Review: ‘Spending Advertising Money in the Digital Age’ by Hamish Pringle & Jim Marshall

Brian Jacobs, BJ&A, explains why Hamish and Jim have done the industry a huge service in writing their book…

Almost 30 years ago the late Dr Simon Broadbent approached me to help him write a new edition of a book he had first published some 15 years before. ‘Spending Advertising Money’ had originally appeared when Simon was Leo Burnett’s media director; by the early 1980’s he had moved to focus more on research and systems. So he needed a media guy to help him update the book. I must have been passing his office.

I don’t think Simon would have minded me revealing that what was then the third edition was quite similar to the second. Certainly the figures (and accompanying commentary) had been changed. Media was a slow-moving discipline, media agencies (or as they were then media independents) existed, but were really buying shops. The media themselves didn’t really change much, even if the rates paid did.

When I agreed to help Simon it was on the understanding that we would start again, and completely re-write the book, even if we were persuaded by the publisher to keep the title. A year of Sundays later, at the end of 1983, we finished the fourth edition of ‘Spending Advertising Money’ to some acclaim. I still cherish the review I received in a memo from David Hughes, now at iProspect. In its entirety it read: “Spending Advertising Money? Call La Gavroche; have lunch. Job done. Thank you.”

Fast forward to today, and Hamish Pringle and Jim Marshall have published their book ‘Spending Advertising Money in the Digital Age’. They generously state that the title of their book is ‘in homage’ to our 1984 effort. That’s very kind of them, but really I would say that theirs is a greater achievement. The media world today is a very different place, and the pace of change is extraordinary. As Hamish said at the launch event, the media of today is analogous to a fast-flowing river. Consumers enter the river whenever it suits them, and for however long. The role of the planner is to plan the intercepts between the consumer and the media.

Furthermore, the media world is a far more interesting place than it was in the 1980’s, and thus of interest to a much broader constituency. We wrote a rather earnest book, for the industry and academia. Hamish and Jim have written a far more accessible book – with cartoons, pictures, and contributors from the media themselves. I wish we had thought of that last one – we ponderously ploughed through each media form; Jim and Hamish have persuaded those who know the media best to enthuse about them.

We were writing about media planning, research and buying. They are writing about the broad media industry, indeed they plan to issue an online addendum on News International and the phone-hacking scandal.

There is also an interesting chapter on ‘Media Agencies in the Future’, in which the authors make the case for these agencies to play a far more central role in every aspect of the advertiser’s communication programme, including the ‘commissioning and managing of media’.

In theory I agree, in practice I think this is unlikely to happen. The reason is nothing to do with the lack of opportunity but everything to do with the organisation of media agencies, and the talent within them as against the talent elsewhere. It seems to me (I spend a lot of time in agencies, seeing planners and buyers many of whose principles seem miles away from the conference speeches of their bosses) that agencies are becoming more silo-ed and more specialist.

A silo is created as much as anything by attitude; it’s much less to do with where people sit, and much more to do with how they think. And right now there is a startling lack of curiosity, of risk-taking, of entrepreneurial spirit in most media agencies. Planners (whatever the title) seem to me to be sliding backwards as the traders take over.

In one aspect things haven’t changed much. In the days of Simon and my book, the internal battle for supremacy was always between media planners (‘cool’, ‘rational’) and TV buyers (‘hot’, ’emotional’). Keeping these balanced was always difficult. It was probably always the case that planners win business, but buyers keep it. Today, with so much business audited, and with the greater involvement of procurement, securing deals, almost regardless of anything else is considered vital.

Agencies complain that their margins are under pressure and the demands on their time ever greater. No doubt, although I’ve seen many scary examples of agencies spending loads of time on the wrong things. In the circumstances it might be sensible to spend time justifying why a client should pay more for a superior offering.

Hamish and Jim have done the industry a huge service in writing their book. The industry could do itself a huge service by reading it, and by getting back to one basic principle: to use their skills to identify the people most likely to buy something, and then use the appropriate channels in the most effective manner to get them to buy it. That’s why agencies used to be full of planner/buyers; today there seem to be lots of buyers/justifiers.

I’ve been asked if this book is a ‘worthy successor’ to the one Simon Broadbent and I wrote all those years ago. To steal a quote from that great planner Kevin Keegan in the new book, ‘It’s much the same… except it’s completely different’. I would go further; Hamish and Jim set out to produce a book for today, and they’ve succeeded superbly.

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