It Would Be Foolish to Not See Reality

It’s never easy to accept change and I am no different but I always question when I face a situation that is about to change my daily way of life, moves me out of that comfort zone and makes me wonder; that is one time I know that change is inevitable and that, it will soon be reality, that is how I have always made my decisions, whether as a sports person in my younger days or when I was studying on a subject in college or even for that matter in my professional life whether I was working or as an entrepreneur.

Most of these changes that happened gradually in my development as a personality was directly attributed to change. That is why I have listed above on sports, education, career as a professional or an entrepreneur. I wanted to become a cricketer when I was young, one change in the way the game was played made me realize I wasn’t good enough and that I need to get educated then one critical aspect during my work life got that conviction in me that I must become an entrepreneur to make those changes that is required in business and when I made those little changes and ran out of ideas I realized that it is time to get back to regular work.

Each of these moments had one significant aspect in my life that made me move out of the comfort zone and that “change” I had to accept and embrace to move forward.

Having been in the business for around 20 years, (that is survival) I have seen all aspects of media changing and way back in 1999 I knew that eventually it is going to be Internet that will be the only medium that will survive the test of time. Mode of accessing will be different, you could consume movies on TV but the platform will be internet (Netflix), you could consume videos that are device agnostic but the route will be through the internet, communication will change and you would use apps as your destinations for everything (WhatsApp, IMO Etc), News, Travel, Dating, Entertainment, everything – will be internet and internet alone and I guess I was smart enough to embrace change 18 years ago to see what we are seeing today as being true. I am not stating I was the only one who saw it, I would be stupid to say that but I am in that list of people who saw it coming and embraced the change.

Change is inevitable and that brings me to the next point. “Advertising Will Change”, “Media Planning and Buying Will Change”. I guess by the time I finish this article I will conclude that Media Planning and Buying agencies wont exist.

Ohh wait, read on before you start hunting for me and kill me!

Why is Programmatic Advertising seeing such meteoric growth in the world markets like the US, China and APAC? It is growing because clients today are realizing how over the last several years media agencies have made more profits that the actual company, which is advertising and having known that, slowly but steadily accountability, transparency, visibility and anti-fraud mechanisms have taken center stage; whether it is a P&G, which is asking for MRC authenticated viewability metrics or a Unilever asking for a programmatic solution from a Mindshare in the form of say an “Ultra” (remember Xaxis exists within GroupM). The point is that manual intervention will be taken over by technological innovations not only in the digital space but also in the traditional space.

It is just a matter of time before Print, Television and OOH will go programmatic and there will be platforms that will enable the entire process of media planning, buying including negotiations through tech-enabled platforms. What will happen therefore is that one will see agencies becoming technology companies but the question is whether an advertising agency has the DNA of a technology company? The question is simple and so the answer. The answer is a big “NO”. However, can a technology company become an advertising agency? The answer is simple and it is a big “YES”.

Why do you think Oracle has gotten into buying BlueKai? Or why has Adobe gotten into the DSP business and why did a Singtel buy Turn? More still, why is SalesForce scouting to buy internet companies? Why does IBM have an iX, which is now ranked as high as any other advertising holding company? The answer is simple, data is power and with data all that a media planning and buying agency can do will be achieved easily by any of these technology companies. They are going after data and to build a platform to plan and buy everything programmatically in the time to come is a no brainer. Infact some Japanese agencies have already embarked on the above through print advertising media planning and buying being procured through tech platforms and moving towards fully programmatic solutions for offline media buying. TV will follow and we all know OOH is already enabled in NYC programmatically and it is just a matter of time that there will be no media agencies and it will all be programmatically driven in the times to come.

My prediction, 5-7 years’ tops, so don’t be foolish to not see reality.

What will remain will be creative, brand planning and strategy, Ohh did I hear someone say that is moving towards consulting and Accenture has already started the practice?

Too early to write an obituary but still rest in peace when you do, “Media Agencies”