Which job in advertising gives the most ROI?
In this guest post, Darren Woolley wonders which role in an agency – creative, media, digital, planning or account management – is the most valuable to the client.
In benchmarking the cost of an ad agency’s staff, you generally find that the rate a client pays is commensurate with the experience or seniority of the resource. But the question of value goes beyond just cost to determining the return on the investment. So in considering the value we need to balance the cost of the resource against how much they contribute to the ROI.
It is important to note that all parties make a contribution. Media, creative and digital are all responsible for completing their part of the process to deliver the desired outcome. There is no point running media if you have no content. And likewise a great idea is worthless if no one ever sees or hears about it.
So putting these to one side, (collective responsibility and increase in cost associated with seniority) if we look at each of the individual functions, their roles and responsibilities and the cost, we can appreciate if any one area offers greater value than anyone else in the advertising process.
To assist with this, we are applying a value index purely to provide a numeric comparison between each and to further the discussion on agency value.
Starting with account management, this is seen as the lynchpin of the process, liaising between client and agency and managing the outputs of the relationship. The more strategic the account manager, the more value and insight they can add. But at the most basic role and responsibility the value they add is in quality control and the efficient running of the account. I would give them a value index of 5/10.
The strategy planner is responsible for developing the communications strategy, which is important in ensuring you have the right message to achieve the marketing and business objective. But quality strategists are in short supply and high demand commanding significantly higher rates than their account management colleagues and even some of their creative colleagues. Value index: 7/10.
There is a lot of focus on creative rates and fees, and it is true that at the top end, a handful of creative talent in creative director and executive creative director roles are charged out at significantly higher rates based on industry reputation. While much of the industry is focused on creativity and especially awards, many successful advertisers are not relaying on Award-Winning work to drive their business success. Value Index. 6/10.
Most agencies are increasingly integrating digital, but where they offer specialist digital resources (excluding off-shoring development to lower cost markets) there is still often a premium over their non-digital equivalents. This is often explained on the shortage of experienced digital talent. In the face of no obvious increased effectiveness or results this continued premium impacts the potential value of the resources. Value index: 7/10.
Media is still the largest investment area for most advertisers, both digital and traditional media. Yet media agency staff, except at the highest levels, are inclined to be charged at a discount to their creative and digital agency equivalent.
Media planners are often overlooked in the whole scheme of the advertising process, but they have the ability to ensure that the advertising message is delivered to the right audience in the best environment against the campaign requirements. Of course they have significant research and insights to inform and justify their strategy. But they also have the most significant financial investment as their responsibility, while paid comparatively less. Value index: 9/10.
Media buyers on the other hand get to spend the significant media budget using the media plan provided. In the process a good media buyer can negotiate additional discounts and added value to increase the delivered media value for the plan. In some cases, and with enough time, a media plan can add an additional 40 per cent or more in value. That is a significant return on the media investment and a huge return on the relatively small cost of the media buyer’s salary. But just delivering more value of the wrong media is no value at all. Value index. 9/10.
So there you have it. The hidden value in the ad agency is in the media department. They are paid comparatively less than their creative and digital agency colleagues, but they have the ability to deliver significant real and strategic value to the advertiser through their management of the media budget.
But as I’ve said, all parties have a role to play and value to add. But some more than others.
Darren Woolley is the managing director of client-agency relationship consultancy TrinityP3. He is also the former creative director of JWT in Australia.
Is there any empirical evidence to validate the value index scores, if not, they are worthless.
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Lord Lever/Henry Ford said that half his advertising was wasted but he didn’t know which half.
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An Interesting piece. Interesting because you could possibly be the only person qualified to make comment. The man that knows why we lose and why we win from a consultancy that handles the industries biggest battles.
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Come on. It wasn’t a planner or a media person who wrote “Just do it.” How much is that worth to Nike?
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@ Guy fair point….but of course the best known campaigns and lines owe a lot to the weight of media that got them out there in the first place (and often the doggedness of the clients that consistently kept them out there rather than chopping and changing).
IMHO Darren’s value assessment reflects the way clients think these days – follow the money, and most of it is in media. Much easier for clients to hold up media spreadsheets next to all their other spreadsheets than it is to objectively judge creative merit and therefore value.
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And the ROI of a pitch doctor is what?
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Hmmm, wonder if anyone might use this piece to argue their case in their next tea and biscuits/request a raise meeting.
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I don’t think anyone is attempting to make heroes of any position here.
The truth of the matter is that cost is never a measure of value.
Regardless of task, seniority or position, clients assign their own sense of worth or value of having certain individuals on their business.
Silo-ed mono-skilled individuals are the second least valued.
Award chasing scamming creatives are the least. And will always be so.
The most valuable talents are those rare all-rounders: Creatives who think like planners and understand media. Or any other cocktail of the three: Media folks who think like a creative strategist. Suits who can think strategically, plan media and crack creative briefs.
Many would like to regard themselves as such.
Here’s a simple test to see whether you actually are.
Tell the client that you can’t attend a meeting they have called.
If they rather reschedule to another day to accommodate your attendance, congrats, you’ve made it.
If they continue without you, it just means you are superfluous to the business.
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What about the Production staff? You know, the ones that actually create the final deliverables, wrangle suppliers, squeeze extra days into immutable timelines, keep costs within budgets and pull rabbits out of hats regularly. Do we even get a look-in in this ROI world, or are we just another expense that’s there to be cut back?
Chip on my solder? Maybe a little.
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Oh this is silly!
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Nearly got me -was about to obviously say creativity – but then when I thought about it and looked at all the best successful creative work that has delivered an amazing ROI for brands – I noticed it comes down to all those areas of expertise -as an example; no point in having a great idea from an amazing insight but from a tech stand point of view can’t deliever – you see my point – BTW – creative and digital -separated out? -one of the same in my book -it’s a bit like saying: ‘Creative and TV’ / digital is a medium not a discipline// @kevinferry
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So… producers are what – invisible? Free? Valueless to the client?
And is digital really still a seperate department? Really guys? You seriously go to all the effort (and expense) of planning and concepting a campaign only to shoehorn digital in further down the line?
If you really think banners are mini print ads, and that your 15 sec spot is fine to shove into preroll than your ROI is leaking. And I don’t think you’ll fix it with your current rating system above.
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I read the first paragraph and felt the need to comment that this article is RIDICULOUS! WTF???
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@ DC
There would be a point in almost all human occupations, where one could step back, take a brief look at the whole concept, and say the same thing.
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Is this a parody or satire because it’s pretty funny haha.
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and Media is no longer an advertising agency department – it’s now called a Media Agency. Hello!!!
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Amateur hour Darren !
I’d like to know how Darren arrived at these scores? Is there a value equation? Did you pluck numbers out of thin air? Do you have “value norms” to lean on?
Not to mention, use of the most hackneyed term known to humankind …namely ROI !
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I really hope this is a joke. This logic is incredibly basic.
Darren let me enlighten you with this quote from Aristotle:
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
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Darren, please send some of these 9/10 media people to the agency which does my planning and buying. Because my lot are uniformly rubbish.
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Pretty much a worthless article based entirely on opinion. Granted, I agree with many of the assessment but, really? If you’re going to dig into this, and it certainly appears you are in a position to do so, then you should at least lend a modicum of scientific scrutiny to the topic.
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Kevin, the only reason for separating them is that digital still commands a premium over traditional, but I agree, it should be one in the same, so why the premium?
Footsoldier (and DCH), yes, poor, long suffer production people, the best ROI you return is to the agency, right? Underpaid, over worked, yet major contributors to agency revenue?
Marketer, if Sean Cummins, Rob Morgan et al get their way and put the toothpaste back into the tube, then it will be the media department again.
The bot, I agree, as I wrote, you cannot separate them out as all are essential, but based on the comparative average fee against the levels of investment managed, this is the result.
Client, (PLUG COMING UP) if you media agency staff are not up to scratch, then give us a call, we will find some who are for you.
Please tell me where the media planners / buyers who add 9/10 ROI are.
Because the majority I’ve worked with add very little value to a campaign at all.
To give an example, most people in the market for a new phone plan would look:
a) At a 7 by 10 press ad?
b) On a piece of street furniture, preferably an AdShel so I have the time to read the plan?
c) On a bus side?
d) On a taxi back?
e) On the TV while I’m trying to watch my favourite show?
f) At a banner ad, particularly a leaderboard or… Oooooh, a page takeover?
g) At a billboard?
h) On my coffee cup?
i) At a YouTube Pre-Roll. Digital… It’s like TV, but more annoying.
j) At a cinema ad, because that’s precisely what I look for in a cinema experience.
Or…
k) a mixture of PR-driven peer review sites, blogs and forums I’ve done some proper research on, which I was driven to through viral content from my Facebook newsfeed because, oh I dunno, that’s where most people in the market for a good phone plan are probably spending the majority of their time.
Now, I’m not saying that A to J are useless – they do help in building a brand and a story so you can go ‘hey, I like these people, they look after the little guy’ or whatever that message is.
But show me a single media company that has ever recommended a strategy they can not profit from, notably K, as their core expenditure and I will award them 4 million dollars worth of business tomorrow.
Darren, I normally respect you, but I think you’ve spent a little too long outside of the industry or might be pushing an agenda here.
We all know what media companies contribute, and it’s very, very little return on a massive investment.
If you’re still struggling, a few case studies: Doug Pitt, McDonald’s becomes Macca’s, V-Line Guilt Trips, Dumb Ways To Die and Best Job In The World.
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The Data & Analytics team delivers the highest ROI.
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That’s incredibly short-sighted thinking Darren if you think that the production dept only returns value to the agency.
The ones who craft the assets that the public sees, the ones who turn creative ideas and scamps into something tangible, the ones who add the touches that elevate a good piece of communication into a great one. Things like typography, colour management, press approvals, quality assurance, proofreading, turning around the client’s work in impossible timeframes, delivering the best service from 3rd party suppliers at the lowest cost in the shortest time… etc etc. Aren’t all of those things of value to a client?
Seems that your viewpoint is symptomatic of so many consultants (and agency managers) that I’ve known who believe that production is a cost to be controlled, not a skills in its own right that adds value to the work that agencies produce.
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Darren, I’m afraid this article makes you come across as a rank amateur.
In an attempt to garner more publicity for your business, this article doesn’t do you any favours.
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Hi Darren. I’m surprised and more than a little worried that you’ve got this so wrong.
I’ve now spent 20 years in some of the world’s leading agencies, on three continents.
Here’s my perspective.
Media buying adds almost no value. The job is so straightforward it could be done by a computer. Increasingly, it is. Of course it is essential that media is bought. But that doesn’t mean that value is added in this step. Similarly, a hospital porter is essential – patients have to be moved from the ward to the operating theatre and back again. But the porter is performing a routine, mechanical task. Not adding value. Real score: 0/10
Media strategy adds very little value. Nearly every media plan I have ever seen, is basically the same. Why clients have not rumbled this, I don’t know. The media strategists are arranging a pot of money between about five different boxes (TV, online, print, outdoor, radio). It’s really very simple. A competent high school student could do it. I can think of only 2 or 3 examples in my 20 year career in advertising where an innovative media strategy has added value. Real score: 1/10
Strategy Planner. This is a tricky one. Obviously, a great advertising strategy adds a lot of value. No question about that. Examples: Johnnie Walker strategy (“JW inspires personal progress”) has had great longevity, and added billions of dollars of sales for the brand over the last ten to twelve years. Lynx/Axe strategy (“With Lynx you get the girl”) has done the same. But who actually came up with those strategies? Well, it wasn’t the planner. I know the story in both cases. Won’t bore you with it. But it wasn’t the planner. I would estimate that the planner actually comes up with the strategy in about 1 in 3 cases. Usually it’s the creatives, sometimes the suits, sometimes the client. The rest of the time, the planner is creating decks, running research groups, post-rationalising other people’s ideas, etc. That doesn’t add much value. My score: 4/10
Account handlers. They run the process. They’re like the oil in an engine. How much value would you assign to that? I don’t know. The oil doesn’t really do anything. The engine does most of the work, the steering wheel is quite important too. They slightly fall into the ‘essential but not value-adding’ category. They’re really only there because creatives are disorganised and unprofessional, and clients prefer not to deal with them. Score: 5/10
Creatives. Almost all the value is created by the creatives. Everyone within an agency knows this. It’s an uncomfortable truth, because the creatives are the least professional and least businesslike people in an agency. Often arrogant, badly dressed, etc. But it’s their product that is being sold. It’s their product that determines whether a brand will grow, or shrink. Often the creatives come up with bad or average ideas that add no value, for sure. But whenever value IS created, it’s the creatives that have created it. It’s the creative work that has built the Lynx brand. Not the media buying. It’s the creative idea of Keep Walking, and the great executions created for it, that have built the JW brand. Score: 10/10
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Atrocious and an example of the convoluted industry we are apart of. Clients take note.
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@Mcnulty –
the role of the planner isn’t just to come up with the strategy but more importantly identify the problem the client wants the strategy/campaign to solve. More often than not the client doesn’t know the problem or has identified the wrong problem. Best summed up by a David Trott post and an Einstein quote –
“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend fifty five minutes defining the problem and five minutes working on the solution.
For once I had properly defined the problem I could easily solve it in less than five minutes.”
If you don’t crystallise what the problem is the creative will come up a great stylish ad – but will it actually work? I doubt it.
More info from If Planners Plan post –
http://davetrott.campaignlive......z3APZ69tYM
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Very true.
If planners actually did their job. Not sure if you’ve read any briefs from any agency lately, but good luck finding one that’s single-minded or one that makes sense / isn’t trying to say something without really saying it because the client doesn’t really want to say anything.
My scale: Good planners: 10/10. Good suits: 10/10. Good creatives: 9/10 – only because most of them piss off for half a day on Fridays. Good media people: 5/10. Their job could be done by anyone, really their job is to not fuck it up.
If I could count the times I’ve seen an ad aimed at mums during ice road truckers or WWE / MMA cage-fighting shows, I’d work in finance.
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