The Hindu Business Line : `Media insight vital to add value to brands'

THE challenge facing advertising strategists today is to find users, and not merely audiences, for clients' brands. Developing media insight relevant to these brands and categories is vital to add value, never mind if the cost per contact per viewer or reader is 10 times higher, said Mr Sam Balsara, Chairman and Managing Director, Madison Communications, presenting the Media Review at a speech organised by the Ad Club Madras here.

He also made a case for `narrowcasting.' Rising media costs, clutter and fragmentation are making it difficult for the advertiser's message to be broadcast. However, he cautioned that narrowcasting could be risky if done by inexperienced planners, as an error could land the message miles away from where it was intended.

Mr Balsara emphasised the importance of finding the right people to execute these tasks — people with a facility for numbers, who can understand business and the implication of ad spends on the client's financials, but also people with gumption and imagination. The advertising industry must take it upon itself to offer training that would throw up such talent, he said, citing the case of MICA and Lintas, which have done so.

He exhorted large advertisers to rethink their media agency fees. Tying additional remuneration to innovative thinking helps, as media planning calls for time-intensive work and the payoffs would be more.

Clients should also focus on the value they get from media agencies, and not just on the rates, Mr Balsara said. Chasing lower rates without considering impact and results will only make the media richer, he explained. Media choices, and low-cost ones, are multiplying, but their effect on the advertisers is "disastrous," as per unit cost goes up due to fragmentation.

On expectations of advertisers, he said they want to see the correlation between the fee charged and the value delivered and greater accountability and transparency from media owners and media agencies. For agencies, the challenges are talent management and clients' growing expectations as also their reluctance to discuss higher remunerations. For media owners, it's the increasing competition and attracting the younger generation to the print medium, he said.

He called for a media agencies' association and collaboration among all the parties involved to develop healthy business practices.

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