The Future of Advertising Agency - 2020 & Beyond




These are interesting times. With the lockdown and impeding near-recession scenario, agencies will be faced with challenges in terms of both revenue growth and being prepared for the new norm in a changed world. As advertising agency business is closely linked to client’s business and since most companies will focus on business continuity, portfolio sustenance, and holding to their market position thus impacting marketing spends…it will not be business as usual at the agency end. 

Some of the answers that agency leaders seek are -

  • Profit: Where are the growth opportunities for agencies?
  • People: How do agencies retain/attract talent?
  • Process: Will there be any change in the way agencies work?



Growth opportunities:
Going by the popular catchphrase - follow the money, we know marketers have and are investing heavily into Martech & data in a big way. Their future marketing actions would be based on these investments. As a marketing and communication company, agencies have an opportunity to become data and Martech friendly partner of clients. Building, managing, and maintaining their Martech activities - Automation tools, CRM platforms, DMPs, etc could be some focus areas for agencies. 

As N. Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons, says, “Digital distancing” will be the new norm. ‘Digital-led and contactless experience will play out in terms of customer experience’.. which inevitably means that consumer touch-point strategy & creativity needs to be digital-led. 

The agencies will have 3 streams of workflow - The creative (the core), The Technologists, and the in-betweeners - whom I shall call BX Enablers (Enablers of Brand Experience)

Attract and retain talent::
Agencies with pressure on bottom lines will explore gig-workers, esp. subject matter experts (SMEs); With the whole cloud based collaboration, there will be more remote workers in the industry. I know a lot of people, especially women, who quit media/advertising industry as they found ‘work from office’ far more demanding. Now with WFH culture, these folks can happily contribute towards the agency work. Agency will also come with Flexi-time and partial work from home as means to retain talent.

Way we work
Ad folks have been most lethargic when it came to using technology (apart from the core software and applications) Collab tools, Cloud drives, project management tool, conferencing tools, all were available.. but never used.
I used to hear stuff, like … I’m not in office and cannot edit the artwork (creative)
Let’s block the afternoon for a strategy/creative briefing/brainstorming session (creative/strategy/servicing)
It is better if we go and meet the client at their office (servicing)

But hey! All these are still happening but remotely… and this is the biggest change that will happen in the way we work. We will have smaller teams working smarter and faster with real time iterations happening and enhancing the outcome.  We will become Agile. I think agile methodology and scrum teams will become common in the agencies. One will soon get to hear a lot ‘sprint’ used in agency vocabulary.

They say, in the biggest challenge lies the biggest opportunity. Agencies thrive on delivery of effective ideas and creativity to their clients. Now is the time for agencies to internalise the delivery. Every global crisis in the past had lead to changes in the way we market and advertise. I remember in 2008, when the economy was not doing that good, big marketers and advertising agencies got on to the digital advertising bandwagon. I had seen traditional clients increasing their digital spends from under 3% to more than 10% of their advertising budgets. Earlier to that, in 2002-3 also, due to the SARS epidemic e-commerce got a big fillip, especially in China. I believe that 2019-20 too will be pivotal for advertising agencies - focus on MarTech, gig workers, and Agile methodology of working

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