The Shifting Marketing Communications Model
The explosive developments in communications technology and changes in marketer and customer communication strategies have had a dramatic impact on marketing communications. Just as mass marketing once gave rise to a new generation of mass-media communications, the new digital media have given birth to a new marketing communications model.
Although television, magazines, and other mass media remain very important, their dominance is declining. Advertisers are now adding a broad selection of more-specialized and highly targeted media to reach smaller customer segments with more-personalized, interactive messages. The new media range from specialty magazines, cable television channels, and video on demand (VOD) to Internet catalogs, e-mail, podcasts, cell phones, and online social networks. In all, companies are doing less broadcasting and more narrowcasting.
Some advertising industry experts even predict a doom-and-gloom "chaos scenario," in which the old mass-media communications model will collapse entirely. They believe that marketers will increasingly abandon traditional mass media in favor of new digital technologies. These new technologies will let marketers "reach—and have a conversation with—small clusters of consumers who are consuming not what is force-fed to them, but exactly what they want."3
Maybe you'd better lean forward.. . . Consider something barely imaginable: a post-apocalyptic media world substantially devoid of brand advertising as we have long known it. It's a world in which . . . consumer engagement occurs without consumer interruption, in which listening trumps dictating. Perhaps you believe that the TV commercial and magazine spread—and radio spot and newspaper classified—are forever and immutable, like the planets orbiting the sun. Good for you. [But] the pillars of old media [will] soon be tumbling down. [Instead, imagine] a digital landscape in which marketing achieves hitherto unimaginable effectiveness, but in which traditional advertising's main goal will be too quickly, straightforwardly, and informatively draw you into a broader brand experience. Welcome to the chaos scenario.
For example, just think about what's happening to television viewing these days. "Adjust your set," says one reporter, "television is changing as quickly as the channels. It's on cell phones. It's on digital music players. It's on almost anything with a screen. Shows can be seen at their regular times or when you want [with or without the commercials]. Some 'TV' programs aren't even on cable or network or satellite; they're being created just for Internet viewing."4
As mass media costs rise, audiences shrink, ad clutter increases, and viewers use video on demand and TiVo-like systems to skip past disruptive television commercials; many skeptics even predict the demise of the old mass-media mainstays—30-second television commercials and glossy magazine advertisements. It will be a world, says a major "chaos scenario" proponent, "in which marketing—and even branding—are conducted without much reliance on [those traditional media] because nobody is much interested in seeing them and because soon they will be largely unnecessary."5
Thus, many large advertisers are shifting their advertising budgets away from network television in favor of more targeted, cost-effective, interactive, and engaging media. "The ad industry's plotline used to be a lot simpler: Audiences are splintering off in dozens of new directions, watching TV shows on iPods, watching movies on video game players, and listening to radio on the Internet," observes one analyst. So marketers must "start planning how to reach consumers in new and unexpected ways." Says the CEO and creative director of one large ad agency, "There's no medium we don't perform in."6
Rather than a "chaos scenario," however, other industry insiders see a more gradual shift to the new marketing communications model. They note that broadcast television and other mass media still capture a lion's share of the promotion budgets of most major marketing firms, a fact that isn't likely to change quickly. Although some may question the future of the 30-second spot, it's still very much in use today. Last year, more than 43 percent of advertising dollars are spent on national and local television commercials versus
7.6 percent on Internet advertising. "So if you think that TV is an aging dinosaur," says one media expert, "maybe you should think again." Another expert agrees: "Does TV work? Of course it does. It's just not the only game in town anymore."7
Thus, it seems likely that the new marketing communications model will consist of a shifting mix of both traditional mass media and a wide array of exciting, new, more-targeted, more-personalized media. The challenge for traditional advertisers is to bridge the "media divide" that too often separates traditional creative and media approaches from new interactive and digital ones. Many established advertising agencies are struggling with this transition (see Real Marketing 14.1). Says one analyst, "advertisers need to look at old media and new media as just plain media. The real-world demands that advertisers use a new cocktail of... media tools." Says another "The whole landscape has changed Marketers have to be savvy enough [to understand] what to do with all this stuff."8
Continue reading here: The Need for Integrated Marketing Communications
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