Spotlight: Mitigating risk - inflation, agency talent shortfall, etc.

Facilitated by WFA, our panellists in this session included:

• Lucinda Peniston-Baines, Founder & Managing Partner, The Observatory International
• Graham Brown, CEO, MediaSense
• Nick Waters, CEO, Ebiquity

You can view a recording of the session below:

Panellists were asked a series of questions collected from WFA members before the session:

Agency talent shortfall

3:27 Is there a talent shortfall on the agency side? How does the agency talent shortfall fall into the wider resources shortage we have globally?
15:30 We often hear ‘it’s a situation that clients can’t control. Is it true? How can clients protect the agency talent working on their account?
30:04 Do you see clients working more with freelancers’ companies as a result of the agency talent shortfall?

Mitigating inflation

36:12 Is there currently an inflation on media prices? If yes – do we have some rough figures (or a recommended source of data) for top advertising markets?
42:19 Do agencies increase their price because of an increase of new suppliers in the agency landscape (more competition for them) and reduced budgets on the client side?
52:28 How best mitigate inflation without impacting quality in markets?
59:14 What period (of time) would you (the panel) advise clients to request guarantees for media price inflation?
1:02:32 Are agencies expecting to pass on ALL increased costs to their advertising clients? What is the % of increase is logical to accept according to a market wage increase?
1:08:34 Is there a % or fee difference clients can expect between talent based in big cities v smaller cities?
1:11:47 In what ways can clients work with their agencies to streamline processes, remove non-value-add tasks, automate or out-source to reduce costs for both sides?