Media Perspective: Media owners look to branded sales to boost agency effect.

Media agencies have become increasingly creative, some might suggest deluded, in the creation of their own industry brands. Conversely, media owners haven't had to bother much.

They usually have powerful consumer brands with a rich set of values to sell to advertisers, while all agencies have to play with amounts to a handful of dust.

Merely calling yourself ITV Sales has been enough. Until recently, that is, when the convergence of media channels has led to sales houses selling across media. Not easy in a downturn, with greater levels of competition breathing down your neck.

For a while now, a section of the media community has felt the need to have something fluffy and light in the locker when targeting account and media planners. These are time-short people who, if they took up barely half of the offers from media owners for meetings, would have no time left at all for client business. Coupled with a need to justify themselves in more detail to buying agencies - it doesn't pay to have too many stand-offs during a slowdown - this obsession with agency planners has led to the rise of the branded sales division.

In newspapers, Telegraph Media has led the way, trading high volumes alongside building a 'create' brand for the clever stuff, and there are numerous creative solutions units in television. The latest media owner to rebadge its sales effort is the Daily Mail, with the launch of its Connected ...