The Unbundling Of Advertising

Image courtesy

Last week I participated in a lively discussion over on the Forrester blog about digital content. Mark Mulligan had a post up about product innovation in the music industry and made the point that many of the fundamental challenges and solutions they were looking at applied far beyond the music business to all kinds of content producers. There was something that Mark said in response to one of my comments which was interesting:

"we believe that record labels should move away from releases in the traditional sense, where timings are dictated by the legacy of getting physical product to market, and instead move to developing continual releases as the basis of relationships with fans. In the digital age there is no need for the speed bumps in the artist-fan relationship which legacy release schedules place. And once you reinforce the artist-fan relationship, especially in the context of compelling legitimate services, you create more sense of belonging and community with the artists."

I'm reminded about something David Hepworth (founder of The Word) wrote once about how on-demand, the i-player and changing music consumption meant that content distributors could no longer dictate the pace at which the market moved:

"There's something vaguely pathetic about the average pre-release PR announcement nowadays, as if the person who typed it still lived in the world where everything seemed to stop on the day that their particular product 'dropped'. This doesn't happen anymore. Products slip noiselessly into an ever-swelling stream rather than dropping like a pebble in a serenely still lake."

I think there's an interesting parallel with advertising here. Conventional campaigning wisdom attempts to create just such speed bumps. Messaging is deployed at sufficient weight to guarantee reach to a large number of people in a short space of time (for TV, often at weights that mean that heavy TV viewers are likely to see the ad up to ten times - I'm not having a go at TV here, any medium deployed at that weight would be the same). Awareness decays until another burst kicks in. Speed bumps.

Yet as I've pointed out before, building relationships is not about speed bumps. Committing, as opposed to campaigning, doesn't have a beginning, middle and an end. You can't walk away from a conversation. It's not part time. The pace is not entirely yours. The schedule is not predictable. As Mike Arauz says:

"If you've put in the time and effort to show your fans that your listening, don't make the mistake of letting it all go to waste by going dark for 3 months while you get ready for your next big ad campaign."

The advertising process is still largely set up around discontinuous cycles. Yet your customers don't want interaction with your brand at your convenience, they want it at theirs. As advertising, in common with all forms of content, becomes increasingly socialised, it needs to work to a different set of rules. So isn't it time that the advertising process got a whole lot more agile?

Comments

[simon]

Totally agree with you. And that is why transmedia storytelling and things like twitter and blogs etc are going to become more and more important to clients in the future. They just need to start thinking about them in a more creative way

Thanks for the thought provoking post

[Jeremy Abbett]

Agree with the basic premise of campaigns as speed bumps. That being said, the big challenge is having the legacy people working in advertising (agency and client side) think and act in a non-campaign manner. The record industry is at a point where they have to change as their revenue stream has tanked/hit bottom. Advertising hasn't hit the bottom yet, and until that happens, a lot will go on as before.

[John Griffiths]

good post - the issue is really about whether advertising is intrinsically interruptive and artificial or whether it can be organic. I looked at your speed bumps and saw similarities with reversed drum hits - something very easy to do in digital audio for extra impact - hit a drum add some reverb then play it backwards - its artificial - the organic way instruments play is to make a sound then let the sound of the room sustain and amplify it. Content based strategies start from the organic perspective - wd people find this interesting and share it with others. But not sure advertising is still advertising if it is produced to work this way. If it doesn't interrupt and cut through then will it be interesting enough to engage. Will follow this up on my blog soon

[david cushman]

Nice imagery John :-)

[Joakim Vars Nilsen]

Spot on. But I don´t like the term speed bumps.

I believe it´s about the mix, as mentioned earlier, and if we can agree that it´s all about marketing; Then building relationships is a vital part of the advertising mix that most companies will benefit from implementing in their marketing efforts to increase ROI and ROE.

I like John Willshire´s analogue, thus fireworks is complementing lighting lots of small fires...

[tim harrap]

The Mike Arauz quote on going "dark" ties in nicely with a recent Someone once told me picture:

http://www.someoneoncetoldme.com/gallery/15082009

[neilperkin]

Thanks for the comments.

Joakim - I think the challenge here is that the advertising process is constructed around the campaigning 'speed bump' model so if it's about the mix then there should be more room for the continuous and the agile.

Tim - that's a blinding quote. Thanks for sharing it

[Matt]

This is a great article. But, I don't think this is limited to advertising. By definition, and with good cause, advertising is supposed to be a one-way cyclical endeavor designed to drive awareness, not necessarily a tool to drive social interaction. It's more about driving purchase intent as a function of recall. Social media, among other things, has changed that but I don't think it requires we rewrite our definition of advertising. It means that brands must be more accessible and engaged and everything else you said. But, that's not necessarily the same as saying we have to change advertising, although we do have to get smarter about how/where/when/why we advertise. We have to make brands more connected. Being connected only become meaningful after a certain level of success has been achieved.

[john v willshire]

hey NP... we totally must be in sync, as you pointed out... either that, or it's "national explain differences between social & advertising day". Or NEDBSAD, as the catchy acronym would be.

Anyway, lovely piece, squire.

(If anyone wishes to know what the 'fireworks/binfire' malarkey Joakim refers too is about, it's here: http://bit.ly/lBVDv )

[Jon Howard]

On the music point, Thom Yorke has recently said Radiohead will no longer release albums, and instead go for a steady stream of download only EPs and singles (all ready from a pre-planned album release at a later data I'm betting).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/aug/11/thom-yorke-radiohead

See recent Harry Patch download (http://download.waste.uk.com/ ) and the new free track announced yesterday (http://www.waste.uk.com/Store/waste-radiohead-twisted+words.html ).

As RH seem to be digital music pioneers expect other to follow.

Peronally tho, I like albums. But then I still buy CDs and was disappointed to see the end of (mainstream) vinyl!

[neilperkin]

Matt, John, Jon - thanks for the comments.

Matt - I believe advertising does have to change, for all the reasons I said above, and if for no other reason than advertising in its traditional, conventional sense is over time becoming less and less effective.

John - NEDBSAD - very catchy ;-)

Jon - nice links thx. Saw that Radiohead track but like you, am still an album / CD man even tho I burn them onto the ipod and rarely listen to them in their solid state. Curious that, isn't it?

[Nick]

Hi Neil

A very thoughtful article, but I do tend to agree with @Matt. I also read your excellent post on Agile Advertising - to which you guided Matt.

I would respectively suggest that you have confused the medium of advertising, with the advertising industry. The advertising industry is struggling to find a new model a new role and how to make money. In the sense it is similar to the music industry and the newspaper industry. Like both those industries it will find a new balance.

Matt is correct when he suggests that advertising has a specific role within the mix, but of course it is only only part of the mix. I have worked with some pretty hard core FMCG companies in the past. They have a binary view of marcoms. If it works good, if it doesn't deliver sales in a pretty short timescale cut it. It is a very brutal view of ROI. On numerous occasions I have seen an ad *campaign* deliver significant sales results. They make everybody happy - the brand, the shareholders and the factories that get overtime. As a method of quickly driving sales it is still a very (if the the most) effective media. Now add in a social media/digital aspect to extend and enhance the brand you start to have an even more effective mix. It is all about the mix.

[Holycow]

Rather thinking Nick has nailed it there. And so did Matt earlier come to that.

This is and always will be an 'and and' game. One tactic or channel will never replace the other. Never. It is not the death of anything and no-one is going to have to sell the farm. Boring perhaps but most likely to be statistically correct.

Nice consistently interesting posts Neil - bout time I got off my opinionated ass and did the same.

Best

M

[neilperkin]

Thanks again for the thoughtful comments. I don't disagree that it's all in the mix, but I'd question the assumption that the process of advertising doesn't need to change. I think people's relationship with content of all types has changed, and I'd include advertising content in that. I agree that one channel or tactic will not entirely replace another but I guess the thing I'm struggling with is the rigidity and inflexibility of a process in a world that clearly needs to be more agile. Interesting debate.

[Promotional Products]

Great article, your statement about the customer wanting to do business with you on their time is so true. Great points throughout.