Avi Dan makes some very good points in this AdAge article. Rapid change in technology and consumer behaviour is something every brand marketer should be paying close attention to. However, given the average 11% budget allocated to online marketing (in Canada), most aren't. Failure is the consequence, as the tenure of the CMO will continue to decline from the current average of just 18 months.

• While consumers and retailers embrace these innovations, one group seems to be conspicuously lagging behind the rapid technological evolution of the marketplace: marketers. Consider this: Ten years ago, at the beginning of the decade, consumers spent 30 minutes online. Today it's four hours, according to Media Metrix, twice as much time as they watch TV.
• In this decade broadband expanded from 3% to two-thirds of American homes. Yet marketers barely adjusted their approach. While investment in digital advertising has crept up some, roughly 90% of budgets is still spent on traditional channels like TV.
• A good place to start is reviewing the scope of their relationships with their agencies. CMOs must demand that all of their agencies, and not just the digital shop, become technologically savvy.
• Marketers should strive for mutuality and non-partisanship in brand stewardship. Today, it is ensconced with the "traditional" agency, while other disciplines play a supporting role. Of course, if you spend 90% of your budget with traditional agencies, that makes sense, but it also leads to silos and makes integration hard.

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(Via reasonpartners.com) A roundup of interesting technology posts we've made since we started this blog in July. We reckon a lot of this technology will impact marketing and creative content over the next year or two. But not all of it is digital. For example "IdeaPaint" is exactly that. Paint. And the beautiful and mesmerizing film Jon Rawlinson created isn't anything other than an idea, with a splash of serendipity, married to a locked off HD camera. It's still all about the idea.

1.     The future of magazines on digital reading platforms.

2.     An interesting idea for retail environments: Digital Wallpaper.

3.     “Minority Report” operating system is now a reality.

4.     A non-computer idea that will help your ideas flow easier.

5.     Augmented reality, augmented beyond belief: Project Natal.

6.     The production cost is in the idea: An example of powerfully effective communication, without raising the ire of the CFO.

7.     The evolution of online video: Yellowbird. Multiple cameras and multiple dimensions that the user controls.

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A recent article, “Brands Urged to Engage Music Fans on SocNets,” appearing in both Adweek and Billboard states:

Music is playing such a critical role on fast-growing social networks that brand owners can no longer ignore it for brand-awareness strategies, says a new report by Heartbeats International, the Sweden-based international marketing agency.

It’s nice to see that the idea of marketers furthering their brand building endevours through music is gaining more and more traction.

It’s also inevitable.

As people continue to migrate their attention to the internet and digital media - for their very survival, brands had better do the same.

Though the article states that the primary reason is to “reach young audiences that have stopped using traditional media,” the same could be said for a larger audience in general.

For example, a Nielson NetView study, produced over the summer, notes that overall, women make up 56.1% of traffic to music sites, with women 35 – 49 making up the largest group. It goes without saying that women, especially in this age group, are responsible for most household purchase decisions.

Some other points from the Heartbeats study:

• On average, consumers listen to music on five different platforms, including mobile handsets and PCs.
• Two out of five social networkers have music embedded in their personal profile.
• The number of hours spent listening to music per day is growing.

The last point, although not quantified, is interesting. Take a walk down any busy street and it seems every other person, young and old, has buds growing out of their ears with an ipod attached.

For success, the report recommends that marketers shift from the traditional four P’s, to the four E’s (emotion, experience, engagement and exclusivity). The recommendations include:

• An “association” strategy that connects artists to audiences. Although, they don’t state exactly what this is. I imagine it’s essentially based on sponsorship.
• An “involvement” strategy that advocates co-creating to encourage fans to interact with music through things like remix competitions. Once again, this is sponsorship.
• An “exploration” strategy that offers music discovery platforms that introduces fans to new music. Sponsorship, again.

In my opinion, this is some pretty lazy thinking. Take away the veneer and what’s left is traditional advertising sponsorship that TV and Radio already relies on.

This is not to say that it’s a bad idea. The method obviously works and should be extended online. People are well used to getting free music online. The problem is free is not sustainable, unless underwritten by somebody. Brands are the most logical to do so.

A point I’ve maintained on this blog is that marketers should be adding music to their brand building toolkit. Music, as with all sensory input, is important to people, yet remains largely ignored by brands.

So far and frustratingly, music use by brands is largely based on celebrity, existing hit music and the subjective taste of the brand’s stakeholders and decision makers. This ridiculous, non-thinking method must mature and evolve if brand marketers want to truly harness the power of music and the impact it can have on their bottom line. And it doesn’t have to be expensive.

In this respect, new and original music from unknown writers and performers is certainly a way to go. The brand will get exposed to audiences and participate in channels that wouldn’t otherwise be available. Ideas will seamlessly cross from online to offline and back again. And the previously unknown songwriter/performer/band will get exposure that they otherwise wouldn't get or couldn’t afford.

Both benefit.

It’s not surprising that the adoption of music by brands is becoming a hot topic. There’s nothing more sticky or spreadable on the internet than music. And that’s what brands desperately need. On the other hand, music desperately needs new revenue models that brands can certainly help with.

To that end, the report says:

The same digital technology that changed the music industry is changing advertising as we know it.

Sounds like a mutually shared basis for a good and profitable partnership to me.

via Flatacre

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Howard Gossage operated a small ad agency out of a former firehouse in San Francisco in the 1960's. He hated advertising, especially billboards. I think he would have hated the so-called differences between traditional and digital shown here as well. He created interactive advertising before it was a term. And millions of people did just that. They interacted with the ideas he came up with on behalf of the brands he promoted.

The best people in advertising have always practiced engagement and interaction with the audience. The internet certainly helps, but it certainly didn't start with it.

There's no such thing as old and new, or, traditional and digital media. It's all in the end, however specialized - media. The thinking is what matters.

           

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The_latest_effort_attempting_t.zip (623 KB)

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