Ad Age: Madison Avenue needs to figure out emerging media — fast — or lose billions of dollars to someone who will, warned one of the nation’s top marketing executives.
“Major money is going to be in motion in the next decade and yet no one really understands exactly where it will land, or even if it will land, or just disappear altogether,” John Stratton, VP-chief marketing officer at Verizon Wireless, said in a stirring address to 400 marketing, media and content producers at Advertising Age’s Madison & Vine Conference at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Mr. Stratton, who controls a budget of more than $2 billion, exhorted agencies to take action: “Your clients are in trouble. They are looking to you to save them.” He said the ad inventory that has been sold for the last 50 years “no longer works,” and marketers “have started to figure that out.” In the process, “your clients will fire, hire, fire, and hire agency after agency … seeking someone –- anyone! — who can help them perhaps on where to go next.”