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Mutesic, a mobile phone application introduced in China last year, was Saatchi & Saatchi's latest attempt to adopt the latest technologies to help improve people's lives. [Photo/China Daily]

Being flexible is key to success in an industry undergoing dramatic shifts, ad chief says

Advertising agencies must adapt to rapid changes and have a flexible approach if they want to succeed in the cut-throat world of marketing, said a leading industry official.

Robert Senior, global chief executive officer of Saatchi & Saatchi, said: "Emerging new technologies, dwindling client confidence and the ongoing economic downturn are major challenges for the industry, but there are still enough sweet spots for companies to tap into for growth."

Saatchi & Saatchi was one of the few companies that managed to stay profitable in what was a bleak year (2014) for most advertising companies. Much of that success, said Senior, stems from the company's China operations, which have maintained steady year-on-year growth.

Senior, who was appointed global CEO in January, reiterated that flexibility is the key to sustained growth. "We did not have any concrete plan to tackle the rapid changes that were occurring in our industry. But we believed that since we are part of the services sector, we must serve our clients with the best of our capabilities, even if they (clients) are changing tack," he said.

Marketing communication company ZenithOptimedia expects global advertising expenditure to grow by 4.9 percent to $545 billion this year. The estimate is down by 0.4 percentage point from the previous forecast in September 2014, with small downward revisions across many regions of the world. This means there is a minor but widespread decline in advertisers' confidence globally.

However, the picture in China is completely different. According to ZenithOptimedia, China overtook Japan to become the second-largest contributor of new advertisement revenue in the global market last year, behind the United States, and accounted for 19 percent of the total.

The rapid growth in the Chinese advertising market is more a result of industry practitioners adopting the new technologies and Western practices, benefiting from the rapid inflow of funds from investors hoping to tap into the country's growth opportunities, said Senior.