• by March 2, 2004

EXACTLY WHAT A COMMUNICATIONS ARCHITECT IS, AND IS NOT - At long last, someone has explained to the Riff just exactly what account supervisors do. And it took a communications architect to do it. Asked by moderator Erwin Ephron if people of his ilk weren't just performing an account supervisor's role, during Tuesday's Media Planning Conference in New York, Universal McCann Director of Communications Architecture Marston Allen blurted, "Absolutely not" and went on to challenge the audience of media planner attendees to "describe" what account supervisors actually do. He quickly added his own take: "Making reservations, carrying bags and bossing us around." Another thing, Allen said communications channel planners are "not," was Jack Trout or Al Ries. "It's all the same person," he said of the two ad industry consultants who used to be partners, but now are positioned as rivals, "people who talk and don't do anything." If you sensed Allen was a bit bitter in that remark, he was actually a bit envious of them. "How do I get that job," he asked. In terms of the job, he actually does do, Allen described the role of communications channel planners as "experts at resource allocation" and the "experts on measuring things." And in case you were coveting his job, Allen says you might well be eligible for it. "Quite frankly," he told attendees at the TelevisionWeek event in New York, "I think anybody can be a communications architect." All it requires, he added, is being a "Jack of all trades and a master of one."

DISHING IT - We were just re-reading - as we often do - a press release on a major media account shift, when we realized it was treated as a minor part of the announcement. The release, which DirecTV put out last Thursday to explain the sudden shift of its account from MediaVest (media) and Deutsch (creative) to OMD and BBDO. But you never would have noticed the media reassignment based on the headline, which appeared "above the fold" on the electronic newswires. In 15.5 point type, it read: "DIRECTV Shifts Creative Responsibilities to BBDO New York." Below that the dateline and below that - in 12 point type that ran "below-the-fold" was the kicker: "Media Assigned to OMD as Entire Account Consolidates Within Omnicom Shops." Clearly, this is a client that treats the importance of media service as an afterthought. Weird, considering they're a media company. But not-so-weird, when you consider that they're a media concern that's essentially indifferent - for the moment anyway - to Madison Avenue. In other words, they don't pitch advertising inventory. Still, you'd think that where their own advertising services were concerned, they'd recognize the true importance of media - from an economic point-of-view, if not a strategic one. The last time we counted, on a $100 million account like DirecTV's, $85 million went to media, with about $15 million divvied up between the creative shop, the media shop - assorted subcontractors - and possibly some being rebated back to the client, depending on the compensation agreement.