In India, in the mid-nineties, media agencies emerged on the scene to address the problem of audience fragmentation. The primary objective was cost saving, which broke the traditional 15 per cent agency commission. Media agencies cornered 12.5 per cent and the creative agencies 2.5 per cent. Clients soon resisted the commission for every ad exposure. As a result, creative agency commission disappeared.

In this decade, the next four years are transformative.  Digital will be a bigger part of the eco-system. Though TV still holds as a major  media vehicle, Netflix accounts for a large bandwidth. Today, in India digital supplements the traditional media. However, very soon brands will be launched and sustained on digital only.

At present, the data is extrapolated audience measurement. In future, social media platforms, a few DTH and OTT players and e-commerce sites will own major chunk of consumer data. Will there be any incentive for the advertisers to pay a commission to the media agencies then? Many advertisers even today work directly with Google.

Advertisers will set up internal programmatic desks for ad placement across all media platforms just to save costs and control data. Traditional TV may also adopt the programmatic.

It is time for the agencies to invent in manpower who can provide relevant solutions. Brands must be made a topic of consumer conversation. A multi-disciplinary team must engage the clients. There should be integrated approach. There should be accountability. There should be investment in data.