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neilperkin

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Blended Media, Blended Marketing

Palette

"I was drawing in black and white and now I can paint in colour."

I love this quote from Moray MacLennan of M & C Saatchi (courtesy of Louise Brown), speaking at last weeks FT Digital Media and Broadcasting conference about the mix of media that agencies now have to play with. There’s much doom mongering about the future of advertising agencies but I think if agencies are smart, they’ll see the myriad possibilities afforded by fragmented media as a huge opportunity.

But only if they’re smart. It is, after all, only advertising people who think in channels. Consumers don’t. I agree with Andy that "’brand’ is only the sum of the parts consumers happen upon" and so campaigns need to blend across different media and different touchpoints. Last year something like 539 brand budgets in the UK were spent 100% on TV. 107 advertisers used TV as their sole medium (source: Nielsen). Big brands with big campaigns from big organisations with big budgets. I believe in the power of context. The context that surrounds a message is critical to it’s appreciation and it’s effectiveness. Maybe those 539 brands needed just that sole context last year but somehow I think not. And it is this kind of planning that will defeat agencies from within.

Because the world is changing. Media is changing. Of-course it is. Portability issues will be resolved so that data and content will flow seamlessly from one device and platform to another. Consumers demand it, and when they get it they really use it. Witness the ‘unheard of‘ levels of internet and search usage driven by the i-phone. 50 times higher than on any other handset. Google were so surprised by it they thought it was a mistake and made their engineers check the logs again.

We are moving at light speed to a place where all media owners (big or small, individual or corporate) are doing the same thing – producing content for ubiquitous distribution, across multiple channels. Mark Anderson of Strategic News Service:

"Content Has No Boundaries. Or: By Expanding, the Web Disappears. Content will be provisioned to every device, making the “Web” seem an outdated idea, like “multimedia.” As it moves onto phones and TVs, it becomes invisible. I want the service; I don’t want its history. The separation between print and Web providers becomes outdated. Everyone distributes everywhere."

The Physics of Media is changing. The chemistry of advertising has to change with it. Ian Rogers:

"We’re all in the same business now, the business of making things people really love"

 

12 responses to “Blended Media, Blended Marketing”

  1. Ashley Brown Avatar
    Ashley Brown

    Interesting post Neil, I think fragmentation and attention dilution of an audience is a serious concern for us planners and will continue to be so. It seems as soon as we convince a client to get involved in a new form of digital marketing it is already old and every man and his wife have built themselves a gadget ad!
    In terms of what we have at this current time and referring to your point about making content as relevant as possible ‘The context that surrounds a message is critical to it’s appreciation and it’s effectiveness’, do think that advertising within blogs and forums could be the way forward?
    I know it’s been tried before and not with any marked success but if the ads were clearly ads and we’re bespoke to the users who were reading the surrounding content, could this become an acceptable way of promoting products to this audience? If so what sort of brands do you think would benefit the most from advertising in this environment? I’d be interested to hear you thoughts.
    Ash

    Reply
  2. Ashley Brown Avatar
    Ashley Brown

    Interesting post Neil, I think fragmentation and attention dilution of an audience is a serious concern for us planners and will continue to be so. It seems as soon as we convince a client to get involved in a new form of digital marketing it is already old and every man and his wife have built themselves a gadget ad!
    In terms of what we have at this current time and referring to your point about making content as relevant as possible ‘The context that surrounds a message is critical to it’s appreciation and it’s effectiveness’, do think that advertising within blogs and forums could be the way forward?
    I know it’s been tried before and not with any marked success but if the ads were clearly ads and we’re bespoke to the users who were reading the surrounding content, could this become an acceptable way of promoting products to this audience? If so what sort of brands do you think would benefit the most from advertising in this environment? I’d be interested to hear you thoughts.
    Ash

    Reply
  3. Dino Avatar
    Dino

    Well put Neil. Totally agree.
    What I’m worried about is that agencies are focusing a bit to much on “getting” new media and digital channels, and not concentrating enough on the more important goal of “making things people really love”.

    Reply
  4. Dino Avatar
    Dino

    Well put Neil. Totally agree.
    What I’m worried about is that agencies are focusing a bit to much on “getting” new media and digital channels, and not concentrating enough on the more important goal of “making things people really love”.

    Reply
  5. Louise Brown Avatar
    Louise Brown

    Really interesting and thanks for linking.
    This is so similar to what TV channels are struggling with. From a content producer or commissioner’s pov for “brand” read “programme”.
    Although it may have been discussed to death in lots of forums, the E4 programme Skins is a good case study in distributing across media with the right audience in mind (and certainly featured within MySpace but not using traditional ad inventory as far as I know).
    Now on MySpace, Bebo, E4.com and mobile, there are so many fans in so many places interacting in a myriad of different ways. But to Dino’s point – at the heart of it is a very good programme that people love.

    Reply
  6. Louise Brown Avatar
    Louise Brown

    Really interesting and thanks for linking.
    This is so similar to what TV channels are struggling with. From a content producer or commissioner’s pov for “brand” read “programme”.
    Although it may have been discussed to death in lots of forums, the E4 programme Skins is a good case study in distributing across media with the right audience in mind (and certainly featured within MySpace but not using traditional ad inventory as far as I know).
    Now on MySpace, Bebo, E4.com and mobile, there are so many fans in so many places interacting in a myriad of different ways. But to Dino’s point – at the heart of it is a very good programme that people love.

    Reply
  7. neilperkin Avatar
    neilperkin

    Thanks for the comments all.
    Ash – I’m not wholly convinced by advertising in these areas. The personal and social context mean that it is rarely a place for clumsy commercial messaging, and very few have got it right imho. The only way it would work is if it was highly relevant, useful, and non-intrusive – and that is not easy
    Dino – yep, thanks for the build
    Louise – I think Skins is an excellent example in so many ways so thanks for that. It’s interesting the parallel challenges faced by content owners and agencies

    Reply
  8. neilperkin Avatar
    neilperkin

    Thanks for the comments all.
    Ash – I’m not wholly convinced by advertising in these areas. The personal and social context mean that it is rarely a place for clumsy commercial messaging, and very few have got it right imho. The only way it would work is if it was highly relevant, useful, and non-intrusive – and that is not easy
    Dino – yep, thanks for the build
    Louise – I think Skins is an excellent example in so many ways so thanks for that. It’s interesting the parallel challenges faced by content owners and agencies

    Reply
  9. Eamon Avatar
    Eamon

    Interesting post, Neil.
    I just think that planning has got about 10 times more complicated. The way new media (and ways of doing things on that new media) is emerging all the time, and then merging into other forms of media. The way it is so hard to pin down who is watching what and when. The way people have become more immune to old-fashioned style advertising with big, bold message (and now brand-builders have to look at things like PR, publicity, brand utility, brand partership, brand sponsorhsip and so on, not just old fashioned advertising techniques). Planners will just have to do as much research as before (but even more creative research – seeking even more for patterns than just for hard facts and figures) and having done lots of creative thinking are going to have to rely a lot more on gut instinct, taking more chances (based on research), focusing more on a myriad of ideas – as opposed to just the big idea (of old) – and so on.
    I think that planning has become about 10 times more complicated but possibly about 10 times more interesting at the same time.
    Or not?

    Reply
  10. Eamon Avatar
    Eamon

    Interesting post, Neil.
    I just think that planning has got about 10 times more complicated. The way new media (and ways of doing things on that new media) is emerging all the time, and then merging into other forms of media. The way it is so hard to pin down who is watching what and when. The way people have become more immune to old-fashioned style advertising with big, bold message (and now brand-builders have to look at things like PR, publicity, brand utility, brand partership, brand sponsorhsip and so on, not just old fashioned advertising techniques). Planners will just have to do as much research as before (but even more creative research – seeking even more for patterns than just for hard facts and figures) and having done lots of creative thinking are going to have to rely a lot more on gut instinct, taking more chances (based on research), focusing more on a myriad of ideas – as opposed to just the big idea (of old) – and so on.
    I think that planning has become about 10 times more complicated but possibly about 10 times more interesting at the same time.
    Or not?

    Reply
  11. neilperkin Avatar
    neilperkin

    Thanks Eamon and yes I agree with a lot of what you say. In some ways the comms world is far more complex but then that last thought – at the heart of it still remains a simple core truth that in the end it’s all about making stuff people love.

    Reply
  12. neilperkin Avatar
    neilperkin

    Thanks Eamon and yes I agree with a lot of what you say. In some ways the comms world is far more complex but then that last thought – at the heart of it still remains a simple core truth that in the end it’s all about making stuff people love.

    Reply

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