Advertisers and agencies are demanding for a chief media officer role

Advertisers and agencies are convinced that the appointment of a chief media officer will enhance advertisers’ media knowledge and capabilities.

According to a new report from ID Comms titled “The 2022 Global Media Training Report”, there is a rise in respondents who want large advertisers to enhance their media management capabilities. Respondents pointed to both the importance of media and the increasing complexity of the space as key reasons why the presence of a chief media officer can provide such an improvement.

ID Comms' said that advertisers with a CMO (either with or without the job title) are far more likely to hold media to higher levels of accountability by raising internal media capabilities within marketing teams. The lack of a chief media officer in many companies however, means that respondents highlighted clear concerns with advertiser media capabilities, with 79% rating their ability to ‘make media more accountable’ as unsatisfactory.

Many of the responses, however, reflected a long-standing tale of a failure to upgrade investment in training despite unanimous agreement that investing in media training programmes can improve media decision making and deliver better business outcomes for advertisers. Around 85% of media and marketing professionals – though only 50% of advertiser procurement respondents – considered investment levels to be unsatisfactory and expressed clear concerns with current levels of investment in media capability building, both within their own organisation and across the industry as a whole.

In line with previous surveys in both 2019 and 2016, the main reason identified for under-investment in media capability building was lack of budget, followed by an inability to find the right training opportunities and commit time to media training.

Lack of specialist media understanding was highlighted as the main driver for poor performance and an inability to hold media to account. Respondents highlighted that “more work needs to be done around what the intended outcome is for different channels / tactics with different role”, citing an over-reliance on ROI as the sole measure of success.

“Whilst it is encouraging to see that advertisers are increasingly recognising the value of a chief media officer, provision of media training within most organisations remains unsatisfactory, despite unanimous agreement that it can deliver competitive advantage. This represents a clear opportunity for progressive advertisers to invest in robust media capability building programmes and boost the accountability of media as a significant driver of business growth,” said Matt Gill, senior consultant at ID Comms.

That comment reflects the fact that training in KPI setting is cited as the media training most likely to help resolve gaps in advertiser capability, cited by 57% of respondents. Media ROI (46%) and briefing and evaluating agency work (46%) also remain important areas for capability building.

The fastest-growing area of training is the demand for addressing capability gaps in adtech and martech (42% in 2022 versus 26% in 2019). Amongst advertiser respondents this was considered as the most important focus area for capability building.

Advertiser respondents also highlighted a need for training in how media agencies work, whilst 50% of agency respondents highlighted a need for improved advertiser capabilities in running media pitches, indicating dissatisfaction with existing practices.

The findings are based on 45 responses from media, marketing, and procurement professionals with a range of global, regional and local market responsibilities. Advertiser respondents have a combined annual global media investment in excess of US$10bn and include representatives from FMCG / CPG, retail, pharmaceutical, food and drink, entertainment, automotive, luxury, finance, energy and telecommunications. 

Photo courtesy: Shutterstock

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