The perfect mix

Well, obviously, there is no cookie-cutter template in our industry, so no one size fits all recipe I’m sorry…

However, owned and earned media are now understood and integrated by leading agencies as key pillars to launch and to sustain a brand when the mass media (read paid media) is shut down.

Objectives for owned and earned being:

• To extend the reach of the mass media,
• To engage with consumers in the digital sphere (data base/knowledge building),
• To raise loyalty among existing fans-clients (owned).

Inevitably, achieving those objectives mean that the mass media, aka “the campaign”, cannot live on its own in paid media anymore. It has to be part of a broader idea, a conversational idea.

The campaign should be treated a the spark in your annual marketing activities. The moment where you gather the reach you will work from the rest of the year. That’s a fact, we cannot pay massive mass media all year long and even if we could, we all know it wouldn’t deliver the expected results anyway.

So here are some (humble, feel free to comment) conclusions I’ve come up with in the last year by working on multiple POE communication mixes:

1. The communication idea is the start, not the media. It must be true to your audience’s behaviours as much as it needs to be true to your brand DNA. It is the element of connection between people and brands that will survive the paid media exposure. The #makeitcount campaign Nike released last week is a perfect example. Finding out this idea requires deep dive into existing conversations about your brands as much as your audiences. You don’t want to reinvent the wheel, if you can find something that already is a conversation, then go for it, this is your gold mine.
2. The raise of creative strategy. This idea cannot be purely creative anymore; an amazing story told in TV is not enough anymore. It has to embed a media potential in it. What is a media potential? This idea must be the start of an interaction whether it be sharing (The Force) or engaging consumers with the brand (Old Spice). This can be nurtured by inviting people to create something with the brand and its ambassadors (please read my last post on this topic where I mention pop-culture as the new insight).
3. From frequency to a call-to-action.  I’m under the impression that frequency is evolving to a new era where it is not only the role of the media buy to provide frequency. But instead the creative idea must embed a capacity for building frequency on its own. How? By embedding a clear call-to-action for example that will generate reach and frequency in social media (ie: Write the future).

Hence, the evolution of paid media which becomes a mean to capture attention, to touch the heart of the people you need to engage with to support your brand/your product. The messaging here being focused on sparking emotions more than building a traditional USP-USL messaging. It is not to say the full story any more, if you do a great job they will keep up with you in digital.

This is where the advertising industry as a lot to learn from the video game and Hollywood industries. Those two being at the leading edge of the culture of transmedia.

Who ever said a great creative idea should be contained and expressed in one distinct media support? Isn’t this fantastic that our industry has yet to reinvent itself?

Happy daring & innovative 2012 to all!