Get out of comfort zone, admen urged

As the culture of creating and consuming content has radically changed with new technology, the advertising industry needs to adapt to stay afloat, say industry experts at the Adman Awards & Symposium 2017.

Veradis Vinyaratn, the executive creative director at TBWA Thailand, said today’s technology is available to everyone and sometimes consumers themselves unintentionally become media by using social media to post or broadcast something they are interested in. This can affect brands directly, he said.

“Many popular Facebook fan pages in Thailand count as one type of media, but sometimes they have no ethics and this is the main problem with new media’s dominance,” said Mr Veradis.

He said with the manner of creating content so altered, people no longer need big brand advertising agencies. Many have shifted to rely on boutique agencies, thanks to their lower costs and greater flexibility.

Despite the disruption of new ad agencies using high technology, Mr Veradis said he still believes agencies will survive, but noted they have to adapt to the needs of brands and clients by using their know-how and experience along with creativity. This includes coming up with content that can be implemented on any platform, not only TV or viral clips, he said.

“We have to get out of our comfort zone and to be open-minded for newer trends of the advertising world to tap a wider target of brands and clients,” said Mr Veradis.

Mr Veradis said “no-format creativity” from younger generations will also benefit the industry as this will raise the quality of works and could elevate Thailand’s advertising agency industry to be more powerful.

“Those online and social media tools enabling younger people to be media easily is useful for industry, as it puts the new blood into the system,” Mr Veradis said.

On-Usa Lamliengpol, president of the Advertising Association of Thailand (AAT), said the association is committed to promoting the importance of media ethics for every content creator, no matter whether they come from traditional advertising agencies or younger people who unwittingly become the media by using higher technology and disrupt the advertising industry.

But Ms On-Usa said the AAT also aims to regulate those “no-format creativity” people to help shape advertising industry to the same standards.

No-format creativity applies to innovative advertising that does not use traditional advertising media or tools, but which could create maximum marketing results and inspirations to the overall advertising industry.