A quiet revolution

With large brands and agency networks bogged down in procurement-led media reviews, the independents and challenger brands are leading on innovation, argues Ed Cox, founder and MD at Yonder Media

All signs point to a very welcome year of opportunity for our industry, with the market set to grow by more than 15% according to the latest AA/Warc report. Just this last week, ITV forecast a very healthy 85% annual ad revenue increase for May and June.

Against this backdrop, it’s also set to be a record year of media reviews.

Brands are scrambling to catch-up on Covid-induced delays and taking stock of their agency relationships, amidst an unprecedented period of change – change in media consumption, but also changes in consumer privacy and how we measure advertising performance. 

You’d think this would amount to a huge impetus for change in media reviews, but most of us won’t be holding our breath for many surprise outcomes. 

Big media reviews have long been a cost-led run-off between the usual suspects with the scale to slug it out on price – meaning big brands tend to partner with big agencies. 

Despite a tumultuous last 12 months, which ought to put new strategies at the forefront of agency reviews, this scenario is likely to continue wherever there is the demand for cost savings above all else. 

However, this status quo may be more damaging to the established brands and agencies than they might think.

Traditionally, we have operated in a world where briefs, and the responses to them, are an evolution of the previous year’s efforts. 

Now that we have been plunged into a time of great upheaval, this continual adaptation of ‘how it’s always been done’ is increasingly outdated. 

We know human nature is generally averse to change – and risk – and this behaviour extends to media reviews.  

Anyone who’s tried to change their own questionable habits knows that change is hard and rarely lasts. 

What’s required to make it stick is that rare combination of a shock to the lifestyle, rather like becoming a new parent and realising that actually a lie-in has greater value for the foreseeable than a night in the pub. 

This shock to the system is exactly what we’re experiencing in society right now – the pandemic has accelerated behavioural changes that are becoming entrenched – in particular across digital adoption, mobility and purchasing behaviour. 

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This, of course, means a huge disruption to media consumption. So as audiences are moving on apace, our brand communications need to keep up.

But if change is hard for individuals, it’s even harder for large organisations. 

While the media industry gazes at its navel about the damage caused by share deals and rebate-led media trading, I for one am not complaining. 

The slow pace of change is presenting an opportunity for those brands, and their agency partners, who do have the necessary agility and can embrace more innovative and non-siloed approaches.

Start-up and challenger brands are disrupting markets in everything from FMCG to finance, just as start-up and challenger agencies are upsetting the traditional order in advertising – with independent media agencies reportedly growing five times faster than networked agencies over the past three years.

There is a quiet revolution going on.

While big brands are bogged down in procurement-led reviews, eeking out a few more percentage points of media value, high-growth and challenger brands are getting on with dynamically different strategies and audience-first, 360-degree communications.

For these brands, new thinking, creativity and innovation are top of the agenda when it comes to agency selection. Those brands and agencies that recognise this will reap the rewards as our economy bounces back.