Spain online advertising can bring hope to the sector

-What are the prospects for advertising according to PR agencies?
-The official data for the first three months of the year, according to Infoadex, is that advertising investment has fallen by 17.5%. This decline is serious, clients are investing less.

-Will this cause another restructuring of the sector?
-Unfortunately the process of restructuring of the agencies is not different from what happens in other sectors. As long as the market falls, agencies will have to adapt to the new volumes.

– And this also affects new tools for information and advertising?
-Obviously. Almost all companies are adjusting their expenditures. Many firms consider advertising investment as spending. Although many well-documented reports confirm that brands maintaining their investment in times of recession, become strengthened after the crisis.

-And yet online advertising is growing…
-Online advertising is growing, but less than expected. It is true that it has become the second media in terms of advertising investment, over the press. TV is in the first position, followed by the Internet. However, it is growing at lower rates: in the first quarter of 2013, according to Infoadex, the Internet investment fell 5% compared to 2012.

-What is your forecast?
-Media agencies are reshaping their business models. But we have been immersed in crisis for six years and in 2012 we had returned to 1998 levels of investment. That is, in six years of crisis we have gone backwards 14 years. This has remodeled absolutely everything and we believe that we will never go back to the levels of investment of the boom years. The only key is that agencies should adapt to the new scenario.

-Does advertising work?
-Yes. Advertising does work, it builds brand visibility and helps sales in the long term. In addition there are sectors that cannot live without publicity and others, such as groceries, require a strong brand position because it is the only thing that allows them to compete against the growth experienced by the distribution brands. Now brands get directly in touch with consumers through specific channels.

-What kind of channels?
-The so-called “channel I”, that allow the brand to talk with the consumer, such as TV, radio, billboards, etc. So-called “channel we”, that establish adialogue between the brand and consumers through search engines, web, mobile, email, marketing and points of sale. And finally “channel they”, where a conversation about the brand takes place among consumers, such as Facebook, Youtube, and so on. There we see the future of communication.

-Advertising keys will remain the same or have they changed?
-They are still the same. You need a quality product, good price, a good promotion and distribution, communication and of course advertising. That mix will guarantee the success, or not.

-Should the crisis last, as announced, in what extent will it affect the world of communication?
-The only thing you can do is maximize productivity, streamline processes and make them more effective. What is clear is that the future is digital. We go towards integrated and digital communication. The personal video recorded, that allow you to record and view the recording whenever you want; the smart TV that incorporate browsers and better connections to Internet… The important thing is how brands reach consumers. Everything is changing. Agencies need to go one step ahead.

-The crisis reduced the advertising noise, was this necessary?
-Yes. Two things are going to grow: mobile advertising and brand content, i.e. brands producing content for TV programs in order to increase their notoriety.