FOCUS: 2000 Previews - New optimism will help to beat the blues

The first days of the new century bring with them a new optimism for the economies of Asia-Pacific and for the agency business as well. The trials of the past two years are, hopefully, now behind us and we can get on with doing what we do well: building strong brands for the new millennium. The brand-building process has, however, changed forever. Brands which did not exist four or even two years ago are now at the forefront of the new breed of potential advertisers for our business. Amazon.com now has a market capitalisation which is twice the size of Disney Corporation. At the same time, the retail and communication environments have changed almost beyond comprehension. So what is the way forward, how best can the advertising business cope with the new advertisers and the new challenges that are thrown its way? Clearly agencies cannot resort to their traditional way of dealing with such issues which is to hunker down and pretend it will go away. It won't and agencies have to be fast and smart enough to adapt and change or run the risk of their business being stolen by business consultants/website designers and a whole host of other businesses which were once seen as peripheral, but which have now become mainstream players in the communications business. With the fragmentation of media as well, the need for agencies to play an even more pro-active upstream role in a client's business is greater than before. Thus, in my view, the need to invest in strategic planning is greater than ever. Of course, creative is crucially important, but the ability to devise a well-thought-out strategic direction, that works in the increasingly diverse media environment, is going to be a highly-prized agency asset. It's the most-effective way for an agency to add value to the communication process at a very early stage and undoubtedly contributes hugely to better creative work. This is the reason why TBWA is investing heavily in the planning structure in Asia-Pacific and why we are going to such trouble to identify and train good local planners, even in countries that have never embraced the discipline, such as Japan or South Korea. At the same time, there has to be fundamental change in the way that the creative department see their function. It is no longer good enough to think only in terms of a 30 or 60-second commercial and expect the job to be done. The implementation process might take many forms, and it has to become just as exciting to win awards for a website design as it is to win for a TV commercial. Whether we like it or not, that's our future and we ignore it at our peril.

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