The New Age of Advertising Is Upon Us: Opportunity Abounds

We are in a major period of disruption in the advertising industry. I have never been more convinced of it. Getting into the middle of the ad:tech conference last week (see previous posts) just helped me experience and understand it even better, up close. The online portion of the industry is on a trajectory that cannot be stopped. (See graph in previous post.) The movement toward a new world order in the ad business is a major, ongoing story, and I can’t help but get excited about the changes and the opportunity it holds for so many of us.

Let me digress a bit. This story isn’t about me, but a little background: I began my career in an advertising agency — at what was then a top Minneapolis firm, which had many people who went on to ad fame and fortune. Nothing beats starting in the mailroom, that storied beginning in the business, where you learn so much, so quickly. And I danced in and out of the agency business for several years, even joining a top-ten worldwide ad agency as an account exec for a time, on a major, Fortune 500 piece of business. Later, in mid-career, I launched of my own marketing consulting firm, actually serving as an ad agency for several of my small tech and B2B clients, among my other duties, for quite a few years.

The reason I had earlier left the traditional agency business was because I thought it was mired in old ways of doing things. It didn’t get technology. It didn’t understand systems and productivity and stuff — you know, being out in front with new techniques and computer-driven processes. It relied only on the ethereal “creativity,” and, of course, the old boy network of expense accounts and golf and long lunches. It was living in the past, on old glory. It lived and died by winning and losing accounts, of course (it still does). But where was the innovation that would move things forward? It didn’t take me long to know I had to get back into tech, which I’d gotten a taste of soon after moving on from that first job in an agency. (I had graduated to being a copywriter on the client side. Computers and software were so much more exciting.) Once I finally left behind the idea of working for a large agency and went whole hog into tech, I never looked back (though I was certainly able to apply some of what I’d learned in running the business I later founded, especially how to manage client accounts and make a profit).

Today, traditional ad agencies still control a majority of the business, and traditional media still account for the vast majority of spending. But, boy, are things changing. The light is getting brighter at the end of the tunnel. The newer breed of tech-savvy, interactive, digital agencies is on the rise, along with new technology-based services, ad networks, exchanges, behavioral-targeting technology companies, widgets, and much more. Acquisitions are flying about everywhere. The dynamics of the industry are in major flux. The old ways, the old agencies die hard, but they do die. They must evolve, or new players simply step in. I liken much of the plight of the old guard today as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Sadly, some will surely go down. But so many new players will attain leadership positions in the industry.

Nowhere is this trend more evident or interesting, I think, than in the acquisition earlier this year of Digitas by Publicis (say it with me now: poob-li-cees), whose leader, Maurice Levy, claims he started the whole recent big-acquisition binge. It’s hard to argue that the man doesn’t see the big picture. This recent article in the New York Times tells the story very well: It’s an Ad, Ad, Ad World. And the larger story about Publicis even has a local angle of sorts, in that famed Minneapolis agency Fallon is part of that holding company. On hard times lately, the agency recently announced that its chairman, Pat Fallon, was handing over the reins to Publicis sister agency Satchi & Satchi. The Fallon agency was a strong player early-on in interactive, but later jettisoned that department to refocus on the traditional part of the business. I never understood why.

Today, there’s no denying the ad game is changing — big time. Online is the new sheriff in town. GOOG and MSFT advertising companies? Who would have believed such a statement even six or seven years ago? Are they agencies? Well, they’re being very careful to hedge on that question. Perhaps they never will be. Meanwhile, the old guard is desparately trying to protect its flanks, preserve its share, posturing and manuevering at every turn, trying to out-smart competition coming at it from everywhere. The dollars are major, so it’s a fight worth watching.

But in this whole mix, of this there is no doubt: technology is finally coming to rule the advertising business. The Internet changed everything, and keeps on changing everything. And opportunity is adundant for new careers, new companies, and new wealth beyond our wildest dreams.

It’s about time!

Update: To add the pronunciation of Publicis….only because I love to talk Francais once in a while.