ADVERTISING'S FUTURE SHOCK

Advertising Club Madras' Future Shock, the second international advertising convention, was held on the 19th and 20th of January 2001, at the Le Royal Meridien. The theme of the convention, "Reinventing Advertising in the ICE (Information, Communication and Entertainment) Age", was a major draw among the delegates, who were bombarded by information and insights from distinguished speakers. Delivering his welcome address, the convention Chairman, N. Murali (Joint Managing Director - The Hindu), said that these are exciting times. Changes brought about by the convergence of information, communication and entertainment technologies has changed the character of media business, lifestyle of people, the way we communicate and the way we conduct business. The ongoing $ 106 billion merger between Times Warner and AOL is a standing example of convergence of media, resulting from convergence of technologies. This merger, he described as unparalleled. It has provided a wide range of benefits to consumers. Technology has changed the way we relate to consumers. In such a situation, building and sustaining brands has become more important than ever before. The challenge for advertising and marketing is to move from the familiar to the unfamiliar zone, to get on top of the changes and meet the varied needs of the consumers in the emerging ICE age. The key issue in this digital age is more of access than of ownership.

The keynote address was delivered by Professor Venkat Rangan, Chairman, Yodlee.com, Inc., who stressed the need for aggregation and personalisation. He said the key is to move from mass customisation to personalisation. Advertising on the net is not really 'happening'. Though traffic is improving, increased click- throughs are not resulting in advertising revenue because each portal is still unsuccessful in meeting all of the Browser's information needs. For instance, usage pattern shows that there is a huge mass of people planning their travel online, there are 2.5 e-mail accounts per user and by 2003, 40 million people are expected to do online banking. Consumers are demanding information like, status of a financial transaction, ticketing for travel and related services, updates on flight delays, access to taxi services, brokers etc. What we need is a single platform for the aggregation and delivery of personal information and value-added services. Just as people would rather go to a supermarket rather than to various speciality shops, the net has to offer aggregation of services. For example, Citi and Chase Manhattan would normally not even want to hear each other's name, but they realised that consumers may be using both their services. Only aggregation can stop the user from hopping from one site to another.

Other distinguished speakers were Shaw Pender, Sales Director, Sun Microsystems Inc., Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Head of the Department, Electrical Engineering, IIT, Madras, John Goodman, President, Ogilvy One, Asia Pacific, Rama Bijapurkar, Strategic Marketing Consultant, Neil. F. Budde, Editor & Publisher, The Wall Street Journal Online, John Beeston, News Director, CNN.com, Asia Pacific, Vipul Patel, Director & Senior Analyst, Jupiter Media Metrix, Sue Elms, Managing Director, IM Futures, Paris, Andy Law, Chairman, St. Lukes, London, Michael Fernandes, Mckinsey, Julian Gould, Regional Sales Manager, Swatch Group, Switzerland, Ignazio Puccio, Executive Vice-President & Director, Strategic Planning, McCann Erickson, Ranjan Kapur, Managing Director, O & M, India, Sam Balsara, Chairman & Managing Director, Madison Communication, Pankaj Sethi, Chief Executive Officer, Media2India.net, Peter Wilken, Managing Director, BBDO Asia Pacific, David Mayo, Regional Management Supervisor, O & M, Asia Pacific and Prahlad Kakkar, Ad Film Maker, Genesis.

The topics covered were how technology will change the way people do business, the way companies will relate to the new age consumer, how the consumer has changed, Strategies for media in the ICE age, options to target the new consumer, changes in retail in the 21st century, brand building and re-engineering of advertising, marketing, and communication in the new era.

Addressing the special valedictory function at the conclusion of the two-day advertising convention, Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Infosys Technologies Limited, spoke about the need to build brand equity. "To create brand equity, you need to do something extraordinary, and then advertising should be used to sustain it". He spoke of the advertising agency's role, as providing more and more information; information which is accurate and precise. Its no longer enough to provide superficial information. "Traditional media buying companies and P R agencies will have to re-invent themselves to stay relevant in this ICE age. Speed, imagination and excellence in execution will always remain relevant". He urged the advertising fraternity to embrace project management techniques, to hasten project completion and timely deliverance. "How do I take less time tommorow, compared to today? How do I enhance speed? These are the key questions the industry needs to address". Agreeing with Prahlad Kakkar about technology not being a substitute for creativity, he said, though technology cannot substitute a great idea, it can enhance a great idea. He stressed upon the need to bring in execellence in every area, excellence in reducing costs using technology, excellence in communication of the idea, and thereby create a value addition hierarchy. Everything is market driven, and competetion is here to stay. Patronage is no more the instrument, performance is the only instrument in this age.

Vijay Xavier, President, Advertising Club, Madras, in his review of the convention told www.chennaibest.com that, in 1998, the first convention was about what the new millineum has to offer the advertising industry, and this second convention has been more about "Are we ready to face the ICE age and how do we integrate new technology with the old economy?"

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