Step out of Babylon

Metrics are the cloak of the mediocre and ‘numbers people’ are destroying the wonder of creativity, writes Route’s James Whitmore.

Onward, forward, don’t step backward.

The thought that media buyers may not be properly executing advertisers’ strategies or adequately showcasing creative ideas is enjoying one of its periodic moments in the sun. Some say, let’s go back to full service.

Hmmm.

I spent 16 years in a full-service advertising agency, from feast to famine and back again, from trainee to boss. I had an amazing time and of all the jobs I have done, it felt the most natural environment to work in.

Yet I fail to see that it is the way forward.

Views of the time are based on memory and myth, and recollections differ.

I reject the hoary canard that the discipline of media used to be relegated to the last five minutes of any meeting, forcing a group of the chosen to flee and to set up media independents where their skills could flourish.

Did you ever see a 1980s media presentation? Frankly, five minutes is too long to listen to someone saying they’re going to buy 500 housewife ratings on TV. On a truly bad day, they might insist on telling you how the ratings would be bought. Remember, this is before the advent of smartphones. If you were in the room, there was no distraction.

The challenge to the media person was to get an airing from the start of the meeting. That meant understanding the consumer, the strategy and the idea, and interweaving the communication elements to become part of the overall fabric of the campaign. No barriers or silos – all the disciplines working in the round. This is surely what motivated the better-known planners of the ’80s and early ’90s. It resulted in ground breaking work and some stratospherically successful campaigns.

The media independents were not designed to give media a voice but to make money for some decidedly astute business people. The combination of high bank rates and large movements of cash gave an opportunity for rapid growth and big profits. It had little to do with offering a hearing to a neglected arm of the agency world. That’s just their PR.

In the full service agency, there was always a gap between the plan and the purchase. For example, no matter how fancy the articulation of the target audience; if the money went to TV you reached millions of old people and poor people. It is perhaps not a bad way to proffer an advertiser’s wares but it is hardly an implementation of the swanky psychographic targeting and the like that were being used by the mid eighties. The process of dealing and buying inevitably dumbs things down.

The rift gets even bigger when you take the physical purchasing away.

I’ll give you an example that I swear is not made up. I worked with a soft drinks brand. In their wisdom, the client “centralised” their buying with a media independent. The various creative agencies retained the media planning. It was a common scenario at the time. I met with the buyer, outlining the plan, which included some regional TV.

Buyer: “I’ve got this down for STV”
Me: “It’s not on sale in Scotland”
Buyer: “Yeah, but you could get distribution off the back of the TV”
Me: “No, we couldn’t. We wish to concentrate on a couple of core areas, the TV complements the other activity which is a mix of local media, promotions, events etc.”
Buyer: “It’s got to go on STV or else it’ll mess up the deals”
Me: “OK, what if we don’t use TV?”
Buyer: “I’m telling the advertiser you’re cocking up our deals”

And so on. The buying shop used the incident to inform the client of the importance of putting the planning with the buying, as that way you would get the best media value. They meant price.

And thereby lies the tale. It is easier for someone to go with a number than an idea or a reason. The demise of full service agencies coincides with the rise of the measurable world. It is not just in media where the “numbers people” set about destroying the wonder of creativity with their narrow worldview.

Metrics are the cloak of the mediocre. One should immediately eye anyone who says “ROI” or “KPI” with suspicion. Incentives and targets do not work. They crowd out things like professional pride, creativity and risk. If you treat the problem as one of price, price will define what you do.

Success is self-evident.

To put it another way, measures are dangerous as they take the place of what you measure. The thing itself, in our world usually an idea, will vanish to be replaced by some form of numerical substitute. In advertising we are always trying to ascribe more precision than the discipline warrants or allows. Nobody wants to call a halt to this madness, to step out of line.

If advertiser, agent and media owner all adhere to the same orthodoxy, the status quo will endure. I find it deeply depressing. The hope is for revolution. Creativity and ideas might seize the means of purchasing. But who will be the first to storm the citadel of the current orthodoxy?

Data is great in its place, as an enabler. Full service agencies are perhaps the best way to order things. But they are from a time out of mind. It’s been at least twenty years since they lost the fight. They are not coming back. The world has changed and the skills no longer exist.

The industry is undoubtedly more efficient now. It is also less human.