The Challenge to Gain Value in a Complex Marketing Environment

For some businesses, advertising has never been easier. With the development of digital media & tools, making and serving an ad to a consumer can be achieved with in-house capabilities for an advertiser.

In previous years, a business would consider and ad-agency to advise on strategy, identify the consumer, design appealing & descriptive creative work & then to present this ad in the pertinent media channel.

The technology we have in our hands allows to build ads for a relatively low cost. We can trade & invest with DSPs who are able to programmatically serve commercials to a defined audience automatically.

There is an ease of production & the purchase channel is simplified…..on the surface.

So does this make the marketing agency redundant?

The very nature of digital access is the volume of content & commercials we encounter on every day.

Within this spectrum there is a mound of irrelevant & poor quality communication.

Subsequently differentiation is elusive, but also essential, to gain the fickle attention of our consumers.

Poor ads in wrong context can damage a brand – who would want to invest in making their public image poorer?

The payback for an apparently digitally effective purchase is that the Supply Chain from advertiser to customer is exponentially expanded.

Ad $’s go through several layers of organisations from DSPs, through re-sellers, tech platforms, SSPs & publishers. At each level the gross $ investment is eroded by commissions & tech fees, ultimately diminishing the net investment, once it finally reaches & impacts upon the consumer.

So although ‘advertising has never been easier’ , the opportunity to lose value, damage a brand & waste money has increased!

There are many hidden pitfalls, both from effectiveness & a financial perspective that we need to be aware of.

This is where Agency experience/volume/tech/resource can help guide investers through such a complex eco-system.

But these agencies operate business within an industry of over $1 TRN annual turnover. This cake is dominated by 6 major agency holding companies.

Agencies need to make money & their margins have been narrowing for the last 20 years. Even the biggest advertisers face challenges within these relationships. Smaller clients can become lost within the machine & struggle to gain the support, resource & attention they may need.

The question is : Time Spent to DIY vs Access to Agency Time.

It is worth paying for quality if you can. Smaller advertisers & SME’s can benefit from in-housing some media & advertising capabilities, but the time taken to develop experience, test & learn, ensure pertinence & RoI is long & expensive.

Conversely, to be (one of 1000’s of) small fish in a big agency pond doesn’t necessarily translate into value!

The best route is to identify a partner who can give you the insight, time & attention you require. Working to create mutually beneficial growth plans with fair incentives linked to business performance metric.

The digital landscape is becoming increasingly challenging, particularly with various platforms changing their policy to manage the content, context & legislation.

Subsequently advertisers of all sizes face new challenges in managing the context, value & effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.