Research

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The Advertising Agency‘s Role in Marketing Communications Demand Creation

Area: Industry Definition and Strategic Analysis
Document # PICRM-2003-05

Early adopters of digital color printing have consistently been told that they need to educate the advertising agency market to drive digital color print volume. Experience has yielded mixed results for digital color printers who have taken this approach. There have been several hypotheses suggested why agency education has had limited value, including: the price/value equation for digital color printing, limited availability of accurate data for targeted marketing campaigns, and relative lack of use of return on investment metrics for one-to-one marketing.

As part of the industry analysis effort for the digital color market, the Printing Industry Center at RIT embarked on a research initiative to gain an understanding of the relationship between the advertising agency, the corporate marketing executive, and the print services provider. This report focuses specifically on the impact of the advertising agency on the demand for marketing communication materials that utilize digital color printing.

Specific research objectives for this study of the advertising agency include:

1. Definition of the dynamics between the advertising agency and the printer, as well as the advertising agency and the marketing executive relative to media decisions and campaign direction.


2. Development of an understanding of the media selection process within the advertising agency.


3. Evaluation of the impact that the agency has on digital printing and the perceived value of targeted and one-to-one communications solutions.


4. Definition of the measures for campaign effectiveness utilized by agencies today.


5. Recommendations for print services providers and vendors on techniques for driving digital technology into the advertising agency media mix.

The respondents were drawn from The Red Books list, which contains detailed profiles more than 13,000 U.S. and international agencies. A total of 250 agencies completed a 30-minute telephone interview in the spring, 2003. In addition, face-to-face interviews and site visits were conducted with 10 advertising agencies and printers in order to provide further insight into the key findings.

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Tags: digital printing advertising agency

Author

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Barbara A. Pellow

Rochester Institute of Technology

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Patricia A. Sorce, Ph.D.
Director, Printing Industry Center
Rochester Institute of Technology

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Franziska Frey, Ph.D.
McGhee Distinguished Professor, School of Print Media
Rochester Institute of Technology

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Lauren Oslon

Rochester Institute of Technology

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Katie Moore

Rochester Institute of Technology

Author

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Svetlana Kirpichenko

Rochester Institute of Technology