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neilperkin

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The Art Of Media

Media – it's all about the numbers, right? Accountability, reach, frequency, coverage, weight, strike rate, ratings, spots, eyeballs, impressions, click-throughs. If you like soup, there's always a good soup of numbers surrounding media you can drown in. And digital just compounds this. Numbers are important – they show what works, they create standards, they are the basis for a whole media ecosystem. But are they everything?

As the possibilities of communication explode, the subtleties of tone and interaction explode with it. As the number of different forms of communication becomes exponential, so does the way in which they are used. So there is real skill, judgement and creativity in using the myriad communications platforms to their best advantage. Just think about the nuances of how you currently use your own various social media apps now. There's a certain type of interaction on twitter, something similar but somehow different on twitter DM, an altogether different feel to e-mail, and different again on a blog, text, IM. Flickr is different to You Tube. One community is never like the next. Mobile communication is different to web. And there's plenty of ways of getting it wrong, as Greg's presentation eloquently posits.

So suddenly media and communications becomes much less a science, and more an artform. An artform in understanding and nuance. I'm reminded of one of my favourite Rory Sutherland quotes:

"it is one thing to reach people and quite another to 'reach' people."

So will agencies of the future exist on the strength of their creativity or their technical abilities? Can the two co-exist or are we headed for one almighty collision? And which is more important, the art or the science? Discuss.

6 responses to “The Art Of Media”

  1. Andy Avatar
    Andy

    Hi Neil. This post gets very close to a stream of my own thinking which I’ve been too lazy to write about.
    Clay Shirky wrote something along the lines of: humans are naturally social animals and now social media is finally stripping away the barriers to interact in ways we are programmed to do. (I’ll look up the proper quote later)
    This struck a real chord with me – and relates to that comment I made here the other day about brand behaviour. I’d go as far as to say that the ‘art’ you describe above refers to an instinctive knack to communicate that is wriggling free from finite channels, modes and outlets.
    Ramble (almost) over. But I’d say that as channels are turned into soup, you are right to consider parking science in favour of more instinctive approaches to communication. At least until someone wants reassurance you’re going to reach their annual targets.

    Reply
  2. Andy Avatar
    Andy

    Hi Neil. This post gets very close to a stream of my own thinking which I’ve been too lazy to write about.
    Clay Shirky wrote something along the lines of: humans are naturally social animals and now social media is finally stripping away the barriers to interact in ways we are programmed to do. (I’ll look up the proper quote later)
    This struck a real chord with me – and relates to that comment I made here the other day about brand behaviour. I’d go as far as to say that the ‘art’ you describe above refers to an instinctive knack to communicate that is wriggling free from finite channels, modes and outlets.
    Ramble (almost) over. But I’d say that as channels are turned into soup, you are right to consider parking science in favour of more instinctive approaches to communication. At least until someone wants reassurance you’re going to reach their annual targets.

    Reply
  3. neilperkin Avatar
    neilperkin

    Thanks Andy. Think you make a good point and like your reference to instinct. The science will always be with us but I hope we don’t lose the inherently human aspects of what we do. This will be where the great leaps are made.

    Reply
  4. neilperkin Avatar
    neilperkin

    Thanks Andy. Think you make a good point and like your reference to instinct. The science will always be with us but I hope we don’t lose the inherently human aspects of what we do. This will be where the great leaps are made.

    Reply
  5. andy Avatar
    andy

    yup. and then someone will come along and rationalise those leaps with science. And off we go again 😉

    Reply
  6. andy Avatar
    andy

    yup. and then someone will come along and rationalise those leaps with science. And off we go again 😉

    Reply

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