[2011 trends] Local, intl trends for advertising, marketing

Typically there are three to four centres in locations dotted across the world with specific areas of expertise, which are even easier to draw upon as a result of the digital age.

However, these agency networks do not have the intention of having offices in every country, as with the large international networks.

Our observation is that, while this is certainly true in most internationally sophisticated markets, it is not completely prevalent in South Africa and Africa.

Although we all agreed that it would be desirable to have a code which would protect the integrity of the consultants' work, we believe that as long we (the consultants) keep to the international codes of practice in advertising and marketing in our respective countries, there is no need for a code that might be difficult to enforce.

As our forum is a loose association, it does not have a whole lot of rules and regulations and we believe that there is little need for that at this stage.

This is an ongoing debate and we predict that this debate will intensify over the next 12 months as procurement and its role will continue to develop, despite the fact that there is often a big gap between the procurement and marketing departments of many organisations, both locally and internationally.

In SA, we think the percentage of pitches conducted with intermediaries is less than 15% but that percentage is growing quickly if we look at our own statistics. It is very evident that clients are using intermediaries more and more frequently in pockets of marketing across their organisations.

We predict that the trend for regular assessment work will increase as clients and agencies recognise that an early diagnosis, along with some speedy remedies, can save a relationship breakdown.

We see the emergence of media auditing and evaluating as a growing trend, along with the need for independent companies to conduct those evaluations. Such exercises have to be independent of a client's agencies.

Clients are employing part-time marketing experts and consultants rather than full-time marketing directors in order to keep the head count and costs low. This means that agencies have to work even harder at implementing their ad campaigns for clients.

Agencies that have worked smart in the past two years will continue to do well and attract great clients. We observe a constant redefining of the role of marketing and advertising and the impact that this has upon agencies and their future growth.

In the public relations space, we see an increasing trend among clients to use PR more effectively for brand-building campaigns, rather than the old "tactical" style of PR that was prevalent in the '90s.