Agencies took to the stage to tell their side of the online advertising story during yesterday’s OMMA Publish conference in New York City.
Moderated by Break Media’s Andrew Budkofsky, the panelists included Jonathan Chin from MediaVest, Erin Matts from OMD, Kristine Munsen from Universal McCann, Donnie Williams at Horizon Media and Havas Digital’s Ed Montes.
During the Q&A portion of the session, an audience member from an ad network suggested that agencies are having trouble communicating with their partners by not returning phone calls, providing feedback, etc. He wondered aloud if this was due to planners and buyers being overwhelmed or if it was a training issue that agencies should tackle.
Havas’ Montes quickly went on the offensive:
There probably is a lack of training and as a group we have invested a lot of money and training on both a platform basis, people basis and what not. I think that there’s a generational issue too – I don’t know how old you are, but it’s pretty well documented that there’s a different attitude among millenials as far as how an X or boomer would work.
I’d say the last thing is I actually think your organizations are doing a poor job of building relationships if people aren’t getting back to them. At the end of the day it’s a relationship-based business and people who are successful that I can see when I see what publishers are doing well in my portfolio of business, I’m sometimes surprised that it’s not the larger publishers, the bigger brands.
When you dig deep into that it’s because a particular salesperson or sales group has done a very good job of building a relationship with those day-to-day people and I think that goes a long way.
Take a step back and think of the perspective of an assistant buyer or buyer, they’re probably underpaid, they’re probably overworked and you’re harassing them. Think of it from that perspective. I’m not disputing training needs to improve at the agency level. I agree with you on that. But, it’s not always them. Think of their day-to-day demands and think of where they are from a lifestyle standpoint.
Millenial attitudes or overworked buyers? Please feel free to comment.
