Publicis CEO Maurice Levy forecast a new era of the Internet and predicted the end of banner ads, the need to pay for content and said that advertising would not be able to pay for the continued expansion of digital media as it had with TV and publications. No kidding! The prediction continued with a forecast for a wealth of new intuitive and interactive features (I guess he was promoting their new web site). Social networks also came under the gun with valuation questions and long term viability.
Certainly shows an opportunity for web 3.0 thinking and emphasized the need for metrics and targeting and probably the need to look again at how we do things manually and then replicate and improve on them in the connected digital world. The big question is the fusion of creativity, process and technology and Im back to thinking the techies have the upper hand here and the agencies much to lose. Frankly, the ad industry has been way behind the curve with trend forecasts for the Internet – maybe the bean counters are now starting to see how new media has impacted the bottom line and want to be earlier into the next wave!
