Changing The Production Line

In the UK many, many years ago, you could only get a telephone from British Telecom, the government-owned telco company. As a result everybody had the same phone. It was black, large, had a rotating dial, and very sturdy. It was great - whenever you went to a friend's house they had exactly the same phone! Now you can get the odd one in antique shops and your friends think you're very retro.

The company manufacturing these phones had a great production line, churning out the same product every day. They were very efficient and the workers were content as they knew exactly what they had to do, and could do the same thing everyday.

Then something changed. Someone wanted it in a different colour, with different functions, then someone wanted it to be cordless, then digital and then shaped like Mickey Mouse - the list was endless.

No way could the company deliver all these different products with the same production line, the same skill set, and the same philosophy. Which brings me to the fact that media companies need to fundamentally change their production line to deliver the product that advertisers want.

We can talk for hours about the changing media landscape, the decline of traditional media, the rise of digital, blogging and other such luminary things. Indeed I am sure we have been to many presentations that dramatically accentuate these points.

All of us, as agencies, marketers, media owners and advertisers accept this changing landscape, but most of us fail to change the way we work. Take the traditional media agency. Has it really changed its production line to meet these changing times and advertisers' needs? Can it really provide more than planning and buying of media? The answer is no.

There are three areas where a media agency needs to change the production line in order to deliver in these changing times.

First, the financial reward. Any business needs to provide a service of value to the customers. If the media agency is dependent on income generated by placing adverts in paid media, ultimately this value to the advertiser will continue to diminish.

Second, the capability of the media agency. Most agencies are staffed by the same people with the same skill sets as they have been for the past 10 years. The agency will occasionally add an ‘extra unit' here and there, such as digital, hoping to plug a gap, but the vast majority of employees are excellent at producing excel spreadsheets (the product), but do not have the experience, nor the training, to work in this new environment.

The third area, and by far the most difficult, if not impossible area to fix, is culture. Why change what you are doing? Why learn something new? Or try something different? It's far easier to keep the production line going and deliver the same product. This culture is very difficult to fix and greatly inhibits the ability to change.

Having identified three issues (and I am sure there are many more) at first glance they are easy to fix. Looking at look at the first one, get clients to remunerate on a fee and not on a commission. This is the traditional moan of the media agency. If you Mr Advertiser paid us on a fee we would do better. But they won't. You need to change your product to match the needs of the advertiser - you must be consumer focused, ideas based and strategic in your planning at all levels.

Business is generally good and the economy is expanding. Now is the time to invest in talent and training. A whole new skill set is desperately needed to match advertisers needs. Media agencies must be more confidant in their recruitment and take people with different skills set.

As for changing culture - good luck! It takes a long time and a singular belief. There is no written rules in developing this, but your commitment at the top is of fundamental importance.

We live in interesting and changing times where things are constantly evolving. We all need to look at our own production lines to ensure that we aren't making a product that no one wants. A product that ultimately becomes worthless.

Chris Skinner, managing partner, Initiative