Ahead of the Changing Media Summit 2015, Nick Baughan, CEO of Maxus UK, spoke to us about embracing change, how data is improving marketing efficiencies and the future of agencies.
You’ve been in the role of UK CEO for about three months now. How are you finding it?
It’s great. I imagine it’s a different experience walking into an agency for the first time as CEO, but having been managing director at Maxus for the last three years, I already feel completely connected to the business that we’ve built together. The difference is the added sense of pride I feel to lead such an incredible group of people.
What are the priorities for Maxus UK in 2015?
Last year was pretty special. We were the UK’s fastest growing media agency, we were named agency of the year and we hired another 35 employees. That said, I firmly believe that we are a service business and therefore our priority for 2015 is continue to give our clients competitive advantage. We can only do this by leaning into change in a media landscape that is constantly evolving.
The Maxus philosophy is ‘lean into change’. With a constantly changing media landscape, what are the practicalities of keeping up to speed and encouraging clients to do the same?
The first part is about having the right mindset – embrace change, don’t fear it. You have to acknowledge that you might not always have the right answer, but leaning in is the first step.
The second part is a framework for change. We talk about a simple 70-20-10 approach. It breaks down so that 70% of the investment goes into tried-and-tested media with a proven return on investment, 20% goes into evolutions of these proven channels such as video on demand (VOD) instead of linear TV or tablet editions instead of print and the remaining 10% goes into real, measurable innovation.
Innovation models aren’t a new thing, but a model like this for media means that change can be tackled step-by-step with marginal risk. Ideally what performs from the 20% and 10% portions will be recycled into the 70%, thereby providing a constantly evolving communications plan.
You need an evolving plan like this that understands the rate and kind of change and takes it a step at a time. Developments like this ought to be first and foremost pragmatic; change for its own sake is myopic.
How do you see the relationship between new technologies and creativity?
I think this relationship exists on two levels – creative and creativity. For creative we are already seeing data having a huge impact in terms of marketing efficiencies. The ability that data gives us to deliver the right creative, to exactly the right person, in exactly the right place, at exactly the right time, is game changing and we are already seeing the effect of that in advertiser returns and reductions in audience wastage.
Creativity, however, is a whole other ball game and I think represents the next frontier. There is plenty of conversation about real creativity wrought from data but very few examples. I don’t think anyone has cracked this beyond isolated stunts. We believe the incubate stage for technology is over and that the only way to achieve real creativity through technology is to move to the integrate phase. The next year will see us continue to embed technology throughout our whole agency from start to finish.
Do you feel this has altered the role of agencies?
Clearly yes: we are seeing quite a bifurcated role for agencies and what they do for clients. On the one hand is their role as super affiliates in the business – we are seeing media agencies as sales drivers, particularly for e-commerce clients – and here, more often than not, this is media as a sales enabler rather than playing a marketing role. The other side is creativity and developing long-lasting partnerships with consumers through real and personal engagement.
How have native and content-based advertising changed the outlook of the industry? How has Maxus adapted to take advantage of this?
This is an absolutely fascinating area for us and as with all good questions in media the best place to start is with intention.
For those publishers born native, such as Buzzfeed, the intention is simply to create a new model media owner that drives a new way of consuming content. For those publishers adapting to native, the intention is to diversify their revenues and guard against obsolescence.
For us, we also start the content conversation with intention. Our Maxus Partnerships team develops content strategies for clients that range from big brand content plays intended to drive engagement and emotional proximity with consumers through to performance-led content strategies that seek to create efficiencies and drive down customer acquisition and retention costs.
How do you see the industry changing over the next decade?
A decade is a very long time in media, but one thing I’m confident of is that as a meta-industry media will become closer and closer. Over the last 50 years we have developed highly delineated supply and demand side models; however I’m confident that over the next 10 years the lines between creative agency, technology provider, publisher and media agency will significantly blur as a result of the evolving models for content and technology. This trend I suspect is both inexorable and hugely exciting and will result in a sea change in the industry landscape by 2025.
Quick questions:
What time do you get up in the morning? I’m normally up at 6.15am to the dawn chorus of my children.
What’s the first thing you do when you get to the office? Say hello to anyone who made it in before me.
What do you do to relax? I compost things.
What app can’t you live without? Evernote.
Favourite marketing campaign of 2014? Barclays Lifeskills.
Your single piece of advice for someone wishing to work at a media agency: Lean into change.
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