Australia's smaller advertising markets can find growth in replacing outsourcing with insourcing talent, taking local businesses national and cultivating offices in each state, according to media agency CEOs on stage at AdNews Adelaide L!VE.
A healthy advertising and media ecosystem needs healthy agencies, media agencies, creative agencies, good clients, government support, and strong media houses.
And South Australia has the ideal cost of living to be a powerhouse for that ecosystem and an attractive state for talent across the country.
Agencies are only as strong as how many options clients are given, Dentsu Media CEO Danny Bass said on the panel hosted by Nine.
"If I look at Sydney and Melbourne the markets attract a younger demographic, but the cost of living in Sydney, Melbourne is driving people not just at the industry, but out of the country," Bass said.
"You go to Bali which is seeing the rise of the digital nomad, and if you're 20 to 23 why wouldn't you go live in Bali because these are skills you can do remotely.
"I would guess between the four media big holding groups we're offshoring hundreds of millions of dollars of work, that was an enormous saving to a business 10-15 years ago.
"But as places like India have a rising middle class, those savings aren't apparent - so there is nothing I believe to stop a market like South Australia start onshoring instead of offshoring and becoming an absolute center of excellence for digital skills.
"And those search, social and other digital skills can be transferred to older Australians."
Wavemaker CEO Peter Vogel said the current government's economic agenda is good for advertising dollars with more investments into tourism, education and renewable energy.
"But one has to look at consumer goods and utilities, we just have to take On The Run [Adelaide's flagship convenience store] nationally - that will generate a lot more advertising revenue and we can employ more people locally," Vogel said.
"The great thing about new economy businesses is that can be generally located anywhere, for example we work with a great Adelaide called TicToc if businesses like that go nationally and get a national audience that can help grow the industry locally."
COVID has blown up the model that brands have to be serviced from Sydney, Melbourne and Brissie, says OMD Australia co-CEO Sian Whitnall.
So agencies should lean into that and have offices in every state with local talent.
"If I look at OMD's top 10 clients nationally, there is not one of those examples where all of a team are located in one state because those businesses require us to be able to communicate to very diverse audiences in each state in much more meaningful way which means it has to be done with local knowledge," Whitnall said.
"You can't just have somebody who's sat in Surry Hills having a crack because they think they've been to South Australia once it doesn't work like that.
"I think this new model is here to stay because you've got employees who want to be able to reside wherever they want and also have brands who need to be able to communicate in a more meaningful way."
#L!VE Adelaide is powered by co-curators AADC, AMC. Supporting partners NINE, Quantcast and Foxtel Media. And associate partners TorchMedia.
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