On the latest episode of Campaign Middle East’s On The Record podcast, Roy Aftimos, Chief Executive Officer, C2 Comms discusses the need for agencies to focus on the value they deliver; reiterates the need to understand and meet business objectives; and shares an open and honest take on the procurement and pitching problems that the industry needs to address.
The marketing and communications industry has been constantly discussing the development of technology. Two years ago, it was NFTs; over the past year, it’s been generative AI and agentic AI; and in the near future, it could well be quantum computing. Aftimos builds on this discussion to explain why we need to bring the core discussion in the industry back from tech to business objectives.
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Aftimos kickstarts the conversation, saying, “It is super important to focus on why we exist, and why we do what we do. We do this in order to achieve business goals and objectives. This is why the conversation shouldn’t start with the campaign and the ideas and the tech and the tools; it should start with purpose. Why are we sitting together? What are the objectives? We understand this and then work together to meet these objectives.”
He adds, “If we’re deploying all the tech, and going through all the motions with the campaigns, but miss the objective, then we’ve missed the point completely. The reality is that if a client wants to use a pigeon to deliver a message, I may debate the ‘why’. Maybe, another client might ask for the tech, and my answer might be, ‘You don’t need the tech, you need the pigeon’. Or, even better, maybe we don’t need the tech or the pigeons – in many instances, we just need to pick up the phone, go sit with a person, have a face-to-face conversation, understand their body language.”
Aftimos goes on to explain why we shouldn’t get biased by tech or focus too much on the ‘conversations’ and ‘noise’ around tech.
That said, he also mentions the several benefits of using tech contextually, but explains why the key to unlock true ‘digital transformation’ and ‘digital adoption’ lies more on culture than tech or tools.
Aftimos says, “Today what AI is able to do is help with exactly what humans often complain about – labour intensive tasks, and the need to multitask. A recent study by Microsoft said that most humans are interrupted more than 270 times during their normal working day. Around 50 per cent of managers and leaders have stated that they can’t focus anymore. These tools allow people and organisations to scale without dissecting your brain into 270 different pieces to do that. However, this requires maturity and sit around the table to figure out where we are heading. As such, the most important aspect in the era of digital transformation and adoption is that this is not about the tech or the tools; it’s starts with culture that’s transformed from the top down.”
Responding to questions on voices within the industry talking about the race-to-the-bottom pitch culture where procurement often prioritises cost-cutting over value with shifting goalposts, unclear evaluation criteria and a lack of feedback, Aftimos doubles down on the value that agencies bring to the table.
“We need to ask ourselves, do we need to participate in a pitch where there are 15 different organisations already in the fray. We need to ask ourselves whether we would like to participate in a proposal, where people are not being clear about the work and the payment. What we’re missing is value and value creation,” Aftimos says. “If we dial back our conversation to AI, our ability to really personalise, listen, target and enhance our messaging, and create real value and meaningful relationships with our audiences will go in the completely opposite direction if we’re going to start cutting on every single corner.”
He adds, “So, we really need to decide what we stand for; what we need to be a part of; and go back to the objective of creating value.”
For more details from the highly insightful conversation, watch the full video above.
CREDITS:
Guest: Roy Aftimos, Chief Executive Officer, C2 Comms
Host: Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East
Production: Surajit Dutta, Content Production Manager, Motivate Media Group
Videography: Mark Mathew, Creative Content Producer, Motivate Media Group
Studio: Ahmed Abdelwahab, Studio Manager, Motivate Media Group
Editing: John Melencion, Content Producer, Motivate Media Group
