Historical and current industry trends – including impacting new products and services
Current Trends: Through personal observation and the results of three research initiatives, there is no historical or current industry trend for marketing in Central Newfoundland. Though print and radio have a well established local history, the use of these mediums for protracted and/or strategic marketing campaigns has been limited. On a national scale, there is a trend in marketing that is obscured with the trends in advertising; because of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), the lines widely overlap and the trend can be most simply stated as taking on a holistic approach. This is to say marketing, promotions, and advertising will be offered in a packaged form known as the “Advertising Agency.” The only reasonable conclusion for this phenomenon is that the word most synonymous with marketing is advertising. The industry trend is for these advertising companies to build on strategic alliances and mergers that offer the client a complete array of marketing services, if only in a boutique format.
It is difficult to offer conclusive statements of trends for small town marketing. All data comes from global observations. In the authoritative market analysis, The Future of Advertising, industry insider Joe Cappo suggests the following trends:
- There are still businesses being lured by “advertisers” operating on the old system of advertising. The model of advertising being driven by a “printer” with the design thrown in for free (as though an afterthought) is one of the past. For advertising to be effective, the design must be the priority (Cappo: 30). My interjection: Transcontinental is truly a dinosaur.
- A current trend is that promotion revenue growth is outstripping advertising revenue growth (Cappo: 46). My comment: I know of one local case where a retailer slashed its print advertising budget by 75 percent and instead focused on merchandising (in store display). The results were a phenomenal turn around from operating at a loss to operating with a very healthy profit.
- Brands can be built without traditional advertising [and with] buzz (Cappo: 47). My interjection: buzz, also known as word-of-mouth, was the expert group’s suggestion for marketing my business.
- “Marketing services” or “branding” are not advertising (Cappo: 49). My interjection: an effective marketer, one who has the best interest of the client in mind, is one who will offer more than just advertising.
- Newspapers have yet to reinvent. In Chicago, in the time it took the population has increased by 40%, newspaper circulation has dropped by 30% (Cappo: 64). My interjection: Vancouver is experimenting with the “free daily;” though in 2006, after about one year into this experiment one of the major new free papers died, “DOSE.” The other, developed by Jimmy Pattison, is still alive, “24 hours.” Also, as the writing of this report, General Motors slashed their newspaper ad budget by 62 percent ($230 million) yet increased their Internet advertising by 18 percent ($19 million) (Halliday: 1).
Advertising Trends in General
Not just isolated to Grand Falls-Windsor, advertising originated from the print medium, followed by radio and then in the 50’s TV dominated and stuck a blow to radio and some print (mostly magazines). For the most part, due do the small and medium size of local businesses, TV has had little impact on local advertising trends.
Current industry trends see the Internet as the new dominant form of advertising but anyone with an understanding of small scale economies and the mass marketing aspect of the Internet would confirm that, for the near future, it has a small role for advertising trends in Central Newfoundland. An important note regarding our local population is that its age is unevenly distributed toward the elderly. This group is know for its reluctance to technology (the Internet) and a desire to see advertising in print/paper form. Even if the Internet became the model de facto for small advertisers, DHMD has the experience and creative skills to produce not only Internet advertising but television advertising as well (please reference my résumé for related film and television experience).
One trend that has yet been capitalized with regard to the Internet is a term called the “mega-niche;” this is simply the offering of a niche product to the global market, i.e. Newfoundland craft, art, and music. DHMD will be well suited for such marketing and advertising efforts. This has a yet to be tapped potential and is an opportunity worth exploring at a later date.
In NL, the most prominent marketing agencies, if the only agencies, are located in St John’s. Aside from a couple large agencies (M5 et. al.), there is a small agency that has received some very favorable press: Dorry Advertising. An article in the Independent reported, “Still, McCarthy says many local agencies choose Toronto or Vancouver for both talent and production of private and government contracts. She says Dory Advertising is trying to let people know they create and produce award-winning radio, television and print ads in St.John’s. Dory’s local clients include City Honda, Telelink and the LSPU Hall. The agency even handles radio production for other ad agencies — another commonly outsourced service” (Curties). One thing was certain, in my Internet based research for the competition I realized very few of them were sophisticated enough to create an easily found Internet site.
In Halifax Nova Scotia, Young and Roubicam Atlantic offers full service advertising and multi-channel communications. YRA exists five rungs down on the WPP-London hierarchy (one of the world’s largest advertising agencies).