NATURAL BORN SWINDLERS?

THERE’S A FABLE that tells the story of the scorpion, a notoriously bad swimmer, asking the frog for a ride across the river. At first, the frog, cautious of the scorpion’s reputation, declines out of fear of being stung. But then, the scorpion puts on his legendary second-hand car salesman smirk and says: “That’s ridiculous. For if I were to sting you, I would go down as well.” Of course, by the time they reach the other side, the scorpion does what it does best and leaves a neat hole in his amphibious buddy’s back. And as the frog sinks into the water, he asks, “How could you?” To which the scorpion replies: “Because it’s in my nature.”

While much of the emphasis in the story is usually attributed to the lesson that you shouldn’t trust armoured arachnids with a tendency toward stinging, what’s far more interesting is the argument offered by the scorpion to convince the frog to take it across: “If I were to sting you, I would go down as well.”

There are few lines that better capture the overall sentiment of watching numerous international media agencies—which invariably ride on the backs of their clients—caught out for value banking (as MediaCom was in Australia in 2015), inflated digital margins, rebates and misreported campaign results – or when the dollars they’ve been making become harder to come by.

All of this runs directly against the grain of the word ‘agency’, which, when applied in perfect circumstances, denotes a relationship whereby a media agency is paid to always act in the best interests of its clients. But things aren’t always as clear when there’s a dollar to be made.

Industry vet Antony Young, who last year left the business after running media agencies in New York City for a decade, says there’s always self-interest at play when any form of agency