AdNews Letter to the Editor

5 October 2007

Liam Royes, Director Client Solutions, Asia Pacific has recently written to advertising publication AdNews in response to Barbara Messer’s cover story ("Playing it Safe", 21 September) regarding the lack of creative television advertising to come out of Australia.

It’s interesting to see "the relentless drive for efficiency" listed as one of the two more obvious reasons Barbara Messer’s cover story ("Playing it Safe", 21 September) cites as the cause for the long drought in great ads down under.

I realise that the article delves beyond this "usual excuse" as to why Aussie advertisers are failing to produce edgy, risky and entertaining ads anymore. But the assumption remains - the "drive for efficiency" is at least a good part of the reason our TV landscape lacks the mould-breaking ads our overseas counterparts are still churning out.

In our experience, efficiency generates more opportunity for creativity, not less. Marketing departments that operate efficiently are freed from administrative shackles, are more rigorous in their strategies, and are thus able to support more risk in their advertising execution.

Perhaps the definition here is the issue. Efficiency should be seen simply as doing more with less, not just cost-cutting. In advertising and marketing, true efficiency comes from stripping out or automating manual tasks and processes to give agencies and their clients more time, instant access to resources, clear strategies, improved briefings, faster approval turn-arounds and measurable results.

Research by Aberdeen Research recently showed that marketing departments with the highest amount of automation produced the best results for their businesses. And it's interesting that at least one of the TV ads your article cites as exemplary, comes from a global brand that has embraced automation and more efficient marketing processes. Their "relentless drive for efficiency" is clearly bearing the fruits all marketers are striving for.

As the article stated, the media landscape has changed and marketers must be more accountable, more sophisticated and clearer with their strategies. In this new landscape, being efficient is vital. If marketers continue their drive for true efficiency, and do not confuse this with cost-cutting, we may well be on our way to at least part of the solution for bringing back the great Australian ads that we so miss.

Liam Royes
Global Product Manager
Orbis 

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