In this series on managing the digital revolution, Ari Aronson and Stephan Argent collect insights from both the agency and the brand sides of the street.
This week, Marketing contributor Ari Aronson speaks with Harvey Carroll, CEO of IPG Mediabrands.
We have seen a shift from stand-alone digital agencies to a more integrated agency offering. How has digital impacted your org chart and agency offering? Is Digital a separate P&L?
From a strategy and planning perspective, we employ a hybrid model across our agencies… digital integrated with traditional to eliminate silos and ensure the best possible product
We also recognize that there’s a high level of specialist digital knowledge that our agencies require to deliver value and drive business results for our clients… We deliver this through Mediabrands’ shared services: Reprise Media – search (SEO/SEM), Cadreon – programmatic trading, MB digital performance/ad ops, analytics, et cetra — specialist groups that are extensions of our agency client teams and available to all our clients.
We operate with one P&L – no separate digital P&L.
What’s your vision for the future of digital in your agency?
We can’t just think digital media, we need to think connected consumer experiences in a digital world. Simply put, “traditional” media does not exist anymore.
The media landscape has changed and will continue to change. Things like connected TV/OTT services, subscription/streaming video and music offerings, tablet and online versions of magazines/newspapers are changing the way consumers interact with media. Therefore, we need to change as well. We will ensure we are in the position to best help our clients take advantage of this ever evolving landscape across all media (including digital as it continues to grow).
What areas of digital do you do in-house versus outsource, and why?
Our model here is to do what we can to do best-in-class in-house and then to select best-in-class partners to work with for other services, whether they are technology platforms, data/measurement providers, or content partners.
For just one example, our programmatic model (Cadreon) is not outsourced to third parties to manage; we have a full campaign management team in-house, in Canada. We know we can better represent our clients this way so we have invested in this area in-house. As well we don’t outsource social buying like many other agencies. UM Studios is an in-house model as well as we see content creation as a growing area of need from our clients. There are many examples I would be happy to discuss.
What are the unique and creative ways digital is impacting traditional mass work?
Access to real-time data is driving more relevant/engaging messaging through traditional channels. Look at the example of the British Airways billboard in London where the child points to the plane overhead. This is digital impacting one of the oldest mediums (OOH) in a very positive way.
We will increasingly need to think about how this new data and access to consumers can be leveraged to get the right message to the right audience at the right time. We used to view real time as getting to people in weeks, now it can literally be in seconds.
What are the biggest challenges you’re facing when it comes to working with clients from a digital perspective?
Education/pace of change (programmatic audience buying, social, native) is the biggest challenge. We have people focused on this evolution as their primary job where as our clients are fighting just to keep up with all the change while managing a number of other things. It is not easy given the pace and breadth of the evolution.
Are clients generally open or cautious when it comes to pushing digital boundaries?
Thankfully, our clients are open to pushing if provided with the right data to support decisions, which is ultimately our responsibility to understand and to provide.
Test-and-learn is a mandate in almost all of our clients’ plans and something we strongly advocate. There is an appetite to try things differently and understand what works to scale from there. Innovation supported by a disciplined measurement approach is the key.
What advice do you have for senior marketers when it comes to getting the most out of their traditional and digital agency partners?
Treat the relationship as a true partnership. Collaborate at the highest level. Share challenges, wins, losses – provide your agency with the information you have access to (sales data etc.) and then challenge them to work with you to deliver on your business results. Business partners not media partners or communication partners.
Explore, and where possible, implement a pay-for-performance model to align agency objectives with client business objectives. It is a win/win.
Create an environment of trust and support where teams are free to take risks, try new things, to look at ideas that are outside of the box. Accept that there will be some small failures and be open to learning from them and moving on.
How can clients help your agency do even better work for them?
Employ a true IMC model with media as a lead seat at the table.
Be open and honest with us and include us in your business planning as well as your media planning. Provide us with your data so we can combine it with ours to get to real and powerful, business driving insights.
Be open to exploring different content partnership models to drive greater value, things like UM Studios for example.
Talk to us… If something is working tell us. If something is not working tell us. We are on the same team. How can we help?
What key lessons have you learned when it comes to doing great digital work?
Great digital work does not happen in a silo. Great digital work is great integrated work that is built upon a strong consumer insight and works hard to deliver against a clear and focused brand objective.
As an agency, how do you stay at the forefront of digital and social media and how do you lead clients when it comes to innovation and creativity?
By empowering the entire agency team to think digital/social, we genuinely believe that innovation comes from all levels.
Truly nurture a culture of curiosity. At UM for example we talk about the “yes, and” mentality. We use this to drive innovation in everything we do. We have internal awards to share and celebrate the best work. We involve our clients in all this as well in the hope our passion and curiosity is infectious and it generally is.
We also leverage, strategic partnerships that enable us to develop on-going thought leadership, education and training programs for agency teams and clients. We believe in building strong digital capabilities and competency across all people at our agencies, no matter if they’re in a broadcast investment role or a hybrid planning role.
Ari Aronson is founder of Ari Agency, a boutique executive recruitment agency specializing in digital.
