Media Matters: Kevin Murphy on an Ever-Evolving Industry
Kevin Murphy has been in the industry for three decades, specialising in developing direct response and brand response media strategies. During the course of his career, he has worked at agencies including Mediacom, Initiative, and Zenith on a range of clients such as Compare the Market, Orange, and Butlins.
In his current role as group managing director, media at McCann Central, where he has worked for the last 14 years, Kevin manages a team of 100 people spanning four different agencies across the country within the McCann Central network.
LBB> What was it about the world of advertising media that pulled you in? What did you do before you got into media?
Kevin> After uni, I took the first available job, which was selling insurance over the phone. I flew through training with too much hubris and after my first month on sales I promptly found myself in the bottom five of 105 salespeople. So I had to learn the lesson of listening and learning from experienced and talented people around you very quickly!
I was then fortunate enough to land a role in their marketing team working in creative and media. It was a brilliant opportunity when I was in such a junior and inexperienced position, so I was very grateful. And I’ve loved the industry ever since; there’s so much variety and change and so many talented and diverse people to be inspired by and learn from. How could you not love it?
LBB> Over the course of your career, what have been the most significant changes you’ve seen in the media side of the industry?
Kevin> That’s easy; it’s the growth of digital. I started in direct response before Google even existed (I’m that old). Imagine how easy response attribution was in those days! In the office there was one PC with dial up internet when I first started out. It never fails to amaze me how far we’ve come since then.
LBB> What was your first job in the media industry and give us a taste of the path that your career has been on?
Kevin> I had always dreamed of working in London, so after Admiral I decided to make the move into the industry and applied for a job in the city. I got the first role I interviewed for at The Media Business (now called EssenceMediacom). I think I was employee number 13 there back then!
My first boss was industry legend and also fearsome Apprentice TV interviewer, Claudine Collins. It was an incredibly happy time and I made lifelong friends there. That said, I did burn out after crazy hours year in and year out, so aged twenty-nine I took an 18-month travelling sabbatical, which is the best thing I’ve ever done. I nearly settled in Australia permanently, but ultimately home and this industry lured me back.
After some great times at Initiative and Zenith in particular, family and children led me out of London to the Midlands, and I’ve been at McCann Central ever since (14 years and counting). That length of time demonstrates the continual evolution of my role as we’ve grown from a team of eight to one hundred people, but it’s also because the culture here has been brilliant. I think a key lesson I’ve learned is that enjoying who you work with is everything.
LBB> In more recent years, which projects or clients have proven to be the most stimulating and satisfying to work on and why?
Kevin> It was incredible to be part of the team that grew a start-up called Gtech from a small DRTV test for vacuum cleaners to tens of millions of media spend per annum across multiple products, winning awards, and sponsoring programmes like Gogglebox. We maintained a lot of those personal relationships when some Gtech staff moved to Vax, and that continues to this day. Long-lasting client relationships in this industry is something to be cherished and celebrated.
LBB> In media, an understanding of human behaviour is so important - what are some of the most interesting changes you’re seeing in terms of how we behave with and interact with media?
Kevin> On a purely personal level and as a huge cinema fan, it’s been fascinating and saddening to see how a variety of factors have caused cinema attendances to struggle. In particular, the change to release strategies has reduced the urgency to see the latest releases on the big screen. When you add the rising ticket and confectionary prices, the quality of the home viewing experience, streaming platforms, and the increasing annoyance of audience behaviour in the cinema itself (turn your phones off!), I think it’s a real shame.
The Barbenheimer experience shows it’s not all over yet, but I would love to see a cinema renaissance. Enjoying a meaningful movie experience with an audience is wonderful.
LBB> Brand safety is more important than ever and consumers and campaign groups are increasingly holding brands to account for the media they choose to spend on - what are your thoughts on this phenomenon and how are you and your teams navigating it?
Kevin> Brand safety is paramount in this digital age, and we all know the potential damage a misplaced ad can cause to a brand’s reputation. I have huge admiration for consumers and campaign groups that invest their time and resources into this area.
I believe that being part of the Interpublic Group (IPG), a true market leader, makes us an ideal home for brands with our industry-leading talent and tech capabilities that enable us to thoroughly vet media partners, enforce strict policies on white / blacklisting and monitor ad placement.
We are always seeking to develop proactive measures to ensure a clean and transparent supply chain. It’s a never-ending process, but one we face head on. IPG continues to innovate to find ways to offer great transparency and control over inventory quality.
LBB> What do you think are the most pertinent debates happening in the media field right now?
Kevin> There’s so much going on in terms of AI, privacy, changing remuneration structures, sustainability, diversity, utilising first party data, and linked to that, personalisation. The industry feels like it’s undergoing more change than ever and that’s saying something. It’s incredibly exciting though. It’s truly fascinating to see where we will be in two years’ time, never mind in ten!
LBB> Decoupling, recoupling, creative agencies trying to build media functions, media agencies creating content studios… what’s your take on the relationship between creative and media and where do you think it’s going?
Kevin> The kinds of blurring and merging of disciplines mentioned in the question demonstrates the importance of maximising the effectiveness of both creative and media if a client wishes to achieve the best ROI.
Being media biased as I am, I have long said that even the best creative in the world must be delivered to the right person at the right time via the right message otherwise its effectiveness will be compromised. Similarly, media has never been as creative as it is nowadays. So, media, content and creative are closer bedfellows than ever before.
Having been part of an integrated agency for 14 years vs 12 years at media independents, I can testify that media and creative collaboration is far quicker, easier and objective in an integrated environment and the benefits of this are only going to be clearer to all as we move forwards.
LBB> The wider industry has become really obsessed with artificial intelligence, but media has been using variations of AI and algorithmic automation for some time - what’s your take on the longer-term influence of AI on media? Are there any aspects of media planning that you think AI could still have a big impact on?
Kevin> The impact of AI is already impacting the media industry, and as someone who loves data, it’s fascinating to see the benefits of machine learning come into the mainstream and influence key areas such as predictive modelling. This in itself will have a significant influence when it comes to encouraging clients to commit to media budgets, and, in particular, scaled up media budgets. My hope is this will enable many clients who do not have the financial means for analytics such as econometrics to invest in media more confidently. This would be wonderful for the future prosperity of our industry.
But AI will also be beneficial when it comes to audience measurement, content personalisation (relevancy will still be king), and more widely automated media buying including ever effective bidding strategies. This isn’t even covering content creation and generation which is already being so hotly debated in terms of speed vs homogeneity, and the same for strategy, where a human interpretation of readily available data creates the differentiated spark upon which media and creative is built.
Additionally, we are still working out the impact of privacy, and other ethical concerns. However, media agencies are acutely aware of the significant competitive advantages that await the most successful companies in this area, it’s just that the full extent of the shape and structure of how this will look remains to be seen.
LBB> More attention is being paid to the environmental impact of various media types, particularly in digital - where do you think the industry is in terms of tracking that impact and minimising it?
Kevin> In my experience there is still so much to do in this area and in far more than digital decarbonisation. The sustainability question has successfully made it onto every client pitch brief, but apart from obvious categories like energy companies, the follow through in day-to-day practice has been patchy so far. Also, work in sustainability can be done across every stage of the marketing process, and not just digital. The point I’ve seen debated that I agree with the most is that sustainability shouldn’t be treated as a means of competitive advantage.
Everyone in our industry should be sharing ideas, tech, agreeing common benchmarks and metrics, and basically anything that normalises and speeds up the ease and effectiveness of sustainability practices.
LBB> As an industry, we’re obsessed with the new - and for good reason, it’s often where the money lies! But are there any more traditional forms of media that you think we’re sleeping on a bit or that you think still make a big impact when it comes to connecting with consumers?
Kevin> I was about to say OOH as I am a complete sucker for a special build as I love that “breaking the fourth wall” effect. However, I’ve just come off a great call between five of our media offices and door drops got a big shout out for not only working well for an older market, which one might expect, but also for generating some outstanding results amongst under 30s in an opposite category.
I was once “Agency Head of Door to Door” in an earlier role, so to hear this was music to my ears. It also once again shows the value of “test and learn” tactics and door to door is a wonderful medium for doing that in a controlled and cost-effective way. The use of interesting creative also contributed to a better-than-expected performance too.
LBB> Who are your media heroes and why? And what sort of media do you enjoy?
Kevin> I’ve met so many people who have impressed me with their talent, intellect, and personality over the years. However, someone who ticks all those boxes and hugely influenced me from early in my career was David Kyffin.
David was MD of direct at The Media Business when I first met him. David was inspirational with his technical knowledge, and he was a true direct response pioneer. He was always across the latest developments, especially as we hit the digital era, as well as being such a smart businessman. I found him to be thoughtful and approachable, but he was also someone I didn’t want to mess with! David was a real role model and praise from him meant the world to me.
I did nearly blast him with a shotgun on one of his famous clay pigeon shooting days, which still gives me anxiety dreams, but that’s another story…
