To a standing-room only audience at the iMedia Agency Summit in muggy, humid Austin, Texas, Starcom CEO Lisa Donohue brought a note of optimism to the overall outlook for digital advertising in this post-recession era, which in her words felt like a "neverending series of brush fires." Donohue said it's time for the industry to find new and creative ways to tackle the downturn and keep pace with consumers. It's not a time to rest on our laurels, and certainly not a time to lick our post-recession wounds. It's a time to refocus, reevaluate, and recharge. A few of her key takeaways:
- The world has changed for good, but the agency model is still reliant on an old model
- We need to take our skills and apply them to our very own industry
- We must be ready to address new media changes and challenges as they appear
- Be eager, not resistant
- Get excited, don't dread or fear challenge
- Time to compete with consumers not our peers in the industry
- Become experts on media consumption
- Time to break down the silos that have separated our companies and work together, unified as an industry
- Get rid of labels such as "traditional" and "non-traditional" media
- Time to shed old metrics such as "reach, frequency, and clicks" to understand sales
- Stop thinking about it as advertising and instead as "content"
The recession was good for our industry and our companies, Donohue said. It has given us a clean slate. We're able to hit the reset button and toss out the old models that no longer serve the industry or its consumers.
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