A new age in advertising – the interactive age – is being ushered in at area firms, which are expanding their services to include new capabilities for clients. The most recent of these is Trainor Advertising, which has partnered with Toronto-based Hunter Multimedia Inc. to form ePilot Interactive, which will operate as a subsidiary of Trainor.
“We will offer a full suite of interactive services, from Web site design and architecture up through Web site management and eCommerce,” said President Mike Trainor, president of Trainor Advertising..
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The change will also make CD-ROM and digital video production, database development and online training available options to Trainor clients.
“The whole notion of what an advertising agency is, is going to reinvent itself over the next three to five years,” Trainor said.
Trainor predicted that agencies would see challenges as new technologies continue to develop.
“It’s going to change the notion of what people think ad and pr agencies are all about,” Trainor said. “They will be brokers of information exchange for commercial services. It will no longer be enough for clients to be market-driven, they must be customer-driven.”
The new venture has already captured contracts with Wyeth Ayerst Pharmaceuticals of Philadelphia, and Corliant, Inc., a network Solutions company also headquartered in Philadelphia. Corliant also has an office in Providence.
“We both have backgrounds in health care, retail, manufacturing,” said Steve Hunter, CEO of Hunter Multimedia, who will act as president and chief operating officer of ePilot. “We share a passion for the business.”
All interactive production will take place in Hunter’s Toronto office, but new employees may eventually be added to Trainor’s East Providence office, Hunter said, “as cash flow dictates.”
Area advertising agencies Duffy & Shanley, America House and RDW Group have already added interactive to their lists of services; Chaffee and Partners offers clients a suite of Web-related services as well.
“I don’t think it’s taken the place of anything,” said David Chaffee, president of Chaffee and Partners in Providence. “It has given advertisers one more tool in the overall advertising mix.”
These new tools can work together with the tried-and-true.
“There are advertisers who believe that a Web site stands on its own,” Chaffee said. “You need to still employ conventional advertising methods to attract people to your site.”
Web sites devoted to a particular company or product can act as a first glance at a particular product or service.
“Consumers are getting a better idea of what they’re going to buy,” said Chaffee. “If I’m going to travel, I’ll go to the Web site of the airline or the city or town where I’m going. It saves you writing away for brochures and information.”
Chaffee said an effective, integrated Web site is crucial to business.
“If you don’t do it, it’s business lost – we feel that the Web site or eCommerce site is so important that it should work with all of the client’s other materials and not against the other materials,” Chaffee said.
Still, Chaffee noted that Web advertising should only be seen as a complement to an agency’s more established techniques.
“Banner ads haven’t taken the place of traditional methods,” Chaffee said. “Nobody’s said ‘We’re going to run banner ads instead of newspaper ads.’
What’s the overall effect of the Internet on the advertising industry?
“It has made it more challenging, but it’s given you something to talk about,” Chaffee said. “It’s an area that is changing constantly.”
For Trainor’s part, “The changes are happening at an astonishing speed. You step on the bus, or you don’t.”
