Services

Media Agency Strategy

Advertisers need to make strategic decisions about how their brand message will be delivered to their consumers and which 3rd parties (if any) will facilitate it. The outcome needs to enable the best media planning capability and competitive pricing, while minimizing risk exposures and overdependence on the agencies.

Whether direct / in-house, single agency or multiple agencies model, right strategy needs to be based on understanding the industry dynamics, the players and one’s own position in the media environment. It also needs to secure right controls for a long-term value retention.

Our team will assist you in the comprehensive assessment of your strength and improvement areas, point out the opportunities and external threats resulting from the current media industry context to design the fit-for-purpose category strategy.

We can also assist advertisers evaluate all the pros and con’s of in-housing of certain media activities from the internal structure, capabilities, resources and long-term sustainability of the future model.

Agency Selection and Pitch Management Process

When the strategy is set, right selection process needs to be in place to ensure the optimal setup, with the right contractual conditions, incentives and controls. If done right, a pitch can elevate media delivery to new heights of effectiveness and efficiency. When done poorly, it will lock in an imbalanced relationship which will either quickly end (another pitch) or will continue to under-perform.

We will guide and assist you in designing the right RFI and RFP process, along with all the required elements: agency’s scope of work, briefs, commercial templates, pitch cases and exercises, internal and external communication as well as the key contract clauses. We will also map the resources needed, best commercial setup as well as award and decision-making criteria that ensure full internal alignment and speed of the process.

The entire project will be managed alongside the client steering committee to deliver the outcomes consistent with the media agency strategy. We will also help you maximize your value and negotiation leverage, so that your commercial agreement protects the advantages obtained during the competitive process.

Media Governance

Governing of the existing relationship with media agencies and vendors ensures control over cost, quality and ultimately the value an advertiser is getting from its media. It starts with the definition of the ways of working between advertiser’s different departments and the agencies. The right process will define and set sensible strategic objectives related to media, nurture a working relationship between advertiser and agency and allow advertisers to measure and be in control of their media value equation.

Actual media pricing, additional agency and 3rd party costs, quality parameters and adherence to the approved media strategy should all be in line with the agency’s contractual commitments and guidelines. Any deviations from these should be detected early to enable course-correction.

Moreover, the agency should be held accountable to deliver the service and resources required to fulfil the scope of works – something that becomes more and more difficult, as the agencies focus on their P&L and struggle to get and fully utilize the best talent.

Right financial controls ensure that the advertiser is getting all the value due. Part of financial stewardship is the verification of the existing Purchase-To-Payment process (P2P). With numerous campaigns, media types, vendors and KPI’s (all aggregated by the media agencies), media spend is prone to errors or abuses, both of which should be checked against. 4-way match (approved plan and order- actual media delivered – agency invoice – media vendor invoice), P2P adherence and unbilled media are among the verification points.

Finally, the service performance should be properly and objectively evaluated in the agency appraisal process, where the performance-related fee will be calculated based on all the relevant KPI’s and deliverables. These will also be a foundation of learnings and action plan to be acted upon for continuous improvement.

Following service areas are offered by Progmatic to give you control over your media spend:

– Forensic media audit: verification of cost commitment delivery and quality KPI’s;

– Media plan pre-check:  verification for potential cost commitment discrepancies prior to media plan approval;

– Scope of Works (SoW) and contract delivery assessment: a comprehensive verification if all elements of the contract / SoW have been delivered as per agreement;

– SoW and contract negotiations: commercial support of the client throughout the negotiation process, from preparation of the negotiation plan and leverage assessment, through negotiation tactics, trade-off options, to deal quantification and summary;

– (360°) agency evaluation: management of the agency evaluation process in line with the contract conditions, with agency’s feedback (if desired / part of the contract);

– Performance Related Fee reconciliation;

– Price verification: validation of the invoice sample against the match with approved orders and contracted prices;

– Unbilled media tracking: tracking and reconciliation of the media delivered, but not invoiced by the media owner to the media agency.

Media Best Practice Academy

Building on our extensive experience in the field of media governance and procurement practices, we offer advertisers media-specific training.

It helps advertisers (their marketing, procurement and controlling teams) to understand the specificity of the industry, its dynamics, paradoxes, interdependencies, risks and pitfalls. It will enable advertisers to have a realistic view of the media relationships and will link the knowledge with the various governance process steps. This will result in the best stewardship practices that protect advertiser’s media-related value.