I’ve just finished a mind-numbingly dull meeting with a media agency.

It was filled with shallow intellect, undigested data, meaningless platitudes, unoriginal proposals defended with stubborn stupidity – and an utter absence of any creative thought.

You can tell that I enjoyed it.

But instead of getting angry and opinionated (again), I decided to be adult and objective and ask myself a simple, rational question:

“Are Media Agencies capable of creating great ideas?”

Why This Is An Important Question

This is a genuinely critical question for clients.

Because – for better or worse – media agencies are supplanting creative agencies as the primary communications partner for an increasing proportion of clients.

I’m sure that Media Agencies’ superior investment in research, analysis, tools and statistics might well justify this role.

But my problem is this:

It’s great thinking and great ideas that build great brands – not great data and terrific tools.

And I don’t believe that media agencies in their current form are capable of providing the creative brilliance on which business success depends.

So I thought I’d start with a simple measure: the performance of Media Agencies at this year’s Cannes Festival of Creativity.

And here are the simple facts:

Why Don’t Media Agencies Win Much At Cannes?

Out of the 81 winners of Media Lions this year, 66 were won by Creative Agencies and only 39 were won by Media Agencies. (I know, I know…before any media people tell me that I can’t add-up, the reason why the number comes to more than 81 is because some winners had joint entrants).

So Creative Agencies massively outperformed Media Agencies in their own Media Awards.

In other categories where Media Agencies should be able to show that they are at the cutting edge of consumer engagement, the picture was even more extreme.

Among the 16 Titanium and Integrated Lions, Media Agencies walked away with a share of an incredible 1 Lion (Congratulations Mindshare for being a part of W+K’s Team Nike).

Among the 55 Promotion & Activation Lions, Media Agencies won an impressive total of absolutely nothing. They were not the winning entrant for any single award.

Of the 81 Cyber Lions, Media Agencies were the winning entrant for an impressive share of precisely 0%.

Now, Media Agencies might claim that they were part of the winning teams, even if they weren’t the winning entrant.

In which case I would ask a simple question:

No Excuses

If Media Agencies were leading the team that created the winning ideas, why did they not enter those campaigns under their own name? After all, they entered many, many other awards under their own names….just not the ones that won big.

I suspect that the answer is simple:

They didn’t come up with the campaign idea in the first place. They were simply part of the team that planned and placed the media implementation, or added bits and pieces to the core concept.

That is my experience from most of the awards won by Asian Media Agencies in recent years:

They seldom created the winning idea – they merely planned and placed the media for an idea generated by the creative agency. Then they took credit for the campaign that they didn’t create.

Nice work if you can get away with it.

But, if Cannes proved anything this year, it was this:

Creative Agencies Have The Best Media Ideas

Most of the big winners at Cannes were utterly original, truly pioneering Media ideas – not just creative ideas – and these Media ideas were created by creative agencies:

Bing is a massive Media Idea, created by Droga5.

Homeplus is a brilliant Media Idea, created by Cheil.

ROM is an extraordinary Media Idea, created by McCann.

VW is a transformational Media Idea, created by DDB.

Why?

I personally believe that Media Agencies should be the creative leaders of the future.

But they are not currently capable. They are not able to generate great ideas that can ignite consumer attitudes and behaviour, ideas that can truly transform a client’s business.

This is for some fundamental reasons that lie at the heart of their very essence:

- Their primary purpose is to invest money wisely and effectively. ZenithOptimedia describes its role in words which could represent the core competence of the entire industry:

“We take the greatest care with every dollar, euro or pound we invest on our clients’ behalf, setting clear goals and monitoring performance in meticulous detail.”

- Their role within their holding companies blatantly limits their freedom to offer expertise that is competitive to other group companies.

- Their legacy from the past: Up until the last 10 years or so, Media Agencies were simple planners & traders, not originators of creative thought, and were not expected to be so. This has led to a related and fundamental issue:

- The talent they attract: truth is, as a result of their legacy and their primary purpose, Media Agencies are not the most attractive home for truly creative minds. And without truly creative minds working in an open creative environment, it is impossible for any business to generate great creative ideas on a consistent basis.

- Their client relationships & expectations: Clients still primarily judge Media Agencies against measurable data, not creative originality, and this shapes the money they pay and the services they believe that they are paying for:

- Their remuneration & incentivization: if Media Agencies don’t deliver the numbers, they don’t get their incentives – so it’s no surprise that they remain obsessed with quantitative performance more than creative brilliance

The issues are complex, but my belief is simple:

There has never been a more exciting time to be in communications.

And Media Agencies have a unique opportunity to transform themselves into one of most powerful and creative forces in the entire world of business for the foreseeable future.

But they must make some profound changes to their offering, their talent, their culture and their business model if they are to seize the opportunity.

Otherwise, clients will continue to look to those pesky little Creative Agencies for the things that matter most.

Follow Chris Jaques by clicking twitter.com/HEREcomesNOW now

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 14th, 2011 at 6:35 pm and is filed under Advertising, Brand, Digital, Marketing, Media. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.