Avoiding Agencies From Becoming Devoid of Creativity on a Global Scale
In the ever-evolving landscape of the advertising industry, a growing concern has been the industrialization of its deliverables. This trend, reported by esteemed organisations such as Cannes Lions and Kantar Millward Brown, has been identified as a self-destructive move, causing a decrease in returns and no long-term lift.
The industry's relentless push towards standardisation and efficiency is proving to be a challenge in maintaining long-term, sustained growth. Balancing commercial creativity with industrialisation requires addressing key challenges such as media fragmentation, measurement misalignment, rising costs, trust issues, and the tension between short-term performance and long-term brand building.
One of the most pressing issues is media fragmentation and data silos. The advertising landscape is highly fragmented, with multiple platforms and channels that measure success differently. This creates difficulties in unified measurement and understanding full customer journeys, limiting marketers' ability to balance short-term performance with long-term brand growth.
Another challenge is the short-term vs long-term focus. Overemphasis on immediate ROI and performance metrics can restrict growth by ignoring brand equity building, which fuels sustainable future demand. Brands risk optimising only to existing customers rather than creating new demand.
Increased costs of advertising on major platforms like Google and Meta, combined with controversies and quality control doubts, push brands to seek alternatives and demand transparency. This undermines reliance on established "walled gardens" and encourages channels like retail media networks.
Agencies and advertisers also face the difficulty of integrating AI and automation without losing the human creativity essential for commercial impact.
However, there are solutions to these challenges. Integrating brand equity investments with performance marketing creates a virtuous cycle where brand strength increases conversion efficiency and long-term customer loyalty, leading to sustainable revenue growth.
Developing integrated cross-channel measurement systems helps bridge the gap between brand-building and direct performance, enabling better allocation of resources across marketing funnels and time horizons.
Employing automation for routine tasks while preserving human strategic and creative work increases operational capacity and supports consistent delivery of creative solutions that clients value, ensuring growth without sacrificing quality.
Reducing dependence on major platforms by exploring open retail media networks and other emerging channels enhances transparency, control, and reach, mitigating risks and costs associated with platform dependency.
Agencies should focus on niche expertise and measurable ROI to differentiate themselves in a competitive market, helping maintain premium pricing and efficient operations while fostering innovation.
With digital advertising dominance growing, companies must navigate regulations and evolving consumer behaviours thoughtfully to sustain growth in new, technology-driven advertising formats such as AVOD and OTT video services.
In summary, sustained growth demands a balanced approach combining creativity and industrial efficiency through integrated marketing strategies, advanced measurement, technology adoption, and strategic diversification—turning challenges into avenues for innovation and scalable success in the evolving advertising industry. The industry must adapt to these changes to ensure long-term, sustained growth, rather than relying on short-term tactics that lead to diminishing returns.
Science and health-and-wellness brands can leverage the industry's focus on efficiency to boost their growth by integrating fitness-and-exercise elements into their marketing strategies. This could include collaborating with fitness influencers or developing targeted advertising campaigns that align with customers' fitness goals.
Balancing the industry's need for returns with the long-term growth of health-and-wellness brands necessitates addressing challenges such as media fragmentation, measurement misalignment, and the tension between short-term performance and long-term brand building. By adopting integrated cross-channel measurement systems and focusing on niche expertise, agencies can help these brands achieve sustainable growth without sacrificing quality.
