• by Maarten Albarda , Featured Contributor, January 9, 2017

Last December… wait, that was now LAST YEAR! So I guess I first should wish you a happy, prosperous, transparent and integrated 2017. So anyway, in December, I was fortunate enough to attend a session with about 30 World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) global marketing procurement leaders. Due to the spacing of the holidays I did not have a chance to write about the event until now. Instead I had two weeks off. But given that this is about predictions for 2017, I think now is as good a time as any.

The WFA meetings are closed sessions, creating a "safe" environment where all company representatives can speak freely about critical business issues, even if there are competitors in the room.

The session was opened by a roundtable for all participants, in which they were asked what they felt their number one issue was, going into 2017. Let me share their top three with you:

Agency ecosystem issues: There were frequent mentions of either pitches and/or contract renegotiations during the panel.

Marketing productivity: It’s  clear that political uncertainty in both the U.S. and Europe is playing a role in what’s happening. What will the Trump presidency mean for the U.S.and global economy? What will be the meaning of Brexit — and when will it actually happen? Plus: three EU nations have national elections coming up. Result: CEOs demand more productivity from their investments, marketing included.

Transparency & trust: I bet most of you were expecting the trust/transparency issue to be the No. 1 issue for 2017. But when you think about it, I think trust/transparency was the No. 1 issue last year. The fact that a large majority of marketing procurement leaders place agency ecosystem issues as their No. 1 concern for 2017 reflects the fact that marketers and procurement leaders by now have accepted the new reality of trust and are ready to move on with newly designed agency relationships and agency contracts reflective of the “new marketing world order.”

And in all fairness, trust and transparency may have increased in importance again since the meeting, as the responses were taken before the U.S. Department of Justice started its subpoenas to all the leading global agency holding companies in the alleged production bid -rigging scandal.
Regardless, it is very clear that agency ecosystems must evolve from where they are today. Marketing-driven companies have gotten a lot smarter:

— About their consumers’ needs and behaviors, often using smart consumer journey models and Big Data insights to identify, map and even connect with their consumers.

— About their changing marketing investment requirements: marketing budget decision making is more and more business-result driven.

— About what metrics matter to the organization: It’s no longer a one-size-fits-all model based on awareness, reach and cost per GRP. Digital proxies for this old model like “shares,” “likes” or numbers of followers/fans are also outdated and unacceptable. Modern marketing organizations are getting better and better at attribution models that shed light on which marketing investments actually deliver results.

As a result, marketing procurement leaders are often charged with leading the change of the “how of marketing” —  i.e. evolving and reallocating the various partners in the ecosystem that deliver consumer insights, consumer connections and consumer content.

So now that we know what matters most, let’s get started with 2017.