Thanks to global IT technology, the characteristics of advertising in the 21st century are distinctly different from what they were as recently as the mid 1990s.
The traditional "persuasion" model of advertising no longer suits all media. The industry is becoming data rich but the structure and business process of ad agencies have changed little since the 1960s and 1970s whilst consumers, clients and entire industries alike have evolved.
So the big question is: do the economies of scale of ad agencies suit the financial constraints of the industrial SME sector in Australia?
Recent international studies predict that the Internet will overtake TV in 2010, and it's clear that ad agencies as we know them are equipped and highly skilled to facilitate the needs of the top corporates, high-end retailers and the multinationals.
Yet the Internet, social media, search marketing and the ‘twitter and blogosphere evolution’ require different skills and new ways of thinking to suit SME budgets that cannot possibly afford the luxury of an ad agency.
Traditional advertising as we know it has always been about an "interrupt" model — but the majority of media doesn't work that way anymore; however, the production processes of most ad agencies haven’t adjusted in ways that make the industrial SME a suitable client.
Over the past few years, various industrial SMEs have used ad agencies. But the cost of conceptualising, designing, producing and associated processes are too much of a strain on the budget of the SME that the ad agencies have little left over to use to actually book the advertising space.
So what is the solution? SMEs that cannot afford an Ad agency can certainly afford a PR company (or editorial agency as we like to call ourselves) aligned with a design agency to create and manage their marketing and branding.
Most Australian industrial SMEs have budgets that are too small for an ad agency, yet they are perfectly placed to benefit from the skills of PR/editorial agencies.
What this means is that budgets too small for an ad agency can be functional for a PR company to prepare press releases and well-designed, price-scaled advertisements, so as to leave a good portion of client marketing capital available for booking advertising space in hard copy and e-publications.
A PR company that has graphic designers, writers and a host of other creative types on its books easily steps in to fill a service niche that is unprofitable for the ad agency. Where a company cannot afford an ad Agency, they can certainly afford a PR company preparing editorial copy.
Associated graphic design specialists can produce advertisements to the same high standard as any ad agency.
It is that 70% price difference that differentiates the two markets and means most SME’s can now afford a comprehensive marketing/advertising service using budgets too constrained to afford an ad agency.
A PR/Editorial agency gives an excellent value-added result allowing modest capital to comprehensively buy not just press releases and production of advertising material, it also ensures there is plenty left over from a tight kitty to book all that valuable space in B2B hard copy magazines and online publications.
For more information contact The Word Press
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