The changing face of media

Last week I sat in some media pitches with a client. This was the first time I'd done it since the emergence of social media and as a result I quickly became aware of the difference between how brand owners would like us (as consumers) to behave online and how we actually behave in 2010.

Firstly, media agencies still use terms like "buying an audience". Our view is that today's audiences cannot be 'bought' - consider the stat which says 78% of us trust peer recomendations but only 14% of us trust advertising.

Secondly, TV advertising is still talked about in terms of the proportion of audiences that "often notice TV ads". That's a very different way of looking at a channel to the social media opinion, which is that audiences may notice TV ads - but do they actually engage with them and react to them for every brand? Probably not.

Of course, this is very much a purist digital view.

The reality is that no business should focus its marketing spend on one particular channel, and the 'right' mix will vary by brand and audience. At the risk of 'stating the bleedin obvious', youth brands should perhaps consider whether press is the right channel; if you're in the travel sector then social media sites like TripAdvisor will undoubtedly play a massive role in your comm's mix. But for sectors where the answer is less clear cut, how do you know where and how to reach out to your customers?

The answer, as always, lies in the two golden mantras we always apply to strategic planning: who's your audience and what's your business problem? From there an effective media strategy can be built that is highly likely to include a mix of the following: TV, radio, cinema, press, outdoor, web, email, search and social media.

As always though, stats and numbers must be used alongside the most potent weapons in any marketers' arsenal: experience and gut instinct. Add that in to the planning process and the answers should all become clear...

8 Types of Bad Creative Critics

To enjoy more of Tom Fishburne's Brand Camp cartoons visit Skydeck Cartoons or catch his latest one in the back of Marketing Week magazine each week.

10 comm’s points for 2010 that need considering.

Ok, so there have been millions of ‘what 2010 holds’ or ‘predictions for 2010′ articles written but to save time I decided to digest all these and then write a succinct list of things I truely believe we should note or act upon.

Many of the ‘lists’ thus far have been truely up for debate and some have agendas I’d say.

So what can we realistically expect to play out, become very real and change the ways in which we must work?

Easy…hmmm…

So, the top ten I believe are as follows:

• The lines have truly blurred. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to draw a line between different forms of communications, especially when considering the online space. So why try and do it? Consider everything within the mix and do not try to separate.
• Successful communications programs need to integrate owned, earned and paid media to achieve their goals. Dave Fleet talked about this Forrester view and it couldn’t be more important through 2010 with reduced budgets and increasing pressures.
• Two-way communication is increasing. Wherever you look, previously one-way information flows are becoming two-way. Mainstream media feed off social media while also driving it. Advertising drives attention but also content strategies.
• Marketing is turning “inbound”.
• Products are evolving into Services.
• Consumer dialogue and co-creation are becoming the keys to Relevance and Brand value.
• Local should be key for a step by step Culture shift.
• Digital Energy will be “liquid”, as opposed to “budgeted”,which necessitates a new type of metrics and expertise.
• Measurement is key if we are to take bold steps within social comm’s.
• Reporting ‘meaningful numbers’ (not followers, members, etc) such as sentiment and comm’s reach.

There are many more for us all to consider but try as we might we can only head of a few over the coming months of planning and executing.

2009 in Social Media

Here's a great video by Rob Cottingham of Read Write Web that tells the story of 2009 in Social Media via the medium of doodles (not dance as some would perhaps prefer) :



The interesting part here is how much Social Media has impacted on so many different parts of daily life, whether political (Obama), commercial (Dominos Pizza), social (Susan Boyle) or via the language we now use - a year ago many of us wouldn't have a clue what a tweet was or what it meant to 'unfriend' someone, now such words are part of our daily vocabulary.

And what will the equivalent video look like in January 2011? Who knows, but my money's on it including social media measurement in a big way. Here's to a happy, prosperous and social 2010!

Cola Brand Logos

The cola wars have been going on for over 100 years, and many things have changed during this time. Interestingly, this graphic shows the one thing, for Coke at least, that hasn't changed since 1885.

How should businesses be using Twitter?

Interesting analogy from @shelisrael!

"When the telephone was still new, a New York Times editorial asked what business manager in their right mind would allow employees to talk on the telephone, as they might give away company secrets.

Whenever a new tool comes in, there are people who are horrified about the possible implications.

Twitter is a communications tool, just like the telephone, so use it to do your job, it's another way of communicating with customers. Why would a company that trusts its employees not allow them to use Twitter?"

8 Ways to kill an idea @adsoftheworld

http://www.twitter.com/adsoftheworld

There's more than one way to kill an idea...