The following is also my column in next week's Advertising Age.
Gloom and doom are everywhere this fall. So I am not going to perpetuate it. Instead, I see the global economic meltdown finally kicking the industry into gear toward becoming more efficient, open and collaborative.
The ad industry is woefully inefficient and siloed. During flush economic times we got proprietary, fat and lazy. Things have to change.
Digital measurability was the first casualty in good times. It remains a mystery because of a lack of standards. Ask 15 marketers what engagement means and you will get 30 answers. Everyone's peddling their own methodology - if they even have one. No one's truly motivated to work together toward a solution.
Watch for the big trade associations like the IAB to open a broader dialogue than they have to date. Rather than holding closed-door meetings they will use the Net to encourage participation from all sides so that we can finally set working guidelines.
Research and insights were also sacrificed during flush times. Many brands still attack the digital landscape in a very quick, "get me a viral," tactical way. They forgo taking the time (as in weeks) to develop a deep understanding of a community's wants and needs because, well, it's work.
To really understand the digital space marketers have to participate in these venues - and all the time. You need to comprehend and add value to communities before launching campaigns there. In our agency this is gospel, but that's not happening in a widespread way yet. Agency and client-side marketers will start dabbling more to build understanding.
Finally there's huge inefficiencies in the way agencies manage workflow internally and also how they collaborate with clients. One-to-one communications like email remain king. One-to-many collaborative tools like wikis, internal blogs and micro-blogs are not in widespread use.
With the ANA projecting that 53% of marketing budgets will shrink, things are going to change - and quickly. Rather than cut digital talent - which remains scarce - agencies are going to break down walls by ushering in new tools in that enable their employees to connect with each other, clients and consumers, sometimes in surprisingly open ways.
