How to Plan Media in a Non-Linear World

Think like Farve, Go Deep

Posted by Darren Herman on 05.15.08 @ 06:10 PM

Darren Herman also blogs at DarrenHerman.com.

We live in a non-linear world but are taught linear business processes. Yikes. We're doomed. Grab the Starburst and let's head down to the cellar to hide.

It's 2008. Wake up. Drink some Patron and lets start thinking rational; how do we harness our non-linear world?

New digital brief given to [insert agency name] by a client. "Can someone put together a ComScore run?" RFP the top 25 on the list Media planning time...

Sound all too familiar? Don't deny it, I'll call you out.

Conversations and audiences exist everywhere. In a world that's one power outlet away from becoming totally digital, we need to adopt non-linear ways of thinking for our clients.

Is buying the top three ComScore indexed sites for a particular audience the best way to engage with the audiences? I'd say probably not. Here's why.

As media fragments and tools and technologies are developed, we have the opportunity to engage and join the conversation with our intended audiences in many new capacities. The more granular you build out your engagement, the more embedded you become with that audience. This is good in the fact that you can potentially generate high awareness, consideration or even work down to the lower part of the funnel, but it's bad because you have quite a few ways to blow this opportunity and alienate the audience. Trust me, the audience will let you know when that happens.

When putting together the property list for your media plan, go deep. Pretend you're Brett Favre. Don't ignore the top of the ComScore list, but look closely at the mid to bottom of the list. There is a high possibility that the sites on the lower range of the list have extremely high index of your audience, but because they aren't a huge reach vehicle (portal, destination site, etc), they don't appear higher.

Linear thinking would lead us to pick the same process over time and usually select the top sites on the list and work with them. Non-linear forces us to work harder and sometimes, chaotic, but allows us to participate in a non-linear world much better. With this said, we need to start developing the tools, processes and technologies to harness our knowledge in a non-linear world. I haven't seen many tools that do this, but I'm certainly willing to listen... any takers?

A Glimpse Into the Store of the Future

Digital Retail Experiences Are Interactive, Tactile

Posted by Megan McIlroy on 05.15.08 @ 01:24 PM

What does the store of the future look like?

It has digital components, of course, a few less employees, and in all likelihood a giant screen that lets consumers virtually interact with merchandise with the touch of a finger. That's what Avenue/A Razorfish is betting anyway.

On Wednesday, I made my way over to the agency's eighth annual Client Summit where they were showcasing prototypes of digital retail experiences for clients, including one they've already made for AT&T.

The idea, John McVay, VP and client partner to AT&T, told me is "to break away from the concept that digital is equal to the web. Digital is much more about connecting experiences."

In other words, if everything else in a consumer's life is connected through digital, shopping should be, too.

The AT&T store experience, a pilot in 12 stores nationwide, puts kiosks with screens equipped with Microsoft Surface technology in stores. The screens allow customers to pull up images of merchandise with a touch of the hand, giving them tactile, direct control of data. For example, to find out about a phone's coverage area, a customer can pull up a map on the screen, put his fingers around the area he lives and works, and actually see the lines of service that will work in his plan. (Beats hearing about it from a sales rep.) The customer can pull up different models of the merchandise on the screen, play with the features virtually and even compare two models side-by-side without the use of a mouse.

Another venture on display Wednesday was a partnership with iGotcha, a media company specializing in digital signage networks. In a prototype for client J.C. Penney, Avenue A displayed a huge storefront screen that lets consumers browse a store's merchandise by hand, mix and match outfits, check price points and more. Using the screen, a consumer could put together an ensemble, save garments to an account and then purchase them online.

Another prototype Avenue A showed was in partnership with Reactrix, an interactive out-of-home media company that displays interactive ads on the floor of malls. One ad for AT&T played off a 30-second TV spot airing now, which shows mobile phones popping out of flowers to the tune of "Daydream in Blue." If a customer steps on a flower, a phone pops out, and if he steps on the phone, he gets more information about it, such as price points and information about the nearest store to purchase the phone.

Putting tactile, intuitive, digital media in stores and malls is a natural progression of consumer habits, said Avenue A's Patrick Morehead. But the true test of how effective the store of the future will be whether or not it can actually drive sales. Avenue A seems to be betting it will.

Listen Before Engaging Your Audience

An Early Job at Gateway Bears an Important Lesson for Today's Social Media Landscape

Posted by Craig Daitch on 05.07.08 @ 11:06 AM

Craig Daitch also writes the blog Thought Industry.

While putting myself through school I worked part time at a Gateway Country store in the suburbs of Detroit. Every day I'd come to work and watch as the full-time sales executives would meticulously go through the upgrades attributed to the new PCs that hit the showroom floor while describing them to their wide-eyed customers-to-be.

One former colleague of mine had a voice for radio, similar to Tay Zonday's, and you could imagine the impression he'd make as his bass-infused intonations echoed off the walls, evangelizing the power of bus speeds, RAM and hard-drive space. It was akin to a Las Vegas performance -- and you could imagine the number of "ooh's and ahh's" his passionate value propositions elicited from the future Gateway owners within shouting distance. Never mind that only one out of 20 customers knew what bus speed actually was.

Analog + Digital = Ideas + Technology

How a Seemingly Simple Presentation Turned Into an Analogy for Our Industry

Posted by Colleen DeCourcy on 05.06.08 @ 09:56 AM

Colleen DeCourcy

I was preparing to give a speech in Istanbul to our European leadership teams. I had decided I wanted to do something that would be both practical and philosophical. It was my first real presentation to the company about what our principles were going to be regarding digital: operating structures, strategy and craft. I started building the usual deck. It talked about the state of the marketplace and what clients were asking for. Then I figured I'd talk about media and thinking beyond the banner ad and the microsite. I had something about integrated teams on my list. And a reminder to define audience-centrism. But I just couldn't make myself put anything together. I couldn't make the deck. The information and I were at odds.

So I talked about it with a friend who said, "Why don't you do it on an old-fashioned overhead projector ... with acetates and markers." I liked that idea. I liked what it said about ideas being what mattered, about bridging the gap between analog and digital. It was also a great way to beat my impending deadline. It would be free-form. Easy.

When Everything Is Media, What Is Media Worth?

Why the Market Has Strugged With New Categories of Ad Inventory

Posted by Troy Young on 05.05.08 @ 11:41 AM

Troy Young

Note: Ian Shaffer and I are working some cosmic connection. I put a few words together for the blog last week and was surprised to see Ian working the same territory. Our sentiments seem to intersect nicely, albeit from different industry vantage points. My comments below speak to the explosion of impressions largely driven by social media, and the implications from a media value perspective.

The market has struggled to place value on social media as an ad vehicle, but with more than 30% of Internet traffic driven by social activities, a lot is at stake. This struggle is part of a larger media phenomenon that is raising significant new challenges for publishers and media professionals. Specifically, what is inventory worth, how do media channels compare and what creates premium value?

In the past 10 years, new categories of ad inventory have opened up as human activity has been digitized. I put them into five categories -- communications and self expression (social networks, e-mail, chat, photo and video sharing); commerce (shopping sites like Amazon, EBay); gaming (game platforms, virtual environments like Second Life, social gaming, etc.); reference (dictionary, health sites, wikis, etc.); service or utility (file sharing, even service environments like Comcast bill pay); and directory (search, maps). For the most part, these are new additions to traditional content or environmental media channels (TV, print, radio, outdoor). They've given marketers more options but created confusion around how to value and map the media landscape and achieve reach.

When Habits Change Faster Than Ad Models

Venture Capital and Big-Media Acquisitions Can't Bankroll Social Media Forever

Posted on 05.02.08 @ 09:32 AM

Ian Schafer also blogs at IanSchafer.com.

Technology is a funny thing. It enables humans to be capable of so much. It raises our potential to improve our lives and the lives of those around us.

But so much of technology is hidden from plain view because it doesn't make money. Financial gain is arguably the most important aspect of technological innovation, because without it, all but the most altruistic of reasons cease to exist.

Podcasting: Radio-Free You

Why Aren't More Brands Using This Emerging Tactic?

Posted by Mat Zucker on 04.29.08 @ 09:52 AM

Mat Zucker

I didn't know it at the time, but all the radio spots I did back in the '90s really set me up nice for the digital content era, especially for my favorite emerging media vehicle, podcasting.

In media, news and entertainment programming used it first, especially NPR (e.g., Driveway Moments) and later and more innovatively, HBO (e.g. Bill Maher's 2 Minute Rant). BusinessWeek does a great behind-the-scenes of each week's cover story and Jack and Suzy Welch have their career podcast, which is their regular column in audio format. And here at AdAge, there's a nearly daily 3-minute podcast of top stories.

For brands, though, podcasting has turned out to be especially effective for timely internal communications (e.g., speeches you missed in the office), customer service (e.g. Whirpool), business to business and some consumer areas, especially high-interest stuff. My experience has not only been blabbing about podcasting at conferences on both coasts but in producing some branded podcasts for Johnson & Johnson and most recently for CIT Group.

How Are We Going to Solve Communication Chaos?

Or 'I Am a Tag, Not a Number' Revisited

Posted by Craig Daitch on 04.24.08 @ 10:45 AM

Craig Daitch also writes the blog Thought Industry.

I've noticed with alarming frequency the number of conversations between friends and colleagues that start with "I was trying to get a hold of you yesterday..."

All of these conversations stem from one symptom: Communication Chaos.

The impact of Communication Chaos can be felt ubiquitously. From our personal relationships with family and friends, to the struggles marketing professionals feel when tasked with building relationships in this new world of ours (one with an ever-shifting target).

Communication Chaos affects the TV industry as much as it affects online. Seriously -- this goes far beyond a click, an impression or a GRP. If we can't crowd source our audience into one medium, how can we continue to market to them as if we can?

Brand Interactions Are the Future

But Are Interaction Designers Part of Your Agency?

Posted by David Armano on 04.22.08 @ 01:24 PM

David Armano

Ever wonder how on Earth Google went from a technology company to one of the world's most recognizable and successful brands? Was it the whimsical brightly colored logo? How about the ads? Wait, Google really doesn't advertise all that much -- do they?

Brand Google was built on a lot of different things. If brand 1.0 was Coke, built on a solid foundation of marketing, then brand 2.0 is more like Google, built on an ecosystem of experience and natural word of mouth referrals. But the one thing I want to call out is something I like to refer to as "micro-interactions."

Include Packets in a Social Media Strategy

These One-to-Few Tools Can Help Brands Reach Passionate, Networked Consumers

Posted by Mat Zucker on 04.18.08 @ 10:28 AM

Social media has become the new viral video, widget, microsite, etc. It's so broad and used so loosely, the term isn't that helpful in actually creating specific work. Brands are mostly watching and just starting to participate in a natural way.

What's a format for brands in social media?

Think about it in terms of the other kinds of formats. There are mass formats (TV, radio, print, out of home); one-to-some formats (targeted online media, podcasts); and of course, one-to-one (direct mail, email, SMS/MMS). But, in light of networked communities around which people are really passionate or intimate, what can brands create or do in terms of what is one-to-few?

Enter "packets."