Are brokers threatening the role of agencies? Join the debate.

Andrew Meaden 
Regional director, GroupM
Media brokers typically are cash-rich individuals who buy up media inventory at a discount to sell on to clients or agencies at a profit. They can provide cheap inventory but do not provide advice on what or how much media to purchase to reach marketing goals.

They are middle-men and, frankly, not in any way business partners.

Media brokers are not becoming more popular; they are on the decline. If you look at China, previously large amounts of media inventory was held by media brokers, but many stations have taken it back to sell directly. Premium broadcasters like Beijing or Shanghai TV no longer need the short-term cash brokers provide as the market matures and so does TV ad revenue. The broker model works much better in ‘emerging’ markets than it does in more mature ones.

I would advise clients always to get their agencies to book airtime directly with TV stations. It is then orientated around what the clients need rather than what inventory the brokers have to sell.

If an agency is using brokers I believe they will have transparency issues as brokers focus on selling their inventory rather than what’s best for clients. 

Barry Cupples 
CEO, Omnicom Media Group, Asia-Pacific
Our future lies in media communications, not brokering per se. The kind of work we do as media communications experts requires a deeper dive into areas of analytics and metrics. These need to go through a fast process that drives a clear output for executing the placement, which is why we have communications planning frameworks such as Checkmate (proprietary to OMD) and ETNA (proprietary to PHD) in place.

With such an open architecture there is a place for media brokers but not only in the context that the question is framed. The digital world serves up inventory in a faster and more dynamic way so it is clear  some of it will be brokered by companies with great software capabilities in the drive for continuous and aggregated value.

Brokers in media have been around for a while and still have a strong presence in some markets based mainly on ‘guanxi’ or ‘relationships’ - very key in some cultures and thus important to understand and cultivate where the concept exists.

With the increased importance of corporate transparency we are all cognisant of the need to validate and measure the effect of every client dollar spent. Media agencies have put a lot of investment behind delivering this, so I think seismic change is unlikely.

Client procurement is an established discipline and they know agencies have experience in clarifying and explaining how, where and why the value was identified, and then delivered on the platforms chosen. 

Rahul Welde
Vice-president - Media Asia, Africa, Middle East & Turkey, Unilever Asia
Media agencies provide a much wider offering than media brokers. Media brokers have a limited role as aggregators and re-sellers. Media agencies play a much larger role.

First, media agencies provide a holistic and strategic service - in the area of planning, creative channel thinking,  analytics or systems. Second, they have the advantage of a wider global or regional network and are thus able to transfer practices and invest in systems.