Faced with this coronavirus annus horribilis, it is easy to reach for aggressive rhetoric about competition and how struggling businesses need to adapt or die.
Sir Martin Sorrell warned at the start of the Covid-19 crisis that it would trigger a 鈥淒arwinian cull鈥 of the ad industry. But there are two sides to Darwinism. We tend to forget Charles Darwin also stressed the importance of loving and co-operative behaviour among animals. In The Descent of Man, he showed how natural selection favours sympathetic and co-operative groups.
Andrew Stephens, Goodstuff Communications鈥 co-founder, experienced this first hand during the pandemic. Speaking to 北京赛车pk10 at the launch of the 鈥淟and of independents鈥 marketing campaign to promote 17 rival independent media agencies, Stephens revealed how the idea was sparked after a series of cross-agency video calls began in April 鈥 with bosses comparing notes about meeting challenges, such as cost savings and furloughs. 鈥淓very two weeks we would all go around the agencies and give a business update, as to what forecasts we had in the business, and [to ask] any questions we had,鈥 Stephens recalls.聽
The 鈥淟and of independents鈥 campaign rounded off a summer of collaborative partnerships. The UK鈥檚 public-service broadcasters 鈥 the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 鈥 united to launch 鈥淥ur stories鈥, their first joint consumer marketing campaign to promote the power of TV. The government, meanwhile, worked with news brands on a series of Covid-19 awareness campaigns in the national press. And ITV is talking up collaboration once more with the launch of Planet V, its addressable ad-buying platform.聽
Kelly Williams, ITV鈥檚 managing director, commercial, wants Sky, Channel 4 and others to come on to the platform in the coming years, because buying on it should become easier with more broadcasters on board. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to win by all of us building different technologies,鈥 Williams claims. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to win by collaborating on tech and competing on content.鈥
Even before Covid-19, the changing market was forcing rivals to consider working together 鈥 from the UK鈥檚 biggest news brands pooling their digital ad sales in The Ozone Project to the ITV-BBC collaboration on BritBox, a joint streaming venture, to take on the US giants.
It is tempting to write off such moves as defensive or traditional media huddling together for warmth, while Google and Facebook capture the lion鈥檚 share of revenue growth. But even tech titan Microsoft had to embrace collaboration to bounce back from decline to regain its spot (albeit briefly) as the world鈥檚 most valuable company last year. Chief executive Satya Nadella bravely decided to make its ubiquitous Windows and Office software open-source, thus embracing outside engineering ideas instead of hoarding intellectual property at all costs.
Covid-19 has certainly encouraged a new spirit of collaboration, as seen at the start of the pandemic with media owners giving away inventory to support 鈥淐lap for carers鈥 and other community initiatives.
The judges who took part in 北京赛车pk10鈥檚 recent Media Week Awards will testify that some of the most inspiring work this year was in the four, special Covid-19 categories, which included an award for best media collaboration.
When we look back on the pandemic, it may well be that those media companies that worked together best outside their tribes will emerge healthier and happier. Not so much a 鈥淒arwinian cull鈥 as a Darwinian call to arms.
Omar Oakes is media and technology editor at 北京赛车pk10