Page 33 - Adnews Magazine Sep-Oct 2020

DENTSU INTELLIGENCE
Lockdown states are said to have higher spend in online retail because there is nothing else to do. In states where people are able to get out and about, there is a higher proportion of revenue to res- taurants and services.
“As things change, tactics need to change, often on a more local level,” he says.
Zoom is a great leveller for agencies. “If an agency is pitching over Zoom, it’s hard for a client to take subtle clues,” he says.
“Fancy offices, great coffee, expensive sushi platters, big flash board- rooms, it’s no longer as relevant. It now comes down to the quality of your thinking and your Zoom storytelling ability.”
Collaboration is increasingly important. “It’s hard enough to get a creative agency, a digital agency, a social agency, an Amazon agency (yes that’s a thing now) to collaborate at the best of times,” he says.
“Turf wars are more prevalent than ever, many budgets are shrink- ing and agencies (even departments within agencies) are desperate to protect their revenue and their jobs.
“When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail. It’s likely expe- rienced people working in a framework of understanding can get things done more quickly with less hassle.
“A swing back to more agile full-service, highly likely.”
And we are now questioning conventional wisdom on how to compete and what customers value.
“There’s been more stringent prioritisation of scarcer client resources, with clearer conversations about how projects deliver business value,” says Tim Riches, group strategy director, Principals.
“We’re seeing an acceleration of client projects associated with digitisation of products and services as well as more informality in access and interaction with senior client stakeholders – the levelling effect of Teams, Zoom and the like.
“Australian business culture can be pretty conservative and risk
The EY Future Consumer Index
A monthly survey tracking the sentiment and behavior of 14,074 people across 18 countries, in July found:
Consumers crave normality, with 40% ready to get “back to normal”
More than half (53%) say their values have changed
Health and affordability will dominate consumer sentiment beyond COVID-19, while purpose remains critical
averse – but the need to adapt is forced upon us all and some of last year’s controversial decisions are this year’s no-brainers.
“So it’s actually a really good opportunity to question the sacred cows and conventional wisdom that often hold brands back and reinforce category norms – because if you’re not doing it, you can bet competitors are.”
Mark Lollback, GroupM CEO, says the acceleration of digital transformation isn’t the only area with added speed.
“The chaos of COVID-19 has enabled us and our clients to rethink our business models, accelerate change and bring pro- jects forward,” he says.
“We’ve seen projects happen in 12 weeks that would have taken 12 months in the past, and clients are asking us to help them make sure we don’t go back to old ways.
“It’s a short-sighted organisa- tion that has sat back during this time or only focused on fighting immediate fires, without looking ahead to the kind of future they want to build, and what kind of organisation they want to be.”
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