The Traditional Media Buying Agency Is Dead
January 20, 2012 by Kevin Michael Gray
Today's featured article from Business Insider highlights what single handily could be one of the most influential game changers in the breakdown of the traditional advertising agency. Read more below:
We’ve seen a lot of change in the media business over the last 10 years. One of the biggest evolutions was the formation of the media buying agency.
These agencies were formed to aggregate buying power, derive value from planning and buying, create efficiency by reducing costs and expedite the overall process.
This change put the creative agency on their heels and destroyed the full-service agency model by separating strategy, account management, media planning and creative.
Suddenly multiple agencies were involved in the process, all with varying visions for how to execute the client plan and causing confusion among the sellers who called on the agency(s). It was no longer clear who was driving strategy.
We are now in the midst of another evolution in media planning and buying. The introduction of the agency trading desks has brought more complication and fragmentation into the service model. This new type of media agency is overtaking the traditional media agency and requires employees to have new skills focused on data analysis, technology and optimization.
Interestingly, the trading desk is buying a highly commoditized media where data is focused on audience segmentation, but does not consider the creative execution and the environment (e.g. the placement or context).
