Microsoft Advertising’s VIP Lunch proved to be one of the most illuminating sessions at Cannes in Cairns, Presented by Pinterest.
With an audience comprised of the most senior leaders in the industry – including Havas CEO Gayle While, Chris Maxwell, founder and MD of in-housing business -lution and Sophie Madden, CEO of the Media Federation of Australia – it proved both thought-provoking and interesting.
Microsoft Advertising’s VP APAC, Nick Seckold, along with GroupM Nexus Australia CEO Ryan Menezes – who was parachuted in as a last-minute (though equally worthy) replacement for GroupM ANZ CEO Aimee Buchanan –, left nearly no stone unturned in a frank discussion moderated by B&T editor Tom Fogden about the state of the advertising market in Australia.
Microsoft Advertising has, of course, been on a pretty remarkable journey in the last few years, something Seckold has had a leading role in.
“We’ve moved from being a search-only player to an omnichannel solution. Frankly, our clients have been saying it’s ‘About effin’ time!’” he said.
“Our clients have been calling out for choice in the way they develop their creative and manage their media with more effective tools.”
There has been a lot of change in recent years in adland. New channels and technologies have emerged at an increasing pace, making life increasingly complex for brands looking to reach consumers.
Seckold, however, explained that the principles of marketing have remained unchanged. New technologies and formats have allowed for different types of interactions but being able to tell great stories activated against the right channels and audiences is still the most effective way to deliver growth. Now, marketers just have more ways to do it.
One thing that has changed, however, is the financial environment that consumers operate within. Menezes offered a startling revelation for the assembled C-suiters. More than 40 per cent of Australians with a mortgage are struggling to keep up with their repayments – this is the context within which marketers have to find opportunities for growth.
However, Menezes said that there were some green shoots amongst the gloom. While many sectors were seeing a decline in customer spending resulting in declining marketing budgets – sectors such as travel and general retail were seeing an increase, particularly with the over-60s audience cohort.
In his conversations with clients, Menezes explained that they are no longer simply looking to place ads. Rather, they’re looking for partners to build and work closely with to ensure the best results for clients.
It’s likely a big reason why GroupM’s agencies have picked up a number of big, global and local accounts recently, for example, Nestle in Australia & New Zealand, Uber in APAC hubbed out of Australia, and Unilever in Australia & New Zealand. According to Menezes, its focus on WPP-wide inter-agency collaboration, shared learnings and AI-powered technology and tools have given it a distinct advantage in the market. What’s more, Menezes said that GroupM is really starting to feel the benefits of its WPP Open marketing operating system.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that the world around us has undergone a transformation that has had an outsized impact on the world of marketing. Seckold, who spent nearly a decade with GroupM agency Mindshare between 2009 and 2015, said that the internet and rise of social media had given marketers and agencies a similar conundrum to AI.
Social media and the internet did not offer the opportunities in the way that AI has. AI presents marketers and agencies the chance to fuel creativity, accelerating both performance and an understanding of data that ultimately boosts productivity. Now, thanks to tools like Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform (and GroupM’s namesake AI platform for programmatic optimisation) there is the chance for adland to produce more impactful work at scale while relieving staff of more mundane and repetitive tasks.
As Menezes said, not everything is rosy in adland. However, there is plenty for Microsoft Advertising, GroupM and their respective clients to be excited about the next era of media where advertising works better for people.
