Old Media (try to) Become New

It's fun to see how traditional or "old" media are scrambling to become relevant in an increasingly digital world. I've been having a debate with one of my classmates about the future relevance of Direct Marketing in the integrated marketing mix. She thinks DM is on the way out. I'm pretty sure that it isn't.

A study by the Direct Marketing Association (2005) predicted that expenditures, sales and ROI for DM would continue to grow, thanks to an increased focus on the Internet and interactive marketing. We've already seen how telemarketing is basically dead as a DM tactic. Now that society is becoming more concerned about the environment, I think that snail mail DM (circulars, pitch letters, catalogues) will eventually disappear too. But I predict that e-mail and the internet DM will become even more popular. Even now I'm signed up to receive e-mails from several retailers, and I love it. These retailers know me and my purchase habits; they send me offers that appeal directly to me. I can can either open them and be directed to a website for more information, or delete the e-mail if I'm busy or not interested. My dinner was not interrupted and no trees were killed in the making of these offers, and I get information that's tailored just for me. I can't think of anything more new media or interactive than that.

Another old medium that's trying to improve its image in a new media world is outdoor advertising. Last night I was driving on a highway I don't usually take, and noticed a huge electronic billboard. Between the time that I noticed the billboard and finally drove past it, ads for three different advertisers flashed past. The first was for a local minister whose name I recognized -- but it went by too quickly for me to determine what it was "selling." The third was for the biggest local hospital chain -- again, I missed what it was selling. Only the second ad got through to me: it was for a bank, and made the point that of the 1,688 ATMs in my area, this bank rebates fees on all 1,688. So, while this billboard may be high-tech, it didn't make a sale with me because its messages went by too quickly. And of course there's nothing interactive about a billboard, no matter what kind it is.

What does anyone else think about the future of these two media?

The Future of Interactivity (1996 Style)

We read a fascinating article in class this week. It’s titled “The Future of Interactive Marketing” and it was published in the Harvard Business Review in 1996. It was edited by John Deighton of Harvard and features the opinions of academics and practicing professionals about where interactive marketing was headed 12 years ago. It’s at once funny, prophetic, and surprisingly relevant in a business where even 5 years is a lifetime.

What’s funny about the article is how antiquated some of their observations have become. Martin Sorrell and Eric Salama, then of the WPP Group, speculate “there is a reasonable chance that interactive media – including the web – could transform the way we build brands and communicate them to consumers.” Yeah! Been there done that. Anyone who didn’t take Sorrell’s and Salama’s advice to plan as if interactivity would revolutionize marketing probably still isn’t in business.

The practitioners in this article were also prophetic. Patrick Barwise of the London Business School predicted that security would be a big sticking point to the growth of on-line interactivity and commerce. Indeed, e-tailing didn’t really take off until on-line retailers could assure consumers that their transactions were secure, and many people still don’t trust it.

What’s even more eerie about this article is how relevant some of the concepts still are to marketers over a decade later. Here’s a sample:

Dennis Carter, VP at Intel: “You’ve got to be a pioneer. It is very complicated to do (interactive marketing) right (because) the target keeps moving”

Martin Levin, Microsoft: “A corporate website is different from a marketing website” (more of my thoughts on this later)

Frederick Webster, Dartmouth: “don’t forget the basic lessons of marketing strategy” like knowing the customer, and setting strategies before tactics

Stephan Haeckel, IBM’s Advanced Business Institute: “the important applications of any significant new technology are usually unthinkable in advance.”

Smart, smart folks.

If you’re interested in reading the whole article it’s available for paid download at the Harvard Business Review.

Welcome to My Blog

Welcome everyone! I'm a broadcast news professional working as a manager at a television station in a major (slowly becoming medium!) media market. I'm also a Master's degree student at West Virginia University, hoping to earn my degree in Integrated Marketing and Communications next spring, and taking IMC 619 New Media this semester. In this blog I'll be posting my thoughts about emerging media, and some (but not necessarily all) of my musings will reflect on the impact new media is having on my business.

For someone like me who has a career invested in what some might call "old" media, the idea of new media is a little bit frightening. It's threatening the very basis on which television news was built, and we're already part of the revolution that will change us. For example, our website. Five years ago my TV station had a good (for the times) website, staffed by webmaster (the best in the world, BTW) Jen who worked days M-F in the office, and off hours from home. In addition to containing the usual content you'd expect from a TV station website (information about the station, its anchors & reporters), the website mostly re-purposed in written form content that had already been broadcast.

Fast forward to today: the website is now staffed by four people (Jen is the boss!) and covered 6am-midnight seven days a week. The site breaks news all the time, not just waiting for a story to be broadcast before it's published to the web. Site visitors can not only read written versions of most stories, they can watch them on-line. Plus the website offers tons of web-only content including blogs, slideshows, web chats, web casts, links, live video streaming of breaking news events to name a few.

I bring this up to make the point that, in a world where people want their information when they want it, where they want it and how they want it, making an "appointment" to sit down and watch an entire newscast on TV is something that a lot of folks aren't willing to do any more. And thanks to new media (in this case our website) they don't have to. Even older people are catching on. I got an e-mail from a viewer the other day who saw a promotion for a story about the dangers of some osteoporosis medications, and was irritated that she had to wait through our entire 5 o'clock newscast (it aired around 5:55pm) to see it. She said "next time I'll just wait to watch it on your website." That one statement has interesting implications for the future of local broadcast news!