Should Agencies Scrap Time-Based Charges?

Caroline Johnson, director and co-founder of The Business Model Company, talks to The Media Leader about why media agencies are no longer fit for purpose and need to get rid of charging models based on employees’ time.

Agencies that provide media, advertising and marketing services are having to work harder than ever while hiring increasingly expensive talent to stay relevant. Johnson argued that agencies need to reposition themselves as consultants and start charging based on the outcomes they provide for advertisers, not just units of time spent working on an account.

“2024 is the make-or-break year for our industry,” Johnson warned, due to “lots and lots of external market factors [and] internal conditions that have become so heightened that they are causing burnout in our industry and a devaluation of the wonderful talent and capability that we have”.

This conversation should be considered a companion to the Media Leader Podcast episode in January with Ryan Kangisser at MediaSense, whose advertiser survey last year revealed significant dissatisfaction with media agency models.

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