“The idea behind mbassy is to work with all three – media owners, agencies, and clients – so there’s more cohesion between how they operate. If people start to understand and unpack that, then the relationships can become much more cohesive,” Michael Bass told Mediaweek following the launch of his namesake consultancy, mbassy, this week.
Bass began to dip his toe back into the industry at the start of the year after his role as chief trading officer at dentsu was made redundant in October. His conversations with media and agency leaders gave him an insight into the challenges and negative talk in the industry.
“Between all those layers of demise were these big rivers of opportunity. I could see pretty clearly things are tough, but things bounce back, and you’ve got to be ready when the market bounces back.”
“A common theme I found amongst everyone was understanding the complexities of media agencies at the moment, how they work, what their offerings are and how media owners can best approach agencies.”
“[Agencies] have evolved so much from traditional media, media planning and buying.
“After all those discussions, I saw a clear area where I could help: unpicking what agencies do, how they work, how they operate their decision-making process, their commercial realities, and their KPIs.”
“It’s a refreshing approach and a risk”
As founder director of mbassy, Bass said he aims to help clients examine commercial and collaborative outcomes, optimise media spending, offer another point of view, and highlight potential alternative opportunities in the market.
“The one thing that’s difficult for a media owner to understand is what else is happening in the market. They understand their product so intricately, they’re so passionate and engaged with their product.
“But they don’t see [anything else], and that is what media agencies are saying.”
He noted that working with media owners will involve helping them understand how they fit into the media mix and how an agency develops a strategy and communications plan.
“You need to think about how you fit into that mix in order to be considered, the level of consideration in terms of volume or revenue, and how you grow that relationship.”
The consultancy will also offer commercial strategy development, enhanced negotiation strategies, growth strategies, guidance on mastering influence, relationship management, training and upskilling programs, media pricing and pitches, yield planning, and revenue management.
Bass is also looking forward to moving away from a management role to being back on the tools. He said: “Truth be told, when you’re in management roles in agencies, you go away from the fundamentals of what you loved about media in the first place.
“You’re managing people and influencing outcomes. That’s great, but it’s not what I love to do. I like getting my hands dirty.
“From my early years in media, I have always been involved in trading and investment. It’s the wheeling and dealing, that stuff that I love to do. In management roles, you don’t do that.
“So, it’s a refreshing approach and a risk with mbassy to see how we can talk to clients, agencies and media owners and make a go of it in the areas of media that I like to do.”
“It’s better to be prepared than to be scrambling”
While the market challenges persist, Bass maintains an optimistic outlook and is working on preparing clients for the inevitable turn in the market.
“[The market] will turn—it always does. This one’s been a bit longer. Globally, if you look at economic drivers, inflation is coming down in many countries. In Australia, inflation is also coming down. We’ve got a few more challenges here, but it’s not as bad as it was.”
Bass noted that in the short term, he hopes to help clients with their challenges and to shape and prepare businesses for the next six to 12 months.
“It’s better to be prepared than to be scrambling,” he added.
His long-term view for mbassy is to see what part of the business creates the most noise with clients and what kind of clients he attracts.
“That’s inevitably going to shape how I move forward. It will shape where I concentrate for the next 12 to 24 months.
“If I look at this laterally, media owners will likely get the most out of this service. I think they’re finding it the most difficult to understand how to work with agencies at this point.”
“I couldn’t not do it”
Speaking on his aptly name agency, Bass said he had been playing with using his name as the brand for some time.
“I think the brand is so strong because it is basically my name. I couldn’t not do it,” he said.
Bass had drawn the mbassy logo and enlisted the help of a graphic designer friend to polish it. “He sent it back to me a couple of hours later, and I was like, ‘I’ve got to do this.’
“Being in media for 25 ideas, brand is important to me. If you don’t have a strong brand, you don’t have a strong presence. I’ve always believed it, and I’ll believe it for as long as I’m in media. Because it is my name, the branding does not get any stronger in connection.”
He added that he had shared the branding with partners who got it and noted that the feedback was positive.
“The comments I’m getting from people [are that they] love the name and love the brand, and that’s a good start. The fact people recall it simply because of the name, to me, that’s powerful.”
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Top image: Michael Bass