Benedict Advertising - Business Building Solutions

by Chris Leblanc, Creative Director

The days of Darrin and Samantha are over.

Traditional advertising has become withered and as malnourished as Nicole Richie, and as passé as Lindsey Lohan.

Where is this industry going? The birth of “New Media” has launched complete turnkey integration. Integrated media campaigns are the silver bullets we have been hoping for. The novelty of the Internet has passed and agencies are quickly seeing how an integrated marketing campaign can be measured in ways not thought previously possible. The birth of web analytics and viral marketing has spawned completely trackable data. This data was sporadic or undecipherable to us as little as a couple years ago.

But today, web analytics has enabled us to fine tune bad advertising/bad sales as well as examine successful campaigns and strategies. This really helps us find out what’s working and what’s not. Having the proper metrics and tools to gauge what affect the print ads, television, billboards, websites etc. have on our consumers pre- and post-conversion ensures that we always fine-tune our message and hit the correct triggers and patterns that result into repeat business and brand loyalty.

The understanding of traditional media as well as non-traditional media is vital to the success of a modern agency. The knowledge base of clients is always growing, and technology now is easily available to them. Clients seem to be losing the value of what we do as agencies, and that is a very serious problem. (The mighty OZ has been revealed behind the curtain) The difference is, we as agencies need to be seen as the experts that can formulate a successful strategy to piece all these mediums together and make it profitable for our clients, that is what we have to sell. It seems anyone with a computer these days thinks they can do our job, and they’re losing patience with traditional advertising agencies and all of its promises, this has led our clients to become desensitized and jaded to our advice. It’s not that our clients and consumers are getting worse; we just have to remember ideas/strategies are what we have to sell, and that what we create has to resonate and be successful.

Traditional media is the “Ugly Betty” of advertising. What do I mean by that? Traditional media is not the most exciting/beautiful thing to look at but it gets the job done. The problems that traditional media has faced is that it’s been severely fragmented. New media and full integration is the future and it is a force to be reckoned with. Couple that with the grass roots development of viral and experiential marketing, and you will clearly see old-school advertising and traditional media has passed on and kicked the bucket.

Simply put, the landscape has changed. In order to be profitable, advertising must evolve to survive or face extinction like swatch watches and denim shorts. Traditional advertising alone isn’t enough anymore. We must shift from the traditional advertising/marketing/sales strategies of the past to an all encompassing integrated marketing campaign/strategy that is trackable and then sell that strategy to our clients while educating them on the importance of proper branding and brand management. We must construct a persuasive experience instead of broadcasting so many mixed messages that we completely lose our brand and put bad experiences in the mind of the consumer. Companies that actively manage their brand/brand identity, along with a positive tailored customer experience from first touch to post-sale are the companies that will be profitable in the future.

The consumers may be “Bewitched,” but the business of advertising requires the right ingredients in the cauldron to make true advertising magic. We need to take a logical approach, like scientist, and learn to examine, research, collaborate and PERIODICally change the elements because there is so much more to advertising than the Ad-om* and the agencies that do this will have all the elements for success.

* The Ad-om (Ad-um) An ad-om is the smallest part of ad-vertising; the fundamental building blocks of much larger, integrated campaigns. When combined with strategic thinking and creative processes such as design and copy, the ad-om attaches itself to a product or service, helping the host (product or service) metamorphosize into something much larger and grander. The atomic mass of the ad-om is 386,255,1222, when it is added it will make your product or service more “consumable” by outside forces.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 11:51 am and is filed under What's the 411?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.