Ian Schafer of Deep Focus: Agencies are in competition with publishers

For Ian Schafer, CEO of digital agency Deep Focus agencies shouldn’t discount the competitive threat from publishers, because marketers and advertisers increasingly look for ways to get around the many forms of ad blocking. “As an advertiser I’d rather work with a company that can guarantee me distribution. I’d rather get creative with media dollars than with production dollars” Schafer said. “Any publisher that provides content to an advertiser I would consider a competitor unless we can make him our friend.” According to Schafer, agencies are perpetually under threat. Recent comments such as the one issued by top PepsiCo marketer Brad Jakeman, prove his point. “It’s relatively easy to blame agencies for not making marketers better. But then very large companies tend to work with very large agencies, and size is the enemy of creativity, generally.” He said that being a small agency is difficult. “We have to prove that our rates as a smaller agency are competitive with the rates that they’re getting by paying other companies a lot more money. We have to deal with the efficiencies negotiated with other large companies. That’s very difficult and makes the business that much harder for us” he said. To avoid ad blocking publishers have been lowing content cost. But Schafer explained that “ad blocking is a user experience issue, not an ad creative issue.”