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It's time the marketing industry stopped discussing its problems and instead put its energy into finding the solutions

By Martin Nieri | chief executive

April 2, 2015 | 4 min read

As so often happens at these events, last week at Advertising Week Europe saw a mix of entertaining-but-uninformative celebrity-filled sessions, and the less glamorous but more insightful ‘industry debates’.

Martin Nieri

The latter were usually centred around a couple of key issues – those which will define our world over at least the next 12 months.

You can probably guess the buzzwords already – 'content', 'culture', 'disruption', 'programmatic'...the list goes on.

The reason for each topic's popularity varied accordingly.

In an area like programmatic, it seemed to boil down to a lack of understanding. Almost every session on the subject was full, mainly because people had heard that this brave new world was going to revolutionise their industry but weren't really sure how. Some even just wanted a quick 'beginner's guide' in the vague hope they could bluff their way through the next couple of meetings when their clients or agencies inevitably bring it up.

The second issue appeared to come down to ambiguity. Take a topic like content. We've identified the opportunities, we've seen great brands like Nike and Coca-Cola demonstrate the value of it, and clients are asking for it. But we still struggle to define it. There seemed to be lots of sessions searching for validation and a meaning for a discipline that we know isn't going to disappear from view any time soon.

And thirdly – and indeed both programmatic and content can fit in here too – I think the reason some of these sessions and topics were most popular is because the issues surrounding them have moved on from being something that's 'nice to have' into something that we 'need to have'.

Take disruption. I found the comments of one panelist interesting when asked why we’ve been talking about disruption for years but now genuinely find it relevant: “Because these things are now defining success and failure, not just defining who looks cool or who does some cool stuff that wins awards.”

And there's the rub – we've been talking about some of these issues for a while.

Indeed, some of the speakers at Advertising Week make a good living out of doing so. But whilst the topics are fun to debate, and whilst we all like it that 90 per cent of the industry shifts to one building for a week to have a good old chinwag (as indeed we all enjoy decamping to the South of France for some sun, sea and headhunting in June each year), absolutely none of it is worthwhile if we now end up diverting our attention back to our own client bubble. If the next time we talk programmatic is when Cannes comes around, or if the only time we really do anything about our culture is by arranging for the Christmas Party to be at a slightly swankier venue this year.

It's so easy to pay lip-service at these events. To enjoy the debate, make a few token gestures in the following couple of weeks and forget all about it. But you'll only be cheating yourself. The true value comes if you back up the talk with actions.

I know we’ve changed our philosophy and adopted new processes to allow us to turn ideas from a whiteboard into working products. Our first, a CX measurement tool, launched last week, and we’ve two more products in development. We bit the bullet, and whilst it was a painful ride at first, we’re now seeing the rewards.I know we’re not alone, and other agencies are starting to reap their own rewards too.

So maybe next year when we all gather in the same rooms with the same people, we won't be spending so much time discussing the problems, but rather how we can even further improve our solutions.

Martin Nieri is the chief executive of Partners Andrews Aldridge

Advertising Week Content Programmatic

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