What Does The Future of Advertising Agencies Look Like?
As the world is transforming, have you ever thought about what the agency model will be like in the next 5 or 10 years?
In 1841, Volney B. Palmer opened the first advertising agency in Philadelphia, and is possibly the first person to use the term “advertising agency”. Centuries later, advertising agencies continue to flourish. Furthermore, so long as humans consume content on the internet or elsewhere, we can assume that advertising will exist, and therefore so will agencies.
While advertising agencies are facing the dawn of a new era, the future–however, is being challenged by a changing industry and the increased use of technologies. Thus, let’s think about what digital advertising may look like in the next 10 years, as Kentaro Kimura and Morihiko Hasabe try to predict what the future of advertising holds by looking closely in the directions Japanese agencies are moving in.
In a way see this industry today, from Kentaro and Morihiko’s session, we can learn that there are 4 points that we can focus on as follows:
A fragmented media world
Overloaded with information and entertainment options, these days, the audiences are more fragmented, which makes it difficult for messages of brands reaching out to the right people. On the other hand, everything is just one click away and people are exposed to more than thousands messages daily, from ads to emails and chats, which makes it challenging to get their attention.
While consumers are living in several realities at the same time–both online and offline, the challenge from agencies’ perspective is that their offer remains fragmented. They continue to maintain the paradigm of different departments within, and not necessarily focus on what the brand needs to effectively hit the marks.
However, though agencies are profited by the brands, they oftentimes do the in-advance research based on behavior of target market and the value proposition before executing their parts. As reciprocity for brands, the long-term brand awareness and sales are expected to be improved.
Less targets, more insights
When it comes to crafting messages for your consumers, one size never fits all. Agencies need to understand the clients’ consumers and what they need. Therefore, the planners and marketing team have to work hand-in-hand to use the existing data in order to create more effective and impactful marketing strategies that will hit the specific selling points that drive results.
Moreover, in this era of big data and technological advances, agencies are able to understand and analyze each behavior of individual, where they can find out that all-path-to-purchase are different from each person. Besides, entering the transversal insights era, a series of behavior, mindsets, and beliefs can easily be grouped in certain ways where everyone from any background can belong.
Less communications, more value
Advertising communications and large media investments have only become accessories, when many of the brands we are surrounded with daily, such as Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, Zoom, and Netflix became popular virtually with no advertising.
In times of social media, word-of-mouth is no longer a mystery and always be the ever-existing most powerful tool. Therefore, for agencies, it is a matter of getting out of the advertising box and daring to make recommendations beyond communications by giving them the real value through putting the consumers’ needs first to improve their lives and solving their problems.
Unleash the power of stories, the real value of brands
The internet constantly rewards us with convenience and instant gratification, making the human touch increasingly more scarce. For this reason, brands need to connect with their consumers, pull at their heartstrings, and engage with them on a much deeper level than seen before. That is where storytelling comes in and creates new touch points.
At advertising agencies, they know how to communicate things, how to present information in the best possible way, as well as telling good stories. Their brains are wired to remember and associate ideas in the form of storytelling. Thus, people can feel specific emotions when they are interacting with the products they advertise.
By implementing and focusing on the 4 points above, the advertising industry won’t disappear as long as they have courage to develop values and creativity in the best ways. If you want to know more on how the advertising industry will adapt in the following years, watch Kentaro and Morihiko’s full session on APMF.com.
