Creative media services. It’s all about mixing the right blends to reach success.
Play hard / work hard.
Marketing guru’s name our type of agencies
Integrated media communication is “a planning process designed to assure that all brandcontacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.”source wiki
Turn on all those small tweaks that move web site up the SEO ladder. Google Analytics is a must, follow up of performance long after client moves or disappears is always present.
Analysis before any major move to serious investment is crucial, in order to save client and our time with resources.
This can eat time but at the end of the day, meaningful site (which makes money) is preferred. Site that just sits there doing nothing is waste of time and creativity.
Some old text found on web, but very fresh and insightful.
As a client, you’re paying your agency to keep pushing your brand and keeping it relevant in a shifting competitive landscape, not to simply take orders.
There are many reasons why a company would fire its advertising agency. Sometimes even agency declines certain accounts.
In the last days in the neighborhood where our office is situated, we notice some really big, really expensive cars.
For these guys, you can really say, size does matter.
We remembered one potential client, from the hood, with really, really BIG idea.
BIG idea
The idea was so huge, that involved serious transcoding – lasting months, storage space – that can be handled only by CDN, and bandwidth comparable to Amazon or Google pipeline.
Anyway, the idea was BIG (notice was), and can produce significant money if implemented properly with carefully calculated steps with serious Project Manager and hard core coders.
Calculation
The value of operational cost for first 6 months, just running the business was approximately as the value of the car he was driving.
This drove potential client away from us.
Wake up call
Now, I can just perceive the moment when wake up call came and potential client realized that start-up costs are expensive as his own car. Quality is expensive, which is true. Size is expensive too.
So, with the balance of size and quality you can start slowly and carefully build up your business, offline or online, using really smart people.
What do you see when you access Hulu outside of USA
Where do you want to live today?
Less and less it is important Where do you live, but still it matters. We will try to explain why old business models, however hard they try to change, can not stand the light of new economy and elimination of old borders in media distribution.
Availability of content
When there is the content, exist the need.
Due to all kind of restrictions, copyright aggrements, country regulations, target markets and profit margins, we have irregular distribution of content. On world scale, some countries are more equal than others.
In this interconnected world where distribution of information is instant, and news, reports and video is available to worldwide audience, premium content like music, movies, television series is very restrained from distribution.
Need for speed
We come back to the need of people. We, the people, have the need to follow our favorite actors, music performers, nice shows, but unfortunatelly live in, as it seems, wrong parts of the world.
This is not limited to “soft” content like movies, TV shows, music, but expands to hardware dimension (think iPhone).
What is your target market? I would go after whole world as fast as possible. Why propose limits?
Present
If you are in USA, television content is ready for delivery over Internet after premiere, but only in USA. (Hulu)
It is illegal to access this content in case you are coming from some other place.
The future (not far from now)
In order to use computer or computerised device you do not need knowledge gained at University. People are not any more forced to learn for years. Interfaces for using devices are more simple and more automatic.
What is more important, they do not care about the cost if it is small enough. (Wired)
If the cost is the issue, person will “liberate” the content in certain way. Clearly there is a bad feeling about this. Even with certain percent of non paid informations, majority of world is ready to pay.
Piracy will not disappear, just try to diminish it with widely available content with affordable price.
What is quality?
People look after quality, but watchable or listenable content, not ridiculously quality material. OK, there are people who require something special, but look after majority. People just want to watch and listen, and be satisfied.
When you are really after special things you tend to pay more.
Delivery networks
Think BitTorrent, iTunes Music Store, Amazon.
Data is shareable and reusable. Everything is digitalised.
Latest CD of local singer came to newstands with the price of 150. The 50m away you could buy the same thing for 200, with shity cover, no lyrics, burned on generic CD of questionable quality.
People bought the CD on the street corner. Why? The street corner guys are just more reliable and have bigger offer.
Punch line
Free the availability of content and offer payment worldwide. You will be the winner.
Dogs Playin Cards, A Friend In Need - Cassius Marcellus Coolidge
Would they let you play with old dogs in their own game? I bet not.
Through numerous personal encounters or meetings with people significantly older than myself, it seems that discussion about (real) money is just out of question.
Old dogs speak about costs of living, but ignore youngsters possibility to talk/discuss serious money.
The game
Game is about high stakes, where your resources are on max and utilization is at its top. The dogs hold the cards and multiple aces. Coming to table means that you have something dogs really need.
The rules
In their world, dogs just have enough and everything is seen through money, which they hold. The rules revolve around dogs “elderly” right to manipulate and consume resources you desperately need. Calmly, you stand by the table and present the idea.
The bid
They really need your offer. Or they simply need amusement and are intrigued by idea. So, dogs are in need.
The risk
You play on the game of greed. You simply know what is necessary in means of financing, to support the idea. But, before placing the risk think of overheads and risk of some misfortune (sick days, change of team players). You have to include those. Then think about your greed vs. need of dogs. Greed wins over need, but with very elegant placement before dogs.
The moment of taboo
You just CAN NOT talk about money. Let me explain. It is God given right of elder dogs to discuss money. You can not. And that is pure fact.
If their need is strong they will swallow and you will win.
The outcome
Want to be top dog? Ignore yada-yada talk. Push your direction and show personality. If you do not stand up to yourself, dogs certainly wont.
A good tour of the last 210 years of information with view of the next 10 years. Complete content is here.
What it means?
We notice in reality extinction of newspapers, even in regions which adopt trends slower (Eastern Europe). No one will be saved by miracle. The only way is evolve. Or really extinct.
Prophecy of marketing agencies, of quality measurement of delivered ads (performance of offline campaigns) will not come in next 5 years, is nonsense. We are able to measure, quantify and qualify best performing ad campaigns event according to ad slot reserved on TV. The Net just became one big mash-up and we can utilize it do offer previously unknown methods of marketing following and performance monitoring.
We do not speak of checking ratings, reach, price of reserved ad space, and everything else which stands for monitoring which is indirect measurement.
We are becoming involved and part of business, not just indirect observer.
We speak money baby. Perception of marketing is like this: being place where fancy looking guys and gals sit in trendy coffee shop trying to look busy and intelligent. This time is almost over (they will be there still, trying to sell imagination) but further more there will be more and more people doing exactly the same thing business in mind.
Previous marketing was based on just speak without results, making distance from operations and client partnership. Now, companies need to involve new form of marketing in order to survive digital economy and landscape.
How to live with age-spanning population?
Have you ever saw why and how 50 year old people are using computers and Internet devices?
They just HAVE to use it (sometimes need). Either, cause their job is pushing them to use, or kids going overseas that require communication, or plain interest (what can I find there?).
70 year old granny want to use Skype in order to find content otherwise unreachable to her. 60 year father needs computer to communicate with daughter going overseas.
It can be compared to fax machines: no one used them but companies purchased them in order to stay “modern”. When number of fax machines became significant and unavoidable, companies could not ignore those devices any more. It is just a piece of stationery.
Kids are using Internet and forms of informations generated in a way, that Internet savvy adults (i.e. us), can not comprehend.
We can notice that Social news and targeted content is coming our and theirs way, and other forms (i.e. TV, websites…) are loosing its drive.
Population segmentation is normal, but received content is reaching all ages. The way how people communicate with content is changing from day to day.
This realistic future is showing that we can not have monolithic organization or content delivery. Data offered must be mash-able.
How to live with relevance?
Are you relevant? I sure do try, with some fails to cover all aspects but really trying hard to.
In digital landscape, your identity or corporate image can be compromised with one angry person. This means that your or company relevance must be rock solid. Marketing and PR must live together and sometimes empty stories about “social responsibility” must became reality and constant part of organization culture.
There is no excuse, not to work on your public image. Digital landscape is offering just this. Rich content, open channel, audience really interested in you/company and loyal fan base.
Just be honest and deliver content and service.
Do I have to be celebrity?
This is the story of leaders and followers. Some people do not have the drive to be leaders and became followers, ’cause it is easier.
Responsibility of being leader is same as being celebrity. People do take attention on you and follow you just because they BELIEVE in You. Not being naive, people want to believe in something and you must offer something.
In order to be believable you must be honest or have something they attach to.
In landscape where, whistleblowers are wannabe celebrities, only way is to fight with honesty or great product/service.
This is why I do compare you with celebrity.
Where to sell? (Marketplace)
This is the time of niches. But niche is population of world with selected individuals that follows you. Even then this niche is measured by many thousands. You have the world. It’s just question what part of it.
I wish crisis would end soon.
It’s just that kind of bad felling that comes along with crisis. Depression and such.
But I would love to last a bit longer.
Why?
Clients that survive will be ready to go after business, at right price and quality devoted to advertising or meaningful online presence.
In case you are a crook, time’s up, you can not deliver nothing and be payed.
Banner peril
Forcing rock solid and profitable business model beyond it’s life time is nice. In business books, authors call this business model – cash cow.
The real problem lies it the fact that there are more profitable business models, which fit more naturally into online media frames, but medias are ignoring it. Banners are one of them.
We see banners evolve into one banner-like ad per page, giving perception of ad, returning value for client. Too many and you are crooking customer/reader.
We sorted out 3 reasons why media publishers stick to this old business model.
Is it either ’cause:
media does not have control over content of contextual ads and is forced to stick to what they know best
advertising network is picking most of the ad display/click price and media publisher is not ready to share
media does not know how to handle anything except banners which perfectly fits into advertising department
Neither way, we live in the place where media publishing companies without real strategy, do not work on proper delivery of online ads.
At the end, we all suffer. Without bigger turnover, and proper setup of ad blocks and content which will be read or watched online, we can not expect to prosper and make serious buck. What we can expect is ad networks abandon the markets.
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