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Mumbrella360 video: The Great Convergence

As part of our recap of the highlights from Mumbrella360, Mumbrella editor Alex Hayes quizzes a panel of industry leaders on the agency turf war which is emerging in the industry.

the great convergence panel

The panel comprises then Droga5 and now With Collective ECD Steve Coll; Host and One Green Bean founder Anthony Freedman; ex-DDB Sydney head of social Karalee Evans; chief operating officer Edelman Matt Gain; Mat Baxter, then CEO of UM and new global head of strategy of UM.

It was Moderated by Mumbrella editor Alex Hayes

During the session Baxter calls on clients to better delegate roles to their panel of agencies or risk causing a “complete shitfight”.

Gain defended the role of PR specialists saying: “The one thing I think will stop people from buying PR ideas from a media agency are the PR managers in house, because they always think through what’s the worst possible scenario that can play out, but that’s something people who don’t come from a PR mindset are going to struggle with, and it will take a long time before a business function which is inherantly conservative takes that on”.

Coll was open to the idea of more people taking on the creative duties on rosters. He said: “The best collaboration and the best roster agencies work within a really clearly defined setup that the clients has set from the beginning. If that allows the best idea to come to the fore, no matter who it’s from, competition around that is good for everyone.”

Freedman also urged more people to take responsibility for creative thinking: “Going back some time, in an ad agency – an idea coming from someone other than the creative team was not necessarily very welcomed. It was a sort of thing that showed a disrespect for the upper echelon of the pecking order of agency.

“So you end up with a bunch of people who think their role is not to add to any creative thinking whatsoever – that it’s to carry the bag, pay the taxi, pick up the bar tag or whatever – they post-rationalise the idea. I think that’s a very damaging thing.”

While Evans said we need to start getting past the terms “paid, owned and earned” as all media is now paid in some way.

Mumbrella’s SAGE event next Thursday, November 19, will look at the relationships between agencies and marketers, and how they can work together better. For more details click here.

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