Just The Facts, Ma’am

If you’ve spent any time around ad agencies and/or media sales people, inevitably the subject of process automation comes up. Many agencies are living in fear of Google on a lot of levels, in part because the big guys don’t do search and search’s high accountability calls a lot of other media decisions into question.   One other factor is the automation of the whole buying and selling process and that’s today’s topic.
Over the last couple of days a couple of ad automation companies have received additional rounds of funding. These platforms make the buying process incredibly easy and eliminate a lot of the inefficient stuff in the process that’s been going on (faxes, etc.) since the 1980’s. As a tech person, I’m all for technology streamlining business processes but in this case, I think it’s suicide for some people in that process.

First, for sellers.  The entire process requires that the avails be posted into a system which then analyzes them. No sales blather, no lunches, no tickets to shows.  As Joe Friday used to say, just the facts, Ma’am.  Most importantly, no context.  It’s all about quantity and CPM.  You’re pork bellies or coffee – a commodity.  No thanks.

Second, for agencies.  How long before your clients realize that the process is now SO simple that they can probably handle it themselves?  Plug in the parameters and let the machines do their thing.   I realize that these companies are your partners today – how about tomorrow?

The planning, buying, and selling of media is as much an art as it is a science.  Technology can help but I’m willing to bet that in a few years’ time some agency folks will think of this as the HAL 9000, the runaway machine in 2001.  When that art is reduced to just the facts, it loses everything (do you know of any description of a great painting that’s as great as the painting itself?).

How about some of you buyers, planners and sellers weigh in.  How do you feel about this?