As agencies start planning for the next year and beyond, here a few predictions about the future, courtesy
Shoaib Qureshi.
Shoaib Qureshi.
You may or may not believe them. The Choice is yours!
1. Agencies will grow to new heights even if marketing spends go down: 2010 will be the year of the rebound of the agency business despite clouds of economic gloom still visible over the horizon which could curtail marketing spending. Many individuals and companies in the agency business will reset their meters (zero meter entrepreneurial mind-set) on their agency dash board, look at the challenges and opportunities with a fresh set of eyes, and be even more inventive or creative for their own survival and business than they have ever been before for any client of theirs, They will use the pent-up energy stored from the lows of the last year to springboard to new heights and surprise even themselves. As a result, 2010 should be a year to be more creative, aggressive and hence expect greater returns. Not a year to sit back and say that I am not doing well because the country is in economic trouble, there is no political stability and advertising business generally is down.
2. Agencies will get out of MPD syndrome and come of age: In 2010, more than half of the profitable agency`s revenues will go beyond the MPD (Media, Productions, Designing) - traditional areas that still continues to grip the agency thinking. Many old school agency owners will realize that companies in similar categories adopt similar practices over time. They begin to look, sound, think and act alike. In the advertising agency business, which is well over 100 years old, it shouldn`t come as a surprise that many firms are still stuck in a business model that has outlived its usefulness. smart agency owners will have to start searching for the new territory to operate because agencies have the mindset that they are only supposed to be involved with the soft areas of marketing-activities that revolve around brand awareness and preference creation. They think hard marketing is the client`s domain-areas such as distribution, selling and even the product development itself . but there`s third domain, a link between soft marketing and hard marketing. It`s the domain of evaluation and improving the consumer`s experience at all point of contact with the brand. Everybody talks about it, but in most cases, no one actually doest it. Which means that the role of the agency of the future is to move from helping clients create and place marketing messages to helping clients evaluate and strengthen the relationship that their customers have with the brand-at all points of contact. This is a much broader and more valuable role and similarly agencies will have to find and develop newer roles through proper understanding of clients other evolving needs. And all these roles that I am talking about often have very little to do with traditional advertising functions such as media, productions and designing.
3. 2010 will be the year of the client-agency fracture: Relationships will fracture a lot more often than usual this year as brands come increasingly under pressure form many external and internal reasons. also between what a lot of clients think they want from an agency (a vendor of services) and what they really need (a provider of ideas) is the middle ground where most agencies are today. And the middle-of-the- road is a dangerous place to be for anyone. Large advertisers, whether multinational or local, will either "dissolve or dilute" their longstanding relationships with their agencies or will flirt outside for all kinds of relationships (short-term and long-term) with people and agencies who are know to be idea specialists to increase the effectiveness of their marketing spend.
4. Disruption Marketing will start becoming the norm this year for brands: With an abundance of choice, products and services, there is an ever-growing need to be even more extraordinary to stand out and succeed. More attention and reward will be given by clients to those agencies who can find greatness within or outside marketing norms. Clients will be on the lookout for agencies that can possibly hit a "content six", as the days of taking "advertising singles" are over. Agencies that have the magic to create big and unusual ideas and make one million budgets look like ten million. The need to be more inventive will make creative destruction the norm rather than the exception. Consequently, effective change agents will be in increasing demand this year.
5. True integration will be the client rage: While specialization will remain important, real value will be created by those people and agencies that can pull all the clients brand pieces together and reduce the duplications of resources. This has been the dream of the multinational client: but the reality, has often been very different. The need to collaborate and operate more quickly, effectively and with fewer additional resources will give rise to the " Integration guru" (from one of the many agencies-ALT, BTL, PR Media, Interactive etc-that the client already has on its roster to take this up for grabs role) and hence "truly" integrated results for the clients.
6. The agency commission and retainer systems will be critically reevaluated by clients: Recession and competition-bitten advertisers will probably be wary of a compensation model that still pays and rewards agencies based on a model tied to spending, rather than saving their money. Thus several new compensation models will emerge this year and be tested.
Many clients will cancel their long-term agency retainer arragements, option to pay by project. A lot of short-term contracts with new breed agencies will be put in place by clients as they search for magical solutions for their brands.
7. Targeting will replace creativity as the top priority for agencies more marketing spends move from traditional television and print to the tighter confines of on ground internet and other mobile mediums to keep pace with the ever on the go consumer, agencies will have to focus more on better targeting than creativity to deliver results for their clients. There will be clear link seen by clients between better targeting and brand sales. Thus agencies will have to better understand the value of targeting which has traditionally been ignored as most advertising briefs target the same audience (women age 13-35).
8. Use of Data and Metrics will rise at agencies: Marketing decisions will increasingly need to be backed by data to reduce waste and downside risk for clients. The maxim will be that "whatever gets measured will get done" to whatever does not have measures will not get a budget.
Consequently, metrics and analytic should see resurgence at agencies to convince clients into spending money. consequently, what it means is that "gut feel" will see the gutter more often this year!
9. Grass-roots marketing thinking will accelerate at agencies: Business and creative plants for their clients will be filled with grass root marketing ideas this year. More attention will be given to influencer marketing to get fans for the grand and hence creative agencies will use this as a test for the creative ideas that they will present to their clients.
With clients and brands already going more and more to direct marketing at the grass root level in places where consumers live and enjoy their lives to better create a brand experience, hence agencies that can do the hard work in this area will be in business.
10. More new agencies will be hatched out of old agencies: Either the multinational agencies will be taken over by the local affiliate agency, or the local affiliate will be changed to step change growth in the market place. And last but not the least, new blood, sweat and energy will be inducted into the agency business, as many smart people currently working for these old agency in 2010. one thing in clear- a lot of moving and shaking will take place in the agency business.
Shoaib Qureshy is Chief Strategy Officer,
Bulls Eye Communications
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency
No comments:
Post a Comment