Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501060054
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Claire Maddox of the Maddox Agency added that the advertising industry is rapidly evolving into new electronic media.
To Bill O'Connor, president of the Robert Claiborne Agency, this year ``looks real rosy. My company is excited about 1995.''
Thomasson said his information from the industry is that television and radio stations are projecting a strong year for 1995. There is, he said, a positive belief that businesses are doing a lot of advertising.
``The year will be excellent'' for his own agency, Thomasson predicted. ``Our clients are being more aggressive, but also more targeted.'' That's the reason agencies must be smarter.
Agencies, he explained, must identify the markets for the client's product. Once they are identified, the clients are being aggressive within those markets.
Advertising is more marketing oriented, he said, requiring agencies to do a lot more homework. Clients are willing to spend more money on advertising, but they want their dollars spent more efficiently in the right markets, Thomasson said.
Maddox said one trend in advertising as a form of communication is use of sophisticated electronic alternatives to the traditional mass media. There is, in the industry, she said, ``an explosion of multimedia.''
This, she explained, is the major trend in the industry today, even though it will evolve over a period of several years.
Advertisers, Maddox said, are using computer-based demonstrations for products. Electronic brochures are supplanting or replacing traditional printed material.
Slide shows, she said, are enhanced by computer-generated images for sales meetings.
Advertisers are also using Internet, the international bonding of computers through a single network.
The major national advertisers are increasingly taking bulletin boards on the Internet so other network users can see their digital presentations. ``There are some new players out there,'' Maddox said of the Internet advertising.
O'Connor said his agency is ``seeing real growth.''
Founded only a few years ago, the agency has a lot more work from clients and more diverse clients, O'Connor said.
Advertising business in general is opening up, he added, because clients in general are doing well financially. Advertising, O'Connor explained, directly reflects the state of the business economy because companies are able to market actively only when they are making money.
O'Connor said agencies are using a lot of free-lance help. The more work an agency gets, he explained, the more money filters into the hands of free-lancers.
His own agency has three employees, and O'Connor said another person will be hired early this year.
by CNB