Claims live streaming their work could increase media agency transparency with clients
Adam Ferrier
Live streaming between media agencies and clients could increase transparency in an industry “that badly needs it”, according to a leading consumer psychologist.
Adam Ferrier, global chief strategy officer at Cummins & Partners, said becoming totally open about the daily workings of the agencies could build better relationships with the brands who are paying for their services.
Transparency in dealing with media agencies has become an increasing issue for marketers in recent years.
The idea was sparked in a conversation following the keynote presentation at the Marketing Science Ideas Exchange (MSIX) conference in Sydney from Michael Norton, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, who said customers have a higher opinion of businesses that provide a level of transparency which actually shows them working.
Ferrier said: “Imagine taking the process of transparency and adding value.
“If media agencies were brave enough to put live streams and cameras up in their offices, clients could see the people at the agency working for them.
“It would reduce the guess work and wondering around what the media agency was doing for their money and increase transparency in an industry that badly needs it.”
Michael Norton
Norton’s keynote speech at MISX 2015 covered how people can build brands through transparency.
He said the key element was not just businesses showing their honesty through a communications effort, it was a case of businesses actually visualising their work to customers.
“Seeing people work is psychologically powerful,” he said.
“People who use websites that show their search process tend to think ‘the algorithm is working harder for me’, even if the results are the same.
“People are prepared to wait if they have the visualisation of the work being done.”
One example he gave was the Dominos Pizza Tracker app, where people can see what stage their pizza is at in the making process and how long it will be.
Recently Dominos launched its GPS Driver Tracker in Australia, allowing people to follow their pizza on its journey to their home during deliveries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pk_2LXbVm0
Kevin Bradford
This is ridiculous – watching a bunch of 20 something’s working on PCs won’t prove anything other than mistrust. You would end up with lots of staged activities to prove what? Total Bollocks!
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“Seeing people work is psychologically powerful,” he said.
NOT seeing people work is also psychologically powerful…Probably more so.
While I get the point of the article- agencies need to be transparent blah blah blah, a thing called trust trumps big-brothering people any day.
Trust is psychologically powerful for both parties.
Having big brother watching you creates an uncomfortable & uneven relationship… Powerful for one, demeaning for the other.
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Joke?
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Brilliant.
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Having worked extensively in both creative and media agencies, in distant and recent times for both, I can safely say it is creative agencies that clients would be most concerned about regarding what they see and hear. By far.
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Half baked concept tending towards nothing to hide no need to worry logic. Great for voyeur clients looking for a perv, though.
Suggest Adam be the first one ‘brave’ enough to fix a camera in his office and an egg timer on his bathroom.
A platform like Trello could assist with transparency without dredging the issues of nonstop surveillance.
Or you could just gain the trust of the client by being effective.
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This is awesome. You do realise that someone client-side has to actually sit there and watch the stream, don’t you? I’m perfectly qualified to do that job. As I write this I am watching an entire office of 100+ people pretend that they are working as they count down the seconds until 5 o’clock. Imagine getting paid to do that…
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Good luck with your staff retention
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This was an off the cuff comment made at the conference after the incredibly insightful presentation on transparency by Michael Norton on transparency.
Transparency = value as the customer can see effort on their behalf. Have a read of the work. It’s excellent. My off the cuff thought may not be.
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I remember once quoting a client my hourly rate and looked at me and said; ‘Son, if you tell someone your hourly rate, they’re going to fixate on how expensive you are. Just tell them the total cost.’
The argument against transparency is the ‘Abattoir Effect’. Do we really want to see how the meat is getting to our plates. I think the Domino’s Tracking App is a great idea, but it reminds me of a (perhaps apocryphal) story about Edward de Bono:
A business was having trouble with their elevators which were too slow and they asked de Bono how they might fix the problem. ‘Put mirrors in the elevator’ he suggested ‘and the occupants will be distracted by their own reflection and not notice how slow they are travelling.’
The Domino’s app is a superb distraction in the guise of transparency.
Can you point me to Michael’s paper, please?
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Hasn’t this been done? The egg farm cam…I trust those chooks.
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Very nice Adam. The circle is almost complete…
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But who at the client’s office is going to sit back until 10pm to monitor the team?
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What do media agencies do anyway? Useless
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Here’s an idea:
– How about clients pay for the staff they need to service their accounts,
– agencies employ said staff to match promised retainer,
– staff / agencies focus on delivering on clients KPIs, rather than searching for other ways to be financially viable (when retainers don’t even cover the cost of staffing, let alone any profit).
Likely results:
– agency staff engaged in clients business and deliver on their KPIs
– we stop burning out good people who end up leaving the industry
– clients become happy with the good work agencies perform on their account – that incidentally delivers to the bottom line
– clients / agency relationship becomes valued not commoditised
– pitch frenzy slows down and we all start focusing on what really matters….delivering for clients!
The only reason we have transparency issues is because we have stopped putting a value on the service we offer. The sooner the race to the bottom stops, the sooner we actually stop killing our industry.
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Great. Another way for clients to discredit and devalue what agencies do. Surely this is a joke.
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