"Aggressive accounting"
Op-Ed: “Downtrading” (advertising instead of marketing) and “uptrading” (image instead of advertising) will soon spell the end for the traditional full-service agency: The new doctrine is called “programming.”.
Guest commentary Downtrading (publicity instead of advertising) and uptrading (image instead of advertising) will soon cause the classic full-service agency to disappear: The new doctrine is called "Programming: We save on expensive color ads so that we can offer you lower prices": Bild recently printed this full-page ad for the electronics department store ProMarkt. German consumers were astonished. Are German advertisers now opting for modesty, or are publishers becoming masochistic? For months, agencies and media companies have been reporting epochal slumps in sales, and not only in Germany. And traditional advertising still accounts for just a third of total budgets. Agencies and publishers alike are trying to return to profitability by cutting staff. The unemployment rate for communication professions in Germany currently stands at five percent, with a strong upward trend.
The recession is still obscuring the rules of tomorrow's markets. Commercial communication follows journalistic communication: from general interest to special interest to personal interest. The differentiation of media channels is followed by the involvement of users, individually and interactively. No one medium replaces the other. But purchased attention, called advertising, becomes communication, monologues become dialogs.
And the clients? Fewer brands with more communicative power is their battle cry. Media-Markt, for example, is proclaiming that "stinginess is cool", but at the same time is investing more heavily than last year. Meanwhile, Unilever is reducing its portfolio from 1600 to 400 brands; Kraft Jacobs Suchard will follow suit. In short: the future belongs to the global power brands. What consequences does this have for the agency scene? It is splitting into dirty and noble providers.
Marketers in the low-cost segment will try to conquer new target groups with blitzkriegs: cut-throat competition by lowering the price level, "more through cheaper". The battle for the lowest prices does not stop at the agencies. The order of the day is therefore to reduce costs for all services. One possible counter-strategy is the revival of advertising production; couponing is a step in this direction. In this way, large specialist agencies are being created - along the lines of the low-cost airlines. Basic advertising work is once again becoming a duty, creativity a freestyle activity. All consulting and service work is delegated back to the customer or charged extra. Branding experts are no longer needed, briefings and presentations are sent by e-mail. Water is free at meetings, tea costs one franc - cash.
Marketers in the premium segment, on the other hand, sell communication shells instead of products or services. This summer, for example, Langnese will name its Magnum ice cream after the seven deadly sins (lust tastes like strawberry). The hope: more meaning equals more profit. Advertising agencies are becoming image producers inspired by show business. The role models are entertainers with integrated media strategies such as Dieter Bohlen. The new doctrine is called programming and will not only change TV advertising blocks, but all commercial communication. Agenda setting and media networking will be handled by specialists. This is why clever managers and accountants, as "aggressive accountants" on the client side, will outsource brand management (also in the future) just as they have done with the production of goods and services.
> Peter Wippermann is a book author, founder of the Hamburg Trend Office and Professor of Communication Design at the University of Essen.
The recession is still obscuring the rules of tomorrow's markets. Commercial communication follows journalistic communication: from general interest to special interest to personal interest. The differentiation of media channels is followed by the involvement of users, individually and interactively. No one medium replaces the other. But purchased attention, called advertising, becomes communication, monologues become dialogs.
And the clients? Fewer brands with more communicative power is their battle cry. Media-Markt, for example, is proclaiming that "stinginess is cool", but at the same time is investing more heavily than last year. Meanwhile, Unilever is reducing its portfolio from 1600 to 400 brands; Kraft Jacobs Suchard will follow suit. In short: the future belongs to the global power brands. What consequences does this have for the agency scene? It is splitting into dirty and noble providers.
Marketers in the low-cost segment will try to conquer new target groups with blitzkriegs: cut-throat competition by lowering the price level, "more through cheaper". The battle for the lowest prices does not stop at the agencies. The order of the day is therefore to reduce costs for all services. One possible counter-strategy is the revival of advertising production; couponing is a step in this direction. In this way, large specialist agencies are being created - along the lines of the low-cost airlines. Basic advertising work is once again becoming a duty, creativity a freestyle activity. All consulting and service work is delegated back to the customer or charged extra. Branding experts are no longer needed, briefings and presentations are sent by e-mail. Water is free at meetings, tea costs one franc - cash.
Marketers in the premium segment, on the other hand, sell communication shells instead of products or services. This summer, for example, Langnese will name its Magnum ice cream after the seven deadly sins (lust tastes like strawberry). The hope: more meaning equals more profit. Advertising agencies are becoming image producers inspired by show business. The role models are entertainers with integrated media strategies such as Dieter Bohlen. The new doctrine is called programming and will not only change TV advertising blocks, but all commercial communication. Agenda setting and media networking will be handled by specialists. This is why clever managers and accountants, as "aggressive accountants" on the client side, will outsource brand management (also in the future) just as they have done with the production of goods and services.
> Peter Wippermann is a book author, founder of the Hamburg Trend Office and Professor of Communication Design at the University of Essen.
