Techies Playing Increasing Role in Ad World,As Clients and Employees
Bundling, convergence, streaming, channels, “one-to-one” marketing, “online initiatives,” “media neutral,” and that “P” word, partnering.
All the fancy buzzwords of the high-tech world are finding a second home in the world of advertising. And as technology seeps into the realm of marketing and promotions, agencies say it’s all a means to an end: branding.
As agencies acclimate to the so-called new economy, ad executives say agencies will assume more of a partnership role with their clients and have more technical know-how. Some say agencies in the future won’t even be called advertising agencies.
” ‘Ad agency’ is a bit antiquated,” said Craig Holland, president of Nine Dots, an Irvine-based firm that he said considers itself an “interactive marketing services” company.
“We don’t really feel like we act like an agent. We act like a partner,” Holland said.
Nine Dots doesn’t work on a commission basis and generally sits down with the client, who has a business plan in hand, and together they hammer out a year-long marketing strategy. In the future, Holland sees the traditional agency marketing toward the various phases in a dot-com’s life: incubation, launch, build, IPO and maintenance.
“The dot-com thing is not going away. Everybody is doing it,” Holland said.
And branding for dot-coms is even more important because on the Internet, it’s all in who’s first to the market, Holland said, and “digital branding” is on the rise. In fact, all but eight of the 50 largest Orange County advertising agencies are advertising on line. Branding can be done via banner ads, opt-in e-mail (a permission-based approach, as opposed to unsolicited “spam”), sponsorships, contests and web site development.
Broadband Interactive Group, established late last year, could be considered another example of the agency of the future. In fact, as technology advances, firms like BIG could target their clientele directly and perhaps bypass the outside agency altogether.
“Big-time advertisers are confused about interactive services,” said Deborah Striff, vice president of integrated sales for BIG.
BIG employees are geared toward the Internet. They have titles like director of broadband and director of convergence programming. Any technology geek is likely to understand what those jobs entail, but a traditional ad exec may be confused.
With the backing of Irvine-based Broadcom Corp., BIG is aiming at “one-to-one” marketing instead of marketing to the masses, Striff said.
For instance, BIG’s first channel, Bluetorch.com targets the relatively small, but devoted, following of extreme sports. So clients or advertisers on the site know they have an audience of fans and participants of sports like skateboarding.
Although right now clients advertise primarily in BIG’s print magazines, BIG bundles the advertising package to include TV programming, events and the web site. The way it works: Bluetorch sponsors a wakeboard event. The event has one or more name sponsors, and TV crews, a web site crew armed with digital cameras, and photographers are deployed to generate content for BIG’s magazines, TV programming and web site.
“It’s what advertisers have been begging for,” Striff said.
GreenLight Communications, Newport Beach, understands the importance of the Internet, said President Robert Mooers. GreenLight approaches the Internet as another vehicle for branding. “Branding is all-important. It’s amazing how many companies lose site of that,” Mooers said.
GreenLight outsources work like web design to technology firms, while its in-house creative director coordinates the efforts.
Until agencies evolve, many are partnering with technology companies and managing interactive projects in-house, said Allan Karl, president of Costa Mesa-based Priscomm, But the future agency won’t be an agency at all, suggests Karl. Instead it will integrate business services and marketing and will look like a company such as Bethesda, Md.-based AppNet. That firm is listed in Ad Age as the fourth-largest interactive marketing firm. It blends Internet, marketing and technology strategies.
For its part, Priscomm is leaning toward an integrated model, blending new and old media while using a classic branding strategy: making sure the voice and signature are the same.
Toni Alexander, president of Newport Beach-based InterCommunications Inc., said her agency has added staff to take care of its interactive promotions.
“It’s like the wave of the future so why not add staff,” she said.
Alexander hired a UC Irvine teacher to handle web design. He has taken on a leadership role in the company, educating the rest of the staff.
“All the designers fight over the chance to get to sit down with this fellow,” she said.
Not everybody it willing to jettison the old models, though.
Tim Hart, president of Bates USA West, OC’s fourth-largest agency in terms of 1999 billings, acknowledges that the agency of the future will be more technologically oriented and geared for the “Echo Boomers,” children of the Baby Boomers.
Bates has created an in-house interactive division, but it doesn’t bundle its advertising services to include Internet advertising.
Hart says that clients, including dot-com firms, still are targeting mostly traditional advertising media such as print and TV.
And though the Internet will become more important as an advertising medium, Hart said, “I also think we will still be buying network TV.” n
