As the media landscape has become more and more complex, the media agencies have risen to the challenge. Since then, the media agencies have evolved - upgraded their toolkit, added skill sets, increased the scope of services they can deliver and have come up as a formidable component of the advertising and communication industry.
Yes, the media agency still does media releases but a media release is just the tail end of all the valuable functions that a media agency performs.
No other entity has a better understanding of the media landscape of India. The largest media research agencies, the eminent consultancies, the rate-focused auditors, the tv-skewed creative agencies and the self-biased media houses - all barely skim the surface in understanding the media consumption patterns of today's consumer. A media agency is capable of a very clinical analysis of what media the consumer consumes and which touhpoints are best suited for brand communication.
Media Strategists today, are armed with databases and tools superior to what any other communication industry entity can either afford or has the commitment to develop. These tools enable media agencies to diagnose brand & consumer relationships and setup media tasks with great precision.
It is no longer about a TV or a Print Schedule but the design of the overall architechture of how the multiple media touchpoints included in a brand campaign are programmed to interact and influence the minds of consumers. Creativity is no longer the domain only of develpoing ad-creatives and is inherent in the methods by which media agencies design these media solutions for brand campaigns.
Overall, media agencies have skill sets and tools that are a fusion of consumer understanding, category & brand diagnosis, media understanding, creative solution design - all culminating into the function of preparing media-wise schedules (media plans), optimizing these plans to deliver cost-efficiency, releasing and monitoring each component of a brand campaign.
So much is available for a client when it signs on a media agency as an AOR. But, what a client is able to extract from the agency is directly related to the strength of their belief in what a media agency can/ should deliver; the focus of the senior management on working with the media agency as a partner; and an understanding of the overall deliverables that a media agency is capable of.
The media agencies have evolved over the past decade and are ready to deliver total communication solutions. The Client needs to review what he/ she is getting out of the media agency today and work towards getting more..getting more beyond implmentation planning & buying.
Ultimately, the Client will get what it demands (deserves).
