New research claims owned and earned media will grow 3.5 times faster than paid media channels this year, although the overall ad market in Australia is expected to remain relatively flat again.
The SMG Media Futures 2015 report has advertisers predicting just 2.7 per cent annual growth for the market, while media executive were more pessimistic forecasting 1.3 per cent growth forecast.
CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group Chris Nolan told Mumbrella the shift away from paid media was significant for agencies and clients alike: “I don’t think this threatens the role of the agency but it certainly changes the role of the agency.
Nolan
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“The interesting thing is there is continue disruption and transformation of the industry but we are now seeing a consistent trend around low to moderate growth for the traditional media.
“The question we now have is this a structural or a cyclical issue and the evidence suggests it is structural.”
Nolan argued that in such an environment growth needed to come from new places such as social and mobile with the SMG report findng Facebook’s introduction of video ad formats last year was one area which has sparked significant growth in visual social spend.
“The new norm is flat to little growth for the traditional channels, however there is still growth in the industry and we’ve seen mobile and social where the intention to invest had significant growth,” he told Mumbrella.
“I think the role of the agency is changing,” he added. “Our businesses have to be built around connections content and ad tech. The connections part of our business is about managing audiences and how they connect through channels.
“We are also building capability across content, whether it be paid, owned or earned, but we are also investing in new technology.”
The report also found the focus on return on investment is a key foucs for marketers, particularly around technology and real-time results.
Nic Christensen