Almost 10 years ago, during the
questions after a client presentation about their digital strategy,
the CEO of the brand's advertising agency shrewdly analyzed our
proposition and said: "It's interesting, but the internet will
never be a credible medium, the future is infomercials!"
Since then, this industry visionary
has retired…probably a bit late. The internet now enjoys its new
status of a mass medium with an agility and measurability like no
other. Google invented and imposed a new way of thinking and a new
way of selling advertising, exclusively based on performance.
Online video multiplied and created an alternative to TV
advertising, able to mix all the virtues of digital with a massive
coverage and richer and more expressive formats. The internet can
still surprise with its speed, while offering brands concrete
solutions to integrate consumers into their strategies - Facebook
is the most recent example. In addition, smartphones allow
consumers to benefit from those opportunities anywhere, at any
time. Within ten years, we have moved from mass communication to
mass interaction, with an "always on" internet at the core of the
buying decision, with new usage of media and social networks.
This evolution is accelerating -
and the pace of this acceleration is greatly increasing. Whereas
recession is increasing the perception of the limitations of 20th
century-style marketing for advertisers, today's possibilities are
becoming almost infinite. The only constraints now are imagination
and resistance to change. That is why the most fundamental question
is: "Now that we can do everything…what shall we do?"
To answer this question we need a
strategic break with conventional wisdom. The scope and the speed
of changes make the continuous optimization of budgets, positioning
and messages not just a frustrating exercise, but a marginal one in
terms of impact. This strategic break will enrich brand platforms
with two new pillars: Sense and Synchronization.
Sense will allow brands to find
once more a real connection with their audience in terms of content
and value. Faced with of the growing inefficiency of "saying", we
have to "do". "Doing" means creating positive experiences and
interactions, which have to be both coherent with the brand and
useful for consumers. At a time when consumers are equally as
influenced by brands as by their peers, famous or not, "doing" also
means offering clients rational and emotional reasons to become
advocates for the brand. [Experience and Network are also becoming
pillars of the brand, as well as Positioning, the Mission and the
Vision, and the RTPs (Reasons to Preach) that are becoming as
important as the RTBs (Reasons to Believe).
Synchronization aims to stimulate
the business impact of campaigns, whatever the channel. This
involves a consumer-centric vision and an organization with the
means to orchestrate campaigns for more relevance - and therefore
less frequency. It is by synchronizing all the messages, points of
contact and interaction with the consumers, plus the measurement of
their real behavior, that agencies will generate a drastic gain in
impact and efficiency for advertisers.
Given the required ingredients for
Sense and Synchronization (brand sensibility, consumer knowledge,
analytics capacities, creative talents, technological competences
and consumers interaction management), it is clear that agencies
have to change. Advertisers need agencies that are aware of the
real businesses stakes, and that are able to create talents who use
both their right and left hemispheres. Within a team, it is above
all a cultural challenge to nurture integration in every member's
mind. In a world where everything is interconnecting more and more
rapidly, there's no longer a place for agencies who can't integrate
multiple skills. Because if they don't, it becomes a guarantee of
incoherence in consumer experience and missed opportunities due to
a lack of reactivity. So now that it is possible to do everything,
we urgently need new-generation agencies that are capable of seeing
and listening to new opportunities, and to transform these
opportunities into enhanced performance for advertisers.
We can no longer ask advertisers to
choose between a strong idea and tools that perform, between
concept and efficiency, between the brand and the methods. Good
sense should lead us toward a drastic and strategic reinvention of
all of our models. The real evolution has to be made in everyone's
mind, in pursuit of new methods, concepts and ideas that can bounce
from medium to medium, and truly involve the hearts and minds of
consumers. Those ideas that are relevant, seductive, convincing and
trustworthy really can make a difference when they are real-time
synchronized. Now that everything is possible… this is what we
should do.
Marco Tinelli - CEO FullSIX
Group