How are activation agencies gearing up for the next revolution?

“The most important idea in advertising is ‘new’, it creates an itch…” said Don Draper, from the TV series Mad Men. And when you look at the current scenario in advertising and brand activation, they are on a fast track to not only create ideas that sell, but, with the development in technology, make them stand out. With 3G technology being launched in India, some brand activation agencies are now gearing up to look beyond the conventional ideas of brand building and promotional ideas.

With 3G and 4G coming in soon after, the Internet will become as integral to our lives as water, electricity and television have been for many years. 3G will allow all of us to carry the Internet with us wherever we go. The Internet, through computers and mobile phones, is quickly becoming a key source for information and knowledge for consumers. Moving forward, these will become the PRIMARY source for information and that's where digital marketing and digital activation will be front-runners in marketing communication.

While currently activation agencies are using more traditional norms and means of marketing and brand building through on-ground activities, technological advancements have helped us to an edge to our ideas and execution. This has created not only newer means of promotion but a more consumer friendly platform for the activation campaigns.

The entry of 3G services in India will lead to a gradual and a more effective engagement and conversation with consumers. Higher rate of streaming and faster downloads of campaigns and promotions will not only be the talk of the town but will also help marketing agencies to engage and create visually enhancing campaigns to engage brand promotion. Also, this will not only allow multiple user interface, but create and run multiple promotions at the same time. It would also create a platform to get faster feedback from the customers and for agencies to know what they are thinking.

3G technology is the game changer required for the growth of the activation industry. With smart phones and tablet PCs on the rise, cashing in on this aspect will only be possible with the help of 3G services. This would help agencies to not only create more technologically advanced campaigns but also add the necessary interactive modules that would make its consumers more connected to the brand itself. Also, this would help catch more attention of not only the existing customer base but also help tap into the markets that shy away from such promotions. Internet access through the computer vs. The mobile phone will be marginally different. The computer lends itself nicely to in-depth understanding of brands whereas the mobile is likely to lend itself more to activation.

However, another question that would keep arising is how would the normal forms of medium work under the pressure from 3G? While many activation agencies are looking at this space, very few are approaching it holistically. Most agencies are approaching it as just a new medium available to reach out to consumers. It needs to be approached in a more integrated and creative manner and that's the challenge.

Its not surprising that marketers and brands are excited about the new mobile revolution that would ensue after the advent of 3G.

Activation 2.0

A few years back, if you asked 3 people to define our industry, you could have got up to 10 different definitions. Business defined it as “tactical”… Marketing defined us as “BTL”…  Advertising people defined us as a “non-advertising service”…… we were called promotions, brand activation, experiential marketing, BTL, promotional marketing, event management and several other names.

Today there is near consensus on the term “Activation”, we have come a long way in the past 15 years.

In version 1.0, promotions and BTL were an afterthought with little direction to the money spent. There were several fragmented service providers, many of them fly-by-night operators with little commitment to their own business let alone the brands and business of their clients. Clients often indulged in promotional spending to add just another slide on the annual brand presentation.

We are now hitting the age of Activation 2.0. Today Activation is part of the brand planning process and clients’ expectations for delivering measurable activation have soared, and the industry’s ability to mould consumer behaviour is now in such demand that advertising often claims our best work and renames it advertising.

Clients must not be forced to choose between spending on brand building and spending to induce instant sales. All marketing activities must do both, and with the same money spent. Most marketers aim to grow stronger brands and expect purchases to be directly linked to the money spent on the brand. This can be achieved through a focus on purchase behaviour and that is exactly what activation agencies do best. We must move towards owning consumer purchase behaviour and everything that motivates that behaviour one way or the other.

The journey has just begun, where we go from here will define whether Activation 3.0 can create an environment where Activation LEADS brand building.

ROI and Measurement: the future of activation & events

All of us compare benefit and cost of almost everything we do everyday. And not just in matters of money. But particularly, any kind of expense or investment is first-up analyzed in terms of the value equation. The specific analysis that is done may well be done in qualitative terms or quantitatively, that is often the only difference. Historically, Marketing communication has been an area in which the qualitative and subjective evaluation rules the roost. Even today, large parts of the established advertising industry is evaluated subjectively and at awards functions and processes the creative is given considerably more importance than the return in business terms.

As the activation and events business has developed over the past decade and a half, the qualitative and subjective evaluation process has been the primary path. Till a few years back very few clients (and even fewer agencies) felt the need to evaluate the activities that they were investing in, in ROI terms. To add to this the economy was booming and the question was not whether / how much you were spending but where you were spending. Most clients simply looked for agencies that would ‘efficiently’ get the job done rather than be concerned about the results of the job. This was never going to last, it was a myopic approach to the business and many a fly-by-night operator made money and has now fled the industry.

This has very quickly turned upside down in the past year or so. This has hastened the need for justifying spends for all concerned. Most clients are now being forced to ask some very uncomfortable questions off themselves and their agencies. “What do I get for the money I spend on an event /activation?”. Add to this, the fact that the industry itself has gone through a metamorphosis and as a result today the leading agencies are in a position to answer the question, something that may not have been possible a few years back.

The time is right. The time is right to develop a measurement / ROI tool for our industry. While the time is right, the path ahead is not entirely clear. This is primarily because our industry is a highly competitive and fragmented one. Unless a strong centrifugal force is created, the natural tendency is a strong centripetal force. And therein lies the problem. It is absolutely crucial that the industry stand together in the development of the tool so as to create a common platform.

A common platform is even more important in our industry because of the complexity of our industry. While we keep referring to the Events / Experiential Marketing / Activation industry as one industry, the reality is that the industry is actually an amalgamation of 4-5 mini-industries. Consequently, the process of developing a measurement tool becomes an even more complex business. Each particular business segment has very different drivers and thus measurement of outcomes needs to be approached differently. The challenge is to go down to the core of the process to understand what makes it tick and then develop the tool around that core. The process is complex – but not impossible, far from it. At the end of the day, a process-based tool developed by the industry for itself will take into account all the intricacies and complexities and prove the efficacy of events and Activation to clients / investors. This process of development of such a tool has been taken by EEMA, which is the national body for the Events and Activation industry in India. EEMA is already well on the way to developing such a tool which will deliver and ROI analysis and evaluation for clients to be able to measure results.

It is inevitable that an objective tool or rating system will come into being that will assess, measure and report the efficacy of events and activation to clients from a neutral stand-point. The neutrality of the stand-point is a no-brainer. Several agencies in the industry have attempted developing and implementing proprietary tools but I think such a move is inherently flawed. Having an agency evaluate and measure its own projects is a bit like making students evaluate their own examination papers. And while we would all have loved to do that when we were in school, it was never going to be! The neutrality of the tool is the reason EEMA took it upon itself to develop and eventually implement the ROI measurement process.

Moving forward, a neutral rating system developed by the industry as a whole is crucial to the growth of the Events and Activation Industry to prove itself as a viable and often better marketing communication option to advertising.

The Importance of Chaos, Cash and Karma

Management by definition is the science of minimising disorder and maximising predictability. Unfortunately, life, business and especially startups are anything but predictable. Chaos is not only inevitable; I'd say it’s important, desirable even, to the process of starting up an enterprise.

After completing my MBA, I had to do my fair share of unlearning to adapt to the real world. Very often my ‘instinctive response’, based on my education, to situations would be the wrong one. A response which would further complicate the situation rather than resolve matters. In the same situation an 'innovative (or I dare say, ‘Jugaad’) response' would be more appropriate.

After doing this several times over in the early years, I realised that my responses based on education would probably bring better results in the long term as compared to the ‘Jugaad’ decisions. But then "in the long term we're all dead"... Often, startups are about getting through the here and now. If one was to implement the long-term-friendly-educated-response, one wouldn't survive long enough to see if it was a good call.

To a typical corporate-minded outsider this gives the appearance of chaos in a startup. Someone who is not involved in a series of ‘Jugaad’ decisions taken to manage the short-term would not see the order in the chaos. The long-term outcome is often a hugely positive and desirable result of a series of such short-term events.

The same often applies to managing cash, real cash. Cashflow management is a crucial part of management education but the way it is imbibed is to treat cash at a very theoretical or esoteric level.

Life teaches you otherwise. It’s a proven fact that the single biggest reason enterprises fail is because they run out of cash. This element is more important than marketing, operations, HR, sales, or anything else. Day-to-day management decisions in a startup enterprise are often guided by keeping your cash-head afloat rather than looking at long term profitability, organisational or financial health (Remember.... in the long term, we're all dead).

This brings me to Karma. Doing all that one can, doing one’s duty, to the best of one’s ability and aptitude without 'attachment' to the results and rewards of such actions. This nature of approach to one’s work is pretty much an anathema to classical management theory which would focus strongly on goal-orientation. But I have found this to be one of the most crucial aspects of building a business. And I don't just mean this in a spiritual sense only, I believe that keeping a karmic approach to everyday work, projects and business allows one to focus better and achieve higher productivity and results.

Management education taught me a lot and brought me the distance but left me tantalisingly close... I had to learn a few crucial life-lessons to truly apply myself to the challenge of building Candid Marketing into the No.1 Brand Promotion Agency in India.

Is BTL booming as a result of the economic slowdown?

I believe that the slowdown is mostly in the mind. Unfortunately, what’s in the mind has a profound impact on everyday action. Consumers and customers alike are reacting to sentiment and there is an overall sense of “hold is gold”.

In this scenario, it is key to get the buyer to make decisions, influence the buyer at the key moment when he or she is taking the plunge either by impacting their experience or enhancing it. This could lead to either the consumer succumbing to temptation, need or greed. Or even better, simply switching brand choice.

As a BTL evangelist for the past 15 years, I have seen it proven time and again that what Activation can achieve and deliver for a brand, advertising and mass media is not capable of. BTL as a discipline and marketing communication tool has been growing relentlessly for the past 15 years, at first in spurts and now in leaps and bounds.

In the economic slowdown, more and more brands are shifting money to BTL to influence buyer decision making. The process of growth of BTL has been given an almighty heave, where BTL was already growing in credibility and delivery, the economic slowdown is going to prove to be a major turning point in this growth.

You must use the F word in your business plan for 2009 ?

FLEXIBILITY - that's the F-word you must must have in your business plans for 2009.

The world is (and India) is a very difficult place to do business these days. There are some who are still gung-ho about the year-to-come in business terms and many (most?) are very negative, but what everyone shares across the board is this feeling of uncertainty and unsure-ness (i know there's no such word but its just so apt).

The best antidote for uncertainty is flexibility. The problem all of us face is that we are very uncomfortable with being flexible. We like to be clear. sure. certain. predictable.

The source of most fears in life is a fear of the unexpected, a fear of something untoward hitting you. I have always found that if I accept the worst-case-scenario, if I accept that such a situation is GOING TO HAPPEN, it takes away my fear and allows me to face the situation liberated and free of the shackles of fear.

Accepting that 2009 is going to be a year of uncertainty and lack of clarity will allow us to think of multiple operational plans and allow us to have several different approaches ready. It will allow us to roll with the blows when they (inevitably) come.

At the time, I will not dwell on assessing the situation and looking for course-correction plans... the alternative plans will be ready to be implemented.... we will be ahead of the curve compared to competition.

So the next time you think of the coming year and think of an F word... make it Flexibility.