Divining the marketing future: PART TWO

Agencies will increasingly act as marketing communication strategy consultants as a premium complementary offering to their production and campaign development services.

Some contemporary agencies have even stripped out the tangible production aspects of their operations (such as the art studio) to concentrate on the development of a ‘big idea’ for creative execution. These agency forms utilize traditional resources including consumer research departments, account management teams, and creative developers, in addition to unconventional resources like artists, futurists, and cultural anthropologists.


These agencies recognize that in a new world where marketing communications must be far more relevant to consumers and impressions must not be squandered, the classical rules of planning, designing, and executing an advertising campaign must be challenged.


As these new capabilities are being internalized to qualitatively improve the effectiveness of marketing communications campaigns, agencies are also seeking to integrate customer relationship management practices to quantitatively improve the creative product. Customer learnings from CRM data, drawn from multiple online and offline communication channels, serve to develop active relationships between brands and their customers. Small, boutique marketing strategy firms, mid-sized agencies, and large networked global agencies have all significantly invested in developing these capabilities.

Historically, the advertising agencies industry was characterized by a few large global agencies (some affiliated through one of the five large holding companies) and by many small boutique agencies that operated locally.




Beginning in the 1990s, mid-size agencies have risen to challenge large global players for major accounts and the ability to define client marketing communication strategy. These mid-sized agencies, such as Wieden + Kennedy, 180, M&C Saatchi, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, and StrawberryFrog, position themselves as being better able to develop a strategic creative ‘big idea’ because their operations are more nimble and culturally oriented than large agencies like Young & Rubicam, BBDO, or JWT.

This industrial niche grew in importance because large agencies could not rapidly adapt to a changing consumer marketplace beginning in the 1990s and continued to exist as large-format multinational campaign production houses, giving their big ideas away for free.

Networks of agencies will continue to develop in the future, however the size and scope of these networks will likely not be based on the number of markets in which an agency can self-replicate and continue to amass global client billings, but rather based on the appropriateness of new markets which have a strong global influence.


Today, when mid-sized agencies go abroad, they locate to worldwide cultural centres where there is a wealth of diverse creative talent. Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, and Mumbai are all rapidly growing locations for this new breed of marketing agency. Locating in cultural centres gives these mid-sized agencies and developing networks a strategic advantage at developing strong consumer insights which can have a global application.

Divining the marketing future: PART ONE

Marketing agencies function in a rapidly evolving industry where the relative stability in technological innovation and consumer predictability afforded in the period from the 1950s to 1990s no longer exists. Let's look at some facts:

Consumers are now extremely fragmented and define themselves as individuals with a unique set of marketable signifiers based on their preferences, consumption habits, and social affiliations. For example, marketers cannot expect a single television commercial to be relevant and meaningful to a large group of people anymore.


Media fragmentation – both in terms of the variety of niche content that is consumed and in the many personal ‘screens’ where consumers receive media content – has meant that it is also challenging for marketers to achieve any significant reach with a single message, commercial, or campaign. Instead, there is greater value in marketing to consumers at an individual level where relevance and an experience can be developed.


Based on these trends, the industry will be driven forward by agencies which are able to produce ‘strategic’ creative products – marketing communications with a very strong inclusion of consumer insight, data measurability, and campaign integration across multiple advertising channels.

We'll look at the implications of these needs tomorrow in PART TWO.

Important marketing memes of 2009

And we're back!

Memes are important thought trends in contemporary culture. They are widely distributed, fresh, and organically generated concepts and ideas that emanate and circulate rapidly in a network of plugged-in people. At their worst, memes can propagate racism. At their best, memes can propagate lolcatz like Ceiling Cat!


So I should probably cover up.

Anyway, to start off the new year, it's relevant to think about memes that might matter in marketing in 2009. Let's talk about the concepts, trends, and practices of marketers that will become more commonplace and popular. Let's talk about the ideas that will quickly disseminate through agencies and client teams, mastered by the savvy group of consumers, and eventually expectorated back to the teeming masses of mainstream culture.

In other words, let's talk about what are relevant marketing trends for 2009:

THE 'EXPERIENCE IT' MEME


In the context of the rising tide of greater relevance in advertising, some lucky consumers will find themselves the subject of rare interactions with marketers that go deeper than the banal and shallow ad pitch. Without buying, a privileged few prospects will be invited to try a product, brand, or service. But what they're really trying is an experience.

Remember when you were invited to try Gmail when it was still in beta mode? (Remember how awesome that felt!?)

Testing experience with consumers firsthand is like playing in a sandbox. It's safe, controlled, and a great petri dish to catalyze learnings for experiential improvements. Furthermore, you want to actively segment an select prospects to participate in the experience who you know will then actively go out and spread word of mouth among their networks.

Seeding networks is nothing new, but in 2009 expect to see more seeding based on complete brand experiences rather than simple trial testing or free offers. It's the culmination of consumers' undeniable influence on social diffusion of brands and the demand by consumers for things which they can live, rather than things which they can simply wear, listen to, or eat.

THE COLLABORATION MEME


You know how individual consumers are encouraged to put their stamp of approval on something? They're able to personalize their brands either through participating in the product development and customization process, influence brand direction by vocalizing their needs in web forums and social media, and make the brand their own through non-traditional uses.

Now take the personalization to a broader scale. You and your network personalize your product. You and your friends personalize your brand experience.

Gen Ys are social creatures. We thrive on instant communications within our highly networked worlds (that's why we go mental when the DSL isn't working...). Digitally socializing is an intensive part of our lives and the impact of one's network on the things we associate with is immense.

So why would a marketer allow your network to collaborate with you when developing your personal brand relationship with them? Because it's a direct acknowledgment by the marketer of the things that matter to the consumer: their friends. It's an invitation by the marketer for you to show your network that they are influencers.

Look for this style of meme to pop up with everything from iPod playlists to fashion to media content.

THE INTEGRATED MARKETING MIX MEME



This one is big. Integrated marketing communications refers to the choreography among different ad channels, all targeting the prospects with related messages, calls-to-action, and incentives. It's not merely enough anymore to pair a TV spot with a website. It's insufficient to have a radio play in the same market as targeted magazine drops.

Integrated marketing is a mix of advertising channels that are optimal to distribute the message YET still convey relevance to the end consumer. This is critical. Furthermore, this does not underscore an increase in the overall number of message impressions received by the prospect consumer. Instead, it speaks to two things: 1) a curriculum style that gradually educated prospect consumers about a product/service/brand that they would respond to; 2) a coordinated effort by a marketer to demonstrate relevance to consumers across multiple platforms.

What is still unexplained is whether marketers will contract out their entire marcom budget to a single agency that is capable of doing all things (integrated), or whether marketers will act as directors and fragment their marcom budget out to a variety of specialized agencies.

It's hard for me to call this one a meme because I believe this is a sea change in marketing towards relevance-based integrated campaign development. Perhaps it's meme-like insofar that there will be rapid awareness in 2009 and some traditional marketers will make nascet inroads to developing a more balanced communications strategy.

BTW, when I was thinking about an element to include for the word 'choreography', the Indian version of 'Thriller immediately came to mind...!

October's hot trends

ok, so what's going to be hot in October? What is going to move from mere fanboy favourite to full on hot cultural acceptance? Here are the October's hot trends, October's hot people, and October's hot issues...for the month of October.

October’s Hot Watch List

Hot Show: True Blood

It’s already been green-lighted for the rest of the first season and HBO has renewed it for season two. Expect this to reach Dexter-like cult status in the first year, then lose it and become mainstream in the second. Awesome show though.





Hot cultural thing: Being Jewish

After nearly 6,000 years, Judaism is finally in. Expect Yom Kippur to stoke a lot of interest among gentiles in the sacred and profane. Expect lots of interest in Montreal smoked meat sandwiches,










Hot celebrity: Dakota Fanning

She’s actually talented and is not being adolescently sexualized. Kudos to her parents for being so level-headed. Expect to see a renaissance of this young actress who reminds me of a tiny Jodie Foster.









Hot marketing: Bad advertising

Large out-of-home advertising that desperately misses the mark with its target audience and fails to convey anything differentiating about the brand


Find more videos like this on AdGabber

Hot issue: Watercooler macroeconomics

Suddenly everyone cares about the economy. Expect to hear a lot more about why/why not the bailout plan should pass through Congress, the role that the credit markets play in our everyday lives, and bizarre hypotheses about the future of American foreign trade and investment. Note, none of these will make any economic sense.






Hot fashion statement: Kawasaki 407 glasses

Palin’s glasses are a hit with pregnant small town hockey moms











Hot artist: Primary 1

Electro-dance dj from the UK. Pretty fun and peppy. Can wait for him to get larger over here.




Hot brand: Metro

It’s never been hipper to shop at Dominion, A&P, or Food Basics. Their Irresistible line of products is actually pretty good. Expect to see a resurgence of interest with fresher stores, better signage, and a clean, improved look. Let’s hope that they maintain the focus on the food though…

Hot event: Nuit blanche

It’s never been so cool to stumble around wasted in avant-garde art exhibitions downtown and pretend that you’re one of the glitterati.








Hot course: Personal financial management

Suddenly investment banking doesn’t seem so appealing. Maybe you should realize that the free market you’re still not living in the free market economy of 1984.







Hot colour: Grey

“Apparently girls like leggings and long sweaters that cover their bum” (Cherie). Every year there are fall colours but this year seems a little more sombre, “maybe it’s the financial crisis” (Cherie).









Hot technology: the G-Phone

The T-Mobile G1 running the Google Android OS. Expect to see a lot of comparison between this and the iPhone. And where was Microsoft???








So that's October's hot list. Fortunately I already eat plenty of smoked meat sandwiches.

Virtual teams: achieving a Skynet level of efficiency

Despite the room space in the Schulich basement (for which we’re grateful), the Bright Ideas Group really does operate like a virtual organization. There is no fixed place where we meet, no fixed time, no fixed office protocol. As a result we have had to develop our processes and project coordination competencies to a much greater degree, relying on frequent informal communication and enforced deadlines. B!G’s virtual organization is bound by the tacit understanding shared by all Associates and Executives regarding the project objectives, industry characteristics, and evolution of the account.

That being said, there are still days when I wonder how no one else is on the same page as me! Managing a virtual organization must come with significant challenges and we face these as we grow and develop stricter business procedures and project standards. Here are a few of my favourite virtual organization best practices and some anecdotes of how I’ve had to learn them the hard way!

Internalizing a few of these suggestions might help you mold your virtual organization from this:

…to this:

Don’t be afraid to delegate

Rarely are projects completed because individuals fall into their organic roles and competencies naturally. Delegating responsibility to Associates, especially in situations where management and team facilitation is performed remotely allows the project lead to maintain a semblance of control and accountability. Individuals on the team understand what specific deliverables they are responsible for and the team is better able to complete work separately.

Unfortunately I’ve had to learn this rule the hard way by previously taking the tack of “not micromanaging” and instead providing overarching strategy and vision rather than concrete, measured (and measurable) chunks of work.

Deadlines are useless without checkpoints

“Have it done in a month”, I used to say. No good. It was done in a month, but the actual work was only performed ridiculously close to the deadline and often showed significant gaps in the insight and scope. Of course one should set deadlines, but considering that you’re not working in a physical office with your team where you can have daily progress checks, it might make sense to also set sequential, doable hurdles for each Associate on the team. These course corrections are critical so that each individual understands not only the context of the work they have since completed, but the context of the work that they have yet to complete.

I learned this lesson the hard way when it was obvious that far more analysis needed to be performed on a client deliverable. Although it’s no excuse, the client was out of the office and would not see the deliverable for another two weeks – at which time it would be right at the top of her email inbox!

Encourage lateral communication

This is a wonderful thing to precipitate among the team because it achieves an almost viral traction for the purposes of team-building. Associates talking to each other and sharing their insights. Collaborating and coming to solid knowledge-based conclusions. It’s beautiful! While sufficient managerial guidance sets the framework and guidelines for the project to be completed, lateral communication among Associates in each team imbues feelings of self-actualization in A good virtual manager must set up the avenues to facilitate lateral communication among the team, including a private Facebook page, intranet, Google Docs, or regularly scheduled Skype conferences.

I’m not sure I ever learned this one the hard way – I love to talk and love it when my team can do the talking for me!

So those are just a few of my thoughts on how a virtual team can be successful. Although this was an original post, I must give significant credit to a recent article for providing me with the inspiration for this topic – a lot of their points about managing virtual teams resonated with my experience with B!G.

To any clients reading this, you'll be happy to know that this semester, our Associates and Executives have all been implanted with transponders and are wirelessly synced to Skynet's neural cortex.


Inefficiency is futile!

Place your bets!

It’s good to feel threatened and anxious at times. I was reading the latest Strategy magazine in the subway today and all of these up and coming ad-types are featured. Junior creative directors, interactive strategists, ‘visioners’, etc.

I’m not going to say it put the fear of God into me, but it caused me to think hard about how I will craft a career for myself and acquire the building blocks that I’ll need to get there. It made me consider my role in marketing ten years from now and the strategy that will get me there.

Ten years from now, marketing will be more conversation-oriented. Technology and data sophistication already enables marketers to speak one on one with prospects and acknowledge each person’s unique complement of values, motivations, and aversions. Tony Chapman comments that advertising “has gone from mass to my”, underscoring the important shift away from the one-size-fits-all approach to a more communicative, interpersonal style. This isn’t news to marketers, and it certainly isn’t that groundbreaking if explained to consumers (who, if prompted, would assert that their minds are free from suggestion and that they’re not swayed by mal-intentioned marketers!).

But what about twenty years from now?

In one generation, will marketing be represented by a new ideology and paradigm? If mass becomes conversation, what will the consumer evolve into?

The Nihilist

“I am a nihilist. Just as Raskolnikov, in Crime and Punishment, cast aside socially imposed moral norms and justified the murder of two old women on a purely materialistic and utilitarian basis, so will consumers reject marketers' attempt to attach emotional and moral values to products, Consumers will only purchase on the basis of their physical needs. For marketers, this grim future may imply a total rejection by me, the consumer, of all slogans, brands, promos, messages, and offers because it’s just not wanted anymore. As a consumer, I make my own decisions and I have become acutely sensitive to both shills and subtlety in ads. Brands will cease to have power over my buying habits because I feel that by rejecting brands and being unresponsive to marketing, I’m acting rationally and achieving a practical, consumerism Nirvana.”

The Concerned Global Citizen

“I am a concerned global citizen. More and more pressure is being felt by companies to adopt sustainable business practices and a 3Ps bottom line. Marketers recognize my progressive concern and provide realistic, measurable incentives that allow me to feel that through purchasing, I have made a difference. A passive difference. I respond only to marketing executed using solar-powered servers and recycled rice paper printed with soy-based ink. I respond to messages that are meaningful to me and which have incentive models set up for consumers to respond because more trees will be planted for each time that I clickthrough on the company’s e-newsletter.”

The Whore

“I am a whore. I’ll sell you my data if you give me your content/access/product/service for free. Why should I pay for mobile phone service? Can’t Rogers figure out a media model to allow me to use my phone for free whenever I want and all that I get is a few really relevant marketing messages on my phone from companies that I buy from anyway? Wouldn’t it be cool to surf the internet and download as many gigabytes as you want for free without sacrificing speed or service and all that happened was that my name gets added to a list that companies can purchase if they want to access web-savvy Millenials?”

So as I read Strategy on the subway, as anxious as I felt to launch my career and start competing with other junior marketers for a ticket to the Cannes Lion Advertising Awards, I felt emboldened by the sense that I am riding a wave of emerging technology and communication that has allowed “marketing” to take forms previously never imagined. Who would have anticipated the role that social media or Google searches play in our lives?

No matter what archetype the consumer evolves into, conversation marketing will still be appropriate to convey relevance, value, and uniqueness to each consumer.