by Richard Yang
It’s the new year, the time for resolutions and renewals. The advertising industry is no stranger to these. Over the last decade, creative agencies have been tackling the challenge of staying successful, reinventing themselves, and blazing new trails.
To do just that for my agency, Catalytx, I attended a Worldwide Partners (WPI) network conference held in Shanghai before the end of 2015, together with other agency leaders from all over the world.
Over the course of the conference, I noticed that the most striking nuggets of wisdom revolved around drawing from strength, as well as knowing what will change and what will endure.
Those who thrive – industry veterans who believe and have great confidence in what we do – know that the advertising industry breeds people who are strongminded brand champions, hardwired for learning constantly, taking leaps, and driving leadership for our clients. This is our job, our passion, our instinct, and our core.
Through all the changes over the years, it can be observed that successful agency leaders have kept long-standing constants in their formula. Among these are:
- Anticipation, the instinct to stay ahead of the curve.
- Expansive Point of View, the mindset that we can pick up ideas everywhere – east, west, top, bottom – and brewing trends can be detected and leveraged, from mass communication, to specialization, to the Internet, and beyond.
- Connecting Dots, the belief that everything can be adopted and re-created, that no experience is wasted.
That said, sustained success takes more than sticking with traditional formula. In order to keep it up, agencies must embrace the new and the soon-to-be mainstream. The Shanghai conference was abuzz with the following developments:
- Doing more with less. Using tactics like micro-segmentation, native advertising, shopper marketing, scenario marketing, and showrooming. Agencies also need to take on the shift from open brands to brand belonging, as well as harness consumers as media, content curators, and salesmen.
- Expanded application of creativity, not just in communication, but also in product conceptualization, business modeling, and the ownership of brands, platforms and customer base.
- Data Science. Capturing what is and was (descriptive analytics), what may come to be (predictive analytics), and what should be (prescriptive analytics). With this comes data visualization – communicating the meaning of numbers – and resolving big data into smart data.
For 2016 and beyond, agencies need agility to constantly adjust formula and stay current without forgetting that the targets will always be the same: To offer the best strategic marketing ideas, ensure ROI, drive brand leadership, and forge collaborative partnerships.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Richard G. Yang is a strategic marketing guru with experience spanning decades and various Asian markets. He founded Catalytx Advertising in the Philippines in 2000, and has since expanded the business into the CAI-Onnekas group of specialized agencies, with manpower of over 1,500. Catalytx is part of Worldwide Partners (WPI), the biggest network of independent agencies in the world.
Under Mr. Yang’s leadership, Catalytx has been a seamless partner to its longstanding clients, achieving marketing successes with Ajinomoto, Gardenia, Yakult, UNAHCO, Delfi- Makers of Goya, Ellips Cologne and Uratex, among others.
NOTE: This is a press release by CATALYTX.
