Think Multicultural

I just left Miami Beach and the 2nd annual ad:tech Miami conference. Per Danny’s earlier post, there was a noticeable drop in attendance from last year (I didn’t attend, but I also heard the same comments from past attendees). However, I was found most of the panel discussions insightful and interesting - particularly the ones pertaining to Latin America.

There was one topic that was discussed in a few panels and kept coming up in my conversations at the various networking breaks and parties - what will the ad agency of the future look like?

This is a question that I think about all the time - I guess you could call it the “thing that keeps me up at night” (although my 16 month old daughter Maya holds that title most nights). I run a multicultural interactive agency - a niche within a niche. There were panelists at ad:tech from a handful of Hispanic-focused interactive agencies… another niche within a niche. One of the principals at one of these Hispanic interactive agencies made the case that interactive will be integrated within traditional ad agency capabilities in the future.

I had a similar conversation with the CEO of a large general market interactive agency who asked me “do we have to expand into traditional in the future?”

Someone even brought up the question of whether multicultural advertising will inevitably have to be integrated into general advertising as the U.S. population becomes more and more diverse (we already see this happening in places like Los Angeles where “minority majorities” are causing clients to hire multicultural ad agencies as their lead agencies).

This is a big question that I making some bets on. I am very curious what some of you out there think? Here are some interesting thought starters?

1. Will there room for specialists interactive agencies like Hispanic interactive agencies?
2. Will traditional agencies need to have specialty digital capabilties like SEO and mobile?
3. Will traditional agencies continue buying interactive shops or will the opposite start to happen?

As part of a panel discussion I took part in on Tuesday at the Multicultural Media Expo in Los Angeles, CA, I was asked to provide my perspective on how clients, agencies and media are responding to the demand for digital. That’s obviously a broad topic that can be interpreted many ways. For my part, I decided to look to the future and expound on what I think is happening in advertising and what our industry will look like in the next few years.

My answer is that advertising will be digital-centric.

So you may ask, what do I mean by “digital-centric?” Basically, I anticipate a future where interactive agencies and digital media are at the center of the advertising and marketing services industry. In fact, this vision is not far off and in many industries this shift is already starting to occur. During my presentation I referenced the groundbreaking decision by Ikea UK in February 2007 to select Agency.com (an interactive agency) as it’s lead agency.

As more recent proof of this growing trend, today’s New York Times reports that Pepsi’s new zero calorie beverage Tava will be launching online only. The Times describes this as a “non-conventional” approach. The reality is that this will be the norm for more and more brands and marketers.

As far as multicultural advertising is concerned, digital will also inevitably take center stage. More to come on this topic on my next post.

As a practicing professional in the online media industry I truly cherish the relationships that I have established with our online media partners. These relationships can be a key factor when it comes to delivering results for our clients.

To my disappointment, I have noticed that most publishers are highly involved when it comes to selling their product but when it comes to optimizing a campaign there is a HUGE drop off in customer service. If I had a nickel for every publisher that is proactive about campaign optimizations, I could probably afford to buy a stamp…….in Africa.

In my opinion, it’s not fair to leave the entire burden of campaign optimization on the agency side. I also think campaign optimization is a great opportunity for publishers to show that they care and to continue to cultivate agency relationships. The bottom line is that as our trusted partners we expect to get something from you too (Besides impressions and invoices).

So my advice to all publishers is: don’t get lazy! Help us help our clients. We’re all in this together.

JM