Digital opens new doors of opportunity
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Spring has brought plenty of innovative thinking into the world of media. There are two examples this week where it appears that traditional media owners are ready to collaborate with their direct competitors in order to raise interest in their offering to advertisers.
We report in this week’s magazine that newspapers are looking to provide a collective advertising package to media planning teams. The packages will be tested around the Wimbledon tennis tournament, and if successful could be rolled out across seasonal events such as Christmas and one-offs like the London Olympics.
Discounts may be the first thing on many media buyers’ minds when they read this, but it may be more prudent to look at the opportunity for a whole new type of press campaign. Genuine willingness to collaborate could add value to the newspaper sector, bringing new customers to both the print and online products.
Digital was supposed to kill every other form of advertising and communications, but what it has actually done is bring the excitement back to everything
I think the idea, conceived by the Newspaper Marketing Agency (NMA), will breathe life into newspapers in a world where there are ever more sources of news, opinion and entertainment. And something similar is happening in radio.
The launch of the first digital product developed by The Radio Council, the joint venture between the BBC and commercial radio set up two years ago, could see partners Global Radio, Absolute Radio and Smooth Radio giving advertisers the chance to buy ad space across all three stations.
If innovations such as Radioplayer and the NMA initiative can work, they will get media owners working harder to provide value and help brands exploit the opportunities available to them.
Some thought digital was supposed to kill every other form of advertising and communications, but what it has actually done is bring the excitement back to everything. The core benefits of direct marketing are now seen across a host of different platforms including mobile and email marketing, but digital has also had a positive effect on the printing industry. Out-of-home marketing is a different beast and will continue to evolve as the digital inventory rolls out and marketers persuade media owners to become more flexible.
The opportunities that digital technology gives us should end the talk of the ’death’ of this and that and start refocusing us again on fully integrated and multichannel marketing.
Readers' comments (1)
Keith Trivitt | Wed, 6 Apr 2011 10:39 pm
Well said, Mark. In the PR business, we have been hearing about the supposed death of public relations for years, but each new technology and social network brings ever more opportunities for brands to engage and communicate with their key audiences. And that requires savvy communicators and PR pros to help brands ensure those connections are genuine and mutually beneficial.
Similarly, as your rightly note, digital has not killed most forms of marketing. If anything, it has strengthened the sector and add more value to it — but in ways that are not always as obvious as they once were. The example you cite of newspapers collaborating to develop a collective ad-buying package for advertisers is a smart example of how a concept that once seemed preposterous to many marketers — collaboration with competitors — is fast becoming the norm for modern marketing and advertising initiatives.
And that's not a bad thing, so long as we continue to innovative and don't allow ourselves to become complacent knowing that a competing marketer can pick up the slack for us. Competition is indeed a great thing, but so is a collaborative sense that helps build the entire industry's overall value to consumers and brands.
Keith Trivitt
Associate Director of Public Relations
Public Relations Society of America
http://www.prsa.org/
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