The year 2000 will offer up the challenge of invention to meet the
seemingly conflicting requirements of speed and quality combined.
The millennium agency will have a strikingly different character: it
will be an agency that will help create brands that have a depth of
meaning to consumers as well as a dialogue with the brand's constituents
in a way that has not been achieved before.
It will also create that conversation through all points of contact with
not only the consumer, but also the channels of distribution, many of
which will set new challenges and rules of engagement.
The Internet offers a stunning opportunity to create a true and
meaningful dialogue with the consumer in a way that has not been
possible before.
Content will be the essential ingredient as it always is but often is
neglected in the excitement of dealing in a new form.
The new agencies entering the market are the Internet companies seeking
planners and creatives to complement their programmers and
designers.
Ad agencies will have to ensure that they respond to this new
challenger.
Databases will become more valuable, especially in Asia.
The dot.coms are the ones with the robust data, updated daily from those
who enter the websites.
This information will increase in volume and depth, outlining as never
before the lifestyles and purchasing patterns of consumers around the
globe.
Eventually brands will be customised to individual tastes and needs.
This will put further emphasis on the brand as a vehicle for trust and
authenticity rather than form.
The millennium agency will trade on intellectual property, the creation
of ideas that build robust brand equities that can be trusted to deliver
a meaningful purpose in consumers' lives.
Now that is what I came into this business for; not to build awareness
but to build relevance and empathy between the brand and its customers
and consumers.
The challenge in Asia will be to create brands that enable countries
like China and India to be global players rather than manufacturers of
low-price, low-quality goods.
Both have the talent and desire to break through onto the world
stage.
They certainly will have the indigenous markets to use as a platform for
export growth.
With 3.8 billion people out of the world's six billion, maybe brands
created primarily for Asia will emerge.
It is stimulating to think that we are living through a period that
combines the creativity and inquisitiveness of the Renaissance with the
inventiveness and drive of the Industrial Revolution.
It is an exciting time, full of richness and reward for those willing to
see with fresh eyes the things that are currently staring us in the
face.
