Creative Media Planning?

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Media Planners of the world, arise!

Media planning is so twentieth century! How could ad agencies have not seen this coming? They elevated it to a near science, making ROI the touchstone of all media choices, because they figured it was what clients wanted.

How wrong they were. Clients always wanted creative media plans, even though that might sound like an oxymoron. Proctor & Gamble pulled the rug under the feet of everyone by announcing that it wants “a broader approach to consumer planning.” Translated: think outside the spreadsheet!

The marketer has asked for its media planning agencies to turn into ‘communications planning agencies.’ Translated: include non media into media plans, for heaven’s sake! Jim Stengel, P&G’s marketing head, said it best last year. A few of his references to this:

“We must accept the fact that there is no “mass” in “mass media” anymore.”

“There must be and is life outside the 30-second TV spot.”

“Brands that rely too heavily on mainstream media, or that are not exploring new technologies and connection points, will lose touch.”

“Why are we still dependent on reach, frequency, and advertising pre-market scores?”

I have been taking pot shots at reach and frequency for a decade, so it is good to hear a heavyweight say it. Especially a heavyweight with a $2 billion budget!

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The Untouchables

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

Advertisers have been getting off the hook. But for how long more? They are a powerful group, but if they are reading the signs, they should not kid themselves that they are untouchable. Even Oprah is under the microscope. Some marketers have begun to see the light. The Virgin group, for instance, notorious for controversial advertising (the Bennetton shortcut to fame), has changed its tack in the recent campaign for Virgin Mobile.

If you might recall, Virgin Mobile used what it called the “nominal gay reference” about someone arrested thrown into prison. The ad featured a burly prisoner asking another to pick up a bar of soap on the floor. In the late nineties, Virgin Cola dared the FTC with the same-sex kiss commercial. Abercrombie & Fitch was forced to discontinue its Christmas catalog after parent groups protested its use of sex to sell to young people.

But Janet and Madonna changed that for everyone –including the one-time untouchable, Howard Stern. You can tell Advertising Age is all upset about this. In the April 5 issue, it declares that:

“If the mainstream media opts to placate a moral majority, then younger and/or more sophisticated consumers will make their own choices –for cable, satellite, radio, the Internet, pay-per-view.”

The article is full of the standard ‘let the market decide’ bias. Sure, I like it when the market decides what’s viable or not, but the insinuation in the article is that the government is bringing the slam-the-evildoers act to the marketing and advertising world. It’s full of references to ‘the bid to cleanse content,’ ‘cultural overlords,’ and the ‘moral majority’ (as oppsed to the “more sophisticated consumers.”)

And get this: the article on the front page is carried over to page 34, with the lead in titled “Puritanism.” I bet you this is a hack job. It could very well be a ‘white paper’ for an advertising lobby against the FTC. They frame the debate as the “traditionalists” vs the “nonconformists,” “the moral majority vs the edgy elite.”

Great copy, Ad Age. Edgy elite! That’s a new one.

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Journalism goes a blogging

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

Will newspapers become more and more like blogs?

I have been interviewing a few interesting people in PR, Communications, and Marcom, who have strong opinions on whether the mainstream news media will take the blogging route. We know that journalists have been doing it for some time now, and so are the academics, and news watchdogs. But is it a business model for the media?

The easy answer is: “it’s too early to tell.” But why play wait-and-see? Not considering blogging, would be akin to some companies in the nineties not wanting to believe that the Web would become an alternative news delivery mechanism. A long time ago Ithiel de Sola Pool observed that “networked computers will be the printing preses of the twenty-first century,” but few were listening then.

More recently, Susan Zakin, a former journo, writes in a February 8th 2004 issue of Editor & Publisher that:

“Blogs happen because newspapers and magazines aren’t doing their jobs — or allowing reporters to do theirs. Either blogs need to become financially self-sustaining and put newspapers out of business, or newspapers need to get with the program. Most of the current self-examination within the industry is far too shallow.”

What do you think?

I believe that there is another option. Bloggers will have to think about financial viability, not just to kill off newspapers, but in order to become an alternative medium. Journalism doesn’t need to rush to get with the program to become more blog-like, because soon there will be more ‘programs.’ An alternative to an alternative medium? Who knows.

Here’s my take on this:

If there is one thing that the news business –gathering and distribution– will learn from many of these disruptive technologies, it’s the need to collaborate. Newpapers, TV, and radio are built on the one-to-many platform, and can only feign collaboration. Talk radio is the notable exception. I’m thinking NPR, not Rush.

An alternative medium like a blog could replace the mass produced product, with an ever-evolving format, co-created by readers, journalists, opinionated columnists, and editors. These will be the new filters that don’t pretend to be objective, but diverse.

The old distinctions between hard news, opinion pages, letters to the editor etc will disappear. I know this is heresy from an academic POV, and I don’t think it is a great trend, but it is the reality.

Look at (a) what P&Gs chief marketing officer, John Stengel, has said about marketing being too infatuated by television. The unspoken subtitle to Stengel’s speech (which was delivered at a media conference, mind you) was ‘collaborate or die.’ They are mad as hell and won’t take it anymore, so to speak. Marketers like them will want to have more say in the media they commit to, and ‘collaboration’ is what every stakeholder wants.

Also, (b) check what journalist Dan Gilmore is doing posting chapters on his book Making the News, asking readers of his blog to check for factual errors, and omissions. Likewise, Larry Lessig asks visitors to his site to make audio recordings of chapters of his book, so that it can be listened to online. The 352-page book is free to download, anyway.

Also as mad as hell, even more so, is the public. People are better informed now about how the media conduct their business. They sense that the media’s balance/objectivity mission statement is the Potemkin village of the information age. And so, they subscribe to alternative sources of information: SMS in Asia, customized Google news alerts, distributing news via e-mail to their own family-and-friends network etc. It’s this that’s driving the demand for networks such as the peer-rated Stumble-Upon type, and RSS Feed Readers.

RSS is already becoming a popular way to bypass the newspaper/tv/radio consumption habit. We will subscribe to channels or feeds that only interest us. If you’re not already using a news feed, check out FeedDemon or Pluck!

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