It is common sense that if the average viewer is subjected to over 30,000 commercial messages a day, they get to be very proficient at tuning out what is irrelevant to them.

It’s got to the point where a 5 year old is able to point out the difference between an ad and programming.

So, is it curtains for advertising agencies? Not by a long shot! People still need to make products and deliver services. They still need to communicate their superiority to audiences and get them to buy in. So, the need to communicate to a ‘mass audience’ will always be relevant.

The change is in the media. The traditional means of delivery - newspapers, television and billboards have all seen their influence and their audiences wane. If viewers have 50 channels to choose from, attention is going to wander. If they have 500 channels to choose from, it’s quite possible that some channels will never be seen or even tuned to.

On the internet, you have 5 million ‘channels’. Here, the rules begin to change. People migrate towards their fields of interest. So, it is quite possible that the person who is interested in fashion is also looking at movie web sites. They spend far more time on their close interests than they would on casual programming.

This affords a tremendous opportunity for marketers who define their markets and their audiences very clearly. They are able to speak to their real audiences more often and build closer ties to them.

Brand Portrait sees a huge opportunity here. The best time to build brands and conquer markets is when they are in ferment and when the old rules no longer apply.

We start with the premise that advertising must deliver measurable results. Not intentions but real purchase. We work very closely with our clients to understand their markets and consumers and we tie our compensation to procuring results.

We believe that the agency of the future will be central to the marketing function. The internet and the mobile phone will be the playing ground where fortunes are made and new markets are born.