Media – Sam Kimball – The New Normal

September 24, 2010

The Flight To Quality — and Value

“The Flight To Quality” is an investment term for when investors move their capital away from riskier investments to the safest possible investment vehicles. In The New Normal I write about, I believe we are seeing a flight to quality across a broad spectrum of business: media & marketing, retail, entertainment, sports and more. And I believe it takes the form of a a “Flight To Quality…and VALUE“.

Sometimes it is truly about quality and less about price…Take for example the recent case where a package of bed linens bargain-priced for $35.00 at Kmart sold significantly LESS than a quite similar package at Pottery Barn that was priced at $129.00. Was this because upper middle class shoppers at Pottery Barn are spending more freely in the recession than lower middle class shoppers at Kmart? Maybe — but actually I believe it was because the Pottery Barn product was higher quality, longer lasting and therefore ultimate a better value.

Similarly, look at what has happened to the live entertainment industry in 2010. (See WSJ article.) A shockingly large number of high profile, major tour dates were canceled by some of the world’s best selling music artists: The Eagles, Christina Aguilera, The Dixie Chicks and others. The reason? Low ticket sales. The reasons cited were (i) the artists were touring too much (over-saturating their market) and (ii) they weren’t releasing any new music (no new albums). So the public said: “These tickets are expensive, really. I saw this artist last year, and he/she doesn’t have a new record. It’s not worth it.”

“It’s not worth it.” The attitude and outlook of the New Normal is defined by the question: “Is it worth it?”

In Sports: “Is it worth it to re-up and continue being a season ticket subscriber in the face of my team’s lousy management and escalating ticket prices?” see NY Times piece on personal seat licenses

In Media and Marketing: “Is it worth it to re-up and spend lavishly on traditional (read: expensive) media buys like radio, TV and print? Or should I shift my focus even more to measurable media online and in the mobile space, where I can calculate my ROI?” WSJ 9/23/2010

The margin for error has gotten smaller. And whether you’re buying sheets, tickets or advertising, these days you are going to buy:

what works
what lasts
what provides the most VALUE

Sometimes it is about lower price, sometimes it’s not. But making sure you get what you want and need has never been more relevant.

Sir Richard Branson. “Our businesses need to be innovative, maintain a certain quality, be value for money and have a sense of fun.

September 6, 2010

Media & Marketing 3.0

Over the past several years I have reflected frequently on where we are in the evolution of media and marketing — with one (1) goal in mind: what is the best way to market and promote a product or service RIGHT NOW. What is the How/What/Where/Who? To answer this question effectively it is helpful to review where we have been over the past 90 years. There have been three main phases:

Media & Marketing 1.0: 1920-1955 (Pre-Television Era)
Media & Marketing 2.0: 1955-2009 (Post-Television Era)
Media & Marketing 3.0: 2009 onward (Post-Digital Era)

In today’s world — the Post Digital Era — traditional mass media are in decline. Just look at the numbers for newspaper, television and radio advertising. New media (web, email, social and mobile) are of course on the rise. Look no further than what major brand marketers and consumers are doing:

In 1999 mainstream media (TV, Print, Radio) captured 98% of all Ford Motor Co’s advertising dollars in North America. Today it captures less than 70%. (source: Ad Age 2009)
Today internet advertising is greater than all broadcast radio ad spending (6% for Radio, 8% Internet) (source: NAB & IAB)
In 1985 there were 2 out-of-home audio choices (terrestrial radio, the Walkman). Today there are at least 5 choices (satellite radio, mp3 players, Internet radio, terrestrial radio, iPhones).

Bottom line: consumers are consuming media in many more ways than they were 10-15 years ago — thanks to the Internet. And within digital media there are dozens of choices for advertisers to make when they decide on how to push out their message. Below are just a few…12 to be exact:

web banners	email	paid search
behavioral targeting	widgets	social media
SEO (organic)	video	mobile media
iPhone apps	iPad apps	Internet radio

This list is not all encompassing either. There are more areas within digital. The point ultimately is not to get overwhelmed by the plethora of choices but to embrace them…and to find the sweet spot that is Marketing 3.0. The diagram up top is a rough illustration of this. Somewhere between Traditional Media, Internet and Mobile/Guerilla, is the right mix for any marketing campaign. It is a more complicated world now; so the degree to which marketers become skilled “media mixologists” is more important than ever.

Embrace the choices, embrace the mosaic of ways to get the message out. You will be surprised and delighted when your mix hits just the right note.

August 12, 2010

The New Paradigm

Over the past 5 years we have moved into a new age for media and marketing. The Internet has surpassed various traditional media in reach and influence. Media has fragmented. And the ‘work’ of marketing has gotten more complex, more comprehensive, more all inclusive. No longer is traditional marketing and planning sufficient. (Perhaps it is for some of the Fortune 500. But all others take note.) If you expect to market a product or service successfully, you must leverage the “mosaic” of tools that exist: web, email, behavioral targeting, social media, street marketing — and traditional media. This is clear to most good marketers today. But it is the COMBO of tactics — the mix, the ‘secret sauce’ — that makes a campaign in this environment successful.

So the posts shared on this blog will aim to take stock, take note and provide analysis on this new paradigm that I call Marketing 2.0.

New brands will emerge. Existing brands will roll up out new campaigns and products. Some will do so exclusively via digital means, some exclusively via traditional marketing. (Here’s a link to an interesting case study of digital-only marketing success.) But the most interesting work will take place in the intersection of old and new tactics. Where the secret sauce separates winners from losers. Where execution and strategy come together.