Advertising Agencies will become more targetable and measurable in the future. You’ll be able to add first-party and syndicated data to almost anything. Because most advertising will be done digitally, there will be more self-selection and more native advertising. There will be more branded content, and people will be able to choose what and how they watch it. Advertising Agencies will have to be more entertaining and integrated into what people are doing right now.
Role of Advertising Agencies in Recommending New Media
Historically, advertising agencies, in general, have been media innovators when it comes to marketing strategies. An advertising agency is “an independent organization of creative people and business people who specialize in developing and preparing advertising plans, advertisements, and other promotional tools. The agency purchases advertising time in various media on behalf of its clients – various advertisers or sellers to find customers for the clients’ goods and services”.
To be adopters of personalized technology, ad agencies need to have an innovative outlook on their media strategies for their ad campaigns. The more leading-edge they are and the earlier they educate themselves on new types of technology, the faster they and their campaigns will benefit from it. For this study, it is important to understand the types of agencies that have a history of being more innovative because it could play a role in whether or not their campaigns are using personalization.
First, it is important to note the differences in agency types. Agencies can be classified by the services they offer and by the types of business they handle. There are two main types of advertising agencies:
- Full-service agencies
- Specialized service agencies
Full-service agencies are larger agencies that perform at least four of these basic functions for their client: research services, creative services, media services, advertising-related legal counsel, marketing planning and management, and account management. Beyond these basic segments, a full-service agency could also offer direct marketing, public relations, and sales promotion services. Many full-service agencies are publicly owned conglomerates and they are international.
The single agencies within the conglomerates are separately managed and for the most part, are in competition with one another. The majority of advertising agencies in the market are smaller agencies, which typically have up to a dozen employees and handle accounts up to $10,000. Some small firms can be classified as full-service agencies, but the majority of them are specialized.
Types of Advertising Agencies
There are several types of specialized service agencies including creative boutiques, health/medical agencies, direct marketing agencies, and ethnic agencies. Creative boutiques prepare the creative execution of their client’s product and/or service and their sole focus is on the idea and creative product. Health/medical agencies carry out many of the functions of a full-service agency, the difference being that they concentrate solely on the healthcare, pharmaceutical, and medical fields.
Direct marketing agencies primarily specialize in strategic planning, creative solutions and execution, and database management for direct response advertising. Direct marketing agencies also offer services like e-commerce, Internet marketing, data mining, and modeling. They specialize in relationship marketing and interactive communications to reach their client’s consumers on a personal level. Ethnic agencies specialize in advertising to ethnic populations by concentrating on customized marketing programs geared specifically at the group’s values and lifestyles. Influencer marketing plays a big role.
Innovative Behavior of Agencies of Different Sizes
When comparing agencies of different sizes, there is no evidence of a difference in innovative behavior between small agencies and large agencies. Larger agencies have many resources and have a network of people working together. They have the credibility to attract more clients with more money to invest in the technology. Larger agencies are also usually associated with the traditional full-service agencies meaning that they may have the same mindset. Smaller agencies offer a more personalized touch in their services and can work for small and medium businesses with more attention which is effective.
Marketing Strategies of Client Category.
The one main difference between business-to-business (B2C) and business-to-consumer (B2C) customers is that business-to-business clients are looking to fill a space for their customers’ needs and business-to-consumer clients are looking for one item to fill a personal space or need. When comparing ad agencies whose clients are business-to-business or business-to-consumer, it has been shown that 10 there is a clear difference in the amount of advertising in each group.
Selecting the right marketing agency can make or break your business. Client needs to invest time and research and test them before hiring. Often tall promises fall short and your expectations should be cleared and communicated well. Agreeable goals with proper measurement of KPI’s will lead both sides in the right direction.
