Digital Hive

Media driving big creative marketing ideas: it's about time!

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."

Come use your media skills in a new way!

We're expanding our connections planning capability - so we're looking for people who have a media background and a passion for applying media insights to the big idea development process.

As you know from Laura's post a few weeks ago, we're taking a unique approach to CP here at DTAS:

While many agencies are using Connection Planning as a means to advanced, creative media planning, at Digitas, we've brought Connection Planning upstream as a means to inspire big creative marketing ideas. We mine for insights about reaching our consumers, integrating into their lives, leveraging influencers and creating brand evangelism and combine them with traditional Account Planning insights. In doing so we're fueling creative marketing ideas from the beginning with insights around both context and content. In the digital space this is a key distinction, since every client deliverable could come to life in infinite ways based on the unique context of the space.

If this sounds like something you'd like to do, check out the job description below, and email Jeff Flemings for more info.

Download cp_job_descrip.doc

Marriage of message and medium - offline

I am a huge fan of media that complements the creative/message in an interesting way, so I was excited to find this great photo on Wooster Collective (click on image to be able to read the copy).

What I particularly love is: how the ad only makes sense when the bridge is raised (it's a bit of an inside joke); how the level the bridge rises to is a provocative demonstration of the problem; and, how what you are most likely doing when you encounter the ad (driving a car) is the cause of the problem the ad is drawing attention to.

How do you say "good job!" in Dutch?

The Polygamous Marriage- Connection Planning

This past week I had the chance to attend the inaugural Connection Planning conference in New Orleans.  Many others have blogged about it, so I won't repeat them here, but of course I echo the many thanks to the ringleaders at Trumpet.  (see http://garethkay.typepad.com/brand_new/2007/10/the-wedding-day.html, http://www.polygamousweddings.com/blog/)  But, I do want to share how inspiring it was to see and hear that we at Digitas really "get it".  Jeff Flemings and I ventured to establish what "connection planning" meant in the digital space and for Digitas nearly 12 months ago.  After listening to some inspiring thoughts by real innovators like Lisa Seward and John King, I was thrilled to walk away from the conference thinking Connection Planning at Digitas is right on track.

While many agencies are using Connection Planning as a means to advanced, creative media planning, at Digitas, we've brought Connection Planning upstream as a means to inspire big creative marketing ideas.  We mine for insights about reaching our consumers, integrating into their lives, leveraging influencers and creating brand evangelism and combine them with traditional Account Planning insights.  In doing so we're fueling creative marketing ideas from the beginning with insights around both context and content.  In the digital space this is a key distinction, since every client deliverable could come to life in infinite ways based on the unique context of the space.

The conference appeared to be a big success, so I'm looking forward to the second annual event next year! 

New ways of advertising in the Budapest subway

What a simple yet effective idea for ad placement - on the strap you grab to steady yourself as you hurtle through the tunnel beneath the Danube on the Budapest subway. I have been in a lot of subways around the world and can't recall ever seeing this advertising device before - anyone else? It's a place you'll definitely look at, if just for a moment as you check to make sure you've grabbed on adequately.

Better yet, check out this very large advertising/news screen in the subway waiting area - I have never seen this anywhere before. A bit surprising for a country that's hardly the vanguard of technology, but good for them. Would love to see this in the US, specifically on Silver Line bus stops (Mayor Menino, are you listening?).

Bud TV is a bust so far, man

Check out this fantastic post about BudTv's woeful success from Millward Brown's Nigel Hollis, which echoes many of the comments made here by Jake Garber a few months ago. Apparently the site is achieving a mere 10% of its forecast visitors.

No surprise when you consider it's a closed community that's near impossible to register for stocked with marginally amusing content (at least according to a focus group conducted by Millward Brown).

He cites a comment from Jackson West at newteevee.com that BudTv's content is forcibly viral by committee (fantastic turn of phrase, BTW).

The damning truth: "But apart from the reaction to the content, there is a fundamental mismatch between Bud.TV’s presentation style and the interactive experience many younger people are looking for online: it doesn’t offer a sense of discovery or a means of self-expression." Great insight - which I'm guessing Bud wishes they'd thought of.

Will be interesting to see where this thing goes..........My bet is - they open it up to non-registered users and put all the stuff (the better stuff, perhaps), on YouTube, etc.

Finding the right place to deliver the message

Thanks to AdverBlog for reporting on an interesting campaign from Portugal. For those of you like myself who can't read Portuguese, the copy (click on ad below to view larger size) says "this gesture is repeated by millions of people each day."

I like this idea a lot because it pivots to an important message from a common ordinary action we all make frequently and without thinking, in the moment when we are making the motion.

I am not sure it would be a good idea to include a funds collection box in a public restroom - but I still wonder how this idea could work harder.

Made you look

AdLand featured a fantastic campaign for Reynolds Wrap that makes use of a medium that's already in the consumer's life - metal grates that cover store fronts during off hours.

No it's not rocket science, no there's no drive to web, no there's no customer interaction. So on one level this is wrong wrong wrong.

But it makes you smile and perhaps reconsider the dreaded, super pedestrian aluminum foil in a new light. We can never have enough clever that makes you smile, in my book. 

Second Life losing luster as marketing property

Finally the voice of reason on Second Life. Check out this interesting AdWeek article about what Second Life's users really think about the marketing on the site.

Interesting findings:

• More than 70 percent of the site's users say they are disappointed with the marketing that goes on in Second Life
• Second Lifers have become skeptical of marketing on the site
• 42 percent of all respondents doubted companies would actually put much follow-up effort into their site presence beyond putting up a storefront

Another interesting finding - the actual number of Second Life's regular users is far lower than what they had expected. Linden Labs - the site's creators - and the media have made much of the site's 3 million users. However, the number of people who use the site regularly is probably a tenth of that total, according to the tech news service CNet. Curiously - Linden Labs has not responded to questions on the topic.

Yet another triumph for citizen marketers

Check out Ben McConnell's interesting post about MTV's upcoming online strategy. He cites an MSNBC article which explains how MTV & Comedy Central are seeking to win back "youngsters" from online sources like YouTube which have long given them the control they crave. According to the MSNBC article, "the network, which already has 150 Web sites in 162 countries, plans to build literally thousands more, hoping to draw viewers by letting them watch, contribute and even re-edit its television shows." The MSNBC article continues: "In the coming months, the company plans to open up more of its archives, allowing Internet users to take videos and post them on their own sites and also re-edit some clips."