Look beyond the long lunch: Building long-term partnerships that last
Long-lunches, junkets and hospitality have been the lifeblood of the publisher/agency relationship for decades. But the changing nature of the industry means we need to look at more effective ways to build genuine connections together, argues Maddie Basso, head of Yahoo DSP, Australia.
This is the piece the hatted restaurant industrial complex doesn’t want you to read.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that over the decades billions of dollars of business in the advertising industry have been done over the lunch table. Places like Macchiavelli and Vue de Monde have been de facto offices for the powerbrokers in our industry.
Some sales people are so much a part of the furniture they have a regular table, standard order – and a sommelier who remembers their name and affinity for a full bodied Cabernet.
Good article Maddie.
As someone who has been both in and out of the advertising industry, I can confirm that advertising / media (and potentially recruitment) are the last sales industries where the old school long lunch hold some influence over sales.
Every other sales discipline requires you to prove value, ROI, etc to the buyer before they will part with a dollar.
This factor also inadvertently cripples an ad/media sales person’s skills when / if they try to leave the industry, as they quickly realise nobody wants to catch up for a coffee or drink, just because your fun and known around the traps.
Altruistic Gen Z will end up scrubbing this practice out in any case.