News

Creative agencies more to blame for holding back spend on new media, says Mondelez marketer Pete Mitchell

Pete Mitchell

Mitchell at I Am Wednesday last night

Creative agencies are more responsible than media agencies for being slow to spend on popular new media platforms, the head of media innovation at Mondelez International said last night.

In answer to a question from Mumbrella on whether spend in newer channels such as online and mobile was being curbed because agencies make larger margins on traditional media, Pete Mitchell, the Singapore-based global media innovation director at the snacks giant said that there was “some truth” in this notion.

“We still live off a legacy that is aligned to what we do through TV and print production,” Mitchell said at the I am Wednesday in Singapore.

Mitchell, who has spent all of his career agency-side with the likes of Neo@Ogilvy, IPG Mediabrands and Mindshare until last year, went on to say that media agencies were less to blame than their creative cousins for marketing spend not keeping up with where consumers are spending their time.

In Singapore, the world’s most advanced smartphone market, where smart mobile device penetration is well over 100 per cent, still only a small percentage of marketing spend goes on any kind of digital media. The IAB hopes to has a target for 20 per cent of total marketing spend in Southeast Asia to be online within five years.

“If there is an issue of more money being made [by agencies] from traditional media, this is more because creative agencies are not recommending to spend on new channels. Media agencies are more agnostic in their recommendations,” said Mitchell, after giving a presentation on his experience of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

“It is more the media agency’s job to give advice based on where people are spending their time, and their clients should heed it,” he said.

Mitchell is just over a year into his current role at Mondelez, having moved from the US, where he ran BP’s digital business at Mindshare, to Singapore, in January 2014.

ADVERTISEMENT

Get the latest media and marketing industry news (and views) direct to your inbox.

Sign up to the free Mumbrella Asia newsletter now.

 

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up to our free daily update to get the latest in media and marketing