Here, in the final installment of our Publicis/Omnicom commentary series, Dudley Masters, Account Director of comms and marketing agency, Acumen.

(Catch up on the rest of the series, 'Merger could signal new biz opportunity' and, 'How will the merger affect clients?', now).

In a continution of our effort to see what smaller marketing agencies are saying about the Publicis/Omnicom merger, we asked MD of marketing agency Incite, Kristian Gough what he thought about the upcoming move and how he saw it affecting the industry.

The Publicis Omnicom Group will boast a forecasted £23 billion in share value and 40% of the global advertising market if regulators approve it. Big deal.

However, the risks of the large merger are easily translated into advantages for independent advertising and marketing agencies. For example, the complicated process of orchestrating a merger can be a cause for concern for clients who will be anxious to avoid any negligence of their brand’s needs during the process. Incite found new business potential in the following problems:

Problem #1 – Bigger is not better

Jonathon Palmer is the Commercial Director of digital marketing agency, Blueleaf.

We've pilfered a great bit of content from the Guardian that we thought was too good not to share.

Experiential marketing has claimed its rightful place at the top table. This should be celebrated says Nick Adams, M.D of Experiential Marketing Agency of the Year, Sense London.

Just by looking at how certain industry awards are dominated by experiential campaigns, it’s clear to see how marketers from all sectors have embraced the once, relatively new, technique.

Whether as a marketing agency's lead discipline in an integrated plan, or vital supporting component, experiential can being applied at every key stage of a brand’s development.

Many positive characteristics have fuelled this growth, but two aspects are especially relevant in today’s trading conditions:

1. The convergence of experiential with digital techniques is providing another means of ongoing consumer dialogue and further amplifying a live experience. This has in part, helped draw a line through the scepticism that experiential can’t reach the masses.
2. The capability to be reactive, that is to say, getting impactful activities out to market in the shortest of lead times which in today’s trading environment has become increasingly important.

And let’s not forget the creativity and power of a live interaction. A F2F engagement between brand and consumer remains one of the most successful ways to effect long term brand perception and behaviour.

So all in all experiential marketing is in rude health and long may that continue.

But how? Will the steady growth in investment continue and how can we defend our position in a landscape which sees marketing agencies and marketers constantly bombarded with new and different consumer touch-points?

Education remains an ongoing priority and there’s still a real need to get brand owners to reappraise experiential’s role. All too often I hear about clients ignoring the most robust and impressive campaign results, in favour of a comfort factor provided by a more traditional, but less effective channel.

But a much broader challenge is how all experiential practitioners package our discipline in terms of what it can deliver, in an accessible way to brands and media planners alike, if it’s they who are recommending which channels will fulfil a client’s objectives.

Keeping it fresh

Let’s never lose the creativity and excitement of such a high energy and impactful discipline, but at the same time we must ensure we never trade on this alone and put tangible results at the forefront of how experiential is planned by marketing agencies and sold to clients.

Much like a catchy jingle doesn’t secure budget for a radio Ad, brand owners decision’s mustn’t be clouded by a desire to see their brand on the proverbial ‘live stage’, however bold, engaging and tempting the marketing agency’s presentation. I frequently meet or hear about brands excited about trying a new experiential strategy without fully understanding the commercial reasons for their decision. Tempting as it may be for agencies to spend the budget, long term growth of our sector has to come from agencies behaving with commercial responsibility and pragmatism in advising their clients.

Where next?

Take a look at digital marketing’s exponential rise and some parallels can be drawn. It’s frequently debated as to whether brand owners are investing in social for the right reasons, based on clear objectives and measured KPI’s or a simple desire to marginally increase their Facebook likes.

My own belief is that some social media investment is a result of the band wagon analogy but as the plethora of digital opportunities evolve, those succeeding long-term will be able to provide clear connections between consumer engagement online and hard, measurable commercial gains - offline.

Experiential marketing has to leverage its maturity and become more strategic in applying our trade, offering clients greater understanding of what a campaign will achieve and if and how this fits with brand challenges and objectives.

So from the experiential marketing agency perspective, there’s never been a more important time to scrutinise a brief and provide a quantifiable solution - that campaign X will drive Y incremental sales, increase key brand health scores by Y%, gain trial amongst X genuine new users, or whatever the hierarchy of objectives.

Businesses that use marketing automation to nurture prospects are recording over a 450% increase in qualified leads, says Garry Davis of Digital Marketing Agency, Grow Online Marketing, specialists in Marketing Automation. Here he tells you all you need to know.

Marketing automation can bring a host of significant benefits to organisations keen to target their marketing more accurately – but too many companies don’t yet know about this exciting new technology.

What is the definition of marketing automation?

Marketing automation is a term for software that is used to capture the data of the people who interact with your brand online and then nurtures those leads until they are ready to be converted into sales.

The way marketing automation software works is to record the email addresses of everybody who fills out a form on your website and then by ‘tagging’ all their other activity, from the pages they look at on your website through to their engagement with your social media profiles. Using this technology, marketing automation software can build a more comprehensive picture than ever before of how people interact with your brand. It’s the next step that makes marketing automation software so exciting, however, because it sends follow-up content to those leads based on their individual habits.

For example: a travel agency sends an email to its database containing a pdf attachment of its latest brochure. Joe Smith is one of the recipients and clicks through to open the brochure. He’s interested in holidays in Greece, so he goes straight to that page. He has previously visited the travel agency’s Facebook page. The software has tracked all of this, and is able to send him automatic follow-up messages containing offers on holidays in Greece, and incentives to become a fan on Facebook. The travel agency is communicating with Joe based on his actions and preferences, thus achieving a unique balance between inbound and outbound marketing.

The marketing world has been shaken by a controversial debate with one question at the epicentre: Do marketing agencies place too much emphasis on creativity and not enough on achieving return on investment? According to 78% of CEOs, they don't...

This comes as an aftermath from a report published by Fournaise Marketing Group stating that a majority of Chief Executives feel marketing agencies are too “inward looking”. The report went onto explain this was because there was little or no evidence to support agency claims that creativity in their marketing strategies guaranteed an improvement in ROI.

Since the report was published on July 11th there has been a backlash response from marketing agencies and other influential bodies in the industry slamming the claims. Their group disapproval is proof that not only marketing agencies but also CEOs believe that creativity and ROI is not an either or decision.

Truly creative and original concepts have little or no backing research to support the strategy pitch due to the experimental nature of the ideas. It is this detail that rings alarm bells for CEOs who are used to being reassured their investment will be well spent with a presentation of hard data and evidence to ensure an airtight profitable strategy.

As we march steadily forward into the digital age, the brands that are destined to survive are the ones that can embrace digital and use it to connect with consumers emotionally, says James Fuller of intergrated marketing agency, whynot!.

The popular path for digital at the moment seems to lie in experiential marketing, that is to say creating a memorable experience for consumers through interactive activities that ring an emotional chord. For Pringles, the latest adopter of this strategy, it’s about the fun and humorous connection with fans and with this new campaign- and we must admit they’re doing it rather well.

Making good use of digital yet again with their latest campaign ‘Last Can Standing’, the Pringles marketing team have had come up with giving their consumers the chance to create the world’s tallest virtual stack of Pringles.

Experiential Marketing in Festivals FMCG’s biggest opportunity or just another shopping centre?

As answered by Stephanie Whitaker, Managing Director of ignis

Experiential marketing in festivals 

Over the past decade, festivals have become a core part of our cultural currency. The number of festivals across the UK has boomed; there are now more than 500 music festivals alone (compared to 20 back in 1998), and what festivals offer has changed dramatically – they are now less about the music and more about the entire experience they offer.

However, despite the evolution of the format of the festival itself, many FMCG brands have failed to shift their approach to festivals accordingly and see fill the experiential marketing gap. This is surprising as, arguably, it is the FMCG industry that is best placed to capitalise on the shift.

Nick Pearce - JP Creative

Consumers are seeking authentic brands. Brands with soul. Soul needs to be baked into your brand identity.

Gone are the days when marketing was about having the biggest, shoutiest brand, being 'revolutionary' or being the first to launch stuff into space.

To today’s hype-weary consumer, flash brand strategies, such as celebrity endorsements and high-budget campaigns are seen as the swan song of desperate 'me too' brands trying to eek out market share. They're often a clear sign that the products behind them are lacking in quality and most importantly, soul.

Brand awareness

A brand identity with soul thrives on popularity, admiration, trust and is confided in by their consumers. Brands rack up clout scores on how many of the public and stakeholders literally ‘like’ them.

It’s not news that social media has changed the lines of communication. The trick is to extend the brand personality in an intelligent and human way. After all, friends know when to stop talking shop. A friend would know what to post in your Facebook newsfeed to transport you into a more light-hearted and engaged frame of mind.

Ben and Jerry’s understood this during Occupy Wall Street when they set up live coverage on their website with the title ‘We Stand by the 99%’. They were listening to their audience and they weren’t afraid of openly empathising. Just like a thoughtful human. Just like a friend. They were 'with' us, not 'instructing' us. A vital shift in the relationship between sellers and buyers.

The modern brand identity

It’s all very well quoting text book case studies so here’s one closer to home for brand soul (or a shameless plug for one I launched myself).

In partnership with the BBC and property developer TCN we brought the Ugli Creative Campus in White City, West London to life- a thriving community for 650 creative folk and a brand based on wholesome honesty. Not only were we 12 months ahead of lease capacity, we have a still-growing waiting list.

What was the secret? Fundamentally, we just created a very open, honest and human brand. A brand with soul. A likeable brand identity that was based on what it did and how it acted, looking to support, help and incubate creative talent. Our philosophy, brand strategy and indeed our URL, is ‘lovely inside’, for it's about what all brands should be: People. Community. Engagement. Sharing. Honesty. Fun. Creativity.

As written by Nick Pearce, Co-Owner of JP Creative and Co-Founder of Ugli Creative Campus.