Marketing tested in digital era

The strong emergence of digital media in the marketing mix is challenging the traditional structure of media agencies as they look to integrate the two platforms.

The debate among industry players suggests the growing complexities rising out of new platforms such as the digital and online.

This structure is further complicated by different methodology of measurements and their impact on the campaign.

While many agencies in the region, particularly in the UAE, were alert to the business opportunities offered by a rapid growing digital, and thus turned to setting up digital divisions as a part of an integrated approach, many observers continue to question the definition of complete solution.

Dominic Parker, Managing Director, The Tribe Digital, told Emirates Business: "Integration to my mind, means the jack of all trades and people keep trying to go down this integrated route, whereas, I think, we still need specialists in each of those divisions.

"We need creative specialists who can come up with the idea and once we have the idea we can channel it over different media depending on what solution is the best for the client. Those specialists are not necessarily big agencies. They are suppliers and digital partners from the likes of Yahoo, Google, Facbook, as well as media planners and media buyers. And now even more and more public relations specialists should be fused into those discussions, because of their expertise in devising viral communication, vital on digital platforms.

"Public Relations experts should be actively integrated into the initial planning at the beginning of the campaign inception."

Although many current agencies that champion the concept of integrated marketing are including those disciplines into their media planning stages, Parker said: "Not every agency would have all those different attributes on board. In my opinion, in addition to the core skills of an advertising agency, PR skills as well as the knowledge and experiences of different partners should be brought to the table of discussing the brand building exercise."Parker said some of the best ideas for campaigns came out without the digital agency even being there.

Michael Maksoudian, Brand Leader, TBWA\Raad, advocated the concept of integration. Representing an agency that has introduced digital media as a part of an integrated service offering, Maksoudian said that no agency has found the perfect formula yet.

He said: "We have to train everybody in an agency. It is true that becoming digital experts goes back to the individuals, of whom some are willing to learn and embrace technology and some aren't. Yet, our main challenge is to have the top management buy into the concept of modifying the agency model to accommodate the new developments on the technical and marketing fronts."

Maksoudian added: "It is crucial to muster an understanding of the reasons for change as a part of evolution, where if we don't evolve, our expertise will suddenly become insufficient."

He added: "Agencies haven't found the real model that goes with all those developments. Some are experimenting. Some others like TBWA\Raad have sister agencies that are specialised in digital marketing and advertising. To me, this is, psychological move, but it still does not answer the problem. We need to train all of the agency employees and members and showcase what is out there and what is happening. We need to identify people within the traditional agencies that can become digital experts".

Even if that meant that expertise would be fragmented and incomprehensive in digital arena among the majority of traditional marketing agency teams, it would also allow the agency representatives with their general knowledge of the marketing tools, to offer the clients with adequate advice on what should be done and what should not, said Maksoudian.

He explained: "Once the implementation starts, a digital task force would take over the execution and ensure top results. Currently, most of the conversations don't follow this approach. Most consultants still go for traditional marketing, while digital comes along as an afterthought. Knowing about digital brings this tool to the heart of the discussion on what is best to construct and effective marketing and advertising strategy."

Maksoudian pointed out that the inter-connection among different communications disciplines when it comes to digital media, especially social networks, is now also involving public relations consultants. "Social media is being handled by a mix of advertising, media buying, creative and public relations experts. This makes it even more complex and I don't think anyone has found the right solution yet." However, he predicted the death of the agency in the form it is known today, to be replaced by an order that is a lot closer to the clients and maintains a close partnership.

Hussein Freijeh, Advertising Sales Director, Yahoo Maktoob, said: "This debate is interesting. Media is changing and that should be normal as a part of any business evolution. However, the big question is what do we do until then? We still need to build our brands online. Does this mean that we are going to wait for agencies to integrate? This doesn't make sense. So going back to the question, how do we build the brands online, what we need to do is to choose the stakeholders that affect the growth of this medium. That includes the creative agency, the media agency and the media owner."

He said: "There is a huge amount of platforms, and it is normal to have a huge number of people who are specialised in those platforms. And it is not wrong to have a lot of people talking to the client about a specific aim and how to achieve it.

"However, stakeholders need to be identified clearly and involved in those talks regarding the brand. Brands need to choose who their partners are.

"Meanwhile, the region has a lot of talent with a lot of energy, that would make it possible to develop a brand image through highly successful strategies. They just need to be able to sit down in one room and discuss. Whether agencies will eventually resort to a model that is successfully integrated or not, we may not know the answer. We have examples where teams in different agencies were able to pull off successful campaigns, and we have integrated agencies that also succeeded. Until the time comes when we shall witness the answers to this issue, let us come up with a plan that can manage our data business. I believe we have the tools for that."

Said Abu Diwan, Digital Manager, GM Middle East Operations, said: "To be a little realistic, digital media will not prevail over the brand. It is a resource, which would definitely be adopted if proven to make business sense. In the meantime, the client servicing executives are adding digital expertise by communicating with the digital experts, which they will be able to pull out for the benefit of the brand whenever it is deemed needful. From a brand perspective we see those executives undergoing a lot training to better their understanding of the digital media."

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