TRENDSETTERS: Banner's Mike Jarvis finds that everything old is new again.

Who better to spot a trend than Mike Jarvis, the International Media Director at WPP's Information-Technology specialist agency, Banner Corporation. After all, he co-founded one of the world's first international media buying agencies, MJP, which later became Carat International. Plus, he spent a portion of his career in the 90's as Gateway Computers' Worldwide Marketing Director.

Mike Jarvis has done much over the last four decades to insure that media specialist agencies develop as mature, professional businesses. Certainly his six-foot-four athletic build and larger-than-life spirit have helped to guarantee that media gets its fair share of attention, particularly in his home-base of London.

However, in a recent presentation at the annual Connect Alliance gathering, he spent some time pondering where this business may be going.

"There are a lot of new dynamics at work today." He outlined: "Clients are demanding more services, greater attention is now paid to ROI, relationships are often controlled by procurement, and there's far more transparency--from increased roles for media auditors and the implications of Sarbanes-Oxley financial reforms. As a result, media agencies are offering more complex services, more channels, more research, more tools, and more technology." Yet all of this is being provided while many marketers are requesting to pay lower fees.

In this midst of this change, Mike Jarvis asks how media agencies can continue to drive “the strategic high ground,” while justifying higher revenue models. His view is that “quality of delivery” must be at the heart of the agency, even if that means creating Service Level Agreements with media owners and their representatives to set the criteria for their business relationships.

Without such a commitment to delivering quality and the benefits of its rewards, media specialists would simply resort to lower levels of servicing, off-the-shelf planning, and under-experienced teams who do not understand a client’s business. “That serves no one well.”

Mike Jarvis adds that “integration can save advertising.” He paints a picture of how today the clients is at the center, sun-like, within the marketing universe, surrounded by orbiting creatives, media agencies, direct response experts, digital teams, sports marketing advisors, outdoor specialists, neutral planners and other consultants/teams. With a wink, he asks, “wouldn’t it be interesting if they were all integrated under the name umbrella… perhaps like they once were when I started in the business?”

The ultimate team player, Jarvis is not advocating a return to the business he knew in his youth, but is certainly underscoring the benefits of integration and quality in a more complex marketing world. Is everything old new again? Not exactly, but a look at an industry’s beginnings never hurts as a source of inspiration.