SUBSCRIPTION ONLY Agencies Horizon's Bob Lord Takes Aim at Holdcos' FTE Pricing Models: 'It's the Old System' The executive expects brands will stop paying for agencies’ traditional headcount-based models within the next five years Horizon Media CEO Bob Lord called out holding companies' pricing practices at an event hosted by Smartly. ADWEEK By Kendra Barnett --> ADWEEK House: Advertising HQ brings the people shaping advertising, commerce, and media together for four days of unscripted conversations and after-hours connections. Meet us in Midtown, Oct. 5–8.
Bob Lord, president of independent agency Horizon Media Holdings, is condemning some agencies’ labor-based pricing models.
“You have to create composable architectures” to drive clients’ business growth, he said onstage at Smartly’s Advance event in Lower Manhattan. “What’s holding us back? Inertia.
“It’s the old system: FTE [full-time equivalent]-based models, principal-based buying—how the holdcos make their money,” he added. “You’ve made investments in technology over the last five years. You need to monetize that investment, and you’re going to force it on your clients.”
He said he was “not picking on anyone,” but simply highlighting “an economic equation.”
Later in the same panel discussion, he predicted that within five years, clients would stop paying for the FTE model.
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Kendra Barnett is Adweek's senior tech reporter.
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