$6 billion all dressed up and nowhere to go Or, let's start an agency

[by Todd] The 30-second spot is under assault, right? Agencies and advertisers are all worrying about what's next when you tune out their nightly blitz of messages.

But what if tonight, from your comfy chair, you could see television ads that are targeted to your tastes? No longer are you going to see the same commercial as people hundreds of miles away with vastly different interests. Instead every ad is tweaked to speak to your wants and needs.

Telcos and cable companies have invested more than $6 billion in projects like FiOS and U-verse to make it all possible. Study after study says relevance can overcome the resistance to marketing. It seems like the perfect solution.

"Of all the things I see, and I look at new TV technologies all day long, addressable advertising is the biggest opportunity, bar none," Tracey Scheppach, vice president video innovation at Starcom MediaVest Group told MediaPost.

So why aren't these laser-guided messages saving the day for beleaguered advertising? According to the experts in the MediaPost article it's just too darn hard to negotiate the deals. So no one does.

I have another theory. Brand agencies and media companies are too damn lazy.

It's not for lack of desire that these deals aren't happening. It just takes a willingness to do the work. I'm sure there's no "Form 1859" someone fills out to take over Times Square for a product launch. But it happens nonetheless, because its big, and glamorous.

Things like addressable television strip away much of that glitz. No longer are creative directors pseudo Hollywood directors crafting 30-second epics. Instead creative talents have to think in three dimensions, crafting a message that can be varied for a myriad of recipients, in an expanding realm of formats.

In short, they have to think like a direct-marketing agency. Oh the irony! After years be being the butt-end of brand agency score, dismissed as below-the-line, database marketers, or mail houses, now creatives at direct response agencies are laughing as technology delivers brands to their doors.

Think the big mega agencies are too smart to let it all slip away? Let me take you back a decade, when Internet advertising first emerged. Remember how big brand agencies tried to dismiss it as just billboards on a computer, or tried to make it like radio through a modem? What a nightmare it was when creatives were confronted with file-size restrictions, let alone the onslaught of programmers in their hallowed halls.

Today the landscape if littered with interactive agencies, many owned by the big agencies, but ghettos nonetheless for people who saw something more than big print ads in the future. Confronted with the reality that interactive is a discipline that is only growing in importance, how many agencies have integrated that talent into the mainstream, required all their teams to learn the nuances of this new approach?

Now technology is bringing a wrecking ball to television, the beloved darling of the brand agencies. Advertisers are pulling money out of firehose-advertising and, when they do spend, demanding ROI, hard numbers. But once again brand agencies are dismissing the knock at the door as just another door-to-door salesman.

I suggest those of us who are willing to rethink how the pieces work owe it to ourselves to answer the call. Remake the face of the agencies you're at, if you can. If not, step out and start your own. Seize the moment. I'm more than willing to help.

Anyone interested? Seriously, anyone?

Comments

[simon andrews]

Totally agree. Agencies are factories that produce TV ads - they can't make the shift as it doesn't work with their business model.
But clients want smarter thinking and more effective solutions.
Thats why we left big jobs at big agencies to start Big Picture.

[Corey King]

I was just blogging about this very issue regarding a local company (here in Lexington, KY). They've lost faith in agencies and are building an in-house ad/mkt agency.

Take a look at my blog to read the jobs postings - (they're great!)

I have been successful in developing new business because I listen to clients and research their industries. Whereas I find my competition just want people who'll let them develop whacky campaigns.

Anyway, I wonder if these are representative of a larger, national trend or is it just random?