WFA breaks down walls between Insights and Media

The session took place at MasterCard in London, with our newest marketing workstream, the INSIGHTFORUM, joining one of the oldest, the MEDIAFORUM session to discuss the future of insights.

The initiative was launched following research conducted by the WFA and partner BrainJuicer on the future of insights, which highlighted the need for more collaboration between insights and marketing. Details of the findings will be shared in more detail during Global Marketer Week.

Insight specialists from Barclays, SAB Miller, Orange and Jaguar Land Rover joined MEDIAFORUM members to discuss best practice in collaboration across the media and insight disciplines.

They identified five key ways to promote silo-free working:

1. Joint awards. Collaborating across silos to jointly enter into effectiveness awards can be effective at delivering collaboration and a sense of team. Everyone wants to be associated with success.
2. Don't underestimate your media agency. It's easy for many insight departments to overlook the rich source of insight within media agencies. They invest heavily in studies to help inform their planning and differentiate their own offering. They often have extremely talented people with the skill sets to bridge both media and insight functions.
3. Consolidated agencies can act as change agents. There is a clear trend amongst WFA members to consolidate complex agency rosters. The obvious benefits in this lie with efficiency gains. Yet there is also value in other areas too. A joined-up global agency can help to bridge internal silos. Your account team often see themselves as an extension of your business and can act as effective mediators.
4. T-shaped companies. When the C-suite provides strategic backing from cross-functional projects then collaboration and integration will come to fruition far more easily.
5. Get human with data. Data integration is usually a nightmare within a large MNCs. Yet taking a very human approach of creating internal communities can be very effective. Simply “getting people together to share views and have conversations” can go a long way to aiding integration. An interval insight community can often be very well placed to play the role of impartial moderator.

The next MEDIAFORUM meeting will take place in Rome on May 18 and the next INSIGHTFORUM will be in London on April 7.

For details of the MEDIAFORUM contact Matt.
For details of the INSIGHTFORUM contact Steve.