• by The Editor , August 18, 2009

In the following interview with MediaDailyNews, Mediabrands' Chief Technology Catalyst Greg Smith and Chief Information Officer Scott Beltran explain the growing role of "technology enablement," and how it is affecting the products, services and organizational structure of modern media services agencies.

MediaDailyNews: Relatively speaking, how important is information technology in the overall scheme of IPG's media operations?

Greg Smith: Technology Enablement is one of Mediabrands 5 key strategic imperatives aimed to drive efficiency, but more importantly to enhance our overall effectiveness and drive top line growth. Sophisticated IT solutions gives us the ability to not only deliver lower costs and faster speed to market for our clients, but also provides the ability to unearth new ways to reach consumers utilizing technology and data. In the grand scheme of things it is one of the most important factors to our current and continued success.

MDN: On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being much more important, how important is the role of information technology in the modern media agency than it was 10 years ago? Please explain?

Smith: Without a doubt, 10. In the past we as an industry were struggling with just dealing with efficiency, and focusing on simply eliminating the friction in the process. Now we are dealing with much more than just an efficiency play. Today unlike any time in the past we have an infrastructure that is prepared to carry the transactions and assets and deliver on the dream of a highly targeted and intimate delivery of a message. We also have an explosion of options and ideas that are totally dependent on the use of technology to create, select, deliver, and measure a message. All aspects of our world are reliant on some kind of technology and simply put if we unplug everything today...could we operate? The answer is no...we are 100% reliant on technology.

MDN: Last year, Mediabrands held a pretty big review of its media processing systems and ended up staying pat with long-time provider Donovan Data Systems. To some observers, that seemed like a status quo move at a time when agencies should be pushing for innovation. Can you comment on that?

Smith: Last year we certainly went through an exhaustive review of all the players in the media processing systems space. At the time, we realized most of the players were not completely ready for our vision of the future. During the process we had a clearly stated goal of gaining control of our own world; effectively having the ability to leverage the data and technology that we are licensing, buying or building so we are not held back from the realization of our vision. In the end, DDS brought innovations to the table that enabled us to continue on our strategic direction. As our vision becomes more tangible, our technology leaders will continue to monitor all the technology players in the media processing systems space and beyond. Frankly with the advent of M.O.M.S and a more advanced refinement of our vision (along with help from Microsoft), we have a better idea of where things are going and how we need all of our partners to fit into our model of the future. Therefore we are in a better position to clearly state our expectations, and expect all of our technology partners to meet the challenges we are throwing out there.

MDN: More recently, Mediabrands announced a new technology agreement with Microsoft, and launched its own media trading system, Cadreon? Are you bringing more of those kinds of your technology infrastructure in-house?

Smith: Mediabrands will continue to utilize both internal and external technologies. However, as our world becomes more specific and data continues to increase in importance (it's already quite significant) we will be more likely to rely on our own platforms (or platforms we control) to deliver. The factors that will continue to drive the decisions against this strategy will be speed to market, cost, ROI, access to data, flexibility and most importantly the appropriateness of the product in terms of alignment with our longer term strategy and our M.O.M.S direction.

MDN: What do you see as the biggest technological challenge confronting media agencies now, and over the next several years?

Smith: Proving out the ROI on investment will be the short term challenges for agencies. Mediabrands has invested in the right technologies that have not changed or require significant upgrading. In the mid to longer term standards and access to data will continue to be challenges in the industry. We need to constantly work on standards and ease of access to data.

MDN: Is there a Moore's Law for media services?

Scott Beltran: I do believe that the exponential improvement described by Moore's law is real and applicable for media services. This is the case due to the maturity of technology platforms available to help us via automation of manually intensive processes, and also the need for our industry to do more with less, as well as the automation of our industry to be able to do predictive analytics to ensure optimized media spend across all mediums not just the digital space.

MDN: Are media shops continuously able to do more for less because of the progression of information technology? If not, what are the limitations?

Beltran: Yes, to date many of the concepts around more mature business process harmonization efforts such as shared back office Finance, HR, Procurement etc. have not been fully adopted or leveraged within the media space. Mediabrands is constantly looking at ways to further leverage technology to fully support the optimization of the media management process to do more with less and faster. Our ultimate goal is to pass the benefits on to our clients, and constantly assure them we are operating as efficiently and effectively as possible.

MDN: Mediabrands has some of the most sophisticated technology companies as clients. Does that help you stay in the vanguard more than other agencies?

Beltran: The fact that many of our clients are the top technology companies in the world is a tremendous advantage for Mediabrands, and helps us stay at the forefront of our technology investments in the services we provide. We specifically pride ourselves in leading the technology curve with regards to the investments we make to better serve not only our tech clients but all clients. This is a key differentiator for us and is key in our R&D as well as guiding our technology strategy, enablement and investments.

MDN: What do you see as the biggest technological challenge confronting media agencies now, and over the next several years?

Beltran: Along with the points that Greg has made, I feel the greatest challenge confronting media agencies now and in the near future from a technology perspective is the human change factor. Our industry is adopting new models of operating at break neck speeds. As such we are continuing to change the core processes of media as a whole which impacts the way people have worked for decades. The speed at which we invent and innovate through the use of technology must be complemented by superior talent who can change and embrace the new.