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I used to wonder why major advertising agencies haven't embraced VDP. If personalisation can add so much more relevance to a target audience and increase ROI, then why haven't agencies snatched it up? Surely they should be leading the pack, dishing out personalised cross-media campaigns like they're going out of fashion. Shouldn't these the award winning creative gurus have XMPie, PageFlex, LookWhosClicking and a handful other VDP solutions coming out of their wazoo?
Surprisingly they don't. Many VDP vendors have tried selling into ad agencies but failed. I understand none of the top ranking ad agencies including the big guys like DDB, JWT, Y&R, Saatchi and Saatchi, Wunderman, or Leo Burnett have invested in VDP software, let alone use it for everyday direct marketing campaigns. But why?
There's an easy answer. You have to remember that these guys really aren't interested in the small-medium stuff. They play in the million dollar campaign space. We're talking really big. They're too busy on yanking in the big bucks from major brands through advertising to the masses through TV, outdoor, radio, magazines and more. They're focused on squeezing those above-the-line advertising budgets effectively and the best way to do that is to think big.
VDP just introduces another layer of complexity into the agency/client relationship. It's somewhat unknown, it's risky and it might even damage relationships. It appears only way that a major agency would dabble in VDP if their client told them they had to, and even then, the agency would probably try to talk them out of it.
I suppose it's not all bad that VDP isn't an agencies cup of tea, as it leaves plenty of room for VDP service providers to go door knocking and see what work they can pick up. But I can't help feeling it's unfortunate that these agencies are maybe just a little too short sighted.
Posted on Monday, 12 May 2008 at 9:18 PM | TrackBack: http://www.veedeepee.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/131
Going into VDP involves also quite some technical skills that are typically not found in most agencies... Extracting, cleansing, managing and analyzing data, template programming, reporting, automation or optimising output for a specific device is way more technical than most agencies care to handle. So, I'd say it's much more than just buying a VDP product. You also need the right people, skills, infrastructure, processes, etc. The whole lot needs to be present to make VDP successful. It seems these requirements prevent agencies from jumping into VDP which indeed leaves room for specialist VDP service providers.
Posted by erik on Monday, 12 May 2008 at 10:52 PM
Erik, you make a valid point. Agencies can either choose to invest in VDP software and associated skillsets, or choose to outsource this type of work (just like they do for print). However, they're not even doing that.
Posted by Eliot Harper on Tuesday, 13 May 2008 at 6:57 AM
Hi Eliot. I am posting this as a follow up to my email sent earlier. You may also want to know that a major agency has embraced VDP and it's called Ogilvy One (WPP Group), maybe has been renamed not sure. But here is a link to the release: http://www.bitstream.com/publishing/news/press_2004/pf_040903_ogilvy.html
I think WPP is the number one global agency according to RECMA and Ad Age stats.
Posted by Edmund Dante Hamilton on Saturday, 17 May 2008 at 2:16 AM
Edmund, this is interesting, thanks for sharing. According to the media release, PageFlex is used as part of their 'Campaign Director' brand management system, to enable customisation of brand collateral. As this system was launched over four years ago, I would be curious to find out how it's developed since then. Do you know to what level OgilvyOne are using PageFlex and if they now use it for direct marketing campaigns?
Posted by Eliot Harper on Saturday, 17 May 2008 at 11:23 AM
It has been many years since I last researched this but I believe the "One" in OgilvyOne relates directly to one-to-one marketing and from what I recall that was their vision in the agency. I would think they have somewhat evolved since then but I am without a doubt sure they embrace it in their direct marketing. WPP is also an early investor in a technology company that specializes in making broadcast cable ad addressable, another way of saying VDP for broadcast. I think WPP is pretty much the leader in this one-to-one space (print, broadcast) although I am not a big fan of the agency and have only one contact source there. No other agency I can recall is as far out with this as they are from my knowledge. If others are they are very quiet about it. I am not a fan of PageFlex because it doesn't run on Mac InDesign (or didnt the last time i had a demo at Graph Expo in Chicago years ago) so I never understood why they used this software but I hope it has worked for them.
Posted by Edmund Dante Hamilton on Saturday, 17 May 2008 at 11:42 PM