{"id":16920,"date":"2016-11-17T23:52:20","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T04:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/mad-men-in-the-digital-age\/"},"modified":"2016-11-17T23:58:30","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T04:58:30","slug":"mad-men-in-the-digital-age","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/mad-men-in-the-digital-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Mad Men in the Digital Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mad-men-book\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The popular AMC television series, \u201cMad Men\u201d, took us back to one of the most transformational periods in advertising industry \u2013 fueled by the emergence of television, computers, and other technological advances. Now 40 years later, we find ourselves again in the midst of another transformational wave in advertising: the rise of the digital era. By the end of 2016, for the first time in history, total digital advertising spend in this country will surpass that of TV. Consumers\u2019 total digital media usage through smartphones has increased by almost 80% over the past 3 years. Furthermore, an adult on average owns close to 4 electronic devices and consumes 5.5 hours of content per day. Every minute, 48 hours of video are uploaded onto YouTube, 600,000 feeds are shared on Facebook, and more than 100,000 tweets are sent.<\/p>\n

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Source: eMarketer.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With record amounts of customer data growing every second, marketing agencies with advanced data analytics capabilities that can extract valuable insights will be able to help clients produce more relevant advertising content and more accurately target the right audience based on shoppers\u2019 online and offline behavior. While having an omni-channel presence is at top of mind for most companies, the strategy proves to be challenging in a fragmented marketing technology ecosystem where each marketing channel (paid search, display, social, TV, etc.) has its own group of publishers, ad-serving platforms, and data tracking systems. Therefore, the advertising agencies with the best technology, most integrated digital platforms, and most comprehensive analytics capabilities will have a significant advantage over others.<\/p>\n

Publicis Groupe, a 90-year old French advertising conglomerate with deep-rooted expertise in TV, print and traditional advertising, is one example of an agency that will have to make drastic changes in both its business and operational model in order to keep up with the global shift toward digitalization.<\/p>\n