There was a time when a media planner was able to have a comprehensive understanding of all media channels, and have a valued opinion on the role they each play in the marketing mix. But due to increased digital complexity, the modern media planner’s roles has become fractured and siloed. They now have an eclectic mix of social specialists, search specialists, programmatic specialists, screen specialists, content specialists, data specialists and others, all whose input is required to ensure an optimal media plan is delivered.
The modern media planner has become a professional wrangler, carefully tying disparate specialisms into a holistic strategy. On the most part they do this very successfully, not only delivering ROI for their clients, but proving it too. They have become, in many ways, scientists engaged in supporting the business case for what type of advertising works, and why. And that’s a powerful place to be.
But I believe this has come at a cost, and that cost is creativity. With so many bases to cover and channels to understand, too often they have become detached from the brand strategy and creative ideation process. It’s not that they aren’t innovative, or aren’t able to develop incredibly creative solutions, they obviously are. But having so much ground to cover, and being structurally detached from creative agencies means an important weapon in their media planning armoury has been lost.
So it’s no surprise then that when it comes to Cannes Media Lions or the recent Effies, the majority of awards handed out are to creative agencies. That’s not to say awards are all important, but it does demonstrate that media agencies have fallen behind in creatively solving business problems.
The reason is, while I have over 20 years of media planning experience, I think it’s entirely possible that someone like James McGrath is better at it than me. Of course he doesn’t have my technical expertise, my media knowledge or my data smarts, but he has a skill that I don’t; imagination. Imagination of how an idea can come to life, which channels suit it best and an intuitive understanding of how a consumer will respond to it.
So we need to look at different models whereby creative and media aren’t on the different side of a fence. And move past the insular behaviour and redundant competition, which is frustrating for clients and ultimately bad for business. Contrary to popular belief, ECD’s don’t just want to make 60” TVC’s on location in Brazil, they genuinely want to understand media behaviour. And media planners don’t just want to do deals with media companies that take them for lunch.
We have a shared responsibility to include creatives in our media process. Explain our data access, the technology we can deploy and why different media channels work best. At the same time creatives have a responsibility to understand the media market, the technology available to them and show an inquisitiveness as to why media planners are making the decisions they make. If we can all do that we will collectively produce better work.
Ian Perrin is chief accelerator of Speed.