FCV Interactive is a good example of how advertising agencies have evolved in the last 10 years: it is more Silicon Valley than Mad Men.
The company started in 2004 in website and e-commerce development and now does multi-platform campaigns.
“Last year was exponential growth,” FCV’s founder, Johann Starke, told Business in Vancouver. “In terms of revenues, last year was the first year we exceeded $10 million.”
The company opened two new offices last year – one in Toronto, one in Victoria – and plans to open another in Halifax. Washington, D.C., is also a possibility.
Since the advent of the Internet, social media and mobile devices, advertising agencies have had to adapt to new ways of delivering messages and branding.
“We’re not a traditional ad agency, we’re a digital agency,” Starke said. “Of course we have a creative team, like all agencies do, but we actually have way more developers than we have creative people.”
Even older, more established advertising agencies, such as Wasserman + Partners Advertising and DDB Canada, have evolved into high-tech companies where employees with digital media skills may outnumber those in creative departments.
“All advertising has become digital,” said Alvin Wasserman, president of Wasserman + Partners Advertising. “Even if you are going to be shooting a TV commercial, you are going to be putting it on multi-platforms.”
Having more ways to deliver a message doesn’t make the job of an advertising executive any easier. In fact, it can be harder to get through to an audience that has learned to tune out so much noise and spam.
“The most important thing digital and social bring to a campaign is engagement and interactivity,” Wasserman said.
“It’s a bunch of technologies that enable the customers to have not just a voice, but a conversation, a dialogue and an influence with the marketer.”
DDB has been around since the 1960s. The campaigns it does for the Canadian Tourism Commission underscore how things have changed. A typical campaign in the past would be a 30-second TV ad with aerial footage of Canada’s vast wildernesses.
Today, a more typical campaign might include user-generated content, such as footage shot by tourists on the slopes of Whistler and delivered via TV, websites and social media. And in many cases, the viewer is drawn in to participate in some way.
In a new campaign DDB is doing for McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE:MCD), TV commercials are airing in which ordinary Canadians ask questions such as “What is really in Chicken McNuggets?” and “Why don’t they accommodate vegetarians?”
The questions aren’t answered on screen. Rather, viewers are directed to a website where they can watch videos that answer their questions and where they can submit their own questions.
“There are infinitely new ways to reach people, but it’s just as hard to connect with people today as it was before,” said DDB Canada managing director Lance Saunders. “It’s not just about having more social media and digital offerings. You still have to connect with them in some sort of emotive fashion.
“Previously, if you think about a 30-second commercial, a story might have a beginning, a middle and an end and that’s it. Now, brands are trying to figure out ways to engage and connect with consumers. The story may not have a beginning, a middle and end, but the story may have a place where the consumer can insert themselves and play a role in the story.” •
