Ajay Kakar, Satyajit Sen, Sudha Natarajan, Maheshwar Peri & Rahul Dev rue over agency-media owners “unethical” practices

The exchange4media Conclave 2010 hosted the discussion where the media service brands and the media owners drew arms against each other. The agenda of the session was ‘Media service brands and media owners: Cross purposes or same team.’ The panel discussed at length the various issues that have marred the relationship between media owners and media service agencies. The session was moderated by Ajay Kakar, CMO, Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group. Representatives from media service brands included Satyajit Sen, CEO, ZenithOptimedia India; and Sudha Natrajan, COO, Lintas Media Group. The media owners’ side was represented by Maheshwar Peri, President, Outlook Group; and Rahul Dev, CEO, CNEB.

The discussion was kicked off by Ajay Kakar, who pointed out the hitches in the media owner and media agency relationship because of the competition driven market. Kakar observed that there were differences between the media owners and media service agencies in their very approach to the business and that a confrontation between the two was inevitable. Sudha Natrajan observed that the matrix of the relationship was based on profit. The clients want sales, the media owners want ratings and the media agencies want GRPs. She stressed that transparency and accountability were the essence to build a trust-based relationship between the three, which would eventually profit all the stakeholders. Satyajit Sen added here that the need of the hour was for media service brands and media owners to strive beyond rates for a greater value.

Speaking for the media owners, Maheshwar Peri said that cross-purposes existed, but the approach had to be holistic. He also spoke about the concept of ‘content integration’, and said that it would be impossible to create such ideas if there were cross-purposes between the media service agencies and media owners. Rahul Dev added to his point and said that a synergy was lacking in this industry and there was lack of transparency in the business, which was unfair and unethical.

Peri cited unethical practices in the media service agencies, whereby they got into hidden deals with the clients. “Problem crops up when a media owner feels he is unfairly excluded,” he said. Coming to the defence of the media service agencies, Satyajit Sen said that the other side of the coin had to be looked at too. The opinion stood that at times when pressure to perform from the client was too high then hidden deals were what the agencies had to resort to.

Dev was of the opinion that even as the client was making profit, the benefits were not percolating down to media owners and media houses. He cited that earlier in the day, Himanshu Khanna, Director – Marketing, Wrigley India and Gaurav Gupta, Director – Marketing, General Motors India, had said that recession never really affected them nor the Indian market. He said, “For the good of all, clients have to see value in content and in the ecosystem, where the collective market is growing.”

Kakar wrapped up the discussion with his final observation, and said that it was only a suicidal and exceptional client who did not give value.

The exchange4media Conclave 2010 is presented by Dainik Jagran. CNEB is the Associate Sponsor. The Mumbai leg of the Conclave will be held on June 11.

This year, readers can follow the latest developments and discussions regarding the Conclave on Twitter, the hashtag for which has been set as #e4mC2010. An exchange4media brand page has also been initiated on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/exchange4media/117658164936658.