There are articles all over the internet about traditional ad agencies and digital ad agencies. Are they really different? Well, they were for awhile but I’m watching them getting closer and closer to each other every day. That is good news and bad news.
The good news is those once considered traditional agencies are seeing the value and need for expansion into other ways to reach consumers on the consumers’ terms. Remember, consumers now have more control than ever as to how they will consume information. The awake agencies are not depending upon what they know best and embracing all the tools available to them to get their clients’ messages out. Here is a really good article featuring several agencies and how they view their world today. Many of them say the message delivery systems may be growing but good ideas and creative will always be timeless. Here’s another good interview featuring David Sable, CEO of Y&R. His take is a bit different!
Other good news is digital agencies are beginning to see the value awake traditional agencies bring to the table and are allowing themselves to participate in that arena. I predict many more mergers in the near future.
The bad news is I just read an article where internet ads will be measured by “effective GRPs.” Yes, the same GRP we have used and hated in TV forever! The internet experience is so different from TV but the advertising community is so trained and comfortable with the GRP and wanting to compare TV to internet it is falling back on this archaic measurement even knowing how inaccurate it is.
Digital buyers will be as detached from customer results as their traditional media buying counterparts. And sellers will, again, become commodity brokers rather than solution providers. When will we learn to measure based on our client’s results?
Need your remark-able thoughts on this before I explode! And a special shout out to Park Howell at Park & Co for inspiring today’s remark.
At least the Digital GRP, whatever that is, can be more accurately measured and not just conjured up from TV “survey math”. That is – we can know “hits, landings and stuff” pretty accurately as compared to NSI and 12 people deciding who watches what for 1,000,000 households.
That is true Bill and I see your point. Certainly better than the NSI methods but not best and I always look for best! Does it not still make it a commodity rather than measuring engagement which is what the digital space is all about and our sellers commodity brokers which we have tried to get away from for years?
I predict, (and sometimes I’m right) that until true Digital Age Marketers take hold “eyeballs” will be “eyeballs” and just a commodity; and just as it took a TV Generation to change marketing from Newspaper to Screens I suspect it will take a Digital Generation to move in a similar manner.
I agree 100%!