Now is a golden age for agencies

It’s strange to think that I’ve been in my Global CEO role for exactly a year. Time has flown by, and I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve achieved in just 12 months.

I’ve also realised that my experience leading this great agency has reinforced my feeling that we are entering a golden age for media agencies.

The pandemic has led to a seismic shift in the way we think, eat, shop, bank and consume content. How brands are perceived externally is more critical than ever, and we have the power to affect this.

This was evident for those that tuned in to Cannes Lions Festival the other week. But brands still face challenges in the long road ahead. They are, for one, finding it harder than ever before to connect and engage with consumers. According to research by Salesforce, 61 per cent of consumers say it is difficult for a company to earn their trust, with a further 82 per cent agreeing that a company’s trustworthiness matters more than it did a year ago.

This is why I think media agencies have a unique opportunity to work with brands productively and collaboratively to help them to land quality, addressable and ethical messages with their audiences.

The right strategy versus the cheapest

No one can argue that if you’re looking for an external view of an audience or market, agencies are the answer. By helping brands to adopt an outside-in approach to their external communications, we can be an invaluable partner – offering them the best strategy for landing the right messages with the right audience(s).

In this 'new normal", we will see agencies move away from competitive media pricing as a reason to do something, towards understanding what messages brands are looking to land. In this new “era” of value to clients, we’re likely to see a revival of media planning as a tangible way to track, in real time, how well messages are landing and whether money needs to be channelled in a different direction.

Ultimately, successful external communications – whether through marketing, advertising or PR – are defined by the effectiveness of the messaging brands put out. That’s why it will be the right strategy, versus the cheapest, that will help brands see gains longer-term.

Seeing the bigger picture

I’ve been blown away by the industry recognition of our work, both at Festival of Media Global and in Cannes.

What all this work has in common is our ability to look beyond a simple challenge and to see the bigger picture of what might be possible. In doing so we’ve been able to develop hugely creative campaigns that deliver better results.

But all of this great work was only made possible by working collaboratively with our clients to focus on the quality, as opposed to the quantity, of messages they are trying to deliver. We understand that to really create the best work for our clients, and make advertising work better for people, we must push and challenge them to think in this way.

Helping brands to build back stronger

This is an exciting time for agencies and for brands. But as we enter the recovery stages of the pandemic, advertisers still have a lot of work to do to adapt to this “new normal” by winning back an audience who may have forgotten them and grow a new one. To do this, agencies and brands must work together on what advertising does best: building attention and engagement to unleash growth.