IN-SOURCE / OUT-SOURCE
Should you relinquish such an important part of your sales growth to a perfect stranger or an imperfect friend? Certainly the resources necessary to run these campaigns can be more than you might expect and cost a lot more than you would be willing to invest. If only for that reason it might be justification enough but the reality is that even advertising and marketing agencies are having a tough time assimilating the necessary skills and technology needed to integrate digital marketing and traditional marketing into a cohesive line-up of products called Integrated Marketing.
According to www.inc.com's top 5000 agencies report, IPG, Omnicom, Publicis, WPP, BBDO, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett are among the biggest agencies in the world. They are responsible for iconic campaigns like the Marlboro man for Phillip Morris. These ads made an indelible impression in our collective consciousness and for that the advertisers & agencies were nicely rewarded. But even these companies continue to merge for size and acquire new comers for scope to keep up with emerging technologies.
The times have changed and we are no longer a nation of naive followers but rather a culture of individuals seeking personal expression and attention. Perhaps this is why most large enterprises are willing to manage a roster of 50 to 100 agencies as www.forbes.com reported instead of consolidating to one or two? I think that in this ever changing era where every 18 months there's a new and improved technological advance that revolutionizes and disrupts established transactional norms of conduct, you can not just pick one partner. Advertisers, like consumers need the flexibility of many options if only to keep the agencies as honest and efficient as possible, working hard to understand the "Next Big Thing" and how the advertiser can earn another customer in this faster than light economy.
Advertising agencies have a hard time justifying that their advertising drives as many sales as expected. Direct Marketing agencies went further in setting up models to track their success but they both continue to have difficulties evolving to the urgency of now and the web of tomorrow.
For example take a simple paper sales sheet .
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The paper, weight, color, brightness, texture, opacity must be chosen long before it is deployed. The ink might be PMS pantone, CMYK separated, soy based, metallic, varnished, UV coated, acquesed or silk-screened BUT can only be printed ONCE in 1 - 4 color, digital or webpress. The message can be indicative, imperative, receptive, persuasive or active, but not contextual in real-time and this is just for a single sales sheet. We are not even discussing the mailing list, mail/purge, address verification and USPS postage, sorting and mailing if you wish to send it out.
To make matters worse , the internet has taken that process and allowed the advertiser to make those very same decisions IN REAL-TIME, every single time for every single consumer as the letter is displayed on different platforms like web, cellphone, tablets and laptops or desktops. Television, Radio and Print will have a hard time attempting that feat of flexibility for at least another 5 to 10 years and might find that it takes 50-100 years for the singularity to embrace them as effortlessly as the smaller devices for individual broadcast and not the masses.
