WPP and Group M’s Irwin Gotlieb on Media Buying and the Media Exchange Model
The AAAA (American Association of Advertising Agencies) conference kicks off today, the largest annual confab of Madison Avenue women and men. To set the AAAAs stage for some of the issues, Omnicom, WPP, Interpublic and Publicis and their agencies are dealing with, The Wall Street Journal is carrying a Q&A with Irwin Gotlieb, CEO of Group M, the unit of WPP Group that oversees various agencies including Beyond Interactive, Mindshare and Mediaedge:CIA.
Gotlieb oversees $40 billion in global media spend
On the eBay Media Marketplace and the exchange model, he pushes relevancy of the model down to bulk commodity items:
“…we are a business where personal relationships have real impact. Trust and reputation have a lot to do with these transactions.”
“Still, if I have to buy 100 spots in 150 of the smallest markets in the U.S. and it’s just a volume thing, would I like an exchange to facilitate? Of course…”
For Gotlieb, it sounds like there is only room in back of the bus. Let’s not forget there are plenty of ways to introduce trust and reputation into automated web based models—just look at LinkedIn or user reviews on Amazon.com or eBay seller ratings—these models are fast evolving because Web operators realize the importance of trust and reputation in facilitating transactions. There is no reason why these same techniques cannot be used in the media exchange model to take it a bit further than the back of the bus.
More from Gotlieb on the exchange model:
“Frankly, I have no interest in playing on a level playing field.”
If you control $40 billion, I would certainly think there is the exchange media equivalent of “market maker” and “block trades” that continues to provide advantage to the big players in the market and that opening the media market to the smaller Long Tail players should be a tide that allows all boats to rise.
Still not sure about the exchange model? Like Gotlieb quotes Sir Martin Sorrell on another issue at the end of the WSJ piece, “the toothpaste is out of the tube and we can’t put it back.”
-- Jay Sears
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