Media inflation - dead or alive?

For the majority of my media career both advertisers and agencies accepted that the price of media rose inexorably each year, sometimes at the inflation rate of a small South American country.

But since the twin influences of rampant increase in supply with digitalisation of media and the slowdown in total ad spend, growth since the credit crunch has seen effective deflation in media prices for the last few years. To paraphrase “you have never had it so cheap” … or at least not for more than a decade.

But there is one notable exception to this - and that’s the price of search. Here inflation is not only alive and well, but running at rates seen in the Weimar Republic.

Why do we, collectively as an industry, allow ourselves to pay more and more for what is essentially a coupon?

Search facilitates, it adds no value. It owns no content, it creates no reach of its own, it merely facilitates a journey that is started with engagement with a “proper” media channel. It also creates little long-term value for marketers - just look at the loyalty of customers who come to you via search vs those from other channels.
Yet we divert more and more money from channels our customers spend hours with rather than seconds with. Why?

The advertising and marketing community has the creative talents that can match those showcased in the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. Surely we can harness some of that creativity to find ways to better value each stage in the journey, and invest appropriately?

Mike Colling, Managing Director