Arab advertising comes of age (page 1 of 3)

How do you see the future of the regional advertising industry?

There are new realities we have to deal with, and I expect that this will affect the way we operate as advertising agencies or - as we now call ourselves - as marketing-communication groups. Broadly speaking, we will have to provide more specialized services - a process we have started more than a decade ago at Impact/BBDO.

We also have to act as integrators, whereby the respective disciplines, and the message they carry, reach the consumer in a harmonious way. And we have to adapt to the rapidly growing globalization phenomenon, which is affecting us as much as it is affecting the market at large.

All this suggests that our future is dependent on our ability to adapt to this new scenario. I am reassured, though, by the fact that this is definitely not the first time we have had to face change in this region. The advertising people of the Middle East are both resilient and resourceful.

The region has seen the emergence of media buying units. Do you think that this will last?

The short answer is 'yes.' You cannot go against the trends of the rest of the world. You could delay implementing change - but delay is all you could do. Today, media buying units are proving extremely effective in servicing our clients. Our concern as advertising agencies was whether we would be able to integrate media once it was carried out by an independent unit.

This concern has totally vanished today. Not only can we fully integrate media in our clients' recommendations, but we are now able to provide better media results thanks to more specific and more effective media tools - tools the traditional agency had no access to.

How do these trends affect your business? Some agencies seem to feel that clients are not paying enough for creative services.

Agency compensation - with or without media as an agency service - is a very complex issue. But it is like when paying for any service: there must be a correlation between the service that is rendered, the quality provided and the price paid.

Perhaps the key difference today is that every communication service or discipline is paid for separately, while historically 'full-service agencies' charged a lump sum for all services. What is important is fairness - that good clients pay their agencies in a fair way. It is no secret that compensation represents a good portion of agency motivation.

Do you foresee any demergering in marketing-communication disciplines?

I don't think so. I believe that the traditional agency will retain a role of band leader and will harmonize the disciplines needed to serve a particular client. In a way, it could subcontract each discipline provider so that the client has access to the specialized service, ensuring that this is done in a strategically coherent and integrated way.

Of course, there are many cases where a client will seek the service of a specialized unit without necessarily utilizing all services the group provides. But being part of a marketing-communication group offers many advantages to the specialized units. They can handle their own clients while benefiting from multidisciplinary clients as well. What is important for the specialists is to feel that they can grow in their own speciality and that group resources and support are there when they need them.

What about consolidation? It seems that all agencies are merging together.

I believe that we are getting close to the end of this consolidation process.