What you need to know:

• Following a quiet 12 months in market, MediaCom has started the year with a new creative and tech-led position.
• Global COO Josh Krichefski claims neither consultancies nor specialist digital shops have the breadth to succeed end-to-end.
• Krichefski insists the firm will not become a middleman between creative agencies and consolidating platforms. 
• Real-time optimisation of creative content across digital and addressable channels key strategic plank.
• Local CEO Willie Pang keen to provide dynamic content at scale for creative agency partners.
• Pang says 12 months of "internal engineering" muted MediCom's "external presence".
• Agency set focus on areas such as future-proofing client data, cross-channel optimisation and a post-cookie world.
• But won't be rushing to acquire first party datasets, as have some competitors.

Creative twist

MediaCom isn't planning on becoming a hybrid creative agency any time soon, but it is making moves to bring scale and real-time optimisation to cross-platform campaigns.

Following a repositioning at the start of the year, the GroupM-owned media agency is focusing its energies on combating "serious competitive sets" outside of the traditional agency world.

Global COO Josh Krichefski says specialised digital agencies and consultancies have begun to encroach on agency territory but are "too siloed" to complete the "entire puzzle" for clients.

"Consultants do strategy, but they don't take any ownership to deliver it, and then you've got hyper-specialised digital agencies that only handle a tiny fraction of a client's marketing activity," says Krichefski.

"But only media agencies can really tell advertisers, with a degree of confidence and certainty, what initiatives have been successful at driving business growth across the whole communication ecosystem."

A major part of combatting this is establishing scalable and real-time campaigns across digital and addressable platforms.

Local CEO Willie Pang says while media is proliferating, the platforms they are traded on are consolidating. This means that media agencies will have to play a bigger role in the production of content.

"There continues to be a rising tide of channels to push content through, however, we are seeing a growing number of publishers making it easier to invest in inventory across their entire portfolio," Pang says.

"This means we have a bigger opportunity to be part of the content creation process and help scale variations of video, audio or dynamic creative across multiple touchpoints."

Both television and radio are working towards industry-wide buying platforms over the next 12 months, while Nine allows agencies to buy across its linear, broadcast video on demand (BVOD) and radio inventory through automated platform 9Galaxy.

Despite this, Krichefski is adamant MediaCom will not tread the paths of creative agencies, or become a middle man between publisher and content creation.

The aim, he says, is to use established and emerging technologies within the MediaCom and the wider GroupM arsenal to develop content for emerging platforms such as TikTok, digital outdoor and addressable advertising channels like BVOD.

"It's about assisting creative partners in areas that are time consuming or even to difficult, depending on the resources available to them," he adds.

"We are not trying to take anything out of the pockets of those agencies, but if we can help brands get their message out there with the right content, at scale and with real-time data then it's beneficial to all parties involved."

Comeback

Over the last 12 to 18 months, industry insiders have questioned MediaCom's place in market, with the agency failing to chart on the local, new business win list – all the while its global counterparts were on a roll.

Krichefski says there remains scope to capitalise on new opportunities, with the backing of global MediaCom and GroupM ties. 

Earlier this year, Mi3 revealed a local transformation project was underway in Australia, led by GroupM boss Mark Lollback, with the intention to take a technology-led approach to the business. Meanwhile, GroupM Global CEO Christian Juhl voiced his concerns around the media investment business, stating that it needs to operate "more like a software company".

"We've got these strong media agencies in the group who, for all intents and purposes, do a lot of the same stuff when it comes to execution in digital," Krichefski says.

"But traditionally we've all done it slightly differently and what Christian is working towards is a standardised approach that will be applied across every agency. It's bonkers we haven't done that in the past and now we can work towards a uniform best-in-class digital strategy that can be applied to any market."

Locally, Pang admits the agency has taken a step back to consider its position, strengths and new direction, but is ready to make a splash in 2021.

He says while new business will always be part of the process, MediaCom is focused on ensuring that it secures the best outcomes for its current clients. 

"This new positioning is a lot about seeing the bigger picture, for ourselves and clients. There are those that have been forced to break out of their siloed operations as a result of Covid and as an agency we need to guide them through all facets of their transformation," Pang says.

"More importantly the burgeoning impacts of a cookie-less world has seen many clients question how we as an agency can future-proof their data."

Pang says the end of the third-party cookie is an issue that is coming into focus for many of its clients, however, MediaCom has no plans to go down the path of its competitors and buy "large first-party databases in a hurry".

When it comes to an identity solution, MediaCom says it will opt to leverage relationships with first-party providers, publishers and tech platforms to act as an "integration partner" for brands, rather than a supplier of first-party data.

"The rate at which the process is moving, with no established regulation and ongoing back and forth between the government and suppliers, it's unlikely we will have any certainty in the short-term," Pang says.

"So as long as it remains a moveable feast, we have to take a semi-consultancy approach and lean on relevant partners where necessary, rather than make snap acquisitions in a space that could suddenly become irrelevant."