Many opportunities in new ad trends globally

Koekemoer, who was attending the recent Design & Advertising Festival Week, hosted by the Mauritius AAA, addressed their graduating class of 2003. So successful is the South African AAA School of Advertising education model, that a satellite campus is operating along the very same principles in Mauritius. Since opening its campus doors four years ago, 37 students have successfully completed their advertising studies and graduated.

Says Koekemoer on the experience, "It was a great honour to stand before the Minister of Education & Scientific Research, the President of AAA Mauritius, the representative of the SA High Commissioners office, honoured guests and especially the young AAA School of Advertising graduates. It was an opportunity to share some of my opinions concerning the current global marketing situation in which these young graduates will soon be operating."

In his graduation address, Koekemoer touched on 11 world trends, which in his mind, offer multiple opportunities to those who seize and apply them.

In short, these trends include, and in no specific order:

1. Economies are under pressure, largely due to political uncertainty.

2. Technology is developing at an alarming rate with the result that products are becoming smaller, cheaper and more superior. Hardware, software and operating systems are improving by the day.

3. Access to information is becoming cheaper and easier to the point where we have so much information, we don't know what to do with it.

4. Big corporations, much like sharks are swallowing smaller companies, thereby creating many opportunities for the entrepreneur.

5. Service levels are plummeting to the point of dissatisfaction.

6. There is a visible move away from advertising to other tools of marketing communication. Tools such as public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, new technology communications (e.g. Internet, cell phones, etc.) and events - are all becoming more and more popular.

7. Consumers are becoming more individualistic, more demanding and less loyal. Marketers therefore need to convince audiences that their brand offers more benefits.

8. CEOs of corporations are not lying awake at night worrying if they have the correct mix of advertising and media. But they do lie awake worrying about why they are losing customers, why sales are not increasing and why employees are not more productive.

9. As a direct result of the eighth trend, marketers are looking to advertising agencies to provide strategic direction, but unfortunately, advertising agencies only want to create advertising. Says Koekemoer, "Herein lies a prime opportunity for young graduates who understand and can master this dilemma."

10. Advertising media has become extremely fragmented. This in turn has compelled marketers to seek alternative media vehicles to reach their target audiences. With this said, the answer to developing and building a brand, lies in integrating communication tools (computer and database technology), together with the more traditional mediums.

11. Non-marketing communication messages like packaging, delivery vehicles and corporate buildings, even to the acts of senior executives - are now regarded as part of brand communication. As a result, good corporate governance is paramount.