Media Operating Model Playbook for the Next Media Palooza

For many CMOs, Procurement Directors, and Global Heads of Media, the next big Media Palooza is already on the horizon. We estimate $40 billion of media agency pitches will hit 2027. 

You might feel a pressure to move quickly as a result, but the biggest risk is not whether you are picking the right agency. The biggest risk is launching a pitch too early without having a clear, honest and ambitious media operating model sketched out.

This episode of #MediaSnack Live is a practical guide to doing that work first. Below we unpack the 'AS IS' and 'TO BE' framework, the 'build or buy' workshop, and how a sharp blueprint can move your pitch brief to the very top of the agency CEO’s pile of pitch invites.

The ID Comms Breakdown

A media operating model defines how your organization uses media as a lever for growth across people, process, data, tech and partners. Before any pitch, mapping today’s reality and tomorrow’s ambition lets you brief agencies clearly, expose gaps, and decide what to build internally versus buy from the market.

Whats going on?

We see a familiar pattern. Advertisers feel a wave of agency pitches building, especially ahead of the next Media Palooza. The temptation is to rush straight into an RFP, hoping a new agency will fix structural issues that actually sit inside the brand’s own operating model.

In 2015’s first big Media Palooza, many brands simply bought an agency 'off the shelf' for cheaper prices. That is no longer how sophisticated advertisers behave. According to COMvergence data around 90% of global media pitches now use specialist pitch consultants, and a single global review can require 600 to 700 hours of senior expertise.

Today, every serious pitch starts with operating model interrogation and design. CMOs, marketing procurement, and media leaders are sitting down together to ask: How do we want media to work inside our organization over the next two to three years, and what does that mean for our agency brief?

What are the implications?

The implication is simple and uncomfortable. If you do not do the operating model work, your agency partners have to guess what you really need. That leads to generic proposals, misaligned scopes, poorly designed remuneration, and long onboarding cycles where everyone discovers the real issues too late.

David highlights that agencies are chameleons. Holding companies, independents and vertical specialists all flex around your brief. The clearer your blueprint, the better they can design a solution that amplifies your strengths and compensates for your weaknesses.

We also see operational friction when the 'AS IS' model is not understood. A survey reported by Digital Content Next found that 77% of media professionals see recurring pricing or deadline errors in pre-sales and 44% say those derail work entirely. The same thing happens in media management when roles, data flows and governance are fuzzy.

How should marketers be thinking?

CMOs and procurement leaders should treat media operating model work as the most strategic part of pitch preparation, not an optional pre-read. The mindset is: fix your house before you invite new partners in.

That means:

• Owning a frank diagnostic of strengths and weaknesses in media management
• Deciding which capabilities must sit inside the organization for control and learning
• Being explicit about which parts of the media process you want agencies to own, incubate or scale over time

The goal is not a pretty org chart. It is a practical, living model that positions media as a driver of growth.

Why operating model work wins in a 'Media Palooza' year

In a Media Palooza year, there is a finite pool of top agency talent. At the same time, the complexity of contracts, data, AI and retail media makes each pitch heavier. You are competing with other brands not just for agency capacity, but for the attention of the very best teams.

In busy years agency CEOs literally sit with heads of new business and decide which three or four pitches to truly prioritize. Your goal is to be in that top pile. A sharp media operating model is one of the most compelling ways to get there.

Advertisers that lead with clarity can walk into a chemistry meeting and say: here is how we manage data, tech, contracts and strategy today; here is the operating model vision we want to reach over the next three years; here is where we need you to help us build, buy or incubate capabilities. That is catnip for serious agency leadership.

A useful analogy comes from a UK publisher case study by Q5. They translated a growth strategy into a clear operating model, aligned ways of working and practical actions, so teams knew how to deliver. Media is no different. When your internal and external teams can see the operating model, they can execute with more focus and less politics.

For CMOs and procurement, this work is also political capital. It shows your CFO and wider leadership that you are not just switching agencies for cheaper rates, you are deliberately reshaping how media drives growth.

How to run your 'AS IS' and 'TO BE' operating model exercise

David breaks down the work into a simple sequence: 'AS IS', 'TO BE', build or buy, blueprint, go to market. The value is in how honestly you tackle each stage and who you invite into the room.

For the 'AS IS', start by benchmarking current delivery. Review contracts, scopes of work, data ownership, technology stack, governance forums and remuneration. Where are you enabling performance, and where are you unintentionally blocking it? CMOs, procurement, media leads and finance should all see the same picture.

Next look at integration. Many organizations still have brand and performance marketing running on separate tracks. Paid media, influencer, retail media and e-commerce budgets are fragmented. Map who controls each budget and whether there is a shared objective that aligns them.

Then assess budget control and decision rights. Who signs off strategy, who signs off activation, who controls contracts, and who can change agency scope? Misaligned decision rights are one of the fastest ways to waste media investment.

Finally, define strategic accountability. The most effective advertisers have a person or function accountable for the consumer journey and media’s role in it. If that accountability is fragmented, the consumer experience becomes noisy and inconsistent.

Once you have the 'AS IS', you can design the 'TO BE'. This is your ideal model in two to three years, not a fantasy end state. Ask: what needs to change in structure, process, data, tech, talent and governance to plug the gaps and neutralize the flaws you have just exposed? The 'TO BE' should be specific enough that you can brief it to agencies and internal stakeholders.

Each year ID Comms advises dozens of advertisers on effective media operating models that inform and improve their agency negotiations and pitches. 

The 'build or buy' workshop and your agency blueprint

With a clear 'AS IS' and 'TO BE', the next move is what Tom and David call the build or buy workshop. This is where the key stakeholders in marketing, procurement and media sit together and decide which capabilities they want to build internally and which they want to buy from agencies or other partners.

The workshop typically surfaces three types of capabilities:

• Capabilities you must own now (for example, contracts, data governance, strategic accountability)
• Capabilities you will build over time (for example, analytics, in-house biddable buying in key markets)
• Capabilities you prefer to buy from agencies (for example, global trading scale, specialist retail media expertise)

This is rarely binary. For instance, some brands that built in-house programmatic units later outsourced them again because they could not keep up with technology investment and talent. Others use agencies as incubators for new ideas, with a roadmap to bring certain tasks in-house as maturity grows.

From this work you create your blueprint. That blueprint becomes the heart of your agency brief:

• Here is our 'AS IS' operating model and our 'TO BE' vision
• Here is what we will build internally and what we expect you to provide
• Here is how we will measure strategic accountability and consumer experience
• Here is the roadmap of changes during the contract term

In a crowded Media Palooza field, that level of clarity is a competitive advantage. It also lets you use the pitch itself as a catalyst for internal change. You do not have to fix everything before going to market, but you do need a realistic plan that agencies can plug into.

Before you brief your next pitch, pressure-test your own blueprint with a small internal group. Does it help them see how media will work differently in 18 to 24 months? If not, refine it until it does. That is the level of clarity the best agencies expect.

As you consider your next steps, get in touch with ID Comms to confidentially discuss your gameplan and your options to protect your competitive advantage in media.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What is a media operating model in simple terms?
It is the way your organization structures people, process, data, tech and partners so that media investment drives growth, not just impressions.

Q2: Why do I need operating model work before a pitch?
Without it, agencies guess what you need. With it, they can design a solution that fits your strengths, addresses your gaps and scales over the next two to three years.

Q3: How long does an operating model project usually take?
For large global advertisers, the core 'AS IS' and 'TO BE' work often takes 6 to 10 weeks, depending on how many stakeholders and markets you include.

Q4: Who should be in the build or buy workshop?
Typically the CMO or marketing VP, the media lead, procurement, finance, and sometimes data or technology leaders who own martech and adtech.

Q5: Does this always lead to in-housing?
No. Some capabilities are better built internally, others are best left with agencies. The point is to decide consciously, not follow a trend.

Q6: How often should we refresh our media operating model?
Most global advertisers review it every two to three years, or when a new CMO arrives or a major strategic shift occurs.

Q7: Can we run a pitch and fix our internal model at the same time?
Yes. Many advertisers use a pitch or renegotiation as a catalyst for internal change, as long as there is a clear 'TO BE' vision.

Q8: How do we know if our 'AS IS' model is really a problem?
Look for signs like siloed budgets, duplicated work, unclear decision rights, and inconsistent measurement of media effectiveness.

Q9: Do holding company solutions still make sense?
They can, especially when you want integrated services including retail media. The right answer depends on your blueprint and internal capabilities.

Q10: How can ID Comms support this work?
Tom Denford, David Indo and the ID Comms team help advertisers run diagnostics, design operating models, and translate them into effective agency briefs and pitch processes.

Episode Transcript

Okay, so buying an off-the-shelf agency without first addressing some of your internal capabilities in media can be a mistake, and we're gonna talk about how not getting ready for a pitch properly, uh, can lead to failure. So today on Media Snack Live, we're gonna map out how to build your as is and your to be operating models so that you can pitch with absolute confidence. Coming up live from New York. Live from London. It's Media Snack Live. Hello, I'm Tom Denford in New York. And I'm David Indo from London. Welcome to Media Snack Live. It's our weekly roundup of all the- important news and stories and trends you need to know about the global media and marketing industry. In every show, we' ask what is going on, what are the implications for advertisers, and what should marketers be thinking about next. Thanks for joining us. Let's get into this week's show. So good. So we're gonna continue our... Uh, let's get rid of that. We're gonna continue our MediaPalooza- Yeah ... series. If you've been following along the last few weeks, um, we're talking about this phenomenon called MediaPalooza, which happens occasionally. Um, it was something that the press decided to call it MediaPalooza or the, I don't know what, there was lots of other versions of it, but MediaPalooza is one that stuck. Um, it's when lots and lots of advertisers all try and pitch or renegotiate with agencies, media agencies at the same time. Um, it does happen. It tends to be kind of- Mm ... cyclical sometimes. But the last big one was 10 years ago. We're anticipating, or, or the analysis that we're doing and others are, are, are looking at, um, suggest that there could be another one for 2027. We' get to see these things quite early because advertisers come to us to talk about their requirements for the year ahead over the summer. Um, and we can say, like, that is, that is the Richter scale is moving, let's say, uh, in a big way. So it looks like that's something that's gonna happen, so we thought we would spend a few weeks helping trying to get you ready. If you work in marketing or, uh, marketing procurement for an ava- you know, for an advertiser and, um, you know, you're anticipating some form of agency conversation, review, pitch, renegotiation in the next year and a half, this is what you need to be, uh, thinking about. Um, just a reminder, this is a live show, so for those of you that are following on, if you do leave comments in LinkedIn, YouTube, or elsewhere, like, we can see them. So and, um, if there's stuff that's relevant to the conversation, we'll, we'll put it on screen. So please, if you're watching along, leave comments. We love hearing back in real time. If you're listening on a podcast, hi, you can't see us, but, um, you know, we try to explain what we're doing without too much visual, uh, for you. And, uh, as always, there's a kind of replay for this. You can subscribe on, uh, YouTube, LinkedIn, and all the other places. Um, and also if you go to idcoms.com, you can subscribe to the newsletter that comes out every Friday with this episode and all the sur- our surrounding kind of episode notes around it, give you a bit more of a briefing, particularly the stuff that David's gonna say today. So- Yeah ... we write that after David has already given you the advice, okay? Then that comes in an email, uh, Friday afternoons. Uh, right. So let's break down, we've done loads of work over the years, David. Mm. And I think I'm right in saying it's one of the bits of this work that we've done together over the years that you, I know that you're the best at, but you really like, is the- Yeah ... looking inside the marketing organization. Yeah. I know- Before we start thinking about agencies, you sit with the CMO, you sit with the procurement leaders, and you help them des- and you and the team help them design- Yeah ... operating models for media. Yeah. Which is always really rewarding stuff. Mm. Um, uh, and you did that when you were, you were on, as many of the viewers know, you know, you were at Coca-Cola, you were at Nike, and you worked inside these organizations, so you got incredible insight into how big marketing organizations work and should work. Um, and now how big brands are doing this. Yeah. Right? They come to, they come to David and they say, "How do we transform our internal operating model?" Uh, so let's go, in the context of MediaPalooza, let's go through that. I wanna, over to you. Yeah. Uh, we'll say what's going on. But what, what do we mean when we talk about operating models? Well, I think that this is probably the most interesting and the most strategic part of the preparation stage. We've talked, I think, in a previous episode about the different stages and phases of, of pi- of pitch management. Yeah. And the most critical part is the preparation, and I believe that the most critical part of the preparation stage is understanding the operating model requirements of your agency. Yeah. And the reason that that is really critical is because, um, it allows you to understand your relative strengths and weaknesses from a media management perspective. And if you can be frank and honest and comprehensive in your understanding as to where those weaknesses and strengths lie- Mm ... then your ability to go to market with, uh, a very directive, clear, unambiguous blueprint allows the agencies to do their very best work. Okay? Yeah. And, and that's kind of really important because, as you said in, I think the intro, nobody buys an agency off the shelf. In 2015, when MediaPalooza one was going on- Yeah ... people did go to buy an agency off the shelf. They went to Mindshare or they went to OMD or, or Carat- Yeah ... because they wanted a particular type of agency that would give them cheaper prices. Mm. Um, we haven't worked on, uh, a renegotiation or a competitive tendering process in the last five years that hasn't started with some form of operating model interrogation- Yeah ... and design work. Yeah. Because, um- You ask the Stupidity community one of two questions. Number one, I need your help to compensate for my internal weaknesses. Mm. And/or I need you to help amplify my internal strengths. Yeah. But the operating model work that we do is designed to identify what those relative weaknesses and strengths are, because- Okay ... the agencies are chameleons. The agency ecosystem, whether it be a holding company structure, or an independent, or a vertical specialist, they are des- they design themselves to cater to your needs. And the clearer that you can be with your requests, not only in terms of the type of agency structure and services that you need to manage your media now- Yeah ... but critically over the next two or three years, that is really important, that clarity. Yeah. And, and as part of the, the discovery stage, if you like, designing this operating model work, which I'll take, take everybody through in terms of the key stages later on in the show. The most important is what we call the build or buy workshop. Yeah. And this is where we get the key stakeholders, uh, from the marketing and procurement and media organizations in, in a room, and we orchestrate the meeting to enable them to be really clear and aligned as to what they want to build internally, what kind of controls they want to have within the media management process internally. So what capabilities do they need to invest in internally to manage media better- Yeah ... but also, which bits of the media management process do you wanna buy? Which m- bits of the media management process do you need to go to market and then go and source? Yeah. And the clearer we can be in these two areas, the clearer the blueprint to the marketplace. Yeah. Now often, this build or buy process isn't definitive. So it generally creates a roadmap. There may be some aspects of the media management process that you wanna build now, but others that you want to evolve into, and that becomes a really interesting part of the brief because we'll- Yeah ... take that thinking and that roadmap work into the RFP to the agencies, and we'll ask them, "How will you help incubate this idea? What will be your role over the next two, three years if you work with us, to help begin to bring that to life?" And I think that's a really nice strategic way of, of, um, designing and evolving your own operating model in unison and in agency with your agency partners. Yeah. Yeah. Good. We love that. So, uh, and I think as you, you said, like ev- I think every pitch has started with some form of op model- Yeah ... work, you know, more recently, and that's become more popular, and it typically starts with a, a procurement or a media, like, protagonist who, who's, or provo- you know, prov- provocateur, um, who says, "Could we be working in a more effective way?" That's very healthy to start, okay, how can we be better, before we sometimes then go and ask agencies to be better. Um, and so we c- we, we like it when that happens. There's not always time to do that in, in the full thing. Some ... I think we were talking yesterday, uh, last week, last episode, about, uh, you know, advertiser who says, "All gas, no brakes." Like, just- Mm ... we've got to ... Because sometimes you do have to change agency for some reason, whatever. But, um, but typically that, that preparation, critically important. Um, and more and more in the US as well. I mean, for those, again, that have been watching a while, you, you'll, you'll know, you can see on the screen here, I'm based in the US and David's based primarily in London. But we have a, a large client base in across North America and, uh, you know, most of the operating, well, a good proportion of the o- o- a majority of the operating model work that we've been doing this year has been in, in the US. Yeah. More a- much more appetite we're finding for US marketing organizations to go through that process of, you know, introspection, and often new CMO coming in just wanting- Mm ... a new way of doing things, understanding that media is increasingly central to the marketing org. Um- Yeah ... it's not a department that, or a corridor, where there's some media buyers who manage agencies. That, that this is quite fundamental now, particularly with, uh, the role of media te- and technology. And a lot of brands doing more of the stuff themselves as well. That's, you know, one of the things that's, we're finding, right? We're, we're, um, the build or buy is also an in-housing question, in-housing- Yeah ... conversation- Right. Yeah ... which continues. I mean, w- just quickly on that, what's, what's, what level of in-housing? I get pro- probably once a month, I get a call from a journalist who said, "Which way is the in-housing needle going?" You know? Yeah. Is it, are people kind of outsourcing more because it got, we got all caught up in how- Yeah ... ex- exciting in-housing was, or is it, is it all more stuff I think, I think- I mean- ... this thing is, it's a broad church. So in-housing, in its, in its, uh, broadest sense is about bringing in greater control. So whether that be controlling contracts, uh, whether that be having direct, uh, line of sight and negotiations with kind of key, uh, media vendors. Perhaps people default, the knee-jerk reaction when we call in-housing, uh, is, is kind of fingers on the, on the, the buying buttons, if you like. Yeah. And I think for some advertisers that, that's important. If you are a heavily performance-driven business, if you are more centralized, then many advertisers are creating centralized buying hubs in kind of- Mm-hmm ... key markets that can kind of control a lot of the programmatic and biddable buying. Um, but equally, we've got advertisers that were pioneers of, uh, in-housing programmatic buying units. Yeah. And they've outsourced it because they were unable to, uh, you know, keep on top of the, the technological in- uh, investments required. They were struggling to bring in the right kind of talent and motivate that kind of talent. And they- Yeah ... actually see real benefits, actually, using the great resources that the agency Systems have got. Yeah. So it kind of varies, but there hasn't been a big rush for in-housing buying units perhaps as much as we'd have thought maybe five or six years ago. Yeah. Um, but I think the, the direction of travel in terms of in-housing greater control is, uh, without, without doubt something that we are seeing more and more and more of within every advertiser, if not certainly the progressive ones that we speak to. Yeah. Yeah, very good. Um, the implications on this are pretty simple because, uh, w- I think you and I have touched on them already, so I won't dwell too much on it, but I'll just talk for a second on the implications, and then I think we should go to, I like the practicalities of- Really ... how do you actually do this stuff? Because for w- whatever reason, on Media Snack, we just decide to give you everything that we do. We just tell you exactly the way we do stuff. Um, so if it's helpful, um, we're gonna go through actually some of the steps to designing an operating model, and, uh, if you wanna undertake that work yourself or you come to us and we can help you do it, then, uh, hopefully this should give you a bit of a, bit of a good start. The implication, the main thing in the cont- and we're doing this in the context of MediaPalooza. I should say, we've done it in the past. We've done lots of Media Snack episodes in our archives about operating models, and if this is a deep dive, you can find those episodes, uh, uh, on our playlists on YouTube, but also on ideacoms.com, our website. Uh, we have a lot of resources kind of organized around these different types of processes. So, um, this is about in the context of MediaPalooza, what is the, what is the implication of doing some op model work or defining or doing some diagnostic and then designing a new operating model, uh, for media ahead of MediaPalooza? So the last couple of weeks we've been talking about how there's this big wave of media agency pitches that are building, and just as a re- reminder, um, th- 2026 looks like it could be a $30 billion media pitch year, which would be up there with some of the busiest years ever. Yeah. The, doing analysis of brands that haven't pitched for a long time, um, and expecting, because there's been a little bit of a backlog the last couple of years, a lot of a- advertisers wait, bit in the kind of wait and see whilst the agency community organizes its technology and its AI offerings and there's been these consolidations of big agencies going on. There's a bit of a glut or agents, uh, advertisers that have been holding back that we, a- and we know plenty of them, um, and we're continue to advise them. Lots of them. So 2027 looks like it could be a- around about a $40 billion pitch year. Um, and we look at these each year. We can, we start to kind of think about what the volume of the, of, of it's gonna be. Our analysis suggests that. Others are doing analysis of the market suggest that there's going to be a kind of peak of media pitches happening next year. So in that context, what does, you know... We don't want to panic you into rushing to pitch, um, and nor should you ever rush to pitch. The, the point in, certainly in this episode, but good practice is to do some internal assessment. We call it a diagnos- diagnostic or an internal, uh, media assessment of the operating model, and figure out what the gaps are that you need to perhaps- Yeah ... address and how you wanna work before you go speak to the agency. That's the whole point. Um, the big implication when it comes to MediaPalooza is there are a finite amount of agencies. And if it's $40 billion worth of media being pitched, that's obviously a lot of advertisers chasing the attention of fewer agencies actually, 'cause they're consolidating. So what does that mean? It means that actually you have to stand out somewhat as an advertiser. If you're going, excuse me, if you're going and you want to work with the, some of the best agency talent and the best teams and the best technology within these best agencies, you have to present yourself to them in a very compelling way. And a lot of the work that we do is to help try and shape your pitch brief and your presentation to agencies. We actually say to advertisers a lot, "You've gotta kind of pitch yourself first," because you need to make sure that when your brief and your invite goes to the best agencies in the US, for example, that the, the CEOs of those agencies are really paying attention. And one of the best possible ways to, to do that is to say, "We have clarity on our operating model." Yeah. "This is how we work. This is how we want you to work. This is how we want our agencies to work with us in a collaborative partnership." That is, that clarity is huge motivation for agency management. To say, "Look, we've done our homework. We really understand where our strengths and weaknesses are. This is the stuff that we wanna do internally, in-house. Here are the data assets that we've got, here are the technologies we use, here is the, the talent that we have and the leadership that we have around media. This is our strategy, and this is what we need, now we need you to do." I, we guarantee you that gets you to the top of the pile when it comes to the best agencies having a stack, excuse me, a stack of pitch briefs on their desk, which is kind of literally how it works. You know, the agency CEO will meet with the head of new business, and they'll decide which three pitches we're gonna focus on this month. Okay? You wanna be in that top tier. Uh, we are very good at getting you on the top of that pile, and one of the ways that we do that is b- is defining real clarity around the operating model. So that's the, that's the only real point of the implication of why it's important in terms of MediaPalooza. Yeah. Because you're competing with other brands at this point to get attention of the CEOs of the best agencies in the world. Um, okay, let's spend some time now, let's just unpack what that means. Okay? So if you're a marketer, you're a procurer, and you're nodding along thinking, "Okay, thinking about pitching maybe next year," David, this sounds kind of interesting. What- how do I start? Okay. What, what should we do? So this is what I would do if I was- Yeah ... in that kind of role. Um, the first thing I would do is establish the 'AS IS' baseline. Mm-hmm. So what is your current position? So establishing your, uh, benchmark for current delivery. So I'd look at my contracts, I'd look at my data provision, make sure that, uh, I'm controlling as much data as possible. I'd look at my agency remuneration, my agency scopes of work. What are the things that I've currently got in play that are enabling or disabling kind of media effectiveness? Mm-hmm. So I'd look at that. The second thing I would look at is integration, right? How truly integrated are we as an organization perhaps when it comes to brand marketing and performance marketing? You would be amazed how many organizations, Tom, are still operating in a really kind of siloed fashion. Now, that's fine because it's often difficult for organizations to smash down these barriers, but as long as you understand that that is a problem, then you can ask your agency solution to try and fix that. So the integration. The next thing is budget control. Media is being, um, divided, media investments are being kind of separated so quickly with paid media, influencer, retail media, e-commerce. Who controls all of these kind of budget lines? And you wanna make sure that there is some degree of symmetry and overarching objective that allows each of these budget controllers to be pointing in the same direction. Again, if that's impossible to do internally, ask your agency to bring that level of governance. But you know the thing that, the single thing that I would do if I was a marketeer now- Mm-hmm ... um, that I think has the greatest material difference from businesses that are truly being effective when it comes to media delivery, to those that are, are, are not, or are wasting media investments, and that is have strategic accountability. Yeah. And that's what I would bring in-house. Now, what I mean by strategic accountability is a person or a function that is accountable and responsible for the consumer journey, for the consumer experience. Yeah. Now, if that is fragmented because you've got different departments delivering consumer messages in different ways to different objectives, then that consumer experience becomes clouded and dysfunctional. So those organizations that I've seen that truly deliver on integrated marketing communications are those that have some form of strategic accountability. Now, again, if you can't bring that in-house, then enable your agency to do that. So, so that's what I mean. So that would be the 'AS IS' situation. Yeah. Understand what your current position is on all of these aspects. Then we look at the 'TO BE'. So in an ideal scenario, how would that look in order to plug the gaps, uh, neutralize the flaws within your internal operating model based on all of these criteria that you've established in the 'AS IS'. Mm-hmm. So you've got the 'AS IS' and then the 'TO BE'. Yeah. Then you do the build or buy workshop. Once you understand where you need to go- Mm-hmm ... you then understand which bits of those gaps you want to build and invest in internally, and which bill- which bits you want to go and get your agency partners to s- to, to create a solution. Yeah. That then leads you into the blueprint. Yeah. You've got a blueprint now that allows you to go to market and ask your agencies for a solution that delivers against the gaps that you've identified on your 'TO BE'. Yeah. And then you go to market. So if I was creating a T-shirt, um, yeah, I know you like a bit of merch. Uh, so if I was- Yeah ... creating a T-shirt with this on it- Yeah ... it would be 'AS IS', 'TO BE'- Yeah ... build or buy- Yeah ... blueprint, go to market. That's a- On both sides ... quite long band name, isn't it? It is. It is. Yeah. The world tour. Uh, no, exactly. So th- th- and that, that is a, uh, that is a system that we work with advertisers through exactly that. They're really interesting, they're really interesting exercises. Uh, the bit I always love in that as well is where, you're very good at this, where you bring, you bring all the expertise from like other brands. Yeah. You know, because typically we find it more, I think more with marketing perhaps more than procurement, but there, there's always a point where marketers are like, "David, who's do-" you know, "Who's doing this really well?" Mm. You know, "What do our competitors do? What are, what are other brands in our category? What kind of operating models do they? What does their 'TO BE' look like? What's their vision look like?" Everybody of, uh, it's a bit of a cliche, but everybody's always got this idea that they're somehow lagging the category, and it's a really nice experience usually to, once we unpack the 'AS IS' and identify where the gaps are- Yeah ... it's warts and all, but the reassuring part is, listen, we've, A, we've typically seen worse, but you're not necessarily lagging the category- Yeah ... or brands that are trying to do... It's not always ca- category, is it? But you're not lagging the category. And we try to create, and we put those brands in these, in a pe- a peer group of- Yeah ... businesses who are, who are on the same blueprint journey. Yeah. They could be different categories, but they're solving different parts of the problem in different ways. There's loads of outside learnings that we can bring in from other businesses and I think that gives, gives the stakeholders a huge reassurance that they're not lagging behind, that these are solvable challenge- Mm-hmm ... very solvable challenges, and they get inspiration from their peers in different businesses who have actually gone through that. Yeah. So that, that blueprint kind of roadmap for change is, is very reassuring once you put it in place. Yeah. And the, the other thing that I'd just add to that, and, and this is kind of important because it's always a discussion that we have when we get to that kind of blueprint, uh, stage in the, in the process. The, the client will ask me, you know, "What is the most effective solution? Do we, should we fix our internal gaps first? Should we- Yeah ... complete the, the build bit and then go and buy, or kind of vice versa?" And the truth of the matter is that it's a bit of a hybrid of both, because what you tend to find is that an agency, either renegotiation or tendering process, can act as, can act as a really powerful catalyst for internal change. Yeah. So if you need, if you're a media- Yeah ... director and you're feeling somewhat isolated because you've got, you've got a brilliant plan in mind, but you're struggling to get traction intern- internally- Yeah ... often a good solution is use your agency levers as a, as a, as a, as a catalyst for internal change. Yeah. So you don't, it doesn't need to be linear. One doesn't need to follow the other. Yeah. Um, as long as both get fixed at some stage, then, then that's the most important thing. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think we find, oh, a very little bit, but I think the, once you've got a 2B vision, probably our recommendation, I think the right recommendation for m- for the MediaPalooza context of this is try and get, if you can, if you have the time, start as soon as you can. Do some of this exercise to get at least to that kind of 2B vision. Yeah. That equips you enough, I think, to be able to then go and comfortably l- you know, launch a pitch or a renegotiation with your agency, because you'll say, "Look, here's the strategic vision that we have for media. Here's the broad, uh, operating model sketched out. We haven't yet decided exactly what the scope is going to be." Um, but it's, that's a, at least a good start to where you can start planning your pitch- Yeah ... uh, to be effective. Um, we've got a whole bunch of questions that have come through, so I'm just gonna pull some of these up on screen. David, I don't know whether you can see them, but- Mm-hmm ... um, uh, first one I would say is, uh, "I've tried in-housing. What David says is entirely the reason that we closed it down." That's it. That's very interesting. Um, yeah, we found a lot of ... It comes and goes, doesn't it? I mean, the, we've still got briefs from advertisers, and we're working through op models where it suits them to build more capabilities internally, but you're taking on a lot of responsibility, um, in doing that. Uh, question for you, "How do you feel like current media landscape reflects on the op model with agencies?" Multiple agencies, multiple different ways of working- Yeah, it's a great- What about media? And you know what, I mean, there's no silver bullet to this, and there's no, there's no easy answer. It depends on how complicated you are as an organization and what kind of dynamic you have in play. We see, uh, increasing interest in holding group solutions now that the holding companies are able to take the very bit, best bits out of their holding company portfolio and offer, uh, a, a very bespoke solution to advertisers, which also include retail media. Equally, we see businesses that have that central strategic function internally. Yeah. They act as the conductor. They have the sophistication and the governance protocols internally to be able to manage the media management process in a sophisticated way- Yeah ... allowing them to go to market and, and source very expert specialist resource and then kind of manage that kind of process. Equally, businesses that, that, that use a conventional, traditional holding company agency, but then looking for specialist expertise when it comes to vertical, uh, capabilities like retail media. Yeah. So it is a combination of all. But the build or buy and the operating model work that is done in preparation for the pitch will allow you clarity, I think, as to what is the right route for you as a business. Yeah. There's, there's some good comments here. Um, I, we're not gonna have time to go through them all, unfortunately, but thank you so much for sending these. I'll read this out for those listening, "How does one really define an op model? I find people increasingly change the operation, operational model and then fail to address other areas like process, contract, ways of working, scopes of work. Op model needs to be more than just who reports to who." Exactly right. Exactly, and I, I agree with all of that, and actually, it's not just about, uh, an organigram. That's not an operating model. An operating model is, is how you position media as a lever for growth and what are the critical enablers of that. So structure is one thing, but without, without a good way of working, without strategic KPIs that allow the entire business to see the value of media, uh- Yeah ... and a clearly defined scope of work that the agency are gonna be delivering against to enable your vision for media to come to life, none of it works. Yeah. Um- We could talk about this for ages. I love this stuff. Yeah. And there's loads of really good comments. Thank you so much. Um, well, um, we're gonna wrap up the episode. This is the last one. I don't know who this is. Uh, I don't know why they're coming through anonymously, but that's fine. Um, "I could talk this all day. I love agency management. My favorite part of the job, also writing pitch briefs." Well, you've come to the right show, whoever you are- ... uh, 'cause that's what we love talking about as well. So thanks so much for that. Appreciate all of your comments. Um, we're going to probably end it there. Go to idcoms.com. Um, all of our resources are on there. We'd love to help you if you're starting this kind of journey. Um, hopefully you can see the enthusiasm we have for helping advertisers just get good at media and getting those operating models right. Um, before MediaPalooza pitches all start, this is a really good, good time to do it. Um, enjoy the rest of your summer and get busy. Get busy planning your op model. Uh, okay, mate, we'll see you next time. Yeah, all the best. Bye. Thanks, love. Thank you. Thanks for watching Media Snack Live. If you found it helpful and want to learn more, head to idcoms.com to get more tips, tools, and resources to help you get good at media. We'll see you next week.