40 · MONEY
ISSUE 58
MARKETING
Richard is the CEO of Switch — Digital & Brand, a marketing agency that forms part of ICOM, the world's largest network of independent agencies. [richard@switch.com.mt]
CALL-TOACTION Richard Muscat Azzopardi compares the golden age of advertising with today's ways and says that we should brace ourselves for a transformation in marketing. What should I be thinking of going into 2020? There is a common perception that this is the hardest period to be in marketing. As the digital marketing platforms change and make our lives as marketers harder, as consumers become more cynical and hard to read and reach, it seems as if we’re being squeezed on all sides. It might say more about me than it does about marketing, but I believe that every era of marketing presented its own challenges and opportunities. It is up to us to make the best of them. The 1950s and 1960s were the golden age of advertising (as opposed to marketing). The
age where an ad agency could win a major account based on a tag line. We refer to this in all our proposals, because it is an image of advertising that most people still cling to. Agencies tend to be chosen at pitch stage (or given awards) based on a creative idea, but nowadays we’re judged on performance that’s measured in a very different way.
Instead of tackling a single issue, in this article I’ve decided to look at some of the major shifts we’re seeing on a macro level. Shifts that will define how we should set ourselves up in 2020 in preparation for the next decade or so.
What made the golden age of advertising so good was that it was a period where big-ticket creative ideas were rewarded. Creatives dared more and companies let them roll with ideas for longer, because it took time to measure the results. The great campaigns of the time even defined a generation. This was the era that gave us the Malboro Man, the Volkswagen Lemon, and deBeers’ Diamonds are Forever. Campaigns that changed how people think.
The role of marketing has become so varied and important that the traditional role of CMO is currently held by the CEO, and the CEO’s role is to bring a set of C-level executives that specialise in areas like brand, customer journey, growth and data together to deliver results that a traditional CMO couldn’t offer.
The role of the CMO
To go back to the Mad Men analogy, the CMO role will eventually go the same way as the
