We regret the announce the death of the Advertising Agency in T&T (as we know it). Died in the first quarter of the 21st century. Wife to brand and marketing managers, relative of media houses, production companies, printers, talented people, event planners, web specialists, social media activists and a whole range of suppliers and grandmother to artists, media planners and buyers, account executives, production and traffic coordinators and administrators; loved by all, until agencies became irrelevant.
Advertising Agencies in T&T worked when everything was arranged nicely; one TV station (TTT), 2 daily newspapers a handful of radio stations. It also did not hurt that customers could not talk back. The communication was one way and we knew where people were between 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm.
Now we have many more real and digital newspapers including via online and mobile feeds, 6-7 local TV stations, a gazillion other choices via cable, direct TV and Internet TV, forty something radio stations and a complete game changer called Facebook. The latter tapping more and more of the time and attention that traditional advertising once held exclusively.
What is an ad agency to do in the face of these brutal attacks on business as usual? The short answer is that ad agencies must take some of the medicine they prescribe everyday. They must agree on their point of difference. This may sound obvious but from my observation very few agencies in T&T get this. They must also treat themselves as a brand; delivering that point of difference at all touch points including advertising themselves, following established ethical standards.
Otherwise they are a bunch of commodities which clients pay for purely on price. In this scenario there is plenty room for experts who add superior value to brands.
