Lindsay Pattison
Lindsay Pattison, Chief Transformation Officer of GroupM, spoke of worldwide digital expansion. She said that in 2018, digital advertising spend will top that of traditional television advertising for the first time, with 39 percent versus 37 percent. But she warned it might be very easy for people to rush out and plunk their ad dollars in digital media, when they shouldn’t disregard the long-term effects of non-digital media like “traditional TV and even billboards.” She said that when we study several brands, those that invested long term in their brands’ communications exceeded the SIP by 50 percent. Pattison said that two contexts must be taken into account, the macro moment and the micro moment. Advertising at a macro level is still necessary and consists of “big brand events,” big communication pieces, brand advertising that moves people emotionally, gets them talking and motivates them to make the brand a part of their lives. That gets the brand moving and it costs a lot of money, because, she said, we’re talking about premium advertising spaces. In the micro moment, on the other hand, it is one-on-one personalized communications, short form, straight to the individual, everything that constitutes direct response advertising.The challenge for advertisers and agencies is to be able to combine both contexts while maintaining consistency between what we talk about in each one, “to get the right brain and the left brain to work together,” Pattison said. The disruption caused by the two approaches is difficult, but what is most important is to recognize the opportunities it creates for both client and agency.
