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Anne Melanson: I have a personal
point of view about a lot of what we see on the Internet
now, and that is that I think so much of what has been
developed on the Internet so far was driven by the technical
expertise, and I just see a tremendous opportunity for
people coming in from the creative side who can bring
to that technical expertise the communications skills
that are needed. I mean, think about the frustration that
you have when you click onto a site and it's hard to get
around, it's not intuitive, it's not pretty. That's because
techies, they do a great job, but they're not the communicators
and they're not the people who are going to make it visually
arresting and visually attractive. So, I think what all
of our agencies are looking to do is to partner with those
technical companies or to have, as part of our own organizations,
the technical end of it, the back end, so that we can
offer a full service to the client. So, there are a lot
of iterations and there are a lot of kinds of partnerships
that agencies can do with the technical clients, and more
and more you're finding… I just saw that an agency
recently partnered with Sun Microsystems, and clearly
Sun has decided that in some of their applications they
need these communication skills that they don't have in
house. So I think you'll see lots of opportunities for
that. So, it's really the blending. It's really being
able to understand the technical part but being able to
get people through it in a very easily understood and
communicative way. |
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Rene Bruce: Our interactive division
is structured much the way our main agency is, which is
there are account managers, creatives, media. So, they'll
need a lot of the same skills that they would need in
the main agency. They need to understand client relationships.
The web sites need to factor into the overall marketing
plan, so they have to understand strategies as well. So,
that's the way we're structured right now. It's really
evolving everyday. It's kind of exciting. |
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Angel Rivera: We just launched a
new company called SixtyFootSpider to complement other
digital brands under the True North umbrella such as Modem
Media. R/GA Interactive, Bozell Silicon Valley and Stein
Rogan & Partners. These digital marketing communication
companies don't just build web sties and create banner
ads, they deliver online and offline interactive solutions
with data-driven planning and measurement. So, they're
really doing the consulting behind the work, not just
"here's the creative." For example, we work
on the Air Force account. When you enter the Air Force
web site, what happens? Do I stay long? Why do I stay
long? Getting that kind of information and feeding it
back to the markets is very important, much more important
now than just attracting someone to your web site. The
closure, the interactive, the one-to-one discussion with
a potential customer is important. |
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Steve Norcia: This is a very, very
hot area of advertising. You have here the biggest agencies
in the world, including DDB, which is owned by Omnicom,
which is like True North or one of the holding companies.
We have companies called Razorfish, you know, Organic,
agency.com, DDB Digital. There's a lot of these agencies
within agencies that are all devoted to the web, and that's
where all of the growth is coming, that's where all of
the excitement is coming. For those of you who are interested
in it, and have a technology avocation, it's a tremendous
area for growth and it's probably not to the point yet,
although it's getting there pretty soon, it's not to the
point yet that you have all of the barriers to entry as
you would in the traditional advertising environment.
It's very exciting. A lot of times it's not perfect because
they're growing and they're organizing and they're changing
and they're moving space every day because they're getting
bigger. A lot of people aren't very organized. They're
very entrepreneurial. But I find that if I have an opportunity
to spend time with the interactive people or with interactive
accounts, it's very, very stimulating and very exciting.
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Patty Enright: I would just add
one more point to that, which is really how Anne opened
today to the first question, I guess, which is some of
the clients today come to some of the larger agencies,
as we're representing today, for really a holistic view.
So, a client, for example, I'll just use Coca-Cola, could
come to a particular agency and say, I kind of want everything
you offer. I want you to do my general advertising, sort
of that television stuff. I want you to do my print campaign.
I want you to do my web site. I want you to do my direct
marketing, and I want you also to provide me with insights
on the purchasers. They may come to a large agency because
we can offer all of those services, as you've mentioned,
through some of these divisions or units that may have
our same brand name or not. But why they're coming to
us particularly when they want our services from our different
companies within our main entry is because they want a
total branded program for the customer. So, they want
Coca-Cola to look the same around the world. They want
Coca-Cola to be the same and have the same red in its
promotional pieces as it does in its television commercials.
Or make a total switch to not using the logo in red at
all but carry the message through all of its mediums and
reflect it in their web site as well. In some cases a
client may choose to go to the person, the individual
company that's going to provide the best service or whatever
is going to answer their marketing need at that time.
So, it's a whole other reason to consider. |
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