Bates announces agency transformation to embrace the future of communications
View(s):Bates Strategic Alliance on Friday announced that it was fully committing to transforming the agency offering in anticipation of the future of marketing communications. The agency is the pioneering leader in Integrated Marketing Communications which in 1993 pioneered the introduction of public relations into the services offered and backed it up with strong foray into BTL with its affiliation to 141 Worldwide and then started working in online and digital in the early 2000s. In a media release, Chairman & CEO Nimal Gunewardena, ready to challenge the status quo as well as the foibles of the ad industry both through his blogging and blues compositions, said that “We subscribe to the wisdom coming from international trend spotters that the future of advertising is not advertising as we know it.
Interruptive and repetitive bombardment through 30 second commercials is becoming less effective and cost effective, as more and more people are seeking out information about products, services and brands through online interactions and sharing via social media. Even in Sri Lanka, mobile broadband is growing rapidly, e-commerce is taking off and tech startups are driving superior service and convenience, traditional mass audiences are now fragmented due to media proliferation, and today’s citizen consumers are looking for entertainment and edutainment with useful information, and truly do-good brands that understand sustainability and are consciously improving their products focusing on doing good for the planet and people’s health and welfare, and are ready to champion and fight social ills like discrimination.”
He added “Taking all this into account, marketers and admen need to wake up, face the reality and challenge and change what they are doing. We see that brands that entertain and edutain and genuinely commit to doing good and championing causes are the ones that will get recommended and shared by people. And such word-of-mouth is what brands need to generate if they are to be bought, advocated and loved. Brainwashing through bombardment is dead. The way to communicate is through targeted online content, edutaining web video, entertaining and participatory events, and the use of tech innovations that allow us to engage and awe the consumer using augmented reality, virtual reality and the like.”