FT points to the massive dominance Facebook and Google have over digital spend – about 75% of all new digital spend in fact. And that soon digital will eclipse television in terms of spend. Paul Frampton, chief executive of Havas Media Group UK, says they are “black boxes” that have too much power.

“They don’t give agencies or the brands access to their algorithms and the data being mined are for Google and Facebook — and not for the brand.”

Yes, except we as advertisers have access to massive amounts of data from both. As a result we can do fine grain targeting and drive ever increasing efficiency even as prices increase. So, perhaps it’s a grey box. 

Not touched on is whether the increase in share of media wallet is a result of us doing more in digital, or, significant increases in prices. Both are happening. What we are doing is moving more within the digital wallet as well – less to Yahoo!, Linked-in (barely noticeable at Cannes), Bing and others.

I’ll let you read the rest but what amazes me is how absent the marketer is from these conversations. Lots of agency folk, buyers and consultants. The reality is the shift is being driven by clients.