There’s no need to resent media auditors – but we shouldn’t make decisions just to get good audit results
I
t’s time for agency staff to stop resenting media auditors – so long as they don’t start building media schedules just to score good audit results, argues MEC’s Philippa Gould.
I’ve come a long way from my first TV audit experience when two months into my first ever full-time role as a media assistant, I sat in a room watching my account director and auditors yell at each other across the table over a $59 off-peak spot in Brisbane. I walked out petrified, confident I never wanted to be a media buyer.
Eight years later, having always worked on clients that are externally audited, I can honestly say that the word ‘benchmarking’ no longer makes my tummy churn.
Working at MEC for the best part of a decade, I’ve learnt a few tips and tricks from the auditors my clients employ. Yes, my first result was pretty average, but with time, many audits later, some very detailed digging, lots of constructive criticism and some tears, I’ve learnt a lot about how my decisions affect my agency’s results and, in turn, how those results impact the success of our clients’ business. My audit results have helped me get to where I am now.
Clients who rely on auditing to tell them whether their agency is buying well or not, tend to put that investment into channels that are audited. Far easier to show the Board benchmarked buying figures from an audit than educate them on the longer tail strategy of engagement or the increased loyalty benefits of brand experience. As a result there are a lot of big marketers out there being stymied from taking risks or embrace new strategic thinking because the auditors have successfully set up buying ‘rules’ that they dare not deviate from (and not coincidentally, protect the auditor’s business model).
Achieving your KPIs is great….unless your KPIs are fatally flawed. TV spots, TV ratings and TV CPMs are not worthwhile objectives for measurement of accountability. Business results are.
I completely agree, and would like to take this opportunity to personally thank the parking rangers of North Sydney Council for their role in actively helping me to understand the need for my coffee and bagel to be prepared faster.
Agree with Ricki & Philippa and I do believe that auditors play an important role in the industry, but the negativity that surrounds their role is largely perpetuated by the auditors themselves.
The agency/auditor dynamic has changed a lot, but the reason agencies and media owners cringe when they hear “Faulkner” is because of negative past experiences.
We all have nightmare audit stories – from arguing over a $59 spot, to getting to a point where you hit all of your KPI’s so a new KPI/benchmark is invented without warning, auditors slamming STV & then not understanding balanced reach Vs incremental reach or the value that higher income households deliver a business and auditors trying to present media strategy in the audit meeting.
The negative perceptions exist because of the negative actions of individuals and ironically the lack of transparency that is demanded of the auditors.
The only solution that I’ve found to work is, to Philippa’s point, communication – including preparing your own “audit” of activity, aligning to the strategy and business results.