by: David Polinchock
And one for all was the rallying cry for the Three Musketeers, but nobody would ever think to use it for a tagline for the advertising business. While I'm sure that there has always been some adversarial elements to the buying of media, my experiences and the anecdotal stories I'm hearing about this year's upfront seem to paint a pretty bleak picture of our industry today.
Clients are demanding more and more, believing that the current challenges facing the traditional media allows them to be more demanding — and in some cases that I've heard, more bullying — then ever before. Of course, while clients are talking the talk about new media options and how they are exploring the future, many of them still just demand more spots and not looking at more experiential answers to their communication challenges. And, with that traditional media, they’re still demanding that we use the old measurement tools to show that they got the right ROI on their buy.
Media companies are stuck in the middle somewhere, trying to figure out how to hold on to the past and things like their Nielsen ratings, while at the same time trying to embrace the new distribution models like iTunes and cell phones. Plus, it seems like they are so afraid of losing their control over the distribution model they've monopolized for decades, that they're willing to bend over backwards to keep clients happy. Unfortunately, that's just inviting the clients to bully them even more.
Media companies also need to stop telling us that what's great about your new – and it some cases old – media is that people can’t turn it off. I know I’ve become a broken record about this, but people in captivity always revolt! The more effort we put into tools and techniques that work simply because they can’t be avoided, the faster we’ll push along the revolution.
And agencies, well to be brutally frank, many agencies are so totally lost that they're just trying to grasp some sense of control so they can keep their role in all of this. They are like travel agents back in the early days of online travel booking. Rather then embrace the changes happening and creating a real differentiation in what they do, they'd rather just give lip-service to the changes and carry on like nothings happening — just business as usual!
And yet, the truth is that their clients are in need of serious help and guidance and the agencies should be playing a critical and active role in shaping the advertising future. Dare I say it – maybe they’ve just gotten too comfortable with how things were?
This is a quote from a newsletter written by the head of a new agency group that really exposes the industry problem:
And this brings me back to my original question of what happens next? May I propose the answer? Services–relevant, targeted, valuable services that will drive user engagement.
Isn't it amazing that the agency world thinks that the answer to the challenges facing the industry is to create something people want??? Yes, this is the reason agencies are in trouble. This kind of pronouncement exposes the fact that we sure haven’t spent a whole lot of time creating something that people really want in the first place!
But with all of the changes happening, the most upsetting thing to me is the loss of a sense of community. While we're in these turbulent waters, we should be looking for ways to work together, not spend our day trying to grasp onto whatever we can get. There’s more then just an attitude of rearranging the deck chairs. Too many folks in this industry are throwing the chairs overboard just so no one else can use them!
The truth is, it's going to be plenty painful while we try to figure out what all of the changes mean. And despite what people may claim, I’m not sure that anyone really knows what’s going to happen.
But in the meantime, do we have to work so hard against each other? There’s got to be a better way to go through the process then this. So how about we all just stop trying to protecting our little piece of the beach and recognize that the tide has changed. And that the only way we're going to stop the beach from being eroded away completely is to work together to create compelling, authentic and relevant brand experiences for our clients target audiences.
I welcome your thoughts about this issue — both agree or disagree — so please leave a comment! And hopefully by the time the upfront rolls around next year, we can be a much more cohesive industry!
Original Post: http://blog.brandexperiencelab.org/experience_manifesto/2006/06/all_for_one.html
