Runners and Riders by Matthew Cowley
Runners and Riders
Matthew Cowley, Chief Executive The Bank
What are The Bank’s predictions for the coming twelve months? Branded content, podcasting, experiential marketing and viral campaigns will take the inside rails whilst the general migration to on-line gathers pace. Businesses (and by that we include agencies) that are able to offer a broad approach to brand communications, whilst keeping up on the digital front, will be given the shortest odds by the bookies. Best in form are the well bred boutique runners with high in-house capability, lean, fast and hungry - keeping their noses in front and being financially more attractive to the punters. I think we will witness the more blinkered and traditional agencies suffering through lack of foresight and willingness to evolve - simply refusing the early fences!
What is increasingly certain is the fact that in order to land grab your piece of turf in the human mind (the busiest place on the planet) you have to create something pretty spectacular. ‘Emotional Content’ is a previous winner of this steeplechase and looks as strong as ever, ‘Back to Basics’ however is usually ‘favourite’ when the going is heavy but with this tipster remains un-fancied.
Visually, everything’s coming to a screen near you! In your hand, on your mobile, down your tube, in your living room, at your desk, on the high street - on the bus! And as 4G and mobile broadband kick in, it’s coming to you anywhere and anyhow. With this in mind we have to respond in kind. To be quicker you should search further. Running down to Dean St to get something rendered is no longer the only option when you can as easily access China, India and Australia. Suddenly you’re open 24 hours a day. This is how other businesses work so why shouldn’t we? Anyway you might even blag a trip to go and check it out!
So a change of season beckons and we all look forward to winning something on the Grand National, a bit of wet tennis, whether it rains or not, and some distant European football competition we won’t be taking part in. Probably a tin pot competition anyway but could allow for previously allocated marketing budgets to be spent elsewhere!
The going will be tough in 2008 of that there is no doubt. What with ‘Northern Rock’ being put out to paddock and the American runners going completely lame the odds of winning free Champagne and nibbles from grateful suppliers at Christmas are stacked against us. Those that aren’t overweight and that hedge their bets could hit the jackpot but only if they run the race of their life and keep their eyes on the horizon.
So as channel proliferation and screen multiplication continue, it’s up to us as communications experts to grow, progress and expand to meet the needs of increasingly sophisticated audiences - consumer, corporate - and the hybrid breed that is a fusion of the two - with the right balance of creative excellence and an acute focus on business best practice. That combination will determine the true runners and riders.
Apart from that? Keegan walks out, Clinton walks in, rates go low, Branson gets high, Gordon Brown has had enough, Ashley Cole doesn’t get any, Britain sizzles and we all have Tofu for Christmas.
