Agency

The rising adoption of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) by advertisers and consumers will deliver transformative creative experiences. Yet as much as creative and production shops will need to change to meet the new artistic and technical demands, media shops will face the more critical questions.

But if everyone is authentic, can it still be a differentiating factor? If even the most processed food products are touting their “real ingredients,” how can truly natural and organic brands stand out? At this point of saturation, authenticity can no longer be a true point of difference.

In 1964, media visionary Marshall McLuhan coined the indelible phrase “the medium is the message,” all but predicting the Internet and how advances in communications technology would come to shape the symbiotic relationship between what is said and how. The ascendency of digital, social, and mobile has progressively empowered once-passive consumers, now equal partners in content selection, redistribution and even creation. The good news is that digital channels provide unprecedented opportunities for targeting and personalization; the bad news is audiences now control how and with what they engage, tuning in and out as they desire.

Does the advertising of your TV content — a commercial, a TV program – have any “curious empathy”?

We’ve reached a crisis in listening: a study found that the average large organization devoted 80 percent of its resources to broadcasting its messages to the public or clients and only 20 percent on listening. However, creating compelling content that resonates with your audience and drives its behavior begins with listening.

Diversifying and evolving inspired by LATISM’s “Best Latina Network Leader” 2016, Lynn Ponder, founder of WebCityGirls influencer brand announced the arrival of #UnstoppableLATINAS Leadership Summit 2017.

A survey of advertising and marketing executives indicates that, of a variety of emerging technologies, the internet of things (IoT) is seen as the most important.

But breakthrough innovation is challenging. Moreover, most new product launches are “small” or “sustaining” innovations, which include the many, many brand extensions that large companies launch year after year. These launches are absolutely essential for growing existing brands and defending shelf space.  By Delphine Bourgeois, VP, Nielsen Innovation Practice

The widespread and increasing use of data to help manage agency relationships is leading to more informed decision-making. This is delivering positive benefits to client/agency relationships as well as improving efficiencies at both clients and agencies. Furthermore, the increased use of data is improving transparency and accountability, both hot topics at the moment. Bottom line: Data is truly a “force for good” in client/agency relationships.  By Bill Duggan, Group EVP, ANA

In my simplistic vision, both sides must come to terms with the current state of the media industry, and must be willing to compromise. It’s undoubtedly true that advertisers have cut back on the fees they pay agencies for their services. There is a chicken-and-egg question here: Has this happened because agencies seem to be making large sums of money? Or are agencies being forced to find new sources of income, because advertisers have been cutting back?

Many kids become internet users before they learn how to walk. But even as the age at which kids get a smartphone creeps downward, most lack one of their own, as explored in a new eMarketer report, “US Kids and Digital: Gauging How Digital These Digital Natives Really Are”.

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc / LMMiami.com

• “In the future, marketing will be like sex: only losers will pay for it.”
• The line is not mine.
• It was coined by the great adman Jon Bond.
• It is a bit vulgar, yes.

Last week Kantar hosted a conference in New York City titled FragmentNation. While the title of the event predated the U.S. election result, Trump’s win helped underline the basic thesis of the event. Brands must prepare themselves to market in an ever more fragmented world and that means understanding the granularity of people’s needs, mindset and values like never before.  By Nigel Hollis

As the high-tech and automotive worlds merge—with four disruptive technology trends driving change—a complex ecosystem is creating new rules for success.

TubeMogul has conducted some interesting research on the changing nature of GRPs (gross rating points).  Edit summary

In a declaration distributed over the Thanksgiving holiday — appropriately, on Black Friday — José Villa, President of Los Angeles-based digital cross-cultural agency Sensis put another dagger into the fragile heart of U.S. Hispanic marketing.

Affluent millennial internet users are strongly attached to brands—much more so than those with less income. More than half of those in a worldwide survey said they were defined by the brands they purchase.

Traditional legacy marketing tactics and strategies are meaningless to SMB millennial marketers. Millennials are disrupting traditional marketing approaches without even realizing it.

While conducting research about the early years of colonization in the New World, archivist Isabel Aguirre discovered a document jealously guarded at Archivo General de Simancas in Spain. Aguirre enlisted the support of renowned historian Consuelo Varela to shake the dust off a story that reveals that blacks lived in La Espanola, or the New World for that matter, from the very beginning of European colonization.

In today’s digital world, parents overwhelmingly agree it is important to nurture good character in their children, including traits like honesty and compassion.