Competitive edge
Annabel Palmer talks tech with Vizeum’s managing director Richard Morris
VIZEUM is one of eight companies in the Dentsu Aegis network. While iProspect does digital performance media and Posterscope Out of Home media, Vizeum provides integrated media planning services. When Richard Morris, then at sister company Carat, was offered the role of managing director, he leapt at the opportunity. He talks Morning Wire through the challenges of driving innovation alongside more traditional forms of media planning.
Vizeum operates on the 70-20-10 innovation model used by Google. Why?
Media is at an inflection point, and pioneering new ways of communicating is key to giving our clients competitive advantage. But new innovation can conflict with the standard way of doing things. So this model is a painfully simple way of building innovation into the way we plan. The 70 per cent is the stuff that always works. The 20 per cent is adjacent innovation, which carries some risk. The 10 per cent is pure innovation: high risk – but you might unearth the new idea that could become the 70 per cent of tomorrow.
Vizeum has close ties with London’s Tech City. Does this give you a competitive edge?
A media agency’s role is to find ways to connect brands with their target audience. But today, where digital has transformed media, technology plays a crucial part in making that connection. So we’ve built a relationship with the community through a product called Spark, which allows us to work with up to 1,400 startups, finding the technologies that can answer our clients’ marketing problems. And we work with [startup accelerator] The Bakery, where we match startups to brands and facilitate bringing the tech to launch.
So is traditional media dead?
Absolutely not. TV advertising, for instance, is in rude health. That’s why our 70-20-10 model is so important. It’s easy to be seduced by the novel. Wearable technology, for example, is an interesting area where media and product are converging. But it’s important not to overhype. We are guardians of a lot of our clients’ money, and it’s vital to have frameworks that allow us to manage innovation in the context of knowing what works.
What’s the biggest challenge facing media agencies today?
Whereas media a decade ago was static, today you could take one digital poster and think of 600 ways of using it. So the challenge we face is not being overwhelmed by the scale of opportunity. Technology and innovation have made so much possible. But now we have to find a way to scale, in a way that will move the needle on client brand metrics or global sales. Already, we’re seeing behavioural targeting techniques, which can be delivered through digital media, being used at scale – we can apply them through out-of-home or Sky AdSmart. This gives clients huge competitive advantage.
You are sitting on a panel at Advertising Week this week on London’s potential as a mega-city. Can you give us a preview?
I’ll be looking at how our clients view London as an opportunity, versus the rest of the country – and the world. London is an incredibly important market for most of our clients’ businesses. It produces some of the best media campaigns in the world, which are then boosted by the industry’s relationship with Tech City. And look at the media opportunities – on the Tube and through high-quality digital out-of-home.
What’s the one campaign you wish you’d worked on?
I love the British Airways “Look Up” campaign [by OgilvyOne]. It is the perfect manifestation of what all media agencies are trying to do: merging broadcast media with smart data sets.