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‘Golden time’ ahead for media agencies

Media agencies are entering a “golden time”, Mitchell Communication Group’s director of digital John Murray told yesterday’s NineMSN summit.

Speaking to around 650 industry people at the Sydney event, Murray said that agencies will find themselves working in a new way, and with different media outlets.

He said: “The big changes are about to come. We are moving to a point where we need to work with amateur content creators . The biggest challenge for us is going to be how to negotiate that space.”  

He later added: “It’s a golden time for agencies. There’s never been a better time to work as a media agency.”

And he called for a move away from negotiations based on price alone. He said: “My hope is that in the years to come we concentrate on the value coming out rather than the price going in.”

Fellow panellist Richard Dunmall, Microsoft’s advertising sales boss for Greater Asia Pacific and Americas, said: “Whatever we we look at it, there’s a remodelling about to happen.”

And he warned that the rapid growth of the size of the internet means that the media model of charging for advertising based on scarcity does not work. He said: “The supply of inventory will forever more than outweigh demand.”

However, Tony Faure, a former boss of Nine MSN and board member of online site Business Spectator, said: “That’s only true in aggregate. Demand for specialist audiences outstrips supply.”

And he predicted: “The future of a media agency is not to be a media agency. An awful lot of media buying can be done by  technology.”

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