Among the many speakers at day two of Advertising Week in Toronto were two who offered glimpses into the future of the industry. Both agreed there may be drastic change in the years ahead, but there is plenty of opportunity to thrive.
Chuck Porter, a partner at Miami-based Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which was recently named Agency of the Year by Advertising Age, offered his expertise to ad agencies trying to survive in the economic downturn.
“Clients are going to change,” Porter said. “They will want solutions from agencies that are more flexible and nimble, and they’ll definitely want more cost effectiveness. They may be either frightened or enthusiastic about it, but they will change.”
Porter’s suggestions focused on creativity and resourcefulness to give clients more work for less money.
“Invent media, because you tend to get a good deal on it,” he said, referring to his agency’s work for Molson in the U.S. Crispin created a second label on the back of beer bottles with tongue-in-cheek beer names such as “Let’s Get You Out of Those Wet Clothes Lager” and “Skinny Dippers Are People Too Lager.”
“Molson said it would cost $2 million to re-tool the line to do this. We told them—and we’ve said this many times since—take it out of the TV budget… We went to bars and saw guys stick [the labels] on their T-shirts.”
Porter also suggested that the best buzz is free buzz, referring to Crispin’s decision to hire Jerry Seinfeld for Crispin’s first teaser ads for Microsoft last year.
“Everybody’s got their eyes on Microsoft—the trade publications, the bloggers, everyone,” Porter said. “It was important that the first thing we did was not a traditional commercial. I don’t think there are a lot of instances where using a paid spokesperson is a good idea, but this was one of those times where it seemed to us a good time to do exactly that.”
Later, Dr. Duane Veran, chair of the marketing and media program at Australia’s Murdoch University, shared his thoughts on the future of television. Despite many industry predictions to the contrary, Veran believes the 30-second spot will survive the explosion of new and digital media.
“I think the cost of 30-second spots will actually go up, not down,” Veran said. With more viewers turning to PVR devices, the amount of regular broadcast inventory will drop. “Ad rates are subject to the laws of supply and demand just as anything else is. Live television, for example, will still be a big draw; that can’t be fast forwarded. So the value of that [inventory] increases.”
Veran also said inventory that is subject to PVR fast forwarding will require better creative and more compelling stories to keep viewers’ thumbs off the remote.
“If you have an opportunity to skip an ad, and you choose to watch it, what impact does that ad have?” he asked.
“One of the problems with traditional TV is it’s too often about media, not advertising—it’s about exposure. People have been held to key metrics that deal with how often an ad plays. [What] that’s led to is the machine-gun philosophy of rapid-fire coverage. A lot of that type of advertising will die.”
While many people question the television industry’s ability to survive the digital revolution, Veran said it is responding well to the change. The ad industry, however, is lagging, “especially the creative community.
“In my experience, clients are very ROI-focused, and digital media are phenomenal at [ROI], so it’s not too hard to convince the client to get on board. The problem is agencies lack the skills. They don’t have a lot to offer because they don’t understand the terrain.”
