From Observer to Participant

Or, Why I Made the Difficult Decision to Leave Ad Age for Consumer Media

Posted by Scott Donaton on 11.21.07 @ 10:47 PM

Most of my career has been spent in business media, but has revolved around consumer media. As a journalist, I was an observer and critic. As a publisher, a marketing partner to consumer magazines, TV networks and web sites.

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Taking a Page Out of the Past

How Magazines Have Changed Since 1989, and How They Haven't

Posted by Scott Donaton on 10.24.07 @ 11:13 AM

Preparing to attend this year's American Magazine Conference, which starts this Sunday in Boca, I analyzed the agenda. Despite a ridiculous theme -- the MagaBrand? Really? -- it's a pretty good lineup, recognizing publishers' awareness of how much their world has changed. Speakers include LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Google's Eileen Naughton (who just a few years ago chaired this conference from her perch atop Time magazine), Arianna Huffington, NBC digital chief Beth Comstock, and Jon Bulkeley from Scanbuy (a gee-whiz mobile technology).

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Mass Media Is Alive and Well

The Catch: You Have to Live and Work in Brazil. And You Have to Get Here Soon

Posted by Scott Donaton on 10.04.07 @ 02:48 PM

I'm in Brazil to give a speech on branded entertainment at MaxiMidia, a conference organized by the leading marketing trade title here, Meio & Mensagem. (If it goes over well, I may post pieces of it here to get your feedback. It's been four years since I wrote the book Madison & Vine, and I used this speech as an opportunity to fully update my view on how branded entertainment has evolved since then and where it now stands as a marketing tool. But I digress.)

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'Time Warner Should Buy Starbucks'

Unless, er, It Shouldn't

Posted by Scott Donaton on 10.02.07 @ 05:29 PM

In any conversation involving two or more media junkies, it doesn't take long for talk to turn to Time Warner, sparking rounds of speculation about its strategy and prospects. Should it spin off Time Inc.? (I'm against.) Sell AOL? (I waffle.) Buy NBC? (Sure.)

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'Don't Budget by Medium'

And Other Words of Wisdom on Erasing False Distinctions Between Digital and 'Old' Media

Posted by Scott Donaton on 09.26.07 @ 10:20 AM

Buried in a keynote presentation by Yahoo Chief Marketing Officer Cammie Dunaway was this advice to marketers: "Don't budget by medium." And as Tony Weisman, Digitas Chicago president, pointed out, they may have been the wisest words spoken during Advertising Week. (Cammie appeared at a MasterClass event presented by the folks who brought you the Venice Festival of Media, and co-hosted by Ad Age.)

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Theater Owners Need Directions to Madison & Vine

If I Can't Hear the Ad, How Can it Entertain Me?

Posted by Scott Donaton on 09.23.07 @ 10:38 PM

I went to the movies the other night to see "Once," a powerful and beautiful Irish film. About 10 minutes before the start time, an ad came on the screen for Smirnoff vodka. The spot, called Signature, is from JWT, New York, and it's a wonderful short animated film. But my guess is most of the other audience members didn't realize that, because the house lights were still up and the audio was turned so far down I had to strain to hear the narration.

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It's Not About Your Brand; It's About Your Customer

Sorry, but We've Got to Redraw the Model One More Time

Posted by Scott Donaton on 09.07.07 @ 10:24 AM

The first step in the transformation of the legacy media model was for media owners to take the distribution platform out of the center of how they defined themselves and replace it with the brand. ESPN (the gold standard of this model) is not a TV network, but a brand, and that brand expresses itself through a TV network, a magazine, radio programming, a Web site, a mobile service, and so on.

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Welcome to My Clog

Or, Why I Prefer to Post When I Actually Have Something to Say

Posted by Scott Donaton on 08.27.07 @ 06:28 PM

At a recent breakfast with a well-known industry blogger (and thinker), I sheepishly mentioned that I had been negligent in updating my blog as frequently as I'd like. "Yes, you have. Shame," was the blunt reply. And shame is what I felt. But why?

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Ideas Created Elsewhere

Dell CMO's Comments on Split Between Creativity and Distribution Reveal Core Challenge for Big Agencies

Posted by Scott Donaton on 08.24.07 @ 01:57 PM

Of all the segments of media and marketing Ad Age covers, the one that seems most endangered by all of the forces re-shaping the business is the big creative agency. This is something I've said before, and if you're looking for proof, look no further than The Wall Street Journal's Aug. 22 q-and-a with Mark Jarvis, Dell's new chief marketing officer.

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Quit Whining About 23-Year-Old Media Planners

Keep Complaining About Buying Silos: Advice to Media Owners

Posted by Scott Donaton on 08.21.07 @ 01:37 PM

A lot has changed since I first began observing this business nearly 20 years ago, but one thing has remained depressingly (boringly) consistent: Complaints from media sales executives about the impossibility of dealing with the mythically disinterested/uneducated 23-year-old media planner. I swear I was under 23 when I first heard a magazine seller whine, "Unless you're Spy magazine, these kids don't read you and you can't get them to understand you or recommend you for the plan." TV networks said the same thing about MTV.

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