Check out this AdAge story about a speech given by our own David Kenny at the American Association of Advertising Agencies' annual Media Conference and Trade Show.
"In a talk called 'Navigating the Blur,' Mr. Kenny described a world in which the web has created a massively fragmented media landscape, with smaller websites and other media outlets reaching niche groups of consumers. Advertisers may have to release many different versions of creative in order to entice smaller packs of would-be customers flocking to various media outlets -- each of them with a different reason for surfing in or with a different expectation for how ads ought to play out in a specific environment."
"It is essential that media agencies have more input into the creative brief."
Anyone who knows me knows I've been spouting this til I am blue in the face for a long time, because we know it works. Media is no longer about buying eyeballs to see a message cooked up in a vacuum. Media is about understanding how where when and why a brand can add value to a consumer. And about inspiring the team with those insights.
We routinely get great ideas from media. That's why we've added connection planning to account planning at Digitas. That's why our media group is involved right up front when brainstorming potential solutions for a client challenge. We have grown our business tremendously through applying smart media insight to developing big creative marketing ideas.
We have countless examples where a media insight or possibility has provided the "spark" for the team to develop a really breakthrough creative marketing idea. I can't talk about it in detail (DTAS folks are welcome to come visit me for additional texture) but for a recent pitch for an online media property, media was an absolutely key angle for getting to the right in-market program recommendations, which were (I'd argue) quite breakthrough and likely to be much more effective than conventional "push marketing" media approaches.
Start working this way, people - it's smart! it's fun! it works! and it's how the world is changing, so get out ahead of the curve. Don't just take it from me, our CEO also says "just do it."
Very exciting to see the spirit of connection planning espoused in such important and visible places!
As you know, it's the way all of us should be working. And of course, we can't expect to "out source" it-- we all need to be well versed in the media landscape.
Posted by: Laura Rollins | March 10, 2008 at 09:39 AM