Industry Insider

One of the biggest effects of technology is that it has stopped me from saying, “Don’t worry, the layout is in the mail or with FedEx.” Now I just send the PDF with a few clicks of a button. But more than that, the effects of technology have made us more aware, offering more choices and a confusing array of decision paths. They’ve sped up the communications. They’ve sped up the ability to gather information, to download, and to synthesize the situation. They’ve sped up the ability to know what’s going on in France, Venezuela, and Iowa all at the same time and see the things that are similar and different. You can no longer claim that you can’t know what’s going on at a moment’s notice. Speed has become a true discriminator in the marketplace.

Over the next three to five years, the large holding companies will start to shed assets. They’ve been terrific in terms of bringing a wide variety of experiences to the so-called “same page,” but they have not always been structured for the client’s benefit. Let’s face it, they’re for the benefit of their shareholders. As a craft, advertising must return to the essence of creating great communications and memorable moments. I do not believe that the holding company environment fosters this type of behavior: Creative and design boutiques, smaller, more facile organizations that punish bureaucracy will be the next winners.

Over time, I also think you’ll see longer spots and a more continuous communication stream. With broadband, a 30-second spot can drive you into longer communication if you want it to. You may be giving permission to the brand to communicate with you in a more interactive, personal fashion with product line. With TiVo and others you can stop, go back, analyze – get the information in your time. The consumer is in charge. We have to explore different messaging lengths and systems, as well as streaming in different ways than today.

Technology will continue to change the way we do things. The globalization of the brand has been both good and bad. The essence of being able to go to Sweden, Sao Paulo, or San Francisco and buy different products based upon the local craftsman doesn’t exist in that pure form anymore. We have to take that global thought and break it down to the charm of the nationality it belongs in. I have no idea where technology is actually going to take us but we must be prepared to grasp and love change. Flexibility will be paramount for success in the advertising world. Considering the speed with which we are being asked to create, I hope we don’t lose the thought that real, original creativity, takes time. Michelangelo would have had a tough time doing that ceiling in two and a half days.

G. Steven Dapper has spent his entire career in marketing services, starting with Dancer Fitzgerald and Sample (now Saatchi), working on General Mills. He worked on the Alka Seltzer business at Wells Rich Greene then started Henderson Dapper which was sold to Ketchum in 1977. He began his direct marketing career at Wunderman (“WCJ” a subsidiary of Young & Rubicam), where he served as president of WCJ New York before being named president & CEO of WCJ’s North American Operations in 1985 then Worldwide CEO in 1988. Dapper built WCJ from the No. 3 direct response company to the No. 1 agency. He worked on Time/Life, where he ran the Sports Illustrated account; American Express, where he helped launch the Optima Card, Gevalia Coffee, the Columbia Records account and the U.S. Army recruiting business. Dapper worked across the 26 offices from Latin America to Europe and Australia.

In 1991, he was recruited to become CEO of Rapp Collins Worldwide, which he built from the No. 6 direct response agency to the No. 1 agency, surpassing WCJ. It had 31 offices from Sao Paulo to Dallas to Paris and over 3,000 employees with accounts such as Hyatt, Hilton, Continental Airlines, MCI and the U.S. Navy

Dapper created his present company, Hawkeye Communications, in January 1999. It has grown from Dapper and his Golden Retriever, Jessie, sitting above his garage to an organization with over 500 employees in 10 offices in the U.S. and U.K.

Dapper sits on the board of directors of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) where he is a member of the executive committee and chairs the Ethics and Privacy Council. Steve is also on the Dean’s Advisory Board at Iowa State and NYU’s Advisory Board for Center for Direct and Interactive Marketing. He has been a featured panelist and speaker for both boards and is past-president of the Siwanoy Country Club, home of the first PGA. He has also been on the board of the Big Apple Circus, a passion of his, trying to put smiles on the faces of children across the Northeast.