Maarten Albarda

Meet Maarten at MediaPost Events

• Maarten attended OMMA at SXSW, March 07, 2014
  3/7: AT&T Center | 3/8: Textile, 310 E 3rd St, Austin
  

Articles by Maarten All articles by Maarten

• The Martin Sorrell Integrated Marketing Legacy in Media Insider on 04/20/2018
  

  With the departure of Sir Martin Sorrell, many are now predicting the end of WPP and of agency holding companies in general, along with the business model of the tailor-made, client-specific, integrated agency offering. I doubt that will be true. Will things change? Absolutely! But the agency holding company model is not going to disappear -- and that's all because of simple economics.

• We Hate Digital Advertising/We Love Digital Advertising! in Media Insider on 04/06/2018
  

  Both marketers and consumers are conflicted about digital advertising, according to recent events -- and WARC's recently published Global Ad Trends report.

• Facebook, WPP, Publicis Work On Their Future in Media Insider on 03/23/2018
  

  I guess we have to talk about Facebook first. I was astonished to catch a recent Facebook Live broadcast in which Vice President Global Marketing Solutions Carolyn Everson hosted a conversation with Sir Richard Branson and his daughter Holly about - I kid you not - combining purpose and profit to change the world.

• Television's Marketing Problem in Media Insider on 03/09/2018
  

  Perception is reality -- and marketers think Big Online outperforms network TV when it comes to consumer reach. That perception is in stark contrast to the realities of TV's ability to deliver reach versus Amazon, Google and Facebook.

• Agencies,' Clients' Creative Excellence Blame Game, 2018 Edition in Media Insider on 02/23/2018
  

  This week saw the release of the 2018 Agency Productivity Report published by Canadian software company Function Point in partnership with the AgencyManagement Institute (AMI). AMI supports small and mid-size agencies, but before you dismiss them, please note: Their pain is your pain.

• The Human Side Of Modern Agency Pitches in Media Insider on 02/09/2018
  

  Have you been part of an agency pitch lately? If so, you will have seen a very different pitch than you would have seen five or 10 years ago. Agency RFPs now include lengthy requirements for data, insights, marketing technology and other digital components. These are not "fluff" requests like "increase likes" or "drive search results."

• Total Video Ratings: NOT The Solution For Cross-Screen Measurement in Media Insider on 01/26/2018
  

  Despite having come full circle - from brands questioning the wisdom of digital investments to plowing enormous amounts of money blindly, to now again questioning the wisdom of those ever-growing investments - there's still no robust debate about the outcomes of digital advertising.

• The Problem With Facebook in Media Insider on 01/12/2018
  

  Brian Wieser from Pivotal Research is a wise man. He is also a bit of a contrarian at times. For instance, he predicts that Facebook and Google continue to be on course for complete digital advertising domination (he says the two will make up over 90% of all digital ad dollars by 2022). At the same time, though, he has a "sell" recommendation for Facebook,

• Marketing's 2017 Shiny Object Obsessions? Bah, Humbug! in Media Insider on 12/29/2017
  

  It's literally almost the end of the year. A heavy burden rests upon me as I stand between you and MediaPost 2018. I feel I must write words of wisdom, deliver sage advice for the new year, or look back on things of importance from 2017. Instead, I will write about things more, well, stupid. Or at least stupid in my book. Specifically, I want to talk about all over-hyped shiny objects that were so 2017.

• Agency Pitches: A Review in Media Insider on 12/15/2017
  

  Over the last few weeks, as I watched various agency presentations, it was amazing to see pdf pages from marketers' briefs come to life in ideas, proposals, and demonstrations of imaginative thinking. Although the briefings for each pitch were of course wildly different from each other, certain themes were consistent across all sessions. I thought it would be interesting to share these themes. Call it a year-end trends summary. Call it random thoughts from a cranky marketer. Here goes:

Comments by Maarten All comments by Maarten

• Ad Execs To RFP: RIP by Joe Mandese (Research Intelligencer on 03/21/2018)
  

  I think what we are talking about here is a very specific type of RFP. If I understand the context correctly, this is an RFP issued by a marketer to a (group of) potential programmatic platforms. They state "here is how much money I have, here is who I am after. How are you, platform, going to deliver this and at what price point?"I can believe that this variety of RFP is declining, as the demands of programmatic have become more sophisticated (i.e. beyond pure lowest cost) and some have taken this in house.The "other" RFP is the one I am more familiar with, which comes from marketers seeking a change to their total eco-system of marketing. They are unhappy with (or unclear about) the performance of their marketing dollars, they feel their eco-system has ballooned into something that does not work as well as it should (i.e. silo-ed, with redundancies and inefficiencies, etc.) and the outputs of their marketing eco-system do not reflect the world that their consumer lives in. The occurence of that RFP is not going away, but growing, in our experience.

• Marketing's 2017 Shiny Object Obsessions? Bah, Humbug! by Maarten Albarda (Media Insider on 12/29/2017)
  

  Thanks Paula: same to you and yours!

• The Disappearance Of Advertising-Supported Media by Maarten Albarda (Media Insider on 09/22/2017)
  

  Ed: thanks as always for thoughtful comments. I would say I am not barking up one particular tree, but at least three: Advertisers need to do a better job briefing what they want/need, and use the (growing) data for insights around understanding their target audience, and where the advertiser might have an opportunity or permission to inject their message. Advertisers also need to do a better job at evaluating and optimizing their buys, regardless of the medium. Mobile Oil wasted money on me, but more importantly, in general with an over-the-top frequency. Agencies need to do a better job planning and buying. They need to educate and evolve the advertisers (back) to media planning principles that actually haven't gone away but have been neglected. They need to push back on briefings that are mostly focused on "efficient", "reach" or "low cost" to a better articulation of who they need to reach, how/when/where they might reach them and how much they need to be in front of them and with what type of content.  Platforms, whether TV, USA Today or Facebook (or any programmatic related entity), need to do a much better job at setting some guidelines and monitoring buys to ensure they are not counter-productive to the consumer experience. Mobile Oil should absolutely advertise in an F1 race. But perhaps 4x and not 15plus times. NBC should "protect" Mobile from itself (if their instruction led to this waste of ad budget) or their agency (if they were the ones instructing). In our work with advertisers, we absolutely call them out on this. It is, after all, their money. And I can dream, can't I?

• The Magic Of AI -- And Amy Ingram by Sarah Fay (AI Insider on 07/07/2017)
  

  Hey Sarah: I, too, have used Amy. She is a miracle worker most of the time. But just like any other person learning how to read and make independent decisions, she is not without mistakes. The other day, a participant in a call scheduled by Amy, sent me and Amy an email that he was running behind and could we start 15 minutes later. I was fine with that, but Amy, not grasping that the call was going ahead but a little later, messaged me that the other party had let her know he was now unavailable at the scheduled time so she had gone ahead and cancelled the call, and was looking to reschedule.Confusion ensued and I managed to let the other party know that 15 minutes later was OK. I think Amy is now still trying to reschedule the call even though it took place already...It is the first mishap I have encountered, and I will let the developers know. Perhaps they can tweak Amy's learning algorithm appropriately. Other than this incident I have been impressed!

• A Little Media Island Called The USA by Maarten Albarda (Media Insider on 06/12/2017)
  

  Hi Kevin: I am well aware of some of these limitations. Yet, the ANA exists, as does the 4A's and the IAB. And they collaborate and discuss issues of mutual concern (and/or fall out over issues of concern... "coughtransparencycough"). Limitations aside, I think the real point of my post is not to say that the US should seek more/better industry-wide collaboration. The point is that other parts of the world are innovating marketing and advertising at the speed of light just as much as the US is. And it pays to pay attention to some of those initiatives as they could be imported/adapted to the US just as easily as some of our stuff gets used over there.

• How I Cleared A Room Full Of Marketing Techies by Gord Hotchkiss (Online Spin on 05/16/2017)
  

  Very much agree! The other weird thing: almost all of us in this industry are in a B2B role! We sell the capabilities and services we deliver as an individual or as part of a company TO ANOTHER COMPANY (i.e. agency/martech/production/media to an advertiser)! So if anything, we should be very interested in how to do this really well or how to do it better. B2B is advertising to the silver generation vs. millennials. B2B is coffee vs. a Unicorn Frappucino.Oh well...

• Does Anyone Even Care About #BrandFails? by Dinah Alobeid (Marketing Daily on 04/24/2017)
  

  I wrote about the "SMFP" (social media faux pas) impact back in 2014. I included some consumer outrage examples from at that time. I think most if not all are usually totally forgotten, and sometimes even forgiven. Some tarnished names make a remarkable come-back a few years later. I think the shelf life impact of outrage flare-ups is getting shorter and shorter. Here is my original post from 2014: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/224480/short-term-vs-long-term-effects-of-a-smfp-social.html

• Let's Play Ball: Sports Sponsorship Hits And Misses by Maarten Albarda (Online Spin on 04/10/2017)
  

  Hey Scott: thanks for commenting. I think what Coke did in sponsorship of the Legends event was exactly right. They could do a WHOLE lot more stuff like that had they not plonked down a boat load of cash into the MLB naming rights. "Buy what you need" does not apply to the MLB, especially if you already have the majority of the teams. And to be honest, I know a bit about the ROI on MLB naming rights and team sponsorship. I would venture that neither pays back.

• I Mean, The Death Of Proper Storytelling Is Upon Us by Cory Treffiletti (Online Spin on 04/05/2017)
  

  I am with Bobby: can I make an empassioned plea to eradicate the word "So..." at the start of almost any answer/sentence. I. Hate. It.

• For A Spectrum Cable Customer, Company's 'New Day' Is Elusive by Adam Buckman (TVBlog on 04/03/2017)
  

  We, too, are transitioning from TWC to Spectrum here in NC. A new day has not dawned on us either. A new logo has, though, so we've got that going for us. We had no other choice to go with the change anyway, as there is no choice where we live. Unless you want to go satellite or cut the chord. So there you have it: consumer choice is to buy Spectrum, or not buy cable at all. I don't think you need to launch a big branding effort if that is your market position.

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