Back to the future for advertising?
Suggesting the future of advertising is “integration” is a little like suggesting the future of personal computing is the floppy disc.
In reality, the most progressive people and agencies in our industry were tackling integration 10 years ago and things have come a long way since.
And my reference to 10 years is not a convenient round-number.
In 2000 our industry (along with most western economies) was in the throes of dotcom mania and although the ensuing crash caused a lot of pain it also witnessed an emerging divide between the agencies who genuinely understood how to integrate ideas across multiple media touch points and those who slapped a web address on their TV ads as an afterthought and called it “integration”. That’s not “integration”, that’s “matching luggage” and a well trained monkey with a set of crayons can probably do a similar job.
I can make that assertion with more than a little confidence a) Because I was working at a large London network agency at the time and more importantly, b) Because 2000 was the year inferno opened its doors for business, as a genuinely integrated agency intelligently blending traditional advertising with DM, SP and of course, digital.
Back to the point.
I guess I have two main beefs.
The first is the simple difference between capability and ability, and they’re too often confused when it comes to integration.
Brother and sister agencies with funny names who take care of the non-TV work are far too often the way traditional agencies “integrate”. Too many agencies continue to simply bolt-on integrated campaigns to their TV ads and try and use retrospective logic to justify it.
In truth, real integration involves the talent, the agility, the willingness and (perhaps most importantly) the ability to execute great thinking in whatever mix of media best solves the client’s business problem. Without media bias, and well beyond simple capability.
Integrated agency groups with multiple P&Ls often present a very compelling set of capabilities to prospective clients, but we all know that once the initial briefing meeting is over and Mr or Mrs Client has left the building, a nasty scrap kicks off as the different group agencies battle for creative leadership and their share of the budget. Which probably isn’t in Mr or Mrs Client’s best interest really.
Which leads directly into my second point:
The future of the advertising industry isn’t integration, it’s ideas. Ideas that can run anywhere from a supermarket promotion to a global sponsorship – not just TV scripts. And just as importantly, those ideas need to come from agencies that can make them exciting and effective in those myriad environments.
The most seamlessly organised and integrated agency on the planet won’t last very long if its ideas are inflexible, short sighted or media biased.
And finally; we need to be prepared to share our ideas with consumers, the media, anyone. Technology has seen off the days where advertisers can simply shout their ideas at consumers and sit back and hope for the best.
Smart advertisers are welcoming not only feedback on their ideas and beliefs, but involvement in the very shaping of them.