2007 is finally here. And I eventually realised that while we all bitch like mad about how pressurised this communication industry is, in fact we all only work for 11 months of the year. From mid-January to mid-December. During the holidays I discovered what it would be like in a post nuclear war world. No people, no sounds, no traffic, no clients and no phone calls.
But now that things have returned to a semblance of normality, (by which I actually mean uncontrolled chaos) perhaps we can look forward at the year ahead and the major challenges facing the industry.
Perhaps the first thing we have to do is get out of our boxes and start getting back to great concepts and great campaigns. Relatively speaking fewer and fewer enduring concepts are seen. Test it for yourself. How many companies can demonstrate a communication golden thread between their 2007 campaigns, and those that ran say two or three years ago? We seem to talk a lot about brand building, but keep starting from the foundation up every year.
Advertising has evolved from an art form into a business. From an industry where you were paid very well by client, for theoretical return on his ad investment to one today where the client wants concrete ROI, and at a predetermined hard nosed negotiated rate.
This is an industry that can attract really bright smart people. Seldom does this happen anymore. There is a desire for ”meaningful” employment, which is coupled to massive remuneration expectations. And for the really smart this can happen – just not in advertising! Plus it becomes more complicated within the macro South African commercial situation.
How so? South Africa is a brave new world. The skills needed today have been absolutely redefined post apartheid. The consumer is a complex creature. Difficult to impress, evolving and changing. And the ad industry is battling an up hill struggle to remaining in touch with their market’s ”hot buttons”. Too few people of colour are in the business and certainly in key decision making positions. And despite valiant attempts, little seems to change year to year. And though I can hear the howls of protest as I write these words, I really think it is time for honest re-evaluation.
We have to take a long look at the business, the needs, and the initiatives thus far in order to make the hard decisions.
We have to move away from the quotas, the numbers, and the post rationalisation and justification, and create a new model for ourselves. One that clearly changes the make-up of our industry, how we communicate, what we say, where we say it, and recognises who we are advertising to. This demands a fundamental shift in thinking and in action. Sure, we have come a long way, but we are miles from our destination.
Hopefully our buoyant economy can provide us with some impetus. 2010 seems to be some magical panacea that has been granted to us, if the PR is be believed.
Now let’s hope that 2007 will be the year of the brave and the honest, and start a line of thinking and action that will create its own momentum in the right direction. Because for sure we need it.
Harry Herber is group managing director at The MediaShop Group.