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| 08.10.04 | |
| more Belgian stories? |
20 years of change?
What has happened in Belgium
in advertising - and beyond - over the past 2 decades.
| Belgian trade magazine Media Marketing has been in business for 20 years and, to celebrate, it has asked members of the country's advertising and marketing community to reflect on what has changed during that time. Here, Patrick Willemarck of Grey Brussels, gives his insights |
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Well, after 20 years, we still have 'sharp-shootin' local agencies and international ones. We still have agencies with a shareholding scattered among the public who decide everything, compared to those who have more autonomy in their decisions. Everbody still prefers autonomy. Nothing new there. David Ogilvy didn't like the idea of selling his agency to a man who wore polyester shirts (an allusion to the 'plastic' origins of the WPP group). Ed Meyer, boss of Grey for 40 years, didn't exactly say that but the must have been thinking it. And in the meantime, the first one sold out and the second is currently doing so. So, again, nothing new. Advertising all those years ago was essentially 'made in the USA'. One took pleasure in saying that the Americans had brought rigour to the advertising business. The British, creativity; the French, rubbish. A characterisation, it's true. I have worked in agencies where all three nationalities were present, and I can testify that it's true. None of these agencies would have predicted at the time that the largest advertising groups, twenty years on, would be less and less American. Japanese, French, Maurice Lévy and the Brit Martin Sorrell dominate the arena. But isn't it in the people that we have to look for signs of change? Firstly, what has changed is the types of people. Women are more important i agencies and in copywriting. It is more and more difficult to recruit for focus groups, because women work. Researchers are increasingly working evenings. Respondents, now, are much more knowledgeable about what's going on around them. They travel more and are more open to nre tastes and exotic and ethnic foods. Women buy alcoholic drinks and talk about it. At one time, wine was a matter for mem.. now it's for everyone and consumption is increasing faster than that of beer. All the wines of the world arrive on our table, even in Bruges. If you are older than 50 or younger than 20, you are no longer asked if you are married but if you have a partner. And, as times change, this partner may be of the same sex., without you having to blush as you say so. 20 years ago, football was a virile activity, whether practised actively or passively. Today, women form a significant proportion of the audience. At one time, to be seen in the parking lot of a supermarket could be seen as an attack on the average man's virility. Nowadays, women shoot around the store trying to shop as quickly as possible while men stroll around the aisles at their leisure. 20 years ago, you couldn't find Tupperware in shopping centres, only in private evenings at friends' houses. The last Tupperware evening was recently held in England. On the other hand, demonstrations and the ability to order 'plastic' goods is still possible among small groups. Men remain excluded from these evenings.. when you look at the type of plastic, it's clearly designed for erotic purposes. People still get together to talk in bars. That could have suffered with lower consumption of alcohol. Televised talk shows and GSM have even amplified the habit. Take the Thalys train and you'll see how much people enjoy expressing their opinions on the world, their family. Curiosity, peddling, gossip and scandalmongering, none of it is new. It's a daily spectacle. In fact, in 20 years full of innovation, small changes have led the public to act, think and speak as they never had before. At least not 20 years ago You might even ask yourself who - between the journalist and the reader - os the better informed today. Everybody remembers the emotion stirred up by the complaint by a Parisian woman that she had been the subject of an anti-semitic attack. All the papers put it on their front page. It wasn't true. The press was a victim of its pursuit of the scoop. You'll see, we'll end up giving more credit to advertising. We'll see in 20 years from now. |
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