Definition: advertising agency
An advertising (or communications) agency guides its customers, advises them by analyzing the market, by doing an audit of the customer’s means of communication and then by suggesting a communication strategy.
An advertising (or communications) agency is defined in Wikipedia as: a company in charge of guiding any company, community or association in the development of its internal and external communication. The important term here is « guiding ».
In more concrete terms, what role does it play today when the empire of the Web is replacing the hegemony of television and traditional media like radio, the press and billboards? What are the new paradigms of the generation 2.0?
Today’s advertising agency talks about inbound marketing
Inbound marketing (incoming marketing), is a new way of designing publicity. It aims at bringing the client towards you instead of going to look for him. It comes from a simple and yet crucial observation. Outbound marketing (outbound marketing), in other words adverts such as the TV ad, no longer works. First, the abundance of media has transformed advertising into ubiquitous hype. Subjected to this hype, the consumer has gotten used to and developed a kind of insensitivity to publicity. Lastly, with the interactive media that is Internet, he can – to a certain extent – avoid it. Advertising agencies have taken full note of this development and are turning resolutely towards a new paradigm.
Getting prospective customers to come to you means that the corporate brand must from now on attract their attention by producing quality content that’s useful and relevant. The intrusive approach gives over to an educational and fun approach. So, the explanatory video appeared. Informing, educating while entertaining, this is the new challenge which video advertising agencies must take up. Using a company presentation film also allows the conditions of real exchange with its prospective customers to be restored. The brand introduces itself before the sales pitch.
The advertising agency has a duty to improve your ROI
ROI means return on investment.Increasing your visibility on the Web, better targeting your prospects, optimizing your e-commerce site – these are the goals of the analysis and marketing strategy established by the advertising agency.
But, to click or not to click – that is the question for the consumer. To succeed, a company must shine through viral marketing, i.e. it must create a campaign which will be shared on the social networks and which will obtain good SEO referencing. It needs company films. It’s a fact that 71% of consumers say that viewing a corporate video gave them a good impression of the brand, product or the company.
What measures the success of an advertising agency is simply its impact on your turnover. What attracts prospective customers today, what educates them by entertaining them and makes them feel like engaging – are corporate videos. On condition that you break with the traditional codes of TV ads.
Internal and external communication: twin sisters
Modern marketing philosophy tends to use techniques of external marketing for in-house communication or corporate communication. Here, the company is addressing its institutional employees, its partners, suppliers or investors, by using tools which have proven to be reliable in publicity for the general public. Company managers and executives have more and more recourse to institutional film in the actual management of their business. Corporate video allows you to federate your teams – by improving their skills for example.
Even more important, institutional films will be necessary to explain in a simple and effective manner a change of orientation, a radical change in the company and to thus maintain cohesion amongst its personnel. So, the advertising agency plays a direct part in the maintenance of productivity.
The major development is to be seen in the field of recruitment. HR Directors now rely on the corporate video to make the company image or the employer brand attractive and dynamic, in order to attract valuable applicants. The communication budgets which focussed more on external communication in the past, allocate a larger share to the employer brand nowadays.
The modern advertising agency, to establish viral marketing, needs to listen, more than ever. Listening to companies and the particularity of their activities. Listening to the public that has established new practices in light of the commercial message. And finally listening to and monitoring new audio-visual technologies in line with the expectations of businesses and consumers.
