I am going to have to stop drinking strong coffee … it starts me off on a rant. But I am not sure if anyone has seen the link up between Google and Nielsen to improve the accountability of TV advertising IHT.
There is a wonderful quote saying that Google executives are fearless and don’t mind who they upset … well … . I remember when I first moved into recruitment from consumer advertising I was shocked. The first thing I sold was a banner – to a rather large agency and I got into a conversation with the planner. They wanted to buy based on time – I wanted to sell on time and page impressions.
Not matter how much I tried to tell them that my method was more robust – they could not get their head around page impressions. In the end I sold on time and PI and they purchased on time. A good compromise but I was really not very happy – why? Well it felt like I was stepping back to the dark ages.
Why are we still buying using time? Well it is because we don’t have the time, the business process is not set up for performance models and we are trying to fit old business models to new mediums.
When buying in Newspaper, magazines etc … we were purchasing advertising in mediums whose primary aim was informing their readers. The main purpose was not and is still not to get people jobs.
Job boards are different … the objectives of the consumers and advertisers are very similar. A job board is a bit of software that sits between the two parties to make searching quicker and to open up the market. So there is a natural collaborative model – like PPC on Google.
The job boards, a number of clients and a few agencies have really pushed to improve accountability. But the vast majority of clients and people in the process still do not use this information. Until they do we will not be able to move towards performance models.
And believe me an optimized performance model always outperforms a time based purchase when you are driving response (both volume and quality). As a side note branding has different objectives and thus needs performance models that track these objectives (but the same principle of control is needed).
Why have we not changed? Well fear plays a big part and this industry has been under such pressure over the last few years – the well-oiled print processes now need to move to well-oiled digital processes.
The main difference between the two is the important of control and maintainance of digital campaigns. Going live is the starting point not the end, as is it with press advertising, to put it into the historical context – vouching is now done using media owner and third party ad-serving. Is it time for some of the media to start moving towards these new models? I feel that one or two will help to push the agency model.
The current growth rates in recruitment classified online is actually holding back the real opportunity. With huge increases in spend – why change our model?
Well because the more accountability we bring in, the more informed media decisions we make and the more time we focus on optimizing will really help to get us on track. That means better quality hires and more profitability all around. Clients, media and agencies all really have a vested interest in the change.
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