What we do

In today’s crowded media landscape, creating a campaign that cuts through the noise and reaches the right consumers, at the right time, can be challenging. That’s why we work with advertisers and their agencies to identify the right opportunities and maximize impact.

Our modern, forensic and fact-based approach harnesses the power of world-class talent, proprietary technology and innovative benchmarking capabilities, allowing us to empower our clients to drive higher media value and media-led impact on business performance.

We are 100% director-owned and independent, so our clients can be sure that our advice and action is centered on what is best for then. All our analytics, audits and consulting processes are tailored to the individual needs of each of our clients, allowing us to help them meet their specific objectives and media standards.

Media performance audit

Regular, thorough media performance audits ensure that media agencies are buying the right media, at the right prices and in the right places to ensure your communications are reaching the right people, at the right time. This in turn will drive higher value from your media investments and maximize the impact that media has on business performance. At ECI Media Management we audit all media channels, including TV, CTV and Online: our pioneering Online approach includes sophisticated analysis of programmatic activity. Once a performance audit has been carried out, we use our forensic analysis to provide actionable insights and targets for the agency, defining the right KPIs for the client’s goals. Our unique, proprietary tools Target Mark^® and Target Value^© allow us to ensure that we can provide the most forensic analysis and benchmarking.

Financial compliance audit

An effective financial compliance audit helps clients to ensure transparency, open-book costing and financial compliance within their media agency. At ECI Media Management, we achieve this by initiating systems and procedures for effective cost control; by policing and controlling compliance; and by providing audit services to ensure that our clients’ policies relating to the financial aspects of agency relationships are adhered to. Financial audits involve an extensive examination of contract language, system-generated reports, third-party source documentation, manual reconciliations and invoice line items, delivering defined value outputs for our clients.

Pitch management

The key to running a successful pitch and selecting the best agency partner to meet your marketing goals is a reliable review and selection process which allows a clear view of what each participant can deliver. ECI Media Management’s tried-and-tested media review process has been honed over many years of managing and participating in pitches; many of our specialists come from client- and agency-side, so they know what to look for and what to evaluate.

Our clients can ‘pick and mix’ the stages of the process that they require support with; this could be full support at each stage or simply an analysis of agency submissions. The analysis process is deep and forensic and delivers comparisons between competing agencies and the client’s historical efficiencies. The process covers both the strategic and tactical dimensions of media performance.

Contract consultancy

In order to ensure that agencies always work in the best interests of their client – with transparency and rigor – fully comprehensive contracts are essential. At ECI Media Management, our experts have deep experience in reviewing master agreements and identifying risk areas. In addition, we advise on content and data ownership rights to ensure clients secure best-in-class agreements in line with industry changes and developments.

Typically, contractual development and target-setting will include looking at the following; general fee structure adaptations, performance-related model development and the revision of targets each year in light of actual delivery. Our rigorous, tried-and-tested assessment process is designed to each client’s specific requirements, often including:

Global and local interpretation of adjustments in the agency contract based on the planned investment levels and service requirements each year
A review of transparency, management of commissions, agency volume rebates, annual inflation/deflation mitigation.
Independent second opinion on team structure/processes to secure optimum set-up.
We also work with clients to ensure they contain agency obfuscation on data and content rights in their contracts. This allows clients to own their data and monitor its ongoing usage, irrespective of any future agency changes.

Our proprietary tools

In order to provide the most forensic and thorough analysis of our clients’ media performance, we have developed a set of unique and proprietary tools: Target Mark^® and Target Value^© .

Target Mark®

Target Mark^® is ECI's proprietary scoring and benchmarking tool which focuses on the measures that drive the client's advertising impact, and that the agency can control for future improvements. Designed for advertisers who need independent expert advice on how to maximize campaign efficiency and effectiveness, it clearly delineates between cost and quality measures, so that clients can act on KPIs independently. It helps to optimize investment allocation decisions and ensure spot placements have the potential to deliver high ratings and low unit costs. The ultimate objective is to eliminate opportunity costs and secure efficient budget allocation for improved marketing impact.

Client benefit: Target Mark^® delivers a data-driven, in-depth analysis of every aspect of the client's TV or Online campaign, from the price paid to the quality of the inventory. Crucially, it also provides actionable insights and recommendations.

Target Value®

Target Value^® is ECI's proprietary value-tracking methodology which allows advertisers to track their media pricing and/or quality year-on-year, versus their target or versus guarantee on a fully normalized basis. We provide a bespoke, transparent and objective analysis of media pricing and quality across all channels to quantify savings achieved; we do this by coupling the value-tracking methodology with an up-to-date pool of normalization factors covering all major markets - ensuring that only like-for-like comparisons are made.

Client benefit: Target Value® allows advertisers to keep their agency partners accountable and drive significant savings from media investments.