“It’s an unfair game.”
In Moneyball, the movie based on Michael Lewis’ best selling book, Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) declares:
“It’s an unfair game. If we try to play like the Yankees in here, we’ll lose to the Yankees out there.”
Of course, Billy Beane is talking about how the Athletics, with one of the smallest payrolls in baseball, couldn’t compete with the Yankees by paying for expensive free agent players. They simply couldn’t afford it. They needed a new and different strategy.
The marketing services space – the world of agencies – faces such a moment today.
In a very sound recent analysis by Forrester’s Jay Pattisall, there are earth shaking predictions:
First, and most critical: marketing services agencies will change.
They will no longer be agents.
Rather, they will become vendors that execute programs; merchants that resell software and media; affiliates that contribute capabilities to larger, matrixed organizations; and partners that deliver client-centric marketing services.
Second, and related to this move away from agency, principal media will soon account for a third of total media under management.
I believe Forrester’s prediction will prove to be accurate for the largest agencies. The largest holding companies like Publicis, Omnicom and WPP are already well along the path away from being agents. And some of the largest independents like Horizon and Tinuiti also have principal buying operations.
This prediction changes the playing field – further separating the largest marketing service operations like Publicis and Omnicom from a middle market of clients and agencies. If you need further evidence of that claim, simply listen to any earnings call or read any quarterly or annual report from these firms and you will see that their focus is on the largest global advertisers.
This is where, for the middle market, Billy Beane’s quote becomes an essential strategic underpinning:
“It’s an unfair game. If we try to play like the Yankees in here, we’ll lose to the Yankees out there.”
Middle market clients need agencies focused on the unique challenges that they face, which are different from the largest global clients. There is an opening for small and mid-sized agencies to create and master transparent, modern, client performance centric solutions that work best for clients and their agencies.
We’re looking forward to seeing these solutions.
Steve Boehler, founder, and partner at Mercer Island Group has led consulting teams on behalf of clients as diverse as Ulta Beauty, Microsoft, UScellular, Nintendo, Kaiser Permanente, Holland America Line, Stop & Shop, Qualcomm, Brooks Running, and numerous others. He founded MIG after serving as a division president in a Fortune 100 when he was only 32. Earlier in his career, Steve Boehler cut his teeth with a decade in Brand Management at Procter & Gamble, leading brands like Tide, Pringles, and Jif.
Mercer Island Group helps marketers and agencies succeed. Company leadership is as much at home with marketers and their C-Suites as in an agency’s boardroom. With marketers, Mercer Island Group is a top 5 agency search consultancy covering all types of agency relationships (creative, media, web, PR, experiential) and assists marketers with marketing organization structure, workflow and critical skill development (briefing, creative evaluation & feedback, etc.). The company also supports leading and aspiring agencies with positioning, pitch and strategy training and pitch support.