Fear and hard times around the world

By Kanaporn Hutcheson
special for The Nation
Published on November 3, 2008

The words on everyone's lips at the moment have to do with the world financial crisis and how this will affect us collectively and individually.

Whether the situation deteriorates and global deflation sets in or the bot¬tom of the slump is in sight is very much an open question that will be answered over the next 12 months.

But whatever the outcome, this is not the end of the world, and there will be a turnaround. Yet I am also sure that from here on we will all have to adapt to survive in a very chal¬lenging business environment.

In the agency world, we have seen workload demands and client expecta¬tions change quite rapidly since 2000. Since the beginning of this year, the shift has been dramatic. The most notice¬able trend is that clients are looking at quite a direct correlation between the advertising budget and increased sales: they still want to see strong cre¬ative input, but this has to produce measurable results. The TV com¬mercial, print ad and other materi¬als in the campaign are not to enter¬tain but to cause consumers to buy.

On the other hand, the commu¬nication campaign that contains no concept will pass like a ship in the night, leaving just a wave. Because even if the campaign has the right ingredients of positioning and prom¬ise, but contains no big idea, it is too dull to penetrate the hearts of con¬sumers, who have generally learnt to protect themselves against the daily deluge of advertising, too dull to build brand image, too dull to sell, as con¬sumers have too many calls on their attention to be drawn in easily, and also they are more careful about spending in a downturn. Every time we are going to spend we have to think again and again whether it is worth it or not to us to make that purchase.

So when budgets are cut in hard¬er times, we have to remind our clients (and ourselves) to consider every advertisement not just in terms of creating sales but also as part of the longterm investment in the reputa¬tion of the brand and as a continual restating of the brand's core values.

I can say this year our work has become tougher. We have had to think hard and consider all factors, sometimes stepping outside the tra¬ditional agency role. Creative per¬sonnel who are mainly artists have had to become salesmen with their art; our strategists and planners have had to become more creative. I still firmly believe that if we can create interesting campaigns we can get consumers to drop their resistance.

So a key factor in this environ¬ment is working with a strong and diverse team capable of adapting in this way. Strong characters make for a good spirit, so the bonus is that we can always have a laugh together even under great pressure. My role is rather like the conductor of an orchestra, knowing which teams to bring in for which assignment at which point and stitching the whole together to produce cohesive results. Above all, we all believe the creative idea can win and will be more impor¬tant every day in this economy.

Every day for us in the downturn is a big challenge. If today you think "That's enough" before you've explored every single aspect of what you're doing, I feel you are already out of the game. The question for us now is "Is it enough? How can we make it better?" and a great team means we've always got each other to fight on through the hard times.

{literal}

{/literal}

{literal} {/literal}

Fear and hard times around the world

The words on everyone's lips at the moment have to do with the world financial crisis and how this will affect us collectively and individually.

OTHER BUSINESS

Top Stories