Call For More Client Involvement In Media Process

John Blakemore, ad director at SmithKline Beecham, yesterday rounded on agencies and stated that the “problem with the media process is that it is jargon laden and shrouded in mystique with many of the practitioners of the black art sometimes having a vested interest in keeping you confused.”

Speaking at yesterday’s “Emperor’s New Clothes” conference at the Dorchester Hotel, he went on to say that clients must get more involved in their agency’s media plans in order to dispel confusion and get more for their money. He criticised agency practice and said that “too rarely does anybody make a serious attempt to clear away the smoke and mirrors to show the discipline for what it is – fairly simple and certainly not rocket science”.

Mr Blakemore said that any kind of guaranteed commitments must be had in writing and it must be made clear what the penalties were, if any, for clients not meeting their side of the deal; ie, if budgets needed to be cut or priorities altered. In terms of what he called agency “scams” he highlighted the fact that there were “64 ways to calculate station price” and said that it was common for agencies to report ITV performance one way and the national stations, C4 and satellite, in another but in such a way as to make it appear comparison was being made between like and like.

He called for clients to use auditing companies like Media Audits and Barsby Rowe and also demand detailed campaign plans and reports whilst the campaign was live. Mr Blakemore finished his speech by setting out questions which all clients should ask of their agencies; including “Quantifiably demonstrate that your input into media planning and buying has provided me with a market advantage” and “How has our media performance improved year on year.”

Other issues raised included the value of TVRs, with Phil Gullen of Carat Research saying that it is the quality rather than the quantity of ratings which everyone involved in the ad planning process should be concerned with. He said that ratings were especially effective when targeted at “seekers” – consumers who had an active and positive attitude to adverts.

Diane Maxwell, from Michaelides & Bednash, called for more integration in the media process saying that creative departments should have more input in the planning stages, while Jeff Scott of Abbey National spoke about media inflation and his opinion that as an economic argument it simply could not be justified. He said that the reasons for inflation include sales practices, especially station average pricing; agency profits; and opaque pricing.