Campaign Magazine asked H&G to give their perspective on a key issue and the below article is an advance copy for our readers to peruse prior to the June publicatation date. We hope you enjoy.
PLANNING SANS FRONTIÈRES
The development of mankind can be measured by bursts of invention. Since the discovery of fire and Homo erectus learned the pleasure of his first barbeque, these fundamental occurrences have signalled great leaps in our ability to control and harness the world around us.
In similar, albeit less dramatic fashion, the microcosm of advertising can also be charted. Fixed boundaries that agencies work within, slowly moving outwards with each new media, creative or technology development.
The first major change came when TV audiences fragmented away from their annual date with Morecombe and Wise and planners slowly realised that 400 TVRs no longer constituted a targeted strategy. Equally when the Outdoor industry began to measure exposure based on eyeballs rather than traffic count, this new information allowed planners to avoid the barely visible sites secreted under dark railway arches in favour of more effective ones. The list goes on.
In short, planners adapted and improved their targeting. However, they did so on their own terms and, as change occurred infrequently, in their own time scale. The boundaries within which they had planned only moved in small increments, so their thinking only had to make small adaptations as well. Posters became lenticular but remained the same size. TV spots made gestures towards interactivity but were still, first and foremost, TV spots.
Yet with Digital things are moving at such a speed, and across so many different aspects, that many planners are struggling to keep abreast. Social Networks, personalisation, convergence, user generated content and peer to peer sharing are just a flavour of the new digital reality. A dazzling list of new unchartered areas with no rate card or easy menu from which to buy or well trodden format within which to illustrate your creative genius.
For planners, as creatures of habit, boundaries are comfortable and offer something safe to plan within. Campaigns can be referenced historically and results quantified by case studies. So ask a planner to move outside their comfort zone and more often than not things fall apart.
But where some find this uncomfortable I believe we should embrace this liberalisation of thinking. It reminds me of the Playstation launch tv script which said to play was to live ‘a life of exhilaration, of missed heartbeats, to command armies and conquered worlds’. In digital we can do this. We can literally create new worlds, we can mobilise a nation, we can build free services for our audiences and we can give them a platform and a voice.
Best of all. They get to decide. Great ideas are shared. Bad ideas ignored.
If you work in an agency, doesn’t that send a shiver of excitement down your spine? If you are a client don’t you want your team to be inspired by an explosion of opportunity rather than fearful of it?
Enough of the theory. The key areas for me are as follows. The first is with audience research. In traditional offline media thinking the world of audiences is built on research anchored, or more accurately, weighed down, by the UK base from which its research is driven. In addition some of it may be months or years old. Every single offline media strategy is therefore based on historic UK consumption.
Why should we settle for this ? How can we aim to influence audiences habits when all we’ve done is look backwards ? How can we justify creating future facing plans based entirely on what people used to do?
In Digital we don’t need to be constrained by these boundaries. Digital behaviours ebb and flow across the world and trends in Asia and the US filter through the ether to affect the UK.
Understand this flow of audience behaviour, of global trends becoming local, and we can glimpse insights that traditional media with their historic research can only hope to achieve.
If planners must open their eyes to this new era, then we are also obliged to help media owners and clients do the same. Our ideas are given credence and stature by the partnerships that we form, the sites or digital spaces that have a particular audience, or by an editorial perspective that we find appealing for our clients messages. So we must inspire if we are to create.
Of course, some agencies will be happy to continue in the status quo, cheerfully trading within the boundaries in the same old ways. But if you want to create something new you need to work closely with both sales and editorial and you have to pitch your idea to them as if they were clients not servants.
Finally, for clients we need to educate as well and inspire. They have a raft of agencies all vying for the lead voice. Yet no-one has a divine right or deserves a monopoly. Not the traditional creative agency. Not the media agency with the big poster budgets. And not the digital agency. Finally, the Comms agency which demands to be ringmaster in a hazy hypnotists blur of neutrality has no worse or better claim to lead the debate. Just because you have no financial bias toward using any specific media doesn’t offset the simple truth that you may not have had a decent idea to begin with. So why should you be first to speak?
Crucially, then, the boundaries of who should lead the debate must also be broken down. Today it’s about great ideas leading the debate rather than a pre-ordained hierarchy of knowledge. The agency that comes up with the idea the client loves leads things. It’s that simple.
I accept that with this comes potential for conflict but we must recognise that if we think we know the answer then we shouldn’t be afraid to stand up and say it. This the only way we can look each other in the eye and know we did our job. Great work driving great results for our clients.
That’s the opportunity we now have. An age of digital enlightenment where the critical mass of audience volume, the growing understanding of marketeers and the talent within the digital world have converged. Agencies that have the ability to harness these facets using a global perspective and a team of people with interests and expertise beyond traditional disciplines will flourish. These are the ones best paced to plan without boundaries.
The question is, are you up for the challenge?
