Collaborative Advertising - Get More for Less
Is it time for the advertising industry to realize its crazy? | June 14, 2009
Account executives from every media – offering everything from new insert themes, low remnant prices and the latest in digital and video, to the newest direct mail innovations, guaranteed-traffic radio events and support-your-community local cable programs – are all individually calling on small business decision makers.
How many calls can a business owner take before he doesn’t really care if it’s going to yield the highest ROI he’s ever experienced, he’s WORKING! And how many times has an advertising representative heard ‘I wish I had know about this last week, I just put my ad somewhere else!’
I really appreciate my single-source office supply distributor. I certainly wouldn’t want separate weekly calls from paper, pen, and packing supply reps, nor would I want to call several ink suppliers when I need ink for my various printer makes and models.
But, more importantly, my one-stop office supplier offers me the value of industry knowledge, relevant offers, volume pricing, and access to an extended network of partners for ancillary products and services.
Oil, beauty, health, beverage, hospitality, and countless other industries have been putting their highly competitive products in the capable hands of distributors for decades with success.
Bob Gremillion, the executive vice president for publishing at the Tribune Company, said of their recent merger of its TV stations and daily newspapers in Miami and Hartford, “We’re combining and fighting together.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/business/media/11local.html.
Do we, advertisers, consumers and sales executives alike, expect better than we are getting in this noisy media market? Is it time to recognize the craziness and join forces in a distributor model for media sales, or find other ways to combine and fight the noise together?
Account executives from every media – offering everything from new insert themes, low remnant prices and the latest in digital and video, to the newest direct mail innovations, guaranteed-traffic radio events and support-your-community local cable programs – are all individually calling on small business decision makers.
How many calls can a business owner take before he doesn’t really care if it’s going to yield the highest ROI he’s ever experienced, he’s WORKING! And how many times has an advertising representative heard ‘I wish I had know about this last week, I just put my ad somewhere else!’
I really appreciate my single-source office supply distributor. I certainly wouldn’t want separate weekly calls from paper, pen, and packing supply reps, nor would I want to call several ink suppliers when I need ink for my various printer makes and models.
But, more importantly, my one-stop office supplier offers me the value of industry knowledge, relevant offers, volume pricing, and access to an extended network of partners for ancillary products and services.
Oil, beauty, health, beverage, hospitality, and countless other industries have been putting their highly competitive products in the capable hands of distributors for decades with success.
Bob Gremillion, the executive vice president for publishing at the Tribune Company, said of their recent merger of its TV stations and daily newspapers in Miami and Hartford, “We’re combining and fighting together.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/business/media/11local.html.
Do we, advertisers, consumers and sales executives alike, expect better than we are getting in this noisy media market? Is it time to recognize the craziness and join forces in a distributor model for media sales, or find other ways to combine and fight the noise together?
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Hi,
My name is Jeff Louis, and I am an unemployed (hopefully for the “now”) Strategic Media Planner, former Brand Project Manager, & account coordinator. The only reason I says this to you (not sure who you are…but that is okay!)is that I have been in the business for almost 9 years. The 4 months freelance. I was working at an agency for 9/11, and now, just months ago. In between I worked for Kawasaki and a consultancy. ANYWAY, I do understand what you are saying…even in “better” times, having to meet and converse with representatives, their managers, the station managers, etc. took up a TON of time. Entire weeks were often wasted on meetings. So, no, I do not like that model.
However, I see it’s value. Media is not like motor oil. Costs change. Ratings change. Stations and papers, websites, and search engines are all in competition. We are watching the slow and painful death of print. Evolve, or Die. Newspapers have known since the late 1970s that circulation was declining. Then the 1980s came along, and it declined more as TV and Cable took greater footholds in our consumption patterns. Newspapers, instead of listening, went their own way. They added special “advertising sections” about weekends, cooking, summer vacations…anything BUT news. Had they listened, they would have realized that people did not want more from the paper…they wanted the paper to be EASIER. Not so bulky. Compact. We had compact disc and Watchmen TVs. And a giant paper.
Yet, I do not see how demand-side economics would work. I need an ad, I call the distributor, he tells me if they have one (they do). I need color, though not sure if spot or four color process. He asks how many inches. Hmm. A 4 x 14, that way part is above the fold. Okay he says. We decide on color. He says he’ll send me a bill….
But wait, I need to tell him where to run the ad! It’s a sale at Sears, so I want a Right Read, Page A3. Oh, on a Sunday. Hmm. He says. We are all sold out. Thank you, though. What do I do now?
TV and Radio, Out of Home, and Cable…it would all be the same. It would work, but only if we were willing to take whatever oil they had. If we wanted to “fancy-up” our oil, we would need to negotiate a deal that would probably change due to client changes. Cancellations, booking different sized ads.
I think that the theory is great, but I don’t think it will work. Especially for broadcast. The warehouse just couldn’t send me four prime-time spots…what if they didn’t target my demographic? What if the spots were not at all kid-friendly, and we ran them at seven PM when kids are up and about?
The price depends on the inventory for broadcast, as well as the rating of the show. If a highly rated show is purchased a lot, the cost goes up because there is less to purchase. Supply and Demand. How do I work that out when I tell the client that all the spots cost the same? And, how do we keep an accurate inventory in the warehouse? The costs would change, as would the ratings, some shows would bomb and never be purchased, others we would want to purchase, but not be able to…
I realize that I oversimplified this by using the warehouse as an example, but I think that it would be a mess.
You are dead on about Media changing. More than it ever has before. When the economy returns, we will be looking at a whole new animal…
Jeff
Comment by Jeff Louis — July 1, 2009 @ 3:03 am
Would media distributors need an inventory? Or, could they simply be the sales force – just as radio, television and print have now – but a single point of contact?
Just like in any distribution industry, if there is a volume or special need, the supplier can still be contacted directly. What is eliminated in a distribtor system is not the ability to buy the product the way you want to buy it, but the disruption of regular business that happens when sales representatives only have their product to sell, and therefore must have regular contact with every potential user – separately.
Businesses who can afford ad agencies wouldn’t need a change – their agency already does what a small business advertising distributor would do. Sales calls are simply referred to their agency.
Prices and inventory would continually change, but greater purchasing power and a single point of contact with each media (producer) would give advertisers a better buying position.
In the scenario above, you need an ad. Now, you call the media representative, who is one of ten for the paper. You let your representative know what you need and they check with current orders to see if your 4 x 14 ad can be placed right on p 3. If another rep has sold that particular space, they get back to you and try again.
A distributor would have the same information and availablity. Media producer sales representatives would become distributor representatives, rather than being in the field, and would assist them with pricing and ‘inventory’.
Deals would be negotiated for your complete media needs with one representative, who would be in touch with changing ratings, prices and inventory through one point of contact at each media outlet.
Most importantly, this is a potential solution for the 25 million+ small businesses with budgets of 10,000 or less, not the Sears, Fords, and Coca Colas of the industry.
And, papers are certainly more compact now! : )
Comment by AssociAD — July 1, 2009 @ 2:28 pm