Not a news flash: Media agencies are under immense pressure.
That was true long before the pandemic. But agencies have also made big investments in data and technology over the last few years that are starting to bear fruit.
This week on The Big Story, special guest Jay Pattisall, a principal analyst at Forrester, calls in to dish about Forrester’s most recent wave examining which media agencies are at the top and why.
The agencies that did best had the most centralized offerings, meaning they’ve got their own tools – and they actually know how to use them.
UM, for example, placed first largely because of its data services division, Kinesso, built from the Acxiom acquisition. WPP, on the other hand, was considered a strong performer in the wave but got dinged for its decentralized approach of working with many different platforms.
“Clients are really confused about what agencies do at times, what they offer and what they’re capable of with respect to data and technology,” Pattisall says. “A set of clearly understood and identified tools helps not only clear up some of that confusion with clients, but also helps streamline and simplify the engagement.”
Also in this episode: Think you know what a gamer is? Think again.
The gaming audience is huge – 2.6 million people will play a mobile game this year – and marketers are finally starting to disabuse themselves of the stereotypes that were holding them back from putting dollars into the category.
Why? People have never spent more time in virtual worlds, including audiences that are hard to reach on TV, especially with live sports on ice. The lockdowns have only accelerated the trend.
