Campaign Magazine interviews Andy Pearch
The following article originally appeared as an interview with Andy Pearch, co-founder of MediaSense in their ‘Double Standards’ feature on 22/4/2010.
Campaign: “Why were there so many media pitches last year and will this dry up to some extent in 2010?
AP: 2009 was an anomalous year : the number of pitches globally rose by 40%, and the value of those pitches increased by 60%. There will always be a constant level of media reviews, due to contracts running their course, business restructures, consolidations and soured relationships. Last year’s increase can be put down to the global recession, which required many businesses to take a knife to expenditure, and to corporate opportunism – a number of clients took advantage of instability to improve existing terms or source a better deal elsewhere. 2010 will be “relatively” quiet by comparison.
Campaign: To what degree are clients asking you for services that go beyond pitch management?
AP: Most of our work does not actually involve pitch management. The majority of our work is based around Performance Management, working with advertisers to improve media effectiveness and productivity with agency partners, and Relationship Management, working with advertisers to strengthen and improve agency service levels and capabilities through formal reviews of relationships, processes and contracts. We have an excellent pitch management process, of course, but it is not our calling card or signature service.
Campaign: What can agencies do to create longer standing relationships with their clients?
AP: Fair question, but we should also be asking how clients can work harder to maintain stronger relationships with their agencies. It’s a two-way street after all. There needs to be two big shifts in focus : a re-allocation of agency resources and talent from the pitching arena to existing clients; and a re-focus away from media costs to media performance as client/agency metrics for success. An agency can only make progress by being profitable, and profitability comes in the main from an existing client base, not from new business. Our advice to agencies would be : re-focus on retention; introduce systems for externally benchmarking your client relationships; minimise staff churn; keep relationships fresh; do the basics well; establish strong and durable contracts.
Campaign: To what degree are digital and social media vital requirements demanded by clients of agencies?
AP: Absolutely essential. Digital media are central to consumers’ lives. Facebook reaches 23 million people in the UK, and accounts for nearly a quarter of all time spent online. All the traditional media are transitioning to digital models – just look at web TV, the Ipad’s apps, digital billboards. These are vital disciplines, and present exciting opportunities for agencies as the landscape is still evolving. There is a debate around whether digital should be treated as a specialist area, but my personal view is that integration is essential and that the digital disciplines should not remain in separate silos.
Campaign: How do you measure whether an agency is doing a good job for a client?
AP: Nice cue ! We have recently established a partnership with Aprais, the market-leading relationship audit service. At MediaSense, we believe that the best work comes from the best relationships. As the industry shakes out, the winners will be those clients which manage their agency relationship in a systemised and structured way, ask the right questions of themselves and their partners, and benchmark their progress.
Campaign: What are the qualities you need to do your job well?
AP: A clear vision – you can’t take people with you unless you know where you’re going. Objectivity, diplomacy and peer group respect – much of what we do is to help multiple stakeholder groups resolve problems and achieve alignment. Logic and basic maths – because at the end of the day someone needs to quantify the hard benefits of the work agencies are doing for their clients. Flexibility – media excellence is not just a by-product of rigid behaviours and metrics, after all…”