Continuing on the theme of the evolving value exchange between consumers and brands, I spoke to Marco Rimini, Head of Business Planning at Mindshare Worldwide, to understand more completely how media agencies are adapting to the Web 2.0 world.
He explained to me that they have taken the core definition of value exchange from the digital world, blown it out to include all forms of communication, and re-structured their entire organisation around it: “The three big trends for the future are data, digital and content, and we have created three operational silos focused on these areas: the Business Planning unit (data), the Invention unit (content) and the Exchange unit (digital).”
“The Exchange function of Mindshare really highlights the way that we believe the world is changing from a traditional model of buying media space, to a new era where media is a place in which brands can exchange ideas, products, services, emotions, information, functionality or indeed anything with consumers, in exchange for advocacy, opinions, recommendations, ratings, contact details and, of course, money.”
“One of the things that brands will be able to exchange with consumers is content,” Rimini continued, “and that content will be both entertaining and/or functional, depending on the type of brand. For example: with a clients of ours like HSBC, the content will necessarily be more informational and functional than for another client, such as Playstation, where consumers will expect to be entertained in some way.”
“Mindshare’s Invention unit works exclusively to develop innovative and engaging solutions to content creation, one example of which is a project for Unilever, where we’ve bought the rights to take Ugly Betty to China.”
“We will co-create a new version of the soap with Unilever for the Chinese audience, and will then leverage the Ugly Betty property as a platform to deliver content for Unilever across multiple channels. This model gives consumers the chance to engage with Unilever brands through relevant content, participatory media, and both digital and experiential activation.”
“And all of the content created will be driven by data, from the Business Planning unit, which is how the three spokes of our business model intertwine and add value to each other to deliver effective, relevant media solutions to clients in a fast changing consumer environment.”
This evolved media agency model is a very convincing response to the doom-sayers who have recently been decrying the death of the media agency. Indeed, in the new world of total transparency and increasing channel fragmentation, it could be argued that media’s role has never been so important.
The discussion continues with Rimini explaining that a more effective process for developing creativity in a Web 2.0 world is data-driven and quant-led, rather than the intuitive, qualitative approach currently favoured by creative agencies.
And this shift in emphasis means that media agencies are increasingly going to be brought into the creative development process much earlier, working with clients to formulate the briefs and develop a channel planning architecture to maximise the value exchange opportunities, and understand the type of content that needs to be created, before creative agencies are even briefed.
“It’s not about developing a big idea and then wondering how to go to market anymore,” Rimini continues, “you need to analyze who you want to talk to, how you want to approach them, and where and when you want to make a value exchange, and only then should you be thinking about what it is you want to exchange, and the creativity that will enable you to make that exchange.”
“Just look at Martin Sorrell’s latest big acquisition into the WPP fold: TNS. He is beefing up the Kantar Group, which is already the world’s biggest market research and data company, because he knows that the future of the industry is in data-driven creativity.”
Understanding the complexities of value exchange within a Web 2.0 (and Web 3.0) world, and the role that data will play in fuelling the creative development process, is fundamental in determining how successful creative agencies will be in the future.
The traditional advertising agency model simply isn’t designed to deliver solutions in this new world, and it will be fascinating to see how agencies evolve to ensure their future relevance to clients.
