What's NextTHE FUTURE OF THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY

W W W . S W Y S T U N C O M M U N I C A T I O N S . C O M

ALL ADVERTISING ADVERTISES ADVERTISING

WHAT THE HECK IS ADVERTISING?

EVERYONE WANTS IN

THE PLAYERS

WHAT DO BRANDS THINK?

THE FUTURE BELONGS TO.. .

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

THE LAST WORD(S)

SWYSTUN COMMUNICATIONS

what's next

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Jeff Swystun

all advertising advertises advertising

What do you think of when you hear, "the advertising industry"? Is it the embellished glamour of the

Mad Men era or do you see logos and hear jingles. More abstractly, you may imagine a long

assembly line spitting out ever more advertisements adding to the communication clutter in our lives.

One of the most prescient thinkers on media and marketing was Professor Marshall McLuhan. It is

argued he predicted the rise of the Internet and the advent of social media decades in advance.

McLuhan was the fellow who said, "The media is the message." I was amazed to learn on a visit to

Facebook headquarters that the professor's books are required reading for staff.

One of his lessor known quotes is a doozy, "All advertising advertises advertising." You could

spend a lengthy dinner party unpacking the meaning and intent of those words. The quote

caustically equates ubiquity with effectiveness while suggesting that the industry that produces ads

is a self-perpetuating machine.

So where is that machine headed? What is the future of the ad industry?

To be clear, I am not a futurist. I am more of a creative historian whose thesis was arrived at by

looking to the past and extrapolating out. This means there is plenty of speculation with confusing

variables known and unknown. However, the thesis is simple, if you plan to play in advertising, you

cannot waiver or be vague, you have to pick a lane. Stick with me. All will become clear.

-1-

What the

heck is

advertising?McLuhan's quote has an underlying

assumption. Namely, that advertising

works. After all it has been around for

centuries and is a humungous industry.

Forrester projects that global

advertising spending will amount to

over US$550 billion in 2018.

Advertising is ubiquitous. It is

everywhere from offers on our phones

to the logos on our clothing to the

billboards on the roadside. Advertising

is no longer pop culture, it is culture.

This took root well over a century ago.

Author Norman Douglas noted it in

1917, "You can tell the values of a nation

by its advertisements." Ads not only

promote products and services, they

detail and document our lives and

history.

This is strange given how it has

suffered from criticism. In the early

days, even business questioned the

value of advertising. It was viewed as

unnecessary and secondary, rather

than a primary function like

manufacturing or agriculture. It has

also been equated to hucksterism and

called misleading, if not, outright

dishonest.

Advertising spending will amount

to over US$550 billion in 2018.  -2-

A PATINA OF

SINCERITY, SCIENCE

AND PROGRESS.

Advertising started as a profession to

create awareness and provide information

so people could make better decisions.

According to Jackson Lears in his book,

Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of

Advertising in America, the profession set

out to give everything a "patina of

sincerity, science and progress."

Now the profession has achieved the

opposite of what is intended to do. It drives

people nuts. Complaints range from

unwelcome to intrusive, to worse. Nielsen

has been tracking people's trust in

advertising for years and it declines study

after study.

This is not all the advertising profession's

fault. According to Michael Schudsen's Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion, there

were just 900 branded items in 1928. By

1946, this had grown to 3,000.

Try counting the products, services and

offers available today. We can't point the

finger at advertising alone. We live in a

world of rampant, nearly unbridled

consumerism.

It is if we have taken Oscar Wilde to heart,

"Anyone who lives within their means

suffers from a lack of imagination." It is a

world of abundance where more is more.

Unfortunately, we have applied that same

thinking to advertising.

We can't point the finger

at advertising alone. We

live in a world of rampant,

nearly unbridled

consumerism.

-4-

From the outside, the advertising

industry has always looked like a

cool club with rich, successful and

influential members. There has

been a relatively low barrier-to-

entry in the ad game. New

agencies start in large number and

with frequency year after year.

The business has long been

dominated by "traditional" players.

For simplicity, think of them as the

Madison Avenue set but also

include that twelve-person shop in

Portland or Hamburg who does up

a website, print ad, social media

campaign, or YouTube spot.

The publication, AdWeek has

stated, "The traditional agency is

antiquated because traditional

advertising is antiquated." However,

traditional means not only

traditional advertising as an output

but a traditional business model.

How an agency gets compensated

is a big driver for how it behaves,

thrives, and positions itself. The

compensation model, in turn,

dictates how the agency will be

staffed, how it operates, and what it

ultimately delivers.

There has been very little

differentiation among traditional

advertising agencies. A

longstanding joke in the profession

is how poorly agencies brand

themselves. Further, many have

asked through the years, that if

advertising is so effective why don't

advertising agencies advertise?

The fact is, they do. There is an over-

emphasis on the value of award

shows to demonstrate an agency's

abilities. As well, agencies rely on

press releases concerning new

business wins and talent

recruitment. Agencies use public

relations as the primary driver of

awareness. None of that is wrong

tactically, it just reveals an alarming

gap in truly articulating their

strategic difference.

HOW AN AGENCY GETS

COMPENSATED IS A BIG

DRIVER FOR HOW IT

BEHAVES.

Everyone

wants in

-5-

It took many decades but finally this was noted. In

the last ten years, brands have questioned the

value they receive from advertising agencies. And

not just anecdotally. They demand to look under

the hood. They match cost to performance,

promise to proof and have found an unacceptable

gap.

This gave rise to alternatives to traditional

advertising agencies. Now the "advertising

industry" has allowed business consultancies,

technology players, and in-house marketing

organizations to take hold. No longer is it agency

versus agency. The field has expanded, the options

greater, the promises bigger, and clarity vaguer. 

Differentiation is tough among agencies because, at the end of the day, what do they truly

have that is different?

Precious few agencies employ taglines though they

recommend them to clients. At one point, BBDO

extolled, "The work, the work, the work" in its

communications. The point being, let the creativity

we deliver to clients speak for itself. Smart, yet

just shy of the mark. It is the results the work

delivers, not the work itself.

Differentiation is tough among agencies because,

at the end of the day, what do they truly have that

is different? Agencies of all sizes and lineage can

claim to have strong talent, proprietary processes

(that are actually shockingly common), pieces of

cool work, depth in certain verticals, etc. Sadly, an

industry that is premised on differentiation comes

across as a commodity offer.

-6-

Traditional Advertising Agencies

THE PLAYERS

The Drum magazine called 2017, "an

annus horribilis" for the traditional

advertising holding companies. These

are the handful of large companies that

own so many advertising and marketing

agencies around the world. They were

referring not only to financial

performance but to a lack of strategic

direction to address the expanding

universe of players.

Digiday piled on, "In 2017, WPP, the

bellwether of the ad industry, had its

worst year for revenue growth since

2009, as the agency network wrestled

with issues that have impacted every

major network to some degree."

Bloomberg noted on March 13, 2018,

"WPP has lost almost a third of its market

value over the past 12 months, with

advertising industry headwinds taking a

smaller toll on Publicis Groupe SA and

Omnicom Group Inc."

N O M A D I C | 2 4

An expanding

universe of

players.-7-

Now it is efficiency and effectiveness instead of a three- martini lunch.  

To be sure, holding companies and

independent agencies are not

entirely standing still but they are

up against it. Ogilvy has

restructured their entire business

approach in order to build a more

client-centric model. Still, in

positioning against consultancies,

they do not have the same

business strategy resources and

relationships at the right levels

within clients. In short, clients do

not view traditional agencies as

strategic or "full-service". They are

not seen as problem-solvers, they

create ad campaigns.

To combat consultancies, agencies

must provide enterprise value, get

leaner and more cost-effective, and

definitely become more

transparent. WPP has begun

building and buying technology

infrastructure and businesses to

integrate their digital marketing

capabilities. Meanwhile, the entire

industry is under scrutiny for value-

for-money.

Now it is efficiency and

effectiveness instead of a three-

martini lunch. Flexibility and speed

over cozy relationships. That is why

four consultancies have already

cracked Ad Age's ranking of the 10

largest agency companies in the

world. With combined revenue of

$13.2bn, the marketing units of

Accenture, PwC, IBM and Deloitte

rank just below WPP, Omnicom,

Publicis Groupe, Interpublic and

Dentsu.

AGENCIES ARE

NOT SEEN AS

PROBLEM-

SOLVERS,

THEY CREATE AD

CAMPAIGNS. -9-

ConsultanciesTHE PLAYERS

Andrea Goeldi, Chief Technology

Officer of Pixability, nailed it in an article

in The Drum, when he said, "Traditionally,

Accenture, IBM and other consultancies

have been system integrators and

technical infrastructure companies. They

implement large scale IT solutions and

operate data centers for corporations -

about as far from advertising creativity

as a company can get. But as their core

services expanded - and there was a

clear need from the market - they

bridged into marketing-related activities,

such as building interactive and e-

commerce websites."

The point to emphasize is, "there was a

clear need from the market". Once

again, brand were looking for real help

and consultancies saw opportunity.

Websites may have been the start but

now consultancies are "consolidating

their role in marketing and design, with

the CMO budget being the last

untapped pot of money. This shift is

predominantly driven at the CEO or

CFO level, while ad agencies typically

connect with CMOs at brands."

N O M A D I C | 2 4 -10-

In 2017, Accenture Interactive acquired ten agencies. 

THE EAR OF THE C-SUITE

Consultancies have the ear of the entire C-Suite. They have license

to run around the entire company and are finding pain points with

a brand's marketing strategy. Agencies do not have that same

license or bandwidth.

Consultancies know where the money is. Consider Digiday's

interview with a consulting executive. The publication does a series

that grants the interviewee anonymity:

"We recently did some consulting for the CMO of a brand that's

spending nearly $20 million across three different consultants on

various projects. I pointed out that was more than they spend with

most of their agencies, and they said, "You're right, but none of them

[the consulting firms] are coming out of my budgets because those

interactions between the CMO and the consulting firms are usually

being facilitated by the CEO and CFO." You might think the

marketing budget is substantial, but the fact is that every part of

that budget is already committed to executing the marketing plan.

The big-ticket items like the digital transformation or the customer-

centric technology implementation comes out of the CEO and CIO

budget for a long time before it ever comes from the CMO."

N O M A D I C | 2 4-12-

Another threat to traditional agencies is the deeper pockets of consultancies. They are are quickly

building and buying capabilities. In 2017, Accenture Interactive acquired ten agencies. That same

year, Fiat Chrysler appointed them global agency of record for Maserati. In 2018, Disney selected

Accenture Interactive as a core partner on their business and on their brand, "to innovate on the

future of entertainment experiences."

McDonald's is tapping Cap Gemini "to accelerate digital technology innovation and transform the

restaurant experience for customers." And Accenture Interactive may truly blessed given The

Vatican' communications secretariat recently appointed the consultancy to unify its

communications strategy under a new digital entity: Vatican News.

A WARC survey found that brands were more likely to agree that management consultancies are

better placed than agencies to help them achieve enterprise strategy objectives and digital

transformation. A study from the Society of Digital Agencies revealed that 77% of client-side

marketers reported being inclined to working with a consultancy, almost double the share from the

previous year. Consultancies are joining creative, data and technology end to end and say that

they're ready to be a true partner to brands on marketing and advertising.

-13-

Big TechTHE PLAYERS

There is a new word in the world of

advertising: duopoly. That amazing duo

is, of course, Google and Facebook.

Jason Kint, CEO at Digital Content Next,

analyzed data from eMarketer and

others, to show that the two giants now

own between 60% and 70% digital

advertising market share in the U.S.

Google dominates paid search,

Facebook holds sway over display

advertising.

In the fourth quarter of 2017, RBC

Capital Markets Analyst Mark Mahaney

reported, "Google's organic advertising

revenue growth has averaged 20% for

31 straight quarters and grew 22% in

Q3:17." Adweek reports that, "Mobile

and digital advertising continue to soar,

90 percent of this growth is going to

these two companies alone."

What business regardless of industry

wouldn't want those numbers?

N O M A D I C | 2 4 -14-

Increasingly, brands like Heineken, Adidas and L'Oréal are working directly with the duopoly. They see no

need for an expensive middleman that slows down the process. This has been sped along by what

BusinessInsider calls, "brands born with the internet" that "don't have decades of history running massive

national television and magazine campaigns shepherded by traditional ad agencies. They don't rely on

selling their goods at Walmart or Walgreens or the local car dealer. Instead, they have direct relationships

with customers and live and die on data."

Albert Brea of Forbes points out another player, "Brands will continue to pay to play on social platforms.

The digital giants will own the data, the relationship and the rules of the games. Amazon, who owns the

last mile, might become the biggest winner in this game."

Let me digress for a moment. Amazon reminds me of a

giant railroad or Bell in the 1970's. They are so large, I

could see the government forcing a break up of the

company. Spencer Soper and Mark Bergen at

BloombergTechnology wrote, "Amazon has an

advertising platform no other company can match: a

web store selling hundreds of millions of products

combined with a streaming entertainment service and a

trove of data about customer preferences. Amazon

attracts 180 million U.S. visitors each month-all or most

with shopping on their mind. And as more people shop

on smartphones, they're skipping search engines like

Google for Amazon's mobile app."

AMAZON HAS

AN ADVERTISING

PLATFORM NO

OTHER

COMPANY CAN

MATCH.

-15-

In-HouseTHE PLAYERS

Agencies are not only battling

consultancies and the ever-expanding

offers from technology companies, but

also a growing tendency for brands to

expand their own in-house capabilities. I

have witnessed such cycles through the

years but now see this as a more

permanent and committed approach.

A SoDA study released in 2017, found

that 6 in 10 agencies reported that the

in-sourcing of marketing work is having

an impact on their business. Meanwhile

the ANA found that 35% of advertisers

have cut the role of external agencies as

a result of their expansion of in-house

capabilities. Further, a Digiday study

found that 56% of brands plan to handle

more of their marketing internally in

2018.

All of this adds up to greater difficulties

for agencies. RSW/US revealed that

34% of agencies found it harder to

obtain new business this year than last.

That was almost twice the share (19%)

who found it easier to obtain new

business this year.

N O M A D I C | 2 4 -16-

THIS IS NO LONGER AUGMENTATION, IT IS REPLACEMENT OF TRADITIONAL AGENCIES.

The case for internal shops is mostly cost savings. The second is speed. Brands are

thinking about conversations not campaigns. Many Chief Marketing Officers do not have

time for the briefing process and inevitable back and forth. They are under pressure to

deliver and can only fire their agency so many times before they themselves are on the

chopping block.

Yet, it goes further than just cost and time savings. Some brands want specific expertise

in-house. In fact, yoghurt giant, Chobani, hired its own creative director. This is no longer

augmentation, it is replacement of traditional agencies.

N O M A D I C | 2 4-17-

WHAT DO

BRANDS

THINK?

This is the multi-billion-dollar question and it is asked all

too rarely. It is not only what clients think, it is what they

want and need. Traditional agencies have taken a 'no

news is good news' posture. They have been fearful to

rock the boat. Meanwhile, the water is evaporating.

Earlier this year, Bob Bailey wrote in the MediaPost,

"Simply put, the transformation is happening now

because clients are seeing greater value in each distinct

approach. Never has there been more methodologies

for reaching consumers, more content to consider, more

analytics for measuring success. They're under pressure

to deliver results faster than ever."

Take the case of both P&G and Unilever.

Make no mistake, every agency in the world

pops champagne the first time they win a

piece of business from either of these

consumer product giants. Increasingly there

is less champagne. In 2017, P&G cut US$140

million of their digital advertising spend.

Think about that…their digital ad spend, not

traditional. The traditional advertising

industry has it stuck in their collective heads

that digital will save them. That is looking

less the case.

-18-

What brands want is what they have always wanted but the industry failed to deliver. They want top and bottom line results. For a time, brands played along with their agencies because there was little-to-no alternative. During that time the agencies positioned themselvesas indispensable, hired rock star creatives (a model that does not scale and actually causes cat-fighting), and entered award shows. Not much of this activity was tied to performance, mostly it suggested they suffered from an inferiority complex. 

If agencies do not change, history may not treat them kindly. In time, ad agencies may be viewed as a management fad with an incredibly long run. Mark Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer, P&G, has been sending warning to the advertising industry, "We bombard consumers with thousands of ads a day, subject them to endless ad load times, interrupt their screens with popups and overpopulate their screens and feeds. We're awfully busy, but all of this activity is not breaking through the clutter. It's just creating more noise."

Pritchard goes further and has attacked long standing tradition, "As clients, we add complexity with what our agencies call the 'buddy system' expecting agency client services people to pair up with each of our people to 'service the relationship.' This leads to spending way too much energy on conference calls, meetings and offsites, traveling to see each other, and wasting time with conference reports and PowerPoint presentations, dimming and ultimately extinguishing creativity."

His competitor over at Unilever agrees. Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Keith Weed is also keen on eliminating waste at agencies, "We should get the best price for our consumers. And if that means rooting out inefficiencies in someone else's business, I will do it." That sounds very threatening to agencies and has forced them to become more transparent about the work and billings.

I love how the industry responded, the World Federation of Advertisers named Weed, Global Marketer of the Year. This was after he cut 30% of the ads Unilever has historically run while halving 1,500 of the 3,000 agencies the company works with.

These cuts are not symbolic, they are bottom-line decisions. P&G's Chief Financial Officer, Jon Moeller, has said that despite slashing the number of agencies it works with and saving US$750m, it was seeking a further US$400m by reducing its agency roster by another 50%. Incredibly, P&G improved cash flow by over US$400m simply by changing agency payment terms.

-19-

THE FUTURE

BELONGS TO.. .Let me answer this quickly and succinctly, the future of the advertising industry belongs to those that pick a lane. There no longer can be waffling or taking a 'wait-and-see' attitude. Anyone who wishes to compete and thrive in the space has to proclaim a territory and a specialism. Generic, middle-of-the road strategies will lead to a short shelf-life.

There is no shortage of opinion on this topic. In researching this paper, I read over sixty relevant articles. They ranged from the vague to the incredibly specific. Some pundits say that Facebook and other tech companies are going to win the war because personalization solves the interruption problem. Let's table that idea for a moment.

Others point to "full-service digital and data-driven agencies". These folks are seen to prevail because they marry data with creativity and know how to run campaigns with minimal ad wastage. There are those that say Accenture has already perfected the right model with its "customer experience agency" that arguably, Ogilvy is mirroring.

Before one can arrive at any model, I enjoy the advice from Stephen Foster, former editor of Marketing Week and London Evening Standard advertising columnist. He provides the best sorting device to help with this problem, "Essentially agencies survive if they can do something the client can't - or do it better or more cheaply or both. And, that's it."

So, what are those things?

I have consulted to over forty professional services firms. Whether it be agencies or consultancies or law firms or accounting firms. At the core of any such businesses is objectivity. Jordan Bitterman, Chief Marketing Officer at the Weather Company said, "we have moved away from retainer relationships. They are predicated on a predictable future." Yet, marketers still want an outsider's perspective. Bitterman says, "Strategy and ideas never go out of vogue."

-20-

The next thing is an evolution in how agencies marry strategy and creative. Leave data out of it for now. Data provides information which provides insight that, in turn, propels strategy and creativity. Data is an input, never the endgame.

Agencies should be linking strategy and creative as part of their DNA. So, this notion itself, does not differentiate. It is how they do it objectively that will distance themselves from in-house creative and the tech players. Creative can still marginalize consultancies in the near term.

The biggest bugaboo facing ad agencies is the perception and reality that they are slow and a growing impediment. Also, that they are order-takers so less strategic and proactive. Consultancies are always on the lookout for the next opportunity to help (and sell services) to a client. Agencies get a gig and the high of the win quickly dissipates. That loss of enthusiasm has always been an issue within agencies. Agencies need to speed- up, don't hold anyone up, and get way better at anticipating.

-21-

It has been said that a good Chief Marketing Officer is one that represents the voice of the customer. This is what the ad agency should be within a client's business. Sure, their job is to ultimately make aware and compel consumers to buy but the best way to do that is to know the customer better than they know themselves. This means the agency brings incredible insights to the client, stuff they do not know. This sharpens strategy and creative.

For too long, the historic and cozy relationship between brand and agency has been weirdly adversarial towards consumers. Agencies must now emphasize their objectivity while deepening their knowledge of the client's customers. While most agencies would make claim to this, they are not doing it to the extent required. This would be truly different ifexecuted properly.

Agencies cannot wait or assume there will always be a

seat at the table.

My point is, objectivity, strategy married with creative, speed, and the voice of the customer are both table- stakes but when offered together are a unique and powerful proposition. Yet, this list may be out of reach of just one type of business. Patrick Harris, Facebook's Head of Agency Partnerships, has said evolving client demand, "is forcing, in many instances, consulting firms, agencies and companies all coming to the tableat the same time" to ensure such clients derive maximum value from their partners. We sit in more rooms today where you have a consulting firm, you have an agency and you have us sitting at the table because clients are forcing it. There's a role for all of these partners to play."

This triad is an interesting notion. It suggests collaboration and implies each entity has unique value. Time will tell if this will take hold. I believe agencies cannot wait or assume there will always be a seat at the table.

-22-

The bottom-line is the industry has

not been delivering for some time.

The space was wrenched open to

new players because brands got

tired of waiting to be asked by

traditional agencies about their

wants and needs. This led brands to

question agency performance and

to look elsewhere for ways to

improve marketing and grow the

top-line.

That answer may not be advertising.

Publicis Groupe's Rishad

Tobaccowala has the title, Chief

Growth Officer. At a conference in

February, 2018 he pronounced that

advertising will decline 20% to 30%"

over the next five years, "We will

increasingly have less and less

advertising." That begs the question,

how do agencies replace that

missing 30%?

In the face of that question, agencies

have given the appearance of

complacency, fear, inertia and

confusion. Giles Hedger, CEO, M&C

Saatchi, makes the point bluntly, "It's

been fashionable to inhabit the grey

space this past decade. It's even

been exciting. Ambiguity has been

reframed as a positive state of

fluidity - a high integrity, future-

ready limbo. But limbo is now a

luxury that few agencies can afford,

and a welcome dose of black and

white will need to return to agency

leadership in 2018. It's time to place

your bets."

What does all this mean?

-23-

30advertising will

decline 20% to

30% over the next

five years

At the AdWeek conference last year, The&Partnership's North

American CEO Andrew Bailey spoke at an event titled, Is the

Agency of the Future Still an Agency? He did not endear himself

to the room when he said, "The agencies in this room today will

be lucky to be around in five years, much less 10, unless they

radically transform the way they come to market."

Nick Phelps writing in AdWeek makes a macro and insightful

observation, "It's consumers and culture that are driving the

macro changes affecting our industry. As culture moves faster

and faster and consumers grow ever more empowered and

demanding, brands know they need to keep up. And perhaps

the traditional agency model just can't."

When I consider picking a lane and doing something the client

can't, I arrive at three models worthy of consideration.

Pick a lane. Pick a model.

-25-

M O D E L 1 : C R E A T I V I T Y B Y T H E N U M B E R S

I T I S N O T A B O U T D A T A ,

I T I S A B O U T R E S U L T S

Pendulums swing. It's what they do. Historically, agencies have hung their hats on creativity. Then we got a whole lot of digital, social media, tech and data. Clients salivated at the prospect of proving what marketing and advertising worked (and holding their agencies accountable).

Suddenly, it was about Big Data. That made me laugh. I have been advising companies on marketing for nearly three decades. I began in consulting with Deloitte and PW. Even at that time, clients were overwhelmed in data. The more the inputs; the more contradictions, hypotheses, debate, and confusion.

Do not get me wrong. I like data. Agencies need data. Brands needs data. These days even the consumer is looking at data in order to substantiatethe veracity of agency and brand claims. But is not about data, it is about results.

A viable agency model is one that artfully mixes creativity and analysis. Currently, creativity remains the differentiator for agencies versus consultancies and the tech companies.This is even conceded by Joydeep Bhattacharya, an Accenture Interactive managing director, "Creativity in the traditional sense will be even more important as the arena for winning hearts and minds of consumers becomes even more competitive and crowded." The implication is an agency must be creativity-led and data supported. .

-26-

M O D E L   2 : T E C H N O L O G Y H U M A N E L Y A P P L I E DU N T A N G L E C O N S U M E R S F R O M

W I R E S A N D W I R E L E S S

Privacy and annoyance. That is what the consumer thinks about in the age of smart devices and personal information. Meanwhile, brands and technology companies appear to show little regard or empathy for people andhuman behavior.

Marketers have to break the addiction to shiny new toys. Devices and analytics must do right by consumers. That means making people's lives easier and more enjoyable. It doesn't mean bombardment or an "always-on" culture. The best marketing mirrors human behavior that already exists.

This is big stuff. It seeps far wider than the advertising industry. It is a societal issue. However, there is an amazing opportunity for an agency to be this, "technology humanely applied" business. One that honestly works on behalf of consumers to help them make better decisions without entangling their lives in wires and wireless. However, this position easily could be claimed by consultancies and big tech if traditional agencies don't bust a move.

-27-

M O D E L 3 : E N T E R T A I N I N G N O N F I C T I O N S T O R Y T E L L I N GW E A R E A L L S T O R Y T E L L I N G

C R E A T U R E S

During her tenure as GE's Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer, Beth Comstock proclaimed, "Nothing will take the place of great storytelling." There is a big scrap within the advertising industry over the very notion of "storytelling". When most people hear that word, they think of novels, Netflix and, perhaps, nonsense.

Marketing and advertising exist to provide information for people to base better purchase decisions. I firmly believe that. Storytelling in advertising works because we are all storytelling creatures. We like characters, plot, emotion, and resolution. Unfortunately, storytelling in advertising has become synonymous with hoodwinking, cajoling and, sadly, fooling people.

That is because the stories are fiction. If you haven't noticed, we have crossed to a new dimension and that is entertaining nonfiction storytelling. People still want to disappear into a brand story but they want to know the product will work, is backed by the brand, and that it earns them a bit of cache beyond functional benefits. 

-28-

The industry is being disrupted. The status quo has lost its status.  

The last

word(s).I consult to agencies on their business and

brand strategies. The advice I provide

upfront is to take control of the agenda or

someone else will. This usually gets head

nods but little else. Then I tell them, your

industry is being disrupted. The status quo

has lost its status. Your situation is

analogous to Uber and AirBnB. That earns

serious faces but little movement.

It is a serious time for agencies. The time

for study and debate is gone. It is time to

pick a lane and stake a claim. New players

will emerge. Agency leaders able to

influence the trajectory of their company's

growth will be the ones who survive.

One last story. At the AdWeek conference

in New York last year, one topic was,

Advertising Needs a Rebrand. Advertising

and marketing was invented to help people

need and want something. Now advertising

agencies must convince brands that the

agency itself is needed. This requires far

more than a rebrand.

One last bit of advice. Advertising that

leverages emotion, communicates

authenticity, substantiates value, and is

premised on the utility and joy a thing

brings, is best positioned to work. So, pick a

lane and build your agency positioning

around such a proposition and you will

succeed. You have way more to lose if you

don't.

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What's NextTHE FUTURE OF THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY

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