“Everything you do communicates,” says Neal Davies, president and CEO of Effie Worldwide, the global marketing organisation that celebrates effectiveness in marketing communication. Effective advertising and marketing requires a holistic approach to the traditional four “Ps” in marketing — price, product, place and promotion, even as a lot of the industry’s efforts have so far focused on the “promotion” aspect. “All of those things are touchpoints in the modern world,” Davies says.

Davies joined Effie in May 2014, after heading influential creative agency Naked Communications in London, and a stint as marketing director at Kodak. In Singapore recently for the Effie Awards, Davies tells Enterprise that the advent of the Internet has fundamentally changed how consumers relate to brands and their products.

“Brands are naked in the eyes of consumers because it doesn’t matter what you said in your 30-second TV spot, if you have a poor environmental record, or you manufacture your goods using child labour, or even if your consumers prefer your competitor’s product to your own; that information is accessible in less than a nanosecond.”

Indeed, the days depicted in the TV series Mad Men — the hats, naps and nightcaps, at least — are over. The advertising and marketing industry has been struggling with changes in the marketplace that are accelerated by technology.

Instead, being an adman today requires much more than conceptualising a good-looking commercial on TV or in a magazine. “The muscle memory of the ad industry is that everything exists in TV spots. We think of ideas that manifest in 30 seconds of content, of information, and we perhaps sometimes miss the fact that what the consumer thinks about the shelf when they pick up the product is equally as important.”

At the same time, a new generation of consumers, the millennials, are interested in more than how a product functions. “They are interested in brands that have a sense of purpose. Twenty years ago, advertising was just about product. And then it became about the emotional association that humans make with brands; so it’s a brand promise rather than just a product promise. Now, there’s an extra layer,” he explains.

Coffee, for instance, is being sold as more than just a stimulant or hot beverage. “It’s not just, ‘It’s coffee, it tastes like this’. Then, it became, ‘Come to Starbucks where you’re going to feel connected to a bigger world’,” he says. “Now, it’s ‘This is a fair-trade-sourced product’.

And that’s the motivating factor for millennials. And you’re seeing brands adding purpose to what they do.”

This breakdown of silos in advertising output is also taking place within the agencies, even as the job roles remain largely similar to what they have been for the past few decades. “What’s different is the understanding that ideas come from anywhere. Creative isn’t just a department. The people who come into advertising and marketing tend to be people who are excited by ideas and thinking, and are excited by some holy Venn diagram where commerce and creativity intersect,” Davies adds.

Meanwhile, advertising agencies are consolidating under large holding companies such as WPP and Omnicom. These companies, in Davies’ opinion, function as a kind of “Walmart” for its clients, offering a range of still-specialist services through the different companies that make up the group. “The role of the big holding companies, I think, is to understand which of their offerings should be put in front of their clients at any one time,” he explains.

Flexibility and adaptability, Davies adds, will help advertising and marketing communication firms stand the test of time. “The ability to change and adapt to the technological rigours of the 21st century is limited by the structures of the past,” he says. “You’d have to be keeping an eye on what’s possible tomorrow rather than what legacy you are here to protect or maintain.”

This article appeared in the Enterprise of Issue 728 (May 16) of The Edge Singapore.