Nothing endures but change

Advertising for years has been a good indicator of economic health. Since its popularization in the 19th century, it has become a billion-dollar industry, normally taking some 40 percent of the cost of producing a consumer product — soda, detergent bar, packed noodle, and shampoo, among others. In the halcyon days of traditional advertising, it was a communications force to reckon with. Ad agencies were calling the shots and influencing critical marketing decisions of huge multinational conglomerates, selling everything from automobiles to perfumes, from hotdogs to housing loans. Advertisers hired ad agencies to tell them how to sell their products on mass communications platforms, allocating huge budgets to create the right image for the product that would hopefully induce millions to buy it, never mind if the quality of the product is in question.

Massive ad spending was a manifestation of a robust market economy. Manufacturing and sales giants in the consumer industry brought great promotional hype over product launches, further spurring competition. This, in turn, caused an ever-spiraling rise in advertising, where each company tries to outdo the other. There wasn’t much need for accountability then, because advertising was generally viewed both as an impenetrable science and mumbo-jumbo, voodoo-like magic, which only advertising professionals understood.

The world has changed very rapidly since those days, with technology fueling a revolution in the field of mass communication that has redefined the arena and fetched many marketers and brand managers back to the drawing board. The instantaneous and pervasive nature of modern communications has drastically reduced the hold of traditional mass media on targeted audiences. Thanks to the remote control, for instance, the challenge to create TV ads that would continue to captivate the viewer over and over again has pushed the envelope in terms of strategy and creativity. Ads that failed to tickle the viewer’s imagination suffered the ultimate penalty: zapped by the remote.

Fast Forward To The Present

What we know as tri-media have evolved into multi-media with the Internet, mobile technology, social networking, online gaming and auctions, all assaulting tradition. The new technology has empowered the once-gullible client into a take-charge and competent marketer. Power database technology now allows them to identify markets, track consumer behavior and predict audience responses. Business models now drive the “soft” side of marketing. It has also redefined the relationship between the advertiser and the ad agency, from client-supplier to collaborators. Clearly, what once was the exclusive turf of the advertising practitioner was now fair game for the corporate marketer.

As we all realize by now, the revolution stirred by the World Wide Web took place because of its bespoke nature, which provided more content on demand than any other available medium. Social sites have multiplied far and wide in their engagement for a few simple reasons: as users we are put in control, allowing us to quickly and conveniently find what we are looking for. We are given the power to create and distribute content equally to every user. The newfangled platforms are thoroughly tailored, where we can create or link up with groups and generate and discover content that matches our interest or tickles our imagination.

Social media are now seriously looked at with supreme awareness and curiosity by marketers since buying decisions are no longer influenced as much by conventional ads. Online opinions are available for free and are considered generally fair. The traditional word-of-mouth marketing approach, manifested in tweets, blogs and “what’s on your mind” entries, has grown enormously on social networks.

The Social Network Lead

With over 500 million unique users around the world, Facebook has become the “poster site” of the Internet. It has become the gold standard and undisputed social networking site leader in the world. Its phenomenal following makes it a highly potent medium for marketing communication. A Facebook strategy is becoming a staple in any communications road-mapping.

Social networking sites offer fun as they allow us to stay in touch with friends, make new friends, and share status updates. Its immense popularity is largely due to the wide variety of social applications that have been developed and made available within the Facebook community. These applications allowed users and friends to do joint activities — from playing games that run endlessly to sharing photos, videos, web links, and many more. Facebook provides a wide variety of avenues to communicate with the audience, which opens up an entirely different world of possibilities to the savvy marketer.

The confluence of new media developments has brought the advertising industry into a quagmire, a quicksand of conventional thinking that has sucked up many famous names in the industry into oblivion, or, at least, into the ranks of the has-beens. Today, we are seeing new configurations of how advertising is done. The practice no longer follows the mold, and does not exhibit the monolithic structures that used to be the hallmark of success of global operations. What we now have are intrepid creative boutiques and media independents that can provide creativity and execute ideas initiated by the collaborative efforts of clients, media planners and buyers, copywriters, special events specialists and network creatives in a very short period of time.

The Game Changers

It is against this background of shifting paradigms that the 22nd Philippine Advertising Congress is set. The biennial event, to be staged at the Camsur Watersports Complex from Nov. 16 to 19, is spearheaded by the media industry group and adopts the fitting theme “Change The Game.” It is a call to action epitomized by the likes of Steve Jobs of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and pop culture’s music mogul Jay-Z — game-changing people who revolutionized their respective fields. They are brave souls who embraced change and made a wonderful and successful difference in the world.

The 22nd PAC truly sets the mood for transformation aptly captured in the ad congress logo designed by Leo Burnett Manila, which plays on CamSur’s atmosphere and the spirit of gameness. The highly anticipated event will be moved by an elite list of industry leaders to include Miguel Belmonte, The Philippine STAR, PR & Publicity; Hans Roxas Chua, Blue Blade Technology, vice chairman; Margot Torres, McDonald’s Phils., programs; Blen Fernando, administration; Nonna Nanagas, finance; Joanna Chan-Mojica, Starcom Mediavest, Ways & Means; and Merlee Jayme, DM9 Jaymee Syfu, creative.

We’ve been known to be a resilient people, advertising professionals included. The rules of the game may be changing, but the players are still willing to play hardball. Whatever the outcome, whatever newfangled industry offspring may arise from this confused muddle of the new and old, of creativity and pragmatism, of limitless ideas and cost cutting, life does, even for the moribund industry, go on. The ad industry must be vigilant in reading the signs and seeing the pattern, and ensuring that it is in step with the morphing advertising landscape.

“Nothing endures but change,” Heraclitus says. Change is fluid because nothing is ever secure, and nothing is ever complete.

* * *

E-mail bongosorio@yahoo.com or bong_osorio@abs-cbn.com for comments, questions or suggestions. Thank you for communicating. Calling all game-changers out there: register now for the 22nd Philippine Ad Congress at www.adcongress.com.ph. Be ready for action from Nov. 16 to 19 at CamSur.