NEW YORK: Agencies will need to enhance their focus on delivering brand experiences as they endeavor to serve future client needs, according to Mukul Deoras, Chief Marketing Officer of Colgate-Palmolive.

Deoras discussed this subject as part of a keynote session at the Modern Marketing Summit, a conference held in New York during Advertising Week 2017.

“I think what is extremely important is that the agency of the future is going to be focused around the brand experience,” he said. (For more details, read WARC’s in-depth report: Colgate-Palmolive’s CMO envisions the agency of the future.)

“And I think it is the brand experience which is extremely important, rather than just brand awareness or brand transactions.”

Such experiences will be essential as brands establish a presence across a growing range of touchpoints. In facilitating this process, agencies must adapt, too.

“To me, the agency of the future is actually an agency that is focused on brand experience – [that] understands brands, understands brand touchpoints, but, most importantly, believes in building a holistic, integrated brand experience,” said Deoras.

“The integration of experience … goes across online media, as well as offline. For me, experience goes onto the screen, onto the mobile screen, and also onto the shelf. And I think it is this integration of the experience that should become an important part.”

And he reported that the agency of tomorrow may need to provide a broad suite of capabilities – a list that possibly includes anything from design and customer service to in-store and online marketing.

“In my view, the agency of the future is somewhat similar to that, which is: It breaks the silos, gets the best from everyone else, but integrates itself into one,” he said.

“And the reason why I say so is because, and you’ve seen it for yourself, brands and brand experiences are going across multiple touchpoints.”

Colgate-Palmolive has moved in that direction by working with Red Fuse Communication, a full-service, integrated organisation drawing on skills from various WPP Group agencies in delivering campaigns to more than 200 countries.

“We have a one-single-client, one-single-agency relationship. We work only with WPP. And WPP has actually created a separate group of people – 100 people – focused on us,” said Deoras.

Sourced from WARC