As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, we’ve seen major brands that have traditionally relied on OOH and mass/traditional media, such as TV and print, shift their budgets to digital. Driven by fear of continually plummeting retail sales, companies are cutting their “brand” budgets in favor of “performance marketing” budgets. Thanks to a rise in MarTech platforms designed for 1:1 personalized marketing, this rapid, agile shift is more feasible than ever.
As these companies shift from branded content, typically outsourced to an agency team, to agile performance marketing, it’s likely they’re encountering a major issue: a massive creative workload. The marketing and design community has seen a number of design alternatives pop up in recent years, designed to streamline a messy, overwhelming, and frankly, cost inefficient marketing reality: each ad, for every platform, for every offer, for every language, for every creative version, must be independently designed, resized, and in some cases, placed. That’s an absolute nightmare.
The companies that have responded to this call most adeptly are the dynamic creative technology companies of the world. These companies exist to dynamically exchange copy and content with the click of a button. Ads are instantly translated, offers replaced, and copy updated without spending millions on creative production fees.
With the inevitable marketing budget cuts, channel expansion, and the expanded need for personalized content amid COVID-19, it’s likely we’ll see these dynamic creative companies thrive. Even outside of a pandemic, there’s a need for increasingly agile and cost effective design, but as teams work to quickly adjust strategy and message, this need has only amplified while creative cost continues to soar thanks to decreased availability of designers across the country.
Understanding that these dynamic creative companies will likely continue to explode in growth and availability over the coming year, the more interesting question lies within the agency relationship: will dynamic creative end mid-cap company needs for outsourced creative? I think so. At least in the cases where agencies don’t adopt it themselves and dramatically shift the design approach to reduce billable hours. As design becomes increasingly accessible this is the section of MarTech I believe agencies should fear most (and adopt today).
