Welcome to the first of a three -part series about the future of advertising. The series is based on my work with social media over the past three years. If you have read any of my previous posts, you know that my primary focus is the impact of social media on mass media and related industries. As we have seen with music, games and now video, the direct to consumer model works just fine. Think NetFlix vs Blockbuster. Smartphones and mobile Internet are about to unleash an explosive growth in content, services and branded applications that will allow consumers to interact with data in completely new ways.
Geo-targeting of content is just the beginning of what will become a rich local advertising market comprised of highly-targeted content and services. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it looks like the entire advertising business might need to reinvent itself to meet these tremendous market and technological forces. Steve Rubel of Edelman PR refers to this as “media reforestation.” I’ll provide links to my references in each part of the series and I’ll add a complete print reading list in the final part. Feel free to jump in and comment!
Part One
Businesses and non-government organizations will accelerate their efforts to engage consumers through digital advertising and social networks, while also evaluating the ROI of their conventional mass media buys. This has particular significance in the fields of marketing and advertising as the process of communication has fundamentally changed from 1-way to 2-way, literally overnight. While mass media was successfully used for many years to help shape consumer perceptions of brands, social media now enables anyone with access to the Internet to be a media outlet. This clearly cuts both ways. As Domino’s learned last year, two employees and a video camera can do amazing damage to a reputation built over years. In fact, Domino’s recently launched a new campaign aimed at quality assurance to regain some of its lost luster. Who says you can’t learn to do things differently?
My conclusion is simply that social media will eventually become completely integrated into the market offering of all companies. Seamless. Dell’s IdeaStorm and My Starbuck’s Idea are early examples of how social media can be used to uncover great consumer insight. The online communities vote on ideas and the best ones are implemented, if feasible. While this exchange is awkward for most companies now, it will become a natural way to interact with customers in the future.
Advertising agencies will be needed to conduct research, develop strategy and produce content. Paid media will continue to play a important role for some agencies. Fact is; online advertising cannot yet adequately scale for big advertisers and let’s face it, it’s a lot “easier” to buy mass media than digital media. Digital and social media take a lot of work to produce sufficient ROI right now. But, small companies and NGO’s have a terrific opportunity to build mindshare with new digital tools in the transition.
Ad agencies, for the forseeable future, will continue to provide traditional media placement services for clients who need them as long as long as it remains profitable for them. The consumer migration from print to digital will continue. Strictly print designers will need to add digital skills to remain relevant and employed. It’s clear to me that the decline of traditional advertising means that ad agencies will need to consider radically different operating models. I’ve developed several ideas. My first model is here.
Here’s a revised Ad agency model based on my research including feedback from readers. http://www.mindmeister.com/33295189/account-planning
Next time, details on the structure of a new agency model utilizing account planners as branding specialists.
Additional Links:
http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/index.wss/ibvstudy/gbs/a1028798?cntxt=a1000401
http://www.steverubel.com/three-trends-slates-will-accelerate
Tenno, Helge. “Future Media: No More Middle Men.” http://www.slideshare.net/helgetenno/future-media
Tenno, Helge. “When the Marketing Becomes the Product 2.” http://www.slideshare.net/helgetenno/when-the-marketing-becomes-the-product-2
