The Post Digital World talk

I was on the panel last week for Results International. It was called 'The Post Digital World: Tomorrow's ROI Models'.

Now you, like me, must be wondering where does a procurement person fit into that title (not literally of course). I listened very attentively to the three really good speakers before me talking about the holy trinity of DM, data and digital and then Social media:driving ROI and then Procurement!. Andy Collins from Results then did an up date on valuing your business and current market trends.

There were (luckily) a number of themes that I could pick up on and then talk about.

The first one was about a site called Net Haggler, where you could go on and suggest a price that you would like to pay for the item. I suggested to the audience (mainly agencies) that perhaps we could look at building one of these sites to buy agency services !. Sounds an interesting concept perhaps for low value tactical purchases.

Another point that one of the speaker mentioned was that he had never been asked to speak on ROI in the last 2 years. I was really surprised at that as for me this is one of the key areas that I think Client Procurement can lead on. Too often agencies complain that they see Procurement at the pitch and negotiation stage, and then they disappear after that. Diageo do Supplier Relationship Management really well and I saw in Supply Management that my old company, Orange, are rolling out a SRM program. Make ROI part of that program.

Andy spoke about how an agency can maximise its value if they want to sell. Areas such as being a specialist and not a generalist, developing and having key people that engage with clients and manage costs. All areas that we look at in agency selection. As client procurement we can help agencies be better focused on costs and put the processes and disciplines in place to support their growth plans.

So hopefully I held my own - the scores on the door have not been sent through yet.

I have also written an article for Results quarterly bulletin. It is called 'Why a Commercial Threesome can work'. I cover off some of the trends that we need to look at for 2010. If anyone would like a copy of the article then please do let me know.

Relationships and Music money

There is a good article on the Procurement Leaders website blog about the importance of experience, knowledge and relationship building in the marketing procurement arena.

I do think we need to look at the training that exists out there as mentioned in an earlier blog. We have seen companies such as Diageo train up marketers to be purchasing to fill the skill gap. But as one of my contacts said to me yesterday the training that has existed is very 'numpty and ABC..'. What exists for the more experienced buyer ? What in house training programs are in place to build up strong marketing procurement teams that can take over the world (sorry getting carried away there!). May be we should make 2010 the year of working together to get some really good solid training programs together - all thoughts and comments welcome.

Also just seen this on the BBC website re artists selling their songs to ad agencies, linking back to my posting on decoupling of TV production. Apparently US hip-hop star Pharrell Williams has advised new acts to approach ad agencies, ahead of record labels, to help launch their careers.

But Blur's Manager said that whilst Blur themselves have allowed their tracks to be used in commercials, he felt that artists should think very, very careful about how they associate with brands," There was a "great danger of music being 'corporatised'", he warned.

Blur's 1997 hit Song 2 has made the band 20 times as much money through use in ads, TV shows and film soundtracks than record sales, Mr Morrison revealed. Not bad eh ? 20 times more than record sales. I thought that was an amazing sum of money.

It is worth talking to any TV Production Consultants that you may use or someone like Leap Music to see what your options on when buying any time of 'well known / popular' music track.