Tug of War - Creative vs. Media

In the continuing tug-of-war between what drives the train--creative or media--a top Unilever executive Thursday came out in favor of creative. While there is an argument that lackluster ads can still deliver a message with shrewd placement, Babs Rangaiah said if the creative does not drive demand, a strong media plan is not likely to save the day. Rangaiah, the director of global communications planning at Unilever, said if the creative appears banal, it's time to yank the media spend and use it somewhere else.

MediaPost Publications - Advertising Week: The Future Belongs To Creative - 09/26/2008

I firmly believe and will continue to believe that the new advertising era that has dawned requires that we embrace complexity, whereas the old advertising era that is lingering beyond its much ballyhooed demise worshiped at the altar of simplicity.

While a great, persuasive message must be "simple" in its singularity of focus and incisiveness, the act of developing that message and disseminating it across the mediasphere will only continue to befuddle and perplex those of us who don't ... again ... embrace complexity.

How each simplified meme is launched into that matrix; and how each grows on its own without negating its brethren in the chaos of an on-demand world, is the work of big brains and fearless intellects.

Ack ... I got on a soap box. Apologies.

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Crowdsourcing is the Future of Marketing : Clickadvisor

What’s the future of advertising got to do with crowdsourcing? Well, Paul champions the idea that part of the future of advertising is crowdsourcing (using collaborative tools to generate insight to deliver real value) (Paul cites the Starbucks crowdsourcing platform as an example).

Crowdsourcing is the Future of Marketing : Clickadvisor

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Video Insider » Blog Archive » To Change Advertisers’ Digital Aptitude, We Need To Add The ‘How-To’

In the back of their minds, brand managers know they SHOULD be doing more digitally — we just haven’t consistently told them “HOW.” As an industry, we sell them brand sites and microsites that are great for educating and informing their consumers on the product, its functional attributes and even “send to a friend” viral potential. We capture registrations, provide promotional offers, and generally tell a deeper, richer story than TV or print can. But here’s one place where we really fall down. Often, for the sake of short-term revenue, we let our online media buyers and sellers suck what little budgets our brand marketers are devoting to digital into the same old banner-based, impression-based effective frequency models that, whether someone clicks through above 1% or not, purportedly work to drive the same positive brand health measures and purchase intent that commercials do in television-only online.

Video Insider » Blog Archive » To Change Advertisers’ Digital Aptitude, We Need To Add The ‘How-To’

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Agencies Know the Score on Web Tracking - WSJ.com

A discrepancy between Google click data and comScore's estimates of those data before they were released caused the Web-measurement firm's share price to plunge last week. But on Madison Avenue, the difference wasn't much of a shock. Rather, it was another reminder that the science of tracking Internet usage is still far from perfect.

Digital-advertising executives say they have long taken comScore numbers with a grain of salt and don't plan on curtailing their use of the Reston, Va., research firm because of the Google flap. "We have not expected the numbers to be 100% accurate," says Sarah Fay, chief executive of both Carat and Isobar US, ad companies owned by Aegis Group. "I think that comScore has been as good as anything we've had previously."

Agencies Know the Score on Web Tracking - WSJ.com

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MediaPost Publications - Study: TV Doesn't Deliver Bang For Carmakers' Buck - 04/21/2008

The question in my mind is, Should we allocate media spending to mirror the "influence" of each channel?

TV stations could see tougher times if one research company's advice is heeded. BIGresearch, a Worthington, Ohio-based consumer research company, says top automotive advertisers are spending too much on TV compared to the influence that TV has with its consumers. It says 17% to 18% of consumers are influenced by TV marketing--but in aggregate, automotive makers spend 40% of their media on TV.
For example, Ford Motor had 41% of its media budget going to TV, according to the researcher, with 18% of its consumers influenced by TV. All other media spending figures show that Ford under-spends, compared to their influence. BIGresearch says 16.5% of Ford's customers are influenced by newspapers, but that Ford only spends 5.9% of its media on newspapers.
With the Internet, 8.4% of Ford's consumers are swayed by Internet sites--but Ford only gives that media 3.9% of its media dollars. Radio brings 6.7% influence, but 1.5% of media spend. Outdoor sits at a 12% influence rate, but Ford only gives it 1% of budget.
Ford comes closest with magazines--where influence is at 17% and spending is at 13%. That also rings true for General Motors and Toyota.

MediaPost Publications - Study: TV Doesn't Deliver Bang For Carmakers' Buck - 04/21/2008

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MediaPost Publications - Brands Are Big Word-Of-Mouth Topics Among New Moms - 04/21/2008

When it comes to word-of-mouth (WOM) buzz about products--and specific brands--across a wide range of categories, expectant and new mothers are the champs, according to a new study from online resource BabyCenter and WOM-focused market research firm the Keller Fay Group.Overall, pregnant women and new moms engage in one-third more WOM conversations per day than women in general or consumers as a whole, and almost two-thirds of their conversations include brand recommendations, the study found.

MediaPost Publications - Brands Are Big Word-Of-Mouth Topics Among New Moms - 04/21/2008

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MediaPost Publications - Nielsen Funds Most Ambitious Ethnographic Study Ever, Will Benchmark How People Actually Use Media - 02/25/2008

I have been describing the need for a new media anthropology for the past year or so. Advertisers and agencies need to feel confident about exactly how people are using media. There is a great deal of complexity in all of this; and agency people are infamously allergic to complexity. We're going to have to get over that. Prediction: Agencies will embrace complexity and drive value for clients by absorbing media complexity and translating it into effective integrated marketing communications. (Or go home!)

IN WHAT IS LIKELY THE most ambitious ethnographic study ever observing how people actually consume media, Nielsen Media Research is funding a highly regarded academic research group with $3.5 million to follow hundreds of people around to see how they use both traditional and emerging video platforms inside and outside their homes.

MediaPost Publications - Nielsen Funds Most Ambitious Ethnographic Study Ever, Will Benchmark How People Actually Use Media - 02/25/2008

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