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WFA President addresses global media agency heads at Venice Festival of Media
Date: 30/04/2008
WFA President Bernhard Glock has addressed delegates at the recent Venice Festival of Media, outlining the work WFA is doing to help global marketers optimise their marketing communications and lead industry initiatives to promote the positive role and value of advertising within society. Berhard Glock (Global Head of Media, P&G) looked at the role media agencies play, stressing that they add the most value when they are sitting at the strategy table as partners with unique expertise to offer.
WFA supports the Festival of Media and was a strategic partner in providing content for client focused sessions within the 3-day event. With more than 800 delegates attending and with the conference debate covering diverse topics ranging from media procurement to gaming, the Venice event proved its relevance to an audience of global media decision makers.
A predominant theme running through the presentations and panel discussions was that in today's advertising marketplace, there is no end to the competition for two roles the media agency is vying for: the seat at the right hand of the marketing team, directing its advertising spending, and the role of content creator (or "content jockeys," as Universal McCann CEO Nick Brien put it), managing the endless geyser of content big brands let loose today.
One high point was a series of panels of media-agency CEOs which offered a rare chance to see the people who control a massive part of the world's media spending on one stage, and it was a clear framing of the challenges facing media shops by the people who run them.
A major continuing challenge is the deep involvement of procurement executives in marketing processes putting downward pressure on the profitability of agencies of all kinds.
Just about everyone agrees the media world is increasingly confusing and requires smart strategists to navigate it. We also know that brands have never been so important to the C-suite. Yet the threat of agency commoditization looms as large as ever. While procurement is often the whipping boy in these situations, one agency CEO argued that they can't be blamed if media agencies don't continue their ascent. "More than any other time in the last 20 years, our destiny is in our hands," said Steve King, worldwide CEO of ZenithOptimedia.
Source: WFA Staff, with additional content from Advertising Age
For more information on the event and to download presentations please visit www.venice-festival-of-media.com
