There are many advertising agencies in Malaysia. Most people might believe that advertising agencies are simply a place where they conceive and produce ads and commercials. However, this creative process is just a small part of the overall work. Agencies do a variety of tasks, including market research, preparing detailed media plans, buying online ads, advertising space, and many other things people classify as marketing. Over the years, agencies have been changing to suit the constantly evolving needs of clients.
Before the Internet
The first advertising agents worked for newspapers rather than for advertisers. They were intermediaries selling space and charging hefty commissions. In the 1950s, the ad agency was the brand’s partner. Ad agencies were responsible for developing strategy, conceiving campaign ideas, executing production and media, and managing the process for the brand.
The Internet
The introduction of the Internet completely changed everything for both brands and publishers. AdTech companies began disrupting and threatening the way ad agencies operated. By providing new opportunities, they shifted the balance of power away from ad agencies.
The rise of the Internet and online advertising technologies gave agencies access to unprecedented amounts of data about consumers and their online behavior. Since digital marketing creates vast amounts of information, new tools are needed to make sense of and leverage the data.
Specialized agencies are increasingly exploring different opportunities offered by social media, display ads, retargeting, and content personalization. With online tracking and data-collection tools, advertising has risen to a completely new level allowing efficiency that is unobtainable with offline methods, although advertising agencies do not need to be software-development experts to be competitive.
Ad Agencies versus AdTech
Because AdTech platforms allow brands to run online advertising campaigns with precise targeting and collect large amounts of user data, brands have seen a higher return on investment and, perhaps most importantly, lower cost of campaigns. This results in brands increasingly being able to bypass the ad agency and head to AdTech companies instead.
In advertising, data is the name of the game, and agencies must learn to use customer data collected to potentially help improve the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Advertising agencies have changed a lot in the past few decades. From dealing only with newspapers, to becoming iconic partners with brands, to the AdTech companies we have today. If you’re looking for a good advertising agency for your company look no further than Primal, an advertising agency in Malaysia.
