Comments on: A Mess Of Our Own Making

By: Gerry MILLER

Gerry MILLER — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 11:41:28 +0000

Excellent and unlike the business you describe, abundantly clear.
A major loss of the digital age is the focus on the quality, and therefore efficacy, of the message, now buried and forgotten under the avalanche of numbers. A commercial from memory dramatizes this. A woman proudly annoounces how much she’s saved by buying a big jar of generic instant coffee. Her husband, tasting it, asks worriedly: “How big…?”

By: Jose Jordao

Jose Jordao — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 18:46:39 +0000

I agree with Jeffrey.
I’ve sent it to my media agency!

By: Chris Carmichael

Chris Carmichael — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 11:11:28 +0000

Agree , another great piece. And agree with the comment that there’s a storm coming.
The imminent ANA report may well herald the next phase, but in truth it’s an ongoing process, and the media agencies are the authors of their own destiny. Everything they despise is there because of their behaviours: media auditors; client procurement; the increase in media vendor-client direct relationships; the rise of small independents like BJ&A, IDComms and all the others; and the fact that the Big 4 auditors are about to wade in and start eating everybody’s lunch… It all happens because clients are seeking impartial, honest, independent advice. Truth & Transparency…

By: Beverly Barker

Beverly Barker — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 10:24:26 +0000

‘processes were so complicated, and so opaque that few outside the digital magic circle tried to understand, and those that did were easily bamboozled’ So true, so worrying,
Great post Brian

By: Julian Smallwood

Julian Smallwood — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 09:31:53 +0000

Another great one Brian – and another copy line to steal “Out of confusion comes margin indeed.”

By: Mike Sommers

Mike Sommers — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 20:58:51 +0000

To answer Chuck Southworth– if the “analytics” in baseball were as imaginary and as much based on coincidence rather than causation as they are in digital marketing analysis, then they wouldn’t have any credibility there either.
Great post Brian.

By: Chuck Southworth

Chuck Southworth — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 19:54:35 +0000

Why is it we can use analytics on everything from baseball to elections yet we continue to use guesstimates on media???

By: Jeffrey merrihue

Jeffrey merrihue — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 19:48:07 +0000

Woah. Epic. The best Cog Blog ever written. I will distribute this….

By: Richard Bedwell

Richard Bedwell — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 16:32:00 +0000

I can’t help but agree with Steve De Saulles. If advertisers agree to go with media which ‘demonstrably doesn’t work’ then they do indeed get what they deserve. Presumably alternatives (i.e. ones that do work) are sufficiently more expensive in terms of upfront cost that no one has the guts to recommend them let alone agree to those recommendations. Of course if your budget only has tuppence in it in the first place then you don’t give yourself many options.
Agree also – great piece. Up to or beyond usual standards. Well worth the money!

By: Steve De Saulles

Steve De Saulles — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 14:33:24 +0000

I contend that advertisers get the suppliers they deserve and whatever the complexity of the ‘science & numbers’ they have to be on top of it via one source or another. But also, where has all the great creativity gone? Excellent piece, Brian.

By: Steve Grubbs

Steve Grubbs — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 12:00:05 +0000

“Science and numbers met art and beauty and science and numbers won.” So true. We accept the science and numbers as gospel, and they most definitely are not.
Your observations on the travails of the media agencies are spot on and there’s a storm ‘a comin’

By: Tim C

Tim C — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 11:44:44 +0000

Dark Brian, dark!