“Not everything that counts can be counted. And not everything that can be counted, counts.” – William Bruce Cameron
Dedication
To all those in the advertising and media business who believe that the industry has even more potential in the future than it had in the past.
Acknowledgements
We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to so many in the advertising and media industry that it has been our privilege to work with. We learned from them all—at general agencies, media agencies, research companies and advertisers. Most have been leaders in their own right. In fact, a number of them are deemed legends who still exert an unusual influence on the business today.
We salute those who have passed away: Marion Harper, Bill Bernbach, David Ogilvy, Chuck Peebler, David McCall, Erwin Ephron, Bill Simmons, Stan Federman; they have left a legacy that will prevail for a very long time. Others are still very much active: Keith Reinhard, David Bell, Bill Harvey, Irwin Gotlieb, and many others are still mentors from whom we continue to amass enormous knowledge.
While some of the opinions we voice in this book might not necessarily reflect views these leaders and mentors would agree with, it is the perspectives they offered that have allowed us to continue to be active participants and advisors to clients and agencies. It is with this background that we face new challenges in an ever-changing media environment, and hope to bring fresh thinking to the future of our business.
We also wish to acknowledge the diligent work of our editor Sally Fay, our cover illustrator Joan Peckolick, both of whom helped us bring this book to life.
FOREWORD By Jack Myers
Advertising and media professionals have, throughout our industry’s history, had to navigate through periods of technological upheaval, chaos, transition and transformation. Today, we’re in the midst of a radical and historic metamorphosis. Companies are shedding their husks and leaving behind their past as they evolve to adapt to a new digital-centric future. As new industry leaders emerge and dominate, some legacy players will thrive, many will hold on and slowly dissolve, and even more will simply disappear into the archives of industry history.
Every professional seeking to survive during this exciting and challenging time needs a contextual understanding of this history, a perspective on the present, and a vision for the future. In a series of 57 essays, the authors of The Media Playbook, Mike Drexler, Steve Fajen and Michael Atkin, capture the changing world they’ve experienced across their decades of personal experience in all aspects of the media business. They collectively have worked in senior roles at agencies, research companies, consulting firms, talent development organizations, and marketers. For the past decade, they’ve been in a central role as consultants to clients and their agencies as well as media companies.
I’ve been proud to publish many of their thought leadership commentaries at MediaVillage.com (www.mediavillage.com), where they are archived. (Also visit www.drexlerfajen.com )
Tracing the agency/marketer/media relationship from its early beginnings to today’s digital and addressable ecosystem, each essay offers insight and context on how the industry dealt with the challenges it faced and what the consequences are for today’s marketplace. They provide unique perspective into the relationship between advertisers and agencies, and also chart how the assets of media companies are being redefined and impacted by programmatic buying, DSP’s (Demand Side Platforms), SSP’s (Supply Side Platforms) and RTB (real time bidding). And of course by Google and Facebook.
With the explosion of data from a growing array of providers, the focus of marketers and agencies is shifting from the traditional emphasis on creating brand awareness to new performance metrics and return-on-investment requirements. This new reality is fundamentally turning the industry upside-down, as a business built on long-standing relationships must now learn to rely instead on analytics and algorithms.
This is one of our industry’s greatest challenges and the essays of Drexler, Fajen and Atkin provide a foundation of understanding to help guide the way for industry veterans as well as those just joining our community.
Their commentaries cover the restructuring of agency compensation and services, the role of procurement officers and consultants, new realities confronting chief marketing officers, transparency issues and auditing, and how the presumed deterioration of advertiser/agency relationships can be repaired. The Media Playbook untangles the negative forces that foster poor relationships, points the way to client/agency relationship restoration, and identifies opportunities for media suppliers to build strategic partnerships with both agencies and marketers.
The Media Playbook is fundamentally a book about trust, why and how it has eroded, and the path toward rebuilding it for a healthy and prosperous future. The four pillars of the book are Perspectives on the Business; Relationships and Reviews; The Media Drumbeat; Dollars, Sense and Media Math. This is a book written by industry veterans who were and continue to be visionaries and leaders. They can and should be trusted to guide readers on a journey into the past and future that will lead marketers, agencies and media suppliers on a path to stronger and more sustainable relationships.
Jack Myers is chairman and media ecologist at MyersBizNet, a Perceptions Management Company and home of MediaVillage.com -- the most extensive business-to-business content and relationship network serving the marketing, advertising, media and entertainment communities. Jack is the author of five books including The Future of Men: Masculinity in the Twenty-First Century and Reconnecting with Customers: Building Brands and Profits in The Relationship Age. Jack is the recipient of the George Foster Peabody Award, won the Crystal Heart Award from the Heartland Film Festival, and has been nominated for both an Academy and Emmy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Jack’s career includes sales and management positions at CBS, ABC and Metromedia. He is Chairman of the Board of International Radio and Television Society (IRTS), a Board Member of the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University, and a Foundation Board Member of She Runs It, formerly Advertising Women of New York.
INTRODUCTION
There is no substitute for experience.
We live in a world of constant change. Drawing perspectives based on experience doesn’t mean doing the same thing that’s been done before. When you live through a plethora of situations over time you are instilled with knowledge that cannot be obtained in any other way. We have lived the seismic changes in the media landscape. We have been in the executive positions where making the right decisions on the future was career defining. We understand the importance of bringing new and different approaches to the decision-making process.
This book will provide advertisers and agencies information to make decisions that will build their business in an efficient and profitable way. It attempts to improve and sustain a productive relationship among
