A Socratic Dialog on Media and Entertainment
At the Media Entertainment panel, the big question was addressing the fracturing of media. It’s no longer print and TV; it’s podcasting, YouTube, Hulu.com, Apple TV, print, video-on-demand and so on. So the question for those dealing with programming, advertising distribution is: How do we handle this radically, fluid media landscape that is still in its infancy?
To help address these questions, the session included a selection of panelists working with major brands: David Morris (CNET), Nicole McCormack (Digital division of Martha Stewart), Peter Kang (Ogilvy West), and Julie Rohm (Consultant with auto manufacturers).
Rather then asking direct questions on media distributions strategy or challenges of those producing content, the moderator Shelly Palmer, director at Advanced Media Ventures Group, framed the panel within what he called ”socratic conversations.” These conversations basically centered on Shelly throwing out abstract and qualitative questions to puzzle the panelists. Shelly managed to take what one would expect to be an corporate executive-level forum on multi-platform media into something more akin to a college-level philosophy discussion.
Before jumping Shelly laid out some basic assumptions for the discussion:
- 3 Types of online videos: 1) Video Snacking like YouTube; 2) Video-on-Demand; and 3) Internet Television
- 3 Types of advertising: 1) Transactional Advertising; 2) Call-to-Action Advertising; and 3) Brand Advertising
- Metrics used to measure campaigns are diversifying from the traditional metrics of “brand lift” to “purchase” to the more amorphous metrics of “engagement”.
- Television advertising is based on scarce resources because areas and channels to advertise are limited. Internet television channels are potentially infinite, which should make advertising cost nearly free.
Shelly’s First Socratic Question:
“People hate advertising, advertising sucks. Respond.”
Peter Kang, the creative director at Ogilvy West, jumped talking about his frustration of how after discovering the show “30 Rocks” on Hulu.com, he was unable to buy the show either at Hulu.com or via his Apple TV. Peter stated “Media companies doesn’t make it easy to take my 30 dollars.” Shelly quips back at Peter and says his points are great, but it does not address his question on advertising.
Julie Roehm and David Morris, Chief Client Officer at CNET, answered that there maybe generational differences in people’s feelings about ads. The older and current generation have grown up with badly targeted ads that shouted at the audience. Julie cited her children as an example of how younger generation are more accepting of sophisticated targeted and relevant ads on television and other mediums.
Shelly’s Second Socratic Question:
“If pod position one commercial sucks and people leave the channel, should they (the advertiser) pay a premium for bringing down overall ratings.”
Led by Julie Roehm, everyone was in agreement that it would be unfair for advertisers because “you don’t share on the upside, but penalize them for the bad side.” And hitting the mark more precisely, Julie declared that engagement and ratings remain the responsibility of those producing the content, not the advertiser.
Shelly’s Third Socratic Question:
“Address ‘wiwwiwwiw’: What I want, When I want, Where I want.”
David addresses the “wiwwiwwiw” by stating that CNET focuses on an “Open Content Initiative”. He points out that CNET continually pushes their content into new areas from “Facebook, YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo, New York Time to Univision.” Their strategy is to push into different mediums and platforms as along as “we can monetize where we go.” Noting their move to the Hispanic market with Univision, David also adds a “Fourth We”: “In what language we want it.”
An attendee asked if David could cite an area where their multi-distribution worked particularly well. David says that he “can’t point to one place” beyond the successful partnership between CNET’s Gamespot gaming website and their partnership with the retail store BestBuy.
Nicole from Martha Stewart responds using the especially personal pronoun “her” and “she”. She states that they want to “evolve with her” and “reach into her home” by finding opportunities with 1-800 Flowers to Macy’s. Martha Stewart is also diversifying to other content channels such as Sirius radio, PBS, Video-on-Demand etc.
Shelly ended the sessions by asking each panelist to state some closing words. The panelists response ranged from offering some some word play advice “Stop saying we’re sponsoring content, we’re enabling engagement” to Nicole McCormack emphasizing the need to “find consumer activation points” for the three we’s.
In the end, all four of the panelists underlined the need for content creators and publishers to be wherever and which ever media channel their targeted audience is. That’s the three we’s (wiwwiwwiw) that Shelly has declared. Yet, the real question of how to select and create strategies on building a multi-channel media platform and how to measure was conspicuously absent from the session.
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