THE LAST decade has been a slow motion car crash for print media. Sales have suffered a precipitous fall, trusted newspapers and magazines have retreated onto the internet, and scores of cherished outlets have shut up shop entirely. In 2018, the chief executive of
But two print advertising stalwarts are refusing to go down without a fight. After distinguished careers at major marketing agencies,
Major marketing firms, however, are rapidly losing interest in print, and have subsequently stopped spending money on it. Like newspapers, some have merged their print and digital teams altogether. As a result, Goodman tells me, those agencies are left with a team full of digital specialists who "every now and then [are] told to go off and buy a print campaign, without having a clue about the craft behind doing that correctly".
That intersection — where demand for print advertising meets a lack of expertise at major agencies — is where the two ad men come in. Goodman became director of
In July last year, they met for coffee. Goodman floated the idea, and the months that followed involved "watching my savings diminish," says Thomson. Their business model involves taking on the print marketing operations for bigger independent agencies for whom it is no longer profitable. They officially opened for business in January, having moved into their new office space in King's Cross. This is where I meet them.
Thomson, especially, is thinking big. Within 20 minutes of sitting down he has already quoted
These "shenanigans," as he calls them, mainly come in the form of advertising kickbacks, whereby newspapers reward agencies for buying ad space in bulk with cash, fees or other benefits. Larger firms have faced widespread accusations of pocketing rebates that should be passed on to the customers who have paid for the space, as well as persuading unwitting clients to spend money on ads not because it helps them, but because it allowed the agency to get the extra cash.
Inefficient planning of ads with news outlets, which kickback culture contributes to, is costing brands in the
For now, however, their efforts are concentrated on winning business — and the early signs seem promising. Goodman says the company is already "quite deep" in talks to take over the print buying operations of several independent agencies. "We've pretty much been appointed by one of them already," he says, stopping short of telling me which one.
In one sense, Thomson admits, "we are zigging while everyone else is zagging".
But in another, the move reflects a wider trend sweeping the industry, which has seen clients turn to specialist, channel-specific agencies rather than using the big names across all disciplines.
"And like they have done in other media," says Goodman, "we believe now is the time that they will start considering that in print."
When we spoke to friends both in and out of the industry, they said: 'What on earth are you doing?'
(c) 2020 City A.M., source