How are you Complementing Your( Advertising )Business ?

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Permalink Reply by Roy MacNaughton on October 14, 2008 at 6:21pm

Keith:

Hi, I've been involved in "hospitality industry advertising".....as an integral part of
overall "marketing".....for more than three decades.

I've learned a thing or two in that time.

One of those things is to not put all your eggs in one "hospitality sub industry" basket. The smart folks seem to have their fingers in several different pies: e.g. food service, travel, tourism, lodging, recreation and sports and transportation (e.g. cruise lines, taxis, car rentals, airlines, bus lines and trains).

If you have experience and a track record in one or more of these market segments, and you really know what's going on inside them, as an agency, you have a better chance up against the very big guys in the ad game. Most of them now are just like the international conglomerates that the major suppliers and operators have become. Because they are now so big, and international, many of them cannot pitch a new account because it is in competition with one of their subsidiaries in another country; the client would see it as a conflict of interest. Or, your account is just too small to attract their attention. They are the Queen Mary's of the ad world: slow, big, unwieldy, and very slow to adapt or change direction.

The smart agencies these days are like 30 foot runabouts....zipping around that Queen Mary five times while she tries to change direction.

Many of the hottest shops in the industry these days are "boutique" or independent.
they have been kick-started by individuals or partners who first had some operational experience in the industry, knew the challenges, had been in the trenches with rolled-up sleeves...first. Then they branched into the advertising side of things.

Additionally, the most successful ad agencies today in our business, are those who realize that the old ways are dying fast; and that the Internet and digital marketing are surely the tidalwave of the future......here now.

If an ad agency wants to survive today they will have to adapt to this new way of digital marketing, combine that with good old classic "offline" marketing know-how; and be prepared to earn their living not just on media commissions.

Clients are no longer interested in spending huge sums of money for media that cannot be truly measured in terms of ROI. This is another reason why digital marketing is becoming more popular. It can be measured in terms of who it reached, what happened and how successful it was vis-a-vis its cost. Much of the "old media" is not capable of offering this advantage.

This is, in my opinion, is what's happening in the ad game for this industry today.

Roy

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