“If TV was an 800-pound gorilla,”
said January, “it’s still a three or four
hundred pound gorilla.” As he explained,
the challenge is getting the content
produced for TV onto alternative screens
like the phone or the computer, thus
“giving people the choice of where
they want to get it.”
“Consumers are now receiving their media on multiple screens simultaneously,” affirmed Ethan Whitehill. “It goes back to connecting all of those things.”
“I think the way we produce content
has changed,” contended Phil Gayter.
In the past only certain types of clients
had the wherewithal to be on TV.
Now, anyone can be and for multiple
reasons: they can use the imagery on
their websites, as a DVD giveaway, a sales tool, a conversation piece, or a
pod-cast. “Suddenly the doors have blown
off filmmaking,” Gayter added.
“There is more money going into TV than ever,” Charlie Tetrick observed, and it is also driving people to the web. The one traditional media that he has concerns about is print.
Patty Scheier’s car dealership clients still do quite a bit of newspaper. “It seems to me the clients look at the newspaper first,” she noted, “then they go to the web, then they go to the dealership.”
“There will still be branding. There will still be awareness,” concurred Wilson. “But more and more there will be integration of the traditional with online and it heads more and more towards a more personalized, segmented approach.”
“I think the new age of media with all
sorts of different options requires us to think
a little harder,” summed up Tom Tholen.
“It’s a requirement of our industry to think
harder, make better recommendations
and try to reach more consumers with the
right messages placed in the right places.”
Websites
The question was raised as to whether business had learned to fully exploit their websites, and if not, what needs to be done to assure that they do.
Phil Bressler observed that many of his clients are getting into what he calls “Web 2.0, the next phase. “They have been through the first round of building a website and making it functional. Now, they are at point of fully exploiting it, a process that he finds exciting.
As Brian Olson elaborated, companies are realizing that they can use a website as a marketing tool and more than just an online presence. “Whether they are ready to take that leap or not is another question,” he added. “But they realize the need.”
“The website has to make that first impression,” affirmed Angelo Trozzolo of the Trozzolo Communications Group. “It has to create that one-on-one connection.”
Tom Tholen argued that websites are
continually evolving in regards to function.
First, they were pamphlets, then
brochures, then recruiting tools, then
sales tools. “You’ve got to stay in touch
with what people are using a website for,”
said Tholen, “and become that for them.”
That much said, John January finds a good deal of “trepidation” among clients about creating a website that goes beyond mere presence and fully engages their customers. “It’s still something we are working through,” he added.
“Accountability through the website is huge,” said Phil Gayter, referring to the Internet’s ability to calculate response. “And I guess the result of that means that you can’t hide. You have to be more honest about what it is you’re doing and why you’re in business.”
Given the relationship between client
and agency, most agencies take an active
role in the creation and evolution of
their clients’ website.
“What they originally had was good,”
observed Patty Scheier about a particular
banking client’s website. “Then they went
to better, and what we did was best. They
didn’t even realize what was holding
them back until we brought it to them.”
Given the ability of a website to track
information, down to the name and URL
of the person contacting the site, Scheier
and her colleagues were able to document
their success in generating new accounts.
For all the potential of a website, Dave Wilson is amazed at how little some companies know about their customers and how much others do. The better data a company keeps, the smarter the ad agency looks.
“In a creative, chaotic business, analytics and data are the new rock stars,” affirmed Arlo Oviatt, creative director at Bernstein-Rein. “At one point, it was creative people were the coolest in the room, then planning and media. Now you are going to see the biggest geeks of all become the coolest.”
As Oviatt argued, it is not the collection of the data that matters so much as the application of that data. “How can you flex that muscle that information gives you?”
“I totally agree,” said Brian Olson. “If we can figure that out, we can execute our way ahead.”