Every day there is more news of the war we find ourselves in between good and evil. Dramatic claims and counter claims, cries of “fake news” and the scurrilous use of propaganda to win a public opinion point.
You may think I am talking global politics, but actually I’m taking about a war closer to home.
The titanic struggle between the traditional media outlets and the digital behemoths which rages in our media world every day.
With a decade of stagnant advertising growth and new entrants launching every day, the ferociousness of the battle for advertising dollars has never been as fierce.
You may have seen stories of the death of television, and that one network in particular is about to go into receivership. But then a carefully-worded case study demonstrating empirically that TV drives greater business ROI and brings new users into categories.
We hear that digital is over-rated, poorly monitored and that P&G, no less, have given up on hyper-targeting.
That is counter-claimed by the CEO of Adidas who wants to modernise their approach to media with a greater focus on digital channels. Oh wait, his position is being challenged. It’s hard to keep up sometime. I even read recently that programmatic is a poor performing channel, even though it’s not a channel.
The reality is that none of the above is necessarily wrong or even contradictory, but what is desperately missing from the debate is context.
Context of client business objectives. Context of the role of communications. Context of category dynamics. Context of audience consumption. Context of the idea and how it works best in media. Context for what has worked in the past.
If you consider all of these factors it seems patently obvious that no one means of communication or channel is right, or wrong. And having a public debate about it is almost meaningless.
So we desperately need to go back to the basics and focus on the communications requirements of our clients, not on the latest headline.
We need to give channel planners an agnostic environment within which to work. We need to better understand client data and insights to shape our solutions. We need to put greater emphasis on training and developing the art of channel planning.
\We need to hold dear awards that focus on craft and effectiveness. We need to constantly educate our clients on not only what is shiny and new, but what is old and effective.
In this regard, the role of the impartial media agency has never been more important. And the imparting of agnostic channel planning advice is paramount.
Agnostic from the pressures of global and local media deals, technology arrangements and programmatic mandates - the tail should never be wagging the dog.
If we can manage this we will win the race to be the most independent, intelligent and knowledgeable advisers in the marketing food chain rather than the all too familiar race to the bottom.
Ian Perrin is the chief accelerator of Speed