Louise Romeo.
Creativity, data and transformation dominate the conversation in today’s media landscape – and rightly so. These are the forces that drive connected ecosystems, enabling us to put our customers at the centre. But there’s another, often over-looked, factor that shapes outcomes, earns trust and enables real progress: operational excellence.
Media agencies have evolved into orchestrators, responsible for multi-faceted, always-on ecosystems across paid, owned and earned channels. This means complexity has skyrocketed. Siloed teams, legacy systems, category dynamics, shifting client demands and technological acceleration all drive this complexity. However, this also comes with opportunity.
When operational excellence is embedded into an agency’s DNA, complexity transforms into a competitive advantage. With strong operations, ideas scale faster, insights land sooner, and progress is consistent. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that operational excellence requires constant refinement and a commitment to continuous improvement. This will ensure agencies are able to navigate an ever-changing market, evolving to support new and emerging media deliverables.
The quiet growth enabler
Operational excellence is often narrowly defined as back-end process optimisation – a means to improve efficiency, governance and compliance. While that’s certainly part of the equation, this underplays its true value. At a leadership level, operational excellence is much more powerful. It’s an invisible innovation that quietly enables growth.
A tailored operational model enables agility and refines processes to drive productivity. This allows agencies to scale and customise solutions swiftly in line with clients’ ambitions. It provides a flexible but dependable framework that fits into a client’s operating rhythm, rather than replacing it. This is increasingly important in a world where brands need real-time responsiveness, insights and optimisation without compromising effectiveness.
From back office to brand pillar
Operational excellence shouldn’t live in the background. It needs to be elevated from an internal function to external differentiator – from back-office hygiene to a brand promise. Agencies known for aiming to deliver flawless execution and operational discipline stand out. It’s now becoming a unique selling point alongside all other crafts, and the agencies that easily integrate into clients’ processes, ways of working and technology have an edge.
By emphasising continuous improvement, consistent delivery and scalable operations, all supported by technology, teams can effectively drive transformation. This provides true freedom to spend time fixating on your clients’ businesses to drive sharper and more creative media products, as well as accelerate innovation.
A driving force of culture
Perhaps most importantly, operational excellence is a cultural cornerstone. It’s about building a shared mindset with your clients and fostering pride in how you deliver, now and into the future.
When everyone, from strategy to investment to analytics, knows not just what success looks like but how to get there, you create a high-performing environment. Teams need to leverage operational excellence beyond just efficiency gains. They must build structures that deliver clients customised solutions and empower talent to focus on strategic thinking, driving sustainable growth.
Dedicated leadership in operations, a clear roadmap and constant reassessments of your advancements are key. These ensure the agency’s culture upholds accountability while delivering at speed, staying well-ahead of category dynamics.
Looking ahead: A leadership imperative
The next frontier for modern media agencies isn’t simply more technology, more data, or even just greater media creativity. It’s also clarity of operational excellence.
Excellence in operations should be a leadership philosophy. It’s the foundation for scalable growth, innovation and trusted partnerships, contributing to retention in an increasingly complex ecosystem.
Agencies that embed operational excellence deeply into their culture, systems and story will be the ones that win – not just on paper, but in performance.
By Louise Romeo, Chief Operating Officer, Starcom Australia