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Get ready for the mobile revolution

Emil Jimenez is one of the founders of Passion Communications, an agency that strives to bridge traditional and digital media. As the agency that stands behind the Staropramen campaign Legends of Prague, Emil is one of those creative communicators who always look for the next thing to hit the market and take companies and individuals to the next level. And the next big thing will be mobile communication. As we learn to live our lives more and more through small devices that bring a whole world in our pocket, our habits change – and companies need to get ready for this new communication landscape, he claims. (Author: Cristina Muntean)

The main theme in communication last year for many companies was doing more with less. How would you describe the behavior of Czech companies and their approach towards communication during 2011-12?
This theme was not just limited to the Czech Republic but to all countries which had limited growth or even retraction. The goal was to get the best value for money and do more with less. Smart companies took this opportunity to explore alternative external agency relationships. In these days, clients are more willing to give smaller agencies a chance, even if previously they had viewed them as a bigger risk. The good thing is, often clients discovered that it is possible to get excellent quality work from lesser-known suppliers.

What is the impact of this behavior? Where is this tendency leading companies?
The impact of this behavior is that agencies who positioned themselves correctly during this time period are seeing tremendous growth while those which could not adapt to the change are retracting considerably. Larger agencies will soon find it hard to compete on capabilities and price alone as these are factors which can be easily countered by smaller agencies. The true value will be in having the right talent which is passionate about their work and about servicing their clients.

What impact do cost cuts have on companies' reputation?
Cost cuts can have tremendous implications on your reputation and the industry as a whole but we need to be honest with our clients and understand their predicament as well. At Passion Communications, we promise always to do the best we can with the budget at hand. This may involve us adapting the campaign execution and finding alternative vendors to complete the task.   

Shorter budget often stimulate creativity. Can you see any particularly creative case study on the Czech market that could serve as an example for the others?
I do not believe that shorter budgets stimulate creativity because a truly creative idea can work with any budget. Budgets mostly help with the level of execution and the amount of media which is behind it but the idea should be able to work well on a napkin as well as a billboard.

What measurement tools gain in importance in unstable economic times? How should companies implement such tools in order to achieve communication proficiency?
One of the tools we use the most these days are social media monitoring tools such as Radian6 or Sprout Social. These allow us to get real time statistics and brand sentiment for the online communities we manage, which often leads to very good insights and campaign ideas. The key to this is being able to manage this community effectively and being able to quickly react to any customer inquiries.

What trends do you foresee for the future on the Czech communication market?
The trend which I feel will tremendously change the Czech and global communication market is the increasing prevalence of mobile technology. As consumers start adapting more to smart devices and tablets, these will open many new and interesting opportunities to use the world around us in order to deliver relevant and useful brand content.