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When a phrase is elevated to acronym status, you know it has reached a certain level of acceptance in the marketing fraternity. And that's certainly the case with media-neutral planning - or MNP. Last year the term spawned supplements, conferences and endless industry debate but - as with that blighted acronym CRM - opinion is divided about its significance.

Its detractors argue that MNP is simply a new word for that well-documented challenge: integration. Not only that but surely it's common sense that clients and their agencies should put business objectives and the audience they're trying to reach before any preconceived notions about the most appropriate media channel to use.

In the other camp are those who believe that the delivery of genuine MNP is probably the biggest single issue facing the industry at the moment. And meeting that challenge encompasses a raft of fundamental issues including renumeration, agency structure and research and evaluation techniques. Each of these areas has to be tackled before MNP becomes a reality and each is entrenched in certain historical approaches which are at odds with a media-neutral landscape.

This month's Think Tank panel falls broadly into the second camp. They agree that far from being just the latest buzz word, MNP goes to the heart of many issues which clients and their agencies will be grappling with in 2003 and beyond. And direct marketers and their agencies, who may feel confident that they are already well-versed in working across different channels, face just as big a challenge.

"It doesn't matter if you're an ad agency or a DM agency, you have a tendency to follow your own specialist background. As a client, that's not what I want, says Simon Miles, marketing director at World Rally Championship.

And just as the traditional advertising agencies face the biggest obstacles when it comes to restructuring out of their areas of vested interest, so too do established DM agencies. "When we set up AIS we thought there was an opportunity to do things differently and it's a damn sight easier to do it from a blank sheet, says Jon Ingall, managing director of AIS. "Evans Hunt Scott was a very good DM agency but trying to convince clients that we did anything beyond taking a TV ad and turning it into a mail pack was impossible."

For J Walter Thompson, one of the largest advertising agencies, restructuring away from its historical strengths is an even greater task. But business development director Peter Cowie says that the single biggest factor to have influenced this process has been moving offices last year. "We went from rabbit warrens to an open plan structure. Now you have, say, Team Vodafone, which is a big branded-up area where everyone who works on that account sits - from the DM people to the creative people and TV producers."

But Cowie recognises that a complete upheaval is unlikely. "Big agencies are just really busy spinning plates and delivering what they have to on a day-to-day basis. A restructure in an agency is a very uncomfortable thing. You get lots of people agreeing that they should change but you won't get many doing it in the short term."

Brian Aspin, head of media development at Royal Mail, disagrees. He thinks that the catalyst for change among the big agencies will be "revenue threat from other agencies but argues that the biggest obstacle to change is remuneration. Aspin distinguishes between visible or direct remuneration, which a client can control, and invisible or indirect remuneration which is beyond their control. "The requirements of any single client - unless they are a huge multinational - are frankly less important than the over-riding pressure of the media buying schedule that the agency has to deliver against, says Aspin. Volume deals with media owners or any sort of commercial benefits that result from using a certain channel will inevitably undermine any attempt at giving media-neutral advice.

"As a client you can effect direct renumeration but if you want to believe the advice you're getting isn't biased by other commercial factors then either the whole mechanism has to change or there has to be a true open-book understanding of the other pressures on the adviser," says Aspin.

Dispensing advice which is to the best advantage of the client and not the agency is a moot point and it's not just the agencies which are at fault, says Angus Jenkinson, professor of integrated marketing at Luton Business School and founder of the new Centre for Integrated Marketing. "Marketing departments replicate many of the problems that agencies have by allocating different budgets to different disciplines. By running a DM pitch you are presupposing that DM is the answer."

But Jeremy Found, head of media at COI Communications, an organisation which has a fearsome reputation for agency accountability, believes that focused budget allocation is fine as long as "that point is arrived at strategically in the first place". COI has a media strategy roster and its remit, says Found, is to think about communication in its broadest sense.

"Media agencies are well placed to take a lead role in media neutral planning because they've invested in the skills across the board and consider media to be any point of contact with your target audience, he says. "What you need are strong strategic thinkers who can get you to that place in the first instance and then use the right agencies to execute that strategy for you."

Although there is agreement that establishing a trusted source of advice is vital for marketers, Jane Asscher, managing partner of agency 23red, isn't convinced that media agencies are necessarily the answer. "There are still some issues with media agencies, most notably in their use of research which still revolves very much around advertising and traditional media."

The research industry, the panel agree, is just as likely to be media-biased and equally as beholden to its current structure. Aspin points to the focus on measuring awareness as an example of media bias. "Awareness is a surrogate for TV advertising because that's something that TV is so excellent at. But whether that is really right for the brand is another matter, he says.

Jenkinson agrees that there is growing recognition that high brand awareness levels are not necessarily desirable. "Awareness is a limited driver of profitability. What counts is the number of people who are highly bonded to a brand and when you start recognising how much is dependent on a relatively small number of people, you will start seeing better targeting."

It's this sort of insight that can radically alter a marketing strategy but large clients with unwieldy internal structures will struggle to make the necessary changes. For this reason smaller companies have embraced media neutrality much more readily, as have smaller, nimbler agencies.

"Having gone from a big agency with big clients to setting up my own agency and working with smaller clients, I have learned that smaller clients are far more open minded, says Ingall. "They expect you to work much more closely, are used to working across a range of disciplines, are up for doing things differently and a lot more fun to work with."

He points to the agency's work with Skoda, an account AIS picked up three months after launching, when Skoda's marketing department consisted of three people. But AIS also works with Lever Faberge, a client which "will never change", says Ingall. "In ten years time they'll be running the same brand management and planning structure."

World Rally is another example of a client which has actively sought to shake up its marketing strategy (see case study, page 29). Historically all of its marketing had been through TV but the company structure and its relationship with agencies and commercial partners were specifically designed to break that mould. "Everyone had an interest in seeing that core brand grow. But we were open about what we were planning to do and totally open to whatever angles, says Miles. "There's so much value to be had in the partnership model - the 'I'm the client and you're the supplier' relationship just doesn't work any more."

Smaller agencies seem better placed to grasp hold of MNP but does that leave large agencies out in the cold? Aspin thinks not. He recognises that the JWTs of this world may be slow to change but thinks the answer in the short term lies in bringing together expertise from across the wider group to create "strategic hot houses".

Strategic advice

"You would have a combination of thinkers, planners, creatives and media people who are protected from the direct impact of renumeration and vested interest issues and operate in their own strategic unit, says Aspin. "They are paid for their thinking and ideas but have the ability to advise clients without being affected by the short-term pressures that still exist around media choice. Clients would receive the best strategic advice and could then access the channel expertise which exists within the group, confident they had not been shoehorned down a route which favours any one agency.

And the language of marketing communications will also need to change, says Jenkinson. At the moment disciplines are closely linked to certain mediums but media neutral thinking should change that. "So if you say TV you think advertising but in fact you can do anything with it discipline-wise, be it PR, direct response or awareness creation, he says. "You can use a cocktail of disciplines within a single medium and that's a much more open and creative way of thinking about communication. Your palette of colours is suddenly much more exciting."

Whether agencies really are able to dance across this palette remains to be seen. But it would certainly be dangerous to dismiss MNP as a passing fad.

Think Tank is in association with Broadsystem, leading provider of outsourced marketing solutions. For more information contact Anthony Reed on 01753 433000 or www.broadsystem.com

THE PANELIST LINE UP

SIMON MILES marketing director, World Rally Championship

Miles joined WRC in 2000 from Scoot UK where he was marketing development director. Prior to this he held various roles at Rothmans.

JANE ASSCHER managing partner, 23red

Before launching 23red in 2000, Asscher was CEO at Tequila Payne Stracey and chairman of Tequila Manchester.

JON INGALL managing director, AIS

Ingall was one of the founding partners of AIS which launched in 1998. He was previously MD at Evans Hunt Scott.

BRIAN ASPIN head of media development, Royal Mail

Aspin has held his current job for two years. Earlier roles within Royal Mail have included market development, key account sales and operational project roles.

ANGUS JENKINSON professor of integrated marketing, Luton Business School

Professor Jenkinson heads up the Centre for Integrated Marketing at Luton Business School. He is also chairman of Stepping Stones Consultancy and previously founded The Computing Group.

JEREMY FOUND head of media, COI Found joined COI Communications at the beginning of 1997 and has been head of media since 1998. He began his career as an assistant TV buyer at Ogilvy Benson and Mather, joined Ted Bates where he rose to head of TV buying and was a founding director of FCF.

PETER COWIE business development director, J Walter Thompson

Cowie joined J Walter Thompson in October last year from Abbot Mead Vickers BBDO. He was previously founder of Two Way TV and Sharepeople.com.