Not that he needs my help, mind you, but I'd like to come to the defense of Irwin Gotlieb. You know, the most powerful man in media. Or at the very least, the most powerful man in our little
world of media-buying -- and by extension -- real-time media trading too. Gotlieb, of course, is the global chief of WPP’s GroupM and influences gazillions of dollars in brand spending across
every major media platform, but he’s gotten himself in a little trouble for doing what we should all admire in an industry leader: Being honest. The problem is that he’s being honest about
something many in the industry consider taboo, and would just as soon sweep under the rug, keep mum about, or simply look the other way: the lack of transparency in some media-buying practices.
Actually, it is one of the things I admire about Irwin in particular, and GroupM and WPP in general -- that they are 100% open about being closed. Or to put it another way,
absolutely transparent about being nontransparent. Not only are Irwin and his colleagues candid about it, but they actually tout it as part of a unique and differentiated business model that sets
WPP’s organization apart from the rest of Madison Avenue. And honestly, that’s not dishonest. What’s dishonest is the people and organizations in our industry that pretend nothing is
opaque -- that even in this era of procurement, corporate oversight and Sarbanes Oxley -- all the cards are on the table for everyone to see. It just ain’t so.
And
by the way, it’s not just agencies. I believe marketers are among the most dishonest, because they are lying to themselves if they believe they can get the kinds of services -- indeed the kind
of talent to satisfy the services they demand -- for the measly margins they’ve come to expect of their media services shops. The math just doesn’t work, and if they can’t make a
profit directly from their clients, they have to find another way to make it work -- otherwise their clients’ businesses will suffer, because of the lack of resources to service them
properly.
In the old days, people simply looked the other way when agencies arbitraged their clients’ budgets -- or at least their market buying clout. Now they
have to do it in the shadows, or risk the wrath of industry peers, or snarky insider bloggers. That’s what happened earlier week when Gotlieb sat on a panel with the other big agency media
chiefs at the 4As conference in New Orleans, and he quipped, “it doesn’t say in Genesis that everything has to be fully disclosed.” Gotlieb was responding to a question from
moderator David Verklin who asked whether agencies were putting themselves or their clients first with trading desks. Not surprisingly, that set off a firestorm of snarky criticism from industry
bloggers, including the Business Insider’s
“Head Of
World's Largest Ad Buyer Says Not Everything His Agency Does Should Be 'Fully Disclosed' To Clients.”
Don’t get me wrong. I personally don’t
agree with WPP’s proprietary approaches and penchant for arbitrage, but if you’re going to operate that way -- and if it’s okay with your clients and your other business partners --
then what’s there to be ashamed about? It’s just another business model.
So kudos to Gotlieb for having the chutzpah to say it out loud, and for being
transparently nontransparent. And of course, for giving us something to write about.
