Cristina Barranco, Managing Director, OMD Spain shares views on the evolving media industry
OMD EMEA
24 February 2023

What would you say are the keys that have managed to place and maintain OMD as one of the most recognized agencies in the sector?

By having a firm and consistent roadmap over the years, our purpose is to lead the evolution of the advertising industry, and as a leader, we have that responsibility. This happens by having a great capacity to adapt to change as a company and as a team, which allows us not only to react but to constantly anticipate what is coming, to be ahead by betting and investing time and resources in developing products, capabilities, and solutions that continue to help our customers to grow, connect with their audiences and adapt their businesses as well.

What would you say are the challenges and opportunities involved in the constant transformation that the advertising sector is experiencing?

We are in the middle of a paradigm that has not just died and another that is in full takeoff, and this forces us to live between two worlds, with the old rules of the game, very settled in a very mature industry, and the new ones. And this affects agencies, advertisers, media, and any other stakeholders in the industry. But at the same time, it is an exceptional opportunity because we are all responsible for making an industry that is better, more rigorous, better measured, more efficient, and of even higher quality. This transformation that we have been experiencing for years does not stop and, from OMD we see it as an opportunity to do things better, above all.

What are the latest trends in digital marketing?

For us, digital marketing is all about that marketing activity that, in some way, is based on technology or digital environments, which allows us to segment or measure better. And that’s why digital marketing increasingly encompasses more things and, possibly, in a short time, all marketing will be digital. However, today, we can say that retail media or helping advertisers to make their own environments a medium, artificial intelligence with all its uses, and ecommerce, could be the great trends of 2023.

What relevance does data measurement/collection currently have when planning a campaign?

A fundamental relevance. I think there shouldn’t be any investment in marketing and media that can’t be measured, somehow. It is essential to define the indicators that we are going to measure and, from there, choose the tools to do so. Measurement helps us select the right channels, and for that, we have a technological platform worldwide (Omni) that allows us to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of campaigns, evaluate, learn, and improve for the future.

It is increasingly difficult to capture the attention of the consumer – advertising competes with many stimuli as we live very active lives and are exposed to many screens, so it is imperative, for us as an industry, to develop new KPIs that help us measure the relevance of brands and the fundamental role they play in the lives of consumers.

Consumer trends change and evolve at a frenetic pace. From the point of view of brands, is it possible to always be up to date?

For years we said that real time is too late. right? It is not about taking things to the extreme, but I believe that it is possible to take a certain degree of anticipation, determine what the environments, content, and interests of our audience are and try to connect there.

The challenge is for brands to have an open mind to understand and react to these new environments where the rules have changed, as sometimes we do not have control of everything that happens or what the consumer thinks but it is also the opinion of the influencer or prescriber with whom we work. Previously we approved a spot and that is what came out, but now the environments and communication codes have changed, with all the opportunity that offers, and we must be prepared to understand it and know how to function in them.

How are agencies and brands using artificial intelligence today to carry out their marketing strategies?

We use it more and more to make campaigns more intelligent, especially in two aspects: the result, creating AI algorithms that allow us to optimize the campaign based on the result I want to achieve, for example enhancing messages of the product I want to sell because I have more stock, communicating those flight routes that I have emptier, those masters that I sell less, etc. The other aspect is creativity – using AI to develop creatives that are dynamic and learn from the user’s own behavior. I launch the message dynamically and based on searches that the user has done before. Undoubtedly a path that has only just begun and that allows us to be a more sophisticated, efficient, and valuable industry since we are getting closer to the business of customers and helping them grow.

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