FOCUS: 2000 Previews - Richness and reward ahead if you look with fresh eyes

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.

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