2013: Not a great year

As another year draws to a close, Aegis’ Jim Marshall looks at some of the more surreal, sad and interesting media events – and dishes out his award for the most pretentious (and exotic) agency mission statement.

After all the media excitement and patriotism of the last couple of years – the Royal Wedding, the Olympics and so on – by comparison this year has been a bit of a damp squib.

There hasn’t been a stand out ‘media event’ and for much of this year we seem to have been looking at the conclusion of events from previous years or looking forward to what will happen next year and onwards – from the macro question of the improving economy to the micro question of trading desks (in fact, very micro if you look at the expenditure going through trading desks, as opposed to the column inches allocated to the issue).

But there have been some moments that I’ve found interesting this year, some moments that in retrospect look rather eccentric or (even distinctly surreal) and a very sad event.

The Leveson Inquiry, which was finally concluded at the back end of 2012, recommended that a new body should replace the Press Complaints Commission by the summer of 2013. This has only just been agreed – the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).

However, this will probably not be backed by legislation nor does it currently include the Guardian, the Independent and the Financial Times. So has anything really moved on as a result of what became a tortuously long process? If it has, I would appreciate someone explaining it to me.

In the meantime the media focus has moved on to the hacking trial of the News of the World executives, with the latest revelation being that the Sun paid £4,000 for a picture of Prince William in a bikini and then didn’t use it. Shock, horror!

It must be of some consolation to News UK that the trial involving Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson as witnesses has largely eclipsed the hacking trial with its lurid tales of drugs, no sex and rock cakes.

What the two trials have in common is a bunch of protagonists who have made their fame and fortune from the world of media but now find themselves in the somewhat uncomfortable media spotlight. It’s difficult for mere mortals like us not to smirk just a bit.

In September, with the debate still raging over the replacement body for the Press Complaints Commission, the Daily Mail weighed in with what many (myself included) felt was an abhorrent piece about Ed Miliband’s late father, entitled ‘The Man who Hated Britain’. When Ed Miliband, unsurprisingly, took extreme umbrage to the piece, the Daily Mail stated:

“If he crushes the freedom of the Press, no doubt his father will be proud of him from beyond the grave.”

Even Miliband’s most fervent political enemies, including David Cameron, distanced themselves from the Daily Mail’s stance and a number of other newspapers seemed genuinely embarrassed by the episode. None of this will of course have caused Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre to lose any sleep, particularly now that the Saturday edition of the paper has recently overtaken the Sun.

Elsewhere, the long-running saga of Global Radio’s purchase of GMG Radio was finally concluded when the Competition Commission instructed Global to divest itself of eight stations and then upheld that ruling after Global appealed.

It’s difficult to argue with the ruling based on normal competition guidelines. However, you get the feeling that radio in general and, in this case, Global specifically, get a pretty raw deal in comparison with what is allowed in some of the other media.

The fact is that radio is one of the toughest media sectors at the moment, in that it is having to compete with all the other traditional media, the increasing power of the internet and of course, the BBC, which continues to operate with an unfair advantage.

Global have done a terrific job in reviving the fortunes of the business and is a consistently good citizen with its charities and full payment of taxes. This cannot be said of some bigger and considerably more profitable media owners, who incidentally have genuine dominance of their media sector… or, as Homer Simpson would say if he was running Global:

“I think you can cut me some slack here.”

The big news on the agency side was the announcement of the Omnicom and Publicis merger on July 28th – just in time for France to go on holiday in August. The main news from the press release was that Maurice Levy and John Wren would be joint CEOs for the first couple of years or so and then Levy would become non-executive chairman while Wren would continue as CEO.

A perfect example of the ‘I’m alright Jack’ strategy, or, in the spirit of the new merger, the ‘I’m alright Jack/Je suis bien Jack’ strategy.

In the future the combined volume of the two agency groups could create a new ‘powerhouse’ in media and overtake WPP’s Group M. But we’ll have to wait and see what their plans are, while also remembering that previously a number of media agencies have threatened to become the ‘Dominant Media Powerhouse’, but have never quite achieved that status (and that includes Zenith at its launch in the late 1980s).

As the market becomes increasingly complex and technology based, media agency mission statements are becoming ever more exotic and pretentious. Though this is true for a number of agency groups, Starcom Mediavest Group is the clear winner in the ‘Bulls**t Mission Statement Stakes’. It says:

“Our Purpose: SMG is the Human Experience Company. People and experiences are our purpose and the heart of our business.”

And goes on to say:

“Our DNA is unique. Our people are transformational, dynamic, relentless, fearless, tribal, streetwise, switched on, human.”

Phew, human as well!

In fairness SMG is not the only agency with this sort of mission statement and this, I’m sure/hope emanated from the US (like the appalling Mediavest name).

Of the client pitches this year, the Government Procurement Service (GPS) elevated procurement madness to a new level with its e-auction for the Strategic and Channel Planning Government tenders.

The on/off auction, which attempted to run on around five different occasions, was concluded some four weeks after its intended date and would probably still be running now if they hadn’t eventually changed the rules.

However, three of the six agencies that won a place on the Channel Planning Framework were WPP-owned media agencies. This means that they were bidding against both competitor group agencies and each other. So, just maybe, there was some method in the madness of GPS?

Finally and most awfully sadly, 2013 saw the tragic death of Nick Milligan. Nick was universally admired as someone who effortlessly transcended the old world of analogue broadcasting into the new digital world; was universally respected as probably the smartest TV Sales Group MD and universally liked as all-round decent bloke. He is sorely missed. And this event rendered everything else that happened in 2013 largely inconsequential in comparison.