Crisis does not equal danger plus opportunity

1319935 — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:55:00 GMT

Dontcha just hate pseudo profundity? I’ve recently seen (again) the PowerPoint urban myth of the Chinese symbols shown as an answer to the economic conditions the marketing community and indeed the whole community faces. It really doesn’t wash. In fact, check out an incisive critique of this pictogram/linguistic fallacy. I know, I know, we work in the world of overclaim. We are all simple purveyors of seductive presentation technique. But I am also very keen on substantiation, evidence and consideration of the facts in making decisions around investing Clients’ money.

Today the OECD published stats that indicate the UK economy is in technical recession, according to the definition of recession as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Are we able to substantiate this in our own industry? Can we ‘create’ our way out of the gloom?The last Bellwether report back in July used the dramatic turn of phrase ‘worst downturn in marketing spend since 9/11’. It’s a whole two months to go till the next one, but I predict that it won’t be particularly favourable. On the other hand, I am not sure how slavish we should be in responding in a flippy floppy way to these quarterly reports. In Q2 last year, marketing spend was at its highest levels for three years. Not even six months later, it’s at its lowest. Now whilst this data is well qualified, I am of the view that we need to reflect on slightly longer term trends to help focus our minds, and indeed our investments, when it comes to planning.

Where are consumers spending their time? Where can we deliver the most engagement with a brand? Which is more important - providing a useful service from the brand (a brand utility in the fashionable parlance) or creating advertising to seduce consumers into believing the proposition? What is the most cost effective way of getting consumers to spend time interacting with the brand? Does our idea actually make a difference to the brand? These are great questions. It has to be enjoyable, challenging and exciting to answer them. But there remains no excuse for intellectual paucity in our answers.

Keep calm and carry on

1319935 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:06:00 GMT

Being proven right isn't always a pleasure. A third consecutive IPA Bellwether wobble. Only a fifth of companies report upward online spend. The signals have been around for a while, though. Pitches that used to take two months are taking five months. More talk about efficiency than effectiveness. Incidentally, US ad spending growth forecasts have been halved this week, even though there is optimism in global markets like Argentina, China and Russia. I have always carped on about how digital agencies need to step up their management skills to be able to handle global problems for Clients. I also believe in how an understanding of technology can bring significant competitive advantage. More of our briefs are about building excitement around a brand's value proposition in the context of lower cost delivery of the brand to the consumer, in every way possible.

As McKinsey will tell you, technology is intrinsic to every lower cost delivery proposal in every FT100 company. All agencies like to talk about the first thing (especially with some digital seasoning sprinkled over it). Not many can talk about the second, which requires some understanding of business and technology and without which the 'excitement bit' can become rather fruitless and costly. Few can do both. The next two years will be an interesting filter. Campaign recently referenced the 't-junction' for digital agencies, where they choose to become 'production' companies or 'branding' agencies. It's not quite as simple as that, as good business people tend to be pragmatic rather than dogmatic, but in our sector it is increasingly about whether you can deliver the brand at a lower cost to the consumer. This demands an ability to help brands stand for something, and help consumers (who also, btw, stand for something too) get their brand.

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Crisis does not equal danger plus opportunity

Keep calm and carry on