanting to own relationships with clients.
"That's where lots of today's problems have come from," he said. "Media agencies should stop being the barrier between the creative guys of creative agencies and the creative guys in the media businesses - they should be the conduit to bring these together instead."
But Jamies Hier, chief strategy officer at MEC, suggested agency squabbling is a "client manufactured problem".
"Clients cannot afford to pay the creative agency any more," he said. "There is a tonne of content clients need produced and they need to pay wholesale."
Hier suggested that the fight for ownership was a product of the environment - clients were cutting budgets leaving agencies with no choice but to scrap for the biggest share of a shrinking pot.
He said: “What no-one is really talking about is this extremely difficult tightrope that we're walking. Agencies are being squeezed, as are media owners."
“To add to the mix, clients don't want to deal with seven agencies – they are hoping agencies will sort it out,” he added.
Hier said that fostered the land grab culture, becasue it further blurred the lines about who does what.
"As new opportunities arrive, the question is 'who is going to take advantage of it?'. Everyone seems to have an equal claim. This is the start of the prickly relationship we are going to have as we all lay claim to that bottom line.”
Joining the debate, Mike Morrison, managing director of Innocean, said: "A new leadership is required to solve these problems. There is a mindset and legacy issues that have led us to continue in a siloed way of working. We need leaders that are far more like coaches, to help bring these things together and achieve the outcomes our clients desire."
Perrin agreed that a stonger hand on the tiller was needed - from clients.
"There needs to be greater leadership from CMOs to stand up to their procurement departments and make sure that the work is properly remunerated."
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