A techology if only...

Tina Fegent has recently made some comments on her blog about “the lack of technological systems and processes that an agency had in place, both for its own internal use and for the interaction with clients.” Whilst I’ve commented that it’s not just agencies, clients can be slow to adopt new technologies, I’d like to discuss here the age old problem (and I’d like to ask why) of the lack of technology between media agencies and production houses/production departments.

Why are schedules supplied by media agencies on a good old Excel spreadsheet. Then updated without any real indication of what’s been updated leading the production staff to spend hours trawling through the schedule to spot the differences. Added to which there is little automation between the production agency and the publisher so it’s still down to phone calls and emails about whether there has been a booking and what it’s for. Phone calls from publishers to production agencies saying they have a booking for which the agency have no knowledge, is all too common.
There is no financial benefit to the media agencies to introduce a system that helps the publisher and production agency so they don’t. Production agencies and publishers can talk, discuss and highlight the problem areas as much as they like, and believe me they do. It’s up to clients to put the pressure on media agencies to introduce a system that will produce cost saving benefits down the line.
If companies such as Adstream and Vio could automate the process (and I believe they can), then so much time could be saved which could significantly reduce man hours at publishers and production houses alike. If I was a client and spend the majority of my marketing budget on press, I’d be pushing for a system that could ultimately reduce my production costs. I’d demand it of my media agency as a term of my business.

So, I want to know clients. Why aren’t you?