Bigger media buying savings are obtained by advertisers with an
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in-house media resource to manage their media agencies.
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We are here to deliver the same for advertisers who do
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not have the in-house resource and expertise.
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In the past year we have saved our advertiser clients over £7 million
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and enabled them to achieve improved value for money. Our clients
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include Barratt Homes, British Gas and BT.
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Contact us to find out where you should be making savings.
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The key to our success lies in our experience; our ability to audit and benchmark
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buying performances accurately; our knowledge of how the commercial side
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of media agencies works; and our insights into the data that delivers media
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effectiveness.
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Owner Paul Longhurst has over 20 years experience working at some of the
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biggest and finest media agencies. He knows what drives revenues for media
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agencies and how a client can improve its terms with its media agency.
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Longhurst Communications sets realistic planning and buying goals for the media
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agency and evaluates performance, only against data that has proven value and
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integrity. We strip out jargon and concentrate on improving an advertiser’s media
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business performance. We are dedicated to delivering transparent relationships
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between our clients and their media agencies.
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We tailor-make our solutions for our clients. Not all advertisers need the same.
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We only provide services that can genuinely deliver real beneficial change.
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Our first job is to operate as media consultants, performing a thorough
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‘health-check’. An advertiser can be unsure about whether its media agency is
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delivering the best rates and quality of planning in the market. Sometimes mere
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reassurance that they are getting what they pay for is what is needed. Much is
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made of enhancing media and marketing communications effectiveness, which
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whilst important, is not really the job of the media consultant. Most media
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agencies are quite capable of delivering communications strategies which
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enhance the effectiveness of media and marketing communications. The
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bigger agencies have invested massively in media research and work with
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advertisers in a genuine mutually beneficial partnership to connect research,
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insight and strategic thinking to the final planning of campaigns. This is where
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the agency is providing a one stop shop - the talent and the tools to do the job.
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The value of what Longhurst Communications provides lies in helping to make
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sure that exactly this kind of relationship exists and functions on a highly
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accountable basis. We increasingly work with procurement departments to set
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benchmarks upon which this can be judged and we provide insight into market
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‘norm’ data that often hides exact performance (because market ‘norms’ tend
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to be averages and averages can hide a whole host of useful information).
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The big issue in today’s market is the disconnect that often occurs when a great
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strategy reaches the media buying department. Media buyers are driven by
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price performance and quality measures that encourage the buyer to place the
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advertising with the media owner that offers the best price and quality within its
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own media vehicles. Those media vehicles may not warrant the level of
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investment from a particular advertiser. However in a media buying review this
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will look good - the more money behind the cheaper deals, the better the bottom
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line and the perceived cost performance. Part of our job is to ensure that
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specific checks and balances are in place to prevent this from happening.
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Unfortunately conventional media auditors encourage a price-driven approach
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with outmoded benchmarks. Conventional media auditors talk about
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effectiveness, research evaluation and auditing in the same way they did a
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decade ago. The media marketplace, though, has change beyond recognition.
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It is quite clear that media evaluation and auditing needs to stop relying on
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out-dated habitual practice, move with the times, and be managed in a new,
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modern and fresh way. Media consultancy needs to be more focussed on
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uncovering hidden factors that can mislead advertisers. Media evaluation and
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auditing should only occur once the media consultant fully understands the
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advertisers relationship with its agency, only then can effective media
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benchmarking and accurate media auditing can take place.
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Equally, media agency reviews should only happen if the agency has failed to
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deliver against a real understanding of exactly what the advertiser has been
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asking for. There is sometimes an arrogance at the media agency where the
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team know more about media (obviously) than most advertisers and feel that the
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client should accept what they feel is best. An advertiser can become very
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frustrated because he or she is trying to make a point and the agency wants to
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keep presenting media statistics which make no business sense to the advertiser.
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This is another disconnect and can lead to an agency review and a media pitch.
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With the right understanding the media pitch could probably have been avoided.
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When we are asked to manage a media pitch, we see our most important task as
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establishing whether or not a pitch is really necessary to create the desired
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changes. There should be no doubt that the media pitch process takes a huge
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amount of time out of a marketer’s diary.
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The rapidly changing and transforming media market over the past ten years has
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unfortunately led media agencies to operate in ways, where in too many cases,
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an unhealthy level of distrust now exists between the client and agency. This
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fuels media pitches, during which it is now the norm for competing agencies to
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over-promise. We know that there is a new role for a media management
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company to help build stronger relationships between agency and client based
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on new ways of working (with the added bonus of reducing the workload for the
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client).
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Longhurst Communications stands against outmoded and expensive forms of
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media auditing. We have a unique position in the marketplace, whereby we offer
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highly experienced capability to deliver greater savings, at the same time as
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bringing intelligent and modern analysis into play.
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