• by Larissa Faw , October 1, 2014

There's no doubt that those within the advertising industry have a way with words. They can recite the latest slang, essential strategies, and can astutely recognize future trends.

Yet, there is often a disconnect in Adland between saying something and doing something. And this is particularly relevant today as the advertising industry is at an important pivot point where media and creative disciplines are converging and mobile has become the dominant communications form for many if not most consumers.

"For years, everyone has said that mobile is the future," said Ritu Trivedi, EVP Digital Marketplace, MediaVest USA. Trivedi spoke at the Mobile Media Summit held in New York City on Tuesday. "Mobile is so important. Mobile this and that. Everyone will be using their mobile phones to connect with brands. Then, when consumers finally started to embrace mobile, brand websites weren't mobile-optimized. We need to maximize all of our opportunities."

Ironically the convergence of media and creative comes after years of effort by holding companies to silo the two disciplines within separate agencies as a way to maximize revenues. But even the most brilliant creative needs the proper channel in order to be viewed by consumers. And advertisers can spend millions buying up ad space, yet without effective copy to resonate with its target audience, it will be a waste of money. 

Now, it is essential that advertisers learn to effectively balance both media and creative simultaneously, says Trivedi. "Creative is just half the story," added the MediaVest exec. "If you aren't aligned with the best publishers, like AOL or Facebook, then you are just a pretty container."

Ultimately, SMG believes the future of advertising will be integrated content that seamlessly works across multiple platforms. As such, its recent partnership with Genworth Financial and CNN underscores this strategy. This partnership, under SMG's sibling brands Spark and LiquidThread, included sponsored programming, traditional TV spots, social media, and organic content.

"Advertisers are missing the mark if they aren't maximizing all of their options," says Trivedi. "They can't just do one creative and chop it up into  :15 and :30 second clips and they need to take advantage of cross-screen and programmatic opportunities."

Still, even with the right tools and brilliant creative, advertisers need to have a purpose for their efforts. "If you aren't adding to the conversation or improving the consumer's life, then it's easy to tune you out," says Trivedi. "It is more critical these days with all of the data and insights we have available to maximize all of the opportunities and resources in order to build the best pipeline."