Conversational Marketing: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em Join ‘Em (and Measure ‘Em)

The notion of conversation marketing feels commonplace amongst many of my peers still, when reading newswires and industry trades, major media bodies talk about this concept as if they had thought of it the night before.



image taken from http://www.concurringopinions.com


comScore Gets Conversational


Despite my skepticism, it is always great to see the media/marketing/advertising industries move in a direction where such conversations are deemed legitimate, a direction that provides motivation for media research firms to help figure out how best marketers and media professionals can work within the conversation. comScore has announced that it will providing enhanced measurement tools that aim to help measure the blogosphere from a quantitative and qualitative perspective. The comScore Conversational Media Report grew out of a partnership with John Battele’s, Federated Media and was announced following Federated Media’s, Conversational Marketing Summit.



Ogilvy and Technorati Ride The Cluetrain


In related news, Ogilvy &Mather Worldwide and Technorati announced the release of a white paper entitled:


“The Manifesto on Monday Morning: How to Put the Wisdom of Cluetrain into Action When You Get to Your Office.”


This paper is a follow up to the landmark work, Cluetrain Manifesto: The End Of Business As Usual.


(more from ZDNET)


I had the great pleasure of hearing Peter Hirshberg of Technorati (one of the players behind the white paper) speak the other night at an event thrown by The Glasshouse at the SohoHouse in NYC. I am not sure he said anything I did not already know, but everything he said was graced with his wit and insight and shed new light on familiar concepts.


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AT&T Gets Orange

What do the phrases “digital world”, “digital identity” and the color orange have in common?


For starters, they are all part of AT&T’s new marketing initiative, and what seems to be a shift in their brand positioning at large.


There are a number of things that I feel AT&T is doing right, but before I get to that, let’s talk about what the one thing they have gotten wrong.


Here are a few quotes from Cathy Coughlin, AT&T senior executive vice president and global marketing officer.



“The AT&T brand is one of our most important assets,”


“The new campaigns highlight AT&T's leadership in wireless and our


extensive portfolio of communications services that keep our customers


connected.”



Obviously Coughlin has not actually used AT&T wireless’s EDGE network lately, and is not aware what people really think of the brand…


Okay, so that was a bit harsh, sue me :) !


What I am really getting at is the fact that AT&T neglected the power of the wildly popular young and hip brand, Cingular, in favor of the stodgy old bell, AT&T. They are now attempting to siphon elements of the brand people loved, into the brand their parents may or may not have loved.


Am I missing something here? If the goal is to go young, hip and fresh, why did they not go with the brand that already captured that market?


That is old news, on to the present…



Friend and fellow metaverse connoisseur, Jerry Paffendorf recently left The Electric Sheep Company in an attempt to turn the World Wide Web into a World Wide World. While I don’t really know exactly what he is talking about (I am sure whatever it is he is working on it really cool) I feel as though AT&T is after a similar goal (at least in essence. I am sure what Jerry is doing will manifest in a wildly different manner than what AT&T would ever do). 


Catchy Slogans Are All a Brand Ever Needs



“Your Seamless World”


This is the new war chant that AT&T is going to rally behind and I have to admit,


I LOVE IT!


It remains to be seen whether or not they live up to this promise, however this is where the world has already begun to head (ubiquitous computing) and I applaud AT&T for recognizing this movement.


AT&T is also plotting some interactive plays that will align them with current web trends such as the web as platform and the ever popular web as social network.


Finally, and most important, AT&T has hired one of my favorite directors, Wes Anderson to create their new TV spots (okay, maybe this is not the MOST important).


This should be fun to watch unfold!


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Web As Platform Includes Mobile

Have a look at the recent article in Businessweek about the gPhone. The importance of this has little to do with any type of physical device, and everything to do with Google extending it's "web as platform" to devices beyond the PC.
clipped from www.businessweek.com

Google Platform?


So what's really lurking behind those trees? A source familiar with the situation tells BusinessWeek.com that Google may be preparing a new mobile platform, a would-be rival to the Nokia-dominated (NOK) Symbian OS, Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Mobile, mobile Linux, Palm (PALM), and other operating systems.


The new operating system, which may be named gPhone, was developed in part with know-how Google acquired with a startup named Android in 2005. The platform is designed to enable lower-priced "smartphones" featuring more robust Web browsing and multimedia applications. Most importantly for Google, it will work hand in glove with the company's mobile search engine and other Google applications that are already popular on personal computers. And it would allow Google to bring new applications to the wireless market faster. Google declined to confirm or deny this information.

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Everyone Mobilize!

For advertisers, marketers, tech innovators and media professionals, mobile is all the rage. While there have been periods of excitement surrounding mobile in the past, the present mania seems to be greater than ever!


Why the sudden resurgence of interest in the mobile space?




  • Is it the iPhone?


    • The iPhone is not about accessing the mobile web, it is about accessing the web from anywhere

      • The iPhone represents a shift towards accessing the web via palmtop device in an environment that is designed to do just that.






  • Is it the impending widespread of 3G networks?

    • This remains to be seen




  • Is it what initially spurred the growth of the PC based web?

    • Ease of content creation and accessibility




I would say that all of the above are true; however the third bullet is the most compelling and the most obvious to me.


Here is what Tim Berners-Lee has to say about the WC3 and the mobile web:



“The Mobile Web Initiative's goal is to make browsing the Web from mobile devices a reality”, explains Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the Web. “W3C and mobile industry leaders are working together to improve Web content production and access for mobile users and the greater Web.”


Here are some factors accelerating the use of mobile devices to access the World Wide Web (notice the distinction I have made here. It is about accessing the same web we access via PC. It is not a separate, mobile web)





What do you attribute the new mobile mania to?


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Can A Brand Say, "I Love You"?

In an age where the aphorism, “the consumer is king” seems to reign supreme, most brands still do nothing more than pay lip service to this exemplar of modern consumerism.


While brands attempt adopt this modern protocol in which the consumer reigns supreme, other brands seem to be retaining the right to the throne.


Let’s face it, the consumer was not, is not and never will be king. The true king of modern consumerism is collaboration. This fact does not however dismiss a brand from the base rules of good taste.


By now you are all probably sick of the iPhone price cut extravaganza. I will spare you from further conjecture about Apple’s unrelenting arrogance. The reason for this post is to talk about love.


In my opinion, Steve Job’s Open Letter did not do an adequate job of showing love for the legions of people that treat Apple like a religion (it is almost an insult to our intelligence when he says, “After reading every one of these emails, I have some observations and conclusions”. Okay Steve, I buy that…).


Now, American Express has the chance to step up to the plate and show us how a brand can show love to its consumers. Will American Express make its consumers feel the type of protection that they promise under their buyer protection program?


So far I have heard mixed reviews.


What boggles my mind is the fact that brands spend millions of dollars on advertising, and if American Express were to step up to the plate and be the bigger brand, it would cost them less, and return more (in terms of brand loyalty) than much of their advertising efforts.


We will soon see who loves us the most!


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Facebook: Open To The Public

How can I not blog about this?


There is little that I am compelled to say that Danny Sullivan has not already said about this, but at the very least I wanted to throw up a post with a link to his post, as this is a really important move by Facebook.


Amidst, a see of people referring to Facebook as a walled Garden, or AOL 2.0, the move to open up public profiles seems to contest these accusations. 


But what does it all mean? To start, a lot of the new, people search engines, are going to be in trouble, but to be honest, that is of little interest to me. I am much more concerned with the implications this will have on SEO, as well as matters pertaining to digital identity and the move towards creating a single, public digital identity online; one which has the ability to aggregate information from all social networks (eliminating the need to recreate yourself and regain creditability across various engines).


That is all I have to say for now. I am going to keep digging through articles, formulate my thoughts and get back to you :)



...at least they give you the choice and make it easy to find how to opt out of being public.


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Things May Be Looking Up For Yahoo And Second Life

Yesterday afternoon Yahoo announced it would be acquiring ad network Blue Lithium for 300MM in cash. What does this mean?



And Now For Something Completely Different


Amidst a sea of naysayers, virtual world, Second Life has been achieving some pretty cool things. First, SL has reached peak concurrency of 50, 000 users (for all you fans of Second Life, you know this is a pretty big deal.


Second Life has created something call the Second Life Grid in order to separate the Virtual World of Second Life from other elements of the Second Life experience. I am a huge fan of this, as there are elements of Second Life that do not need to occur within the 3D environment.


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Ad Block May Equal Content Block

Are online banners really that obtrusive? For some maybe they are, but what people may forget is that it is the ad that pays for the content. In case you have missed the online ad blocking craze, have a look at some of the clippings below. I would love to hear what you think!





clipped from adblockplus.org



Adblock Plus: Save your time and traffic


Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them. Right-click on a banner and choose “Adblock” from the context menu — the banner won’t be downloaded again. Maybe even replace parts of the banner address with star symbols to block similar banners as well. Or choose a filter subscription, then even this simple task will usually be unnecessary: the filter subscription will block most advertisements fully automatically.


Blocking an image ad











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clipped from www.nytimes.com

Whiting Out the Ads, but at What Cost?


The larger importance of Adblock is its potential for extreme menace to the online-advertising business model. After an installation that takes but a minute or two, Adblock usually makes all commercial communication disappear. No flashing whack-a-mole banners. No Google ads based on the search terms you have entered.




From that perspective, the program is an unwelcome arrival after years of worry that there might never be an online advertising business model to support the expense of creating entertainment programming or journalism, or sophisticated search engines, for that matter.










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Google: Evil or Just Plain Smart

History has shown us, just because someone is brilliant, does not mean they are not subject to evil. Today we are faced with a company that possesses some of the most brilliant minds in business, technology and communications. Many of us use and love their products. Still, as outlined in a great article in the economist last week, an increasing number of parties find this company to be the one thing it vowed never to be, evil.


…and so we return to the ago old dispute, is Google repurposing other people’s  content to make money?


I found The Economist story right after searching for show times for the movie “Superbad” (which I highly recommend). I am not really sure when Google began including local show times, but it was the first time I realized how many vertical search engines Google could potentially put out of business with their new Universal Search.


I took a few screenshots of the experience (pictured below). From a consumer standpoint, I have to admit, I would rather just go to Google and get the best results and any other information I need than go to Fandango or Moviefone. From a business standpoint, where do we draw the line?


My major issue is the fact that Google’s monopolization of information is not rooted in shady business practices (at least not to the best of my knowledge). It is rooted in the fact that they simply have a better algorithm and smarter, more effective services. Can we punish them for that?





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Mobile SEO

Have you begun to consider SEO for your mobile or WAP pages?
Perhaps it is time to start doing so. Have a look at this article in information week.
clipped from www.informationweek.com

Here are some SEO basics for any mobile site:
* Optimize for keywords and short phrases
* Include keywords in title tag, H1’s, H2’s and content
* Think how your title will appear as a mobile bookmark
* Provide keyword-rich anchor text for internal links
* Get indexed. Provide Google Mobile Site Map.

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More On Ovi Via The Mobile Diva

I love Sphere!


Sphere helps me keep the conversation going after I have written a post, it rocks.


After I uploaded my post on Ovi, I "sphered it" and found some great, relevant content. I found the video below via Darla Mack, the Mobile Diva. Through the Diva I also discovered Twango which I am now signing up for and will report back.


Anyhow, have a look at this video about Ovi.







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Nokia: Oy Vey!

As Apple continues to conquer the digital download market, the threat of Apple achieving the same status in the mobile arena is weighing heavily upon the mobile industry. Apple's potential stronghold in the mobile industry is subsequently posing a threat to various related industries. Entertainment and gaming are two industries becoming more inextricably linked to the mobile devices than ever before, and if Apple gains enough control over the handset, they will inevitably gain control over the things that run on the handset.


In response to Apple's mobile play, Nokia issued a series of press releases announcing various devices and services for the mobile consumer.


Ovi and Content Convergence


The idea of content convergence is often mistaken. I often make reference to Henry Jenkins’ notion of The Black Box Fallacy which refers to how people tend to think, one day all of our media will be contained in one unit. This will most likely not be the case (can you imagine carrying around a cable box all day :) ).


 The reality is that we will have many devices for different purposes (the bedroom, the car, personal devices) but the content will be interoperable across a variety of devices. (For example, Facebook online will contain the same information as the Facebook that is accessed via a mobile phone, however the interface will be appropriated for your phone, taking into account the time and place that one uses their phone).



The diagram above is a model of how content convergence/hardware divergence works.


As usual I digress, back to Ovi


Ovi is the name of Nokia’s new internet services brand. Ovi is Finnish for “door”. The metaphor here is apparent; Ovi is the door to your all of your digital content and your social network. Ovi will also act as a door to two of their other new services, The Nokia Music Store (a platform that rivals iTunes) and N-Gage, Nokia’s mobile gaming service.


Incidentally, I love the copy on the site that refers to N-Gage:


“Keep the action going while you’re on the go with the power of N-Gage”


This line furthers the notion that the gaming does not stop when you turn the console off. The convergent nature of emerging platforms is made for gamers on the go.


The Nokia Music Store


 I got an iPhone about a month ago and the one thing I cannot do with it that I want to do (besides cut and paste) is download music on the spot. It seems like a no-brainer, right?


"The Nokia Music Store brings together a powerful combination of great music and great devices in an easy to use way. You can select from a huge range of music, including local music from your country, and download it directly to your Nokia device," say’s Tommi Mustonen, the head of Nokia's music activities.

This is a big step.


 Payment can be made by a variety of methods including paypal. This is certainly a big step as mobile commerce becomes more of a reality. There is another point in the release that I thought was very compelling,


 …the Nokia Music Store aims to provide more locally relevant music than any other digital music store. If you want to see what others are enjoying, the Nokia Music Store provides a dynamic recommendations engine as well as genre-based instant playlists.


 The one drawback to all this (for me) is that there was no mention of  a US release date, however the music store will be opening across key European markets this fall with additional stores in Europe and Asia opening over the coming months.


Press Releases:


 Meet Ovi, the Door to Nokia's Internet Services


Go Play: Nokia Unveils Four Devices Optimized for Entertainment, Music and Games


 The Nokia Music Store - Your Music, Your Way


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Scoble Stirs The Pot and The Search World Goes Wild

I posted earlier in the day about Robert Scoble’s discussion on what he refers to as Social Graphs, and how Facebook, Techmeme and Mahalo can overcome Google in four years. Apparently I was one of hundreds of blogger's to react to Scoble’s video. So far there have been 112 comments on Scoble’s blog post alone.


From what I have read, everyone seems to appreciate Scoble’s proposition, but many find it hard to come to terms with a few key concepts Scoble brings up.



  • The ability for human aided search to scale

  • The fact that Google is too large to adapt it’s algorithm to create a more human engine


Bob Warfield did a great write up on the topic (I recommend heading over there for some further insight) and of course there is some criticism of Scoble.


All in all, I think Scoble got us thinking, which as I said earlier is never a bad thing!


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Is it already time to trade in my iPhone?

Sure, I love my iPhone, but I have to admit, if Google were to come out with a phone I would be very tempted
clipped from www.rediff.com
Google, the nearly $13.5 billion search engine major, is believed to be a fortnight away from the worldwide launch of its much-awaited Google Phone (Gphone) and has started talks with service providers in India for an exclusive launch on one of their networks.
Talks are believed to be taking place with Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] and Vodafone Essar, respectively India's first and third largest mobile telephony operators, and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam.
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An Algorithm for a Social Fabric

I just got done watching Robert Scoble’s talk on Social Graph Based Search. While I find it very compelling, there are a few points that I take issue with. Before I get into that, I want to first note the overwhelming sense of “eventness” or Sobytiinost I felt while when watching this video. The influx of information occurring on Kyte.tv adds a great deal to the conversation. I would love to hear what Brad Berens has to say about the Kyte.tv experience.


Issue’s I have with Robert Scoble’s point of view…




  •  Each reference to SEO has negative connotations.




oWhile I understand there are some bad practices out there, there are many SEO’s who are marketers trying to disseminate their information.


o Not every web designer is good at coding pages for search, and not everyone has as many friends as Robert does (at least in the social media space. Remember, we are still in the early adopter phase and many of us are still talking in an echo chamber) and it is more difficult to get them up the social graph (at least in the initial phase of marketing).


oRobert, I totally see your point, but SEO is not all noise.




  •  I do believe that social fabrics can lead us to more relevant results, but…




o Robert, you make a point of how you have 5000 friends and Walt Mossberg may have 100,000. The cause of this is Mossberg benefits from the exposure he gets from the Wall Street Journal, a major media company. This exposure is synonymous to a monster inbound search link (and a paid one at that).


o There will always be power structures in the media.




  • I am not saying I am for or against them, but as power structures form, a certain level or corruption is inevitable (at least this is what history teaches us).




  • Once a person reaches a certain level of power it is very difficult for the masses to overthrow them, for the masses trying to climb the ladder are too busy making nice to these figures and working their way up.




  •  I can point to examples of this in the new social media space (although I don’t care to do so at this time)




Robert, thanks for this talk!


Whether I agree with all, some or none, it really got me thinking, and I appreciate this above anything else.






MY NOTES ON SCOBLE’S TALK (not editorialized)



Social Graph Based Search (and why it will up end the search system in four years)




  • Who are Google’s Main Competitors


    • Techmeme-  Creation of “the fabric”

      • Vertical search based on a limited, hand selected number of sources


      • SEO resistance

        • Either in the “Techmeme” or trusted by the Techmeme pool

        • The chain of trust—hard to break into






    • Mahalo-

      • Human beings are better at displaying stuff than machines

      • Offensive aimed directly at Google




    • Facebook- Why does it matter?

      • Trust Level








  • The Problem With Google




  • Google works off of <Title><H1> <P1> and inbound (of course there are hundreds of other factors, but these are the ones that Scoble mentions) links that are, or are not relevant (link baiting etc.)




    • Scoble refers to Google as “noise”




      • Talks of the trouble of betting around the noise of Google






    •  Refers to SEO as noise






  •  “Google does not understand social behaviors




    • Says that they cannot due to business related factors








  • What Can Be Done?


    • Mahalo should be building on top of Google’s algorithmic approach

      • Understand the old school




    • What if Mahalo hooked up with Facebook to build a fabric?

      • Building a fabric of affinity




    • We need and open social graph

      • Facebook is a walled garden and this is a problem



    • Facebook has figured out how to lock out SEO’s

    • Techmeme is building a pure fabric due to lack of SEO’s






  • Why Four Years?

    • It is going to take two years for Mahalo to be recognized as a top search engine (same with Facebook, Techmeme)

    • It will take another two years for people to catch up






  • The problem of scaling


    • The community and the exponential number of those related to the community (the output decreases at each exponential levels)

      • Does not seem to scale


      • What if everyone were to have there one little Mahalo


        • Facebook

          • An algorithm for a social fabric











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Ass Scratching Good Advertising On You Tube

The purchase of YouTube by Google for 1.65 billion dollars had some asking whether or not this deal was actually brokered by Dr. Evil.


Now, faced with the task of monetizing this investment, the fun shall begin!


Before we talk about how Google will monetize YouTube’s content, let’s take a look at some of the content that advertisers are lining up to sponsor.





Okay, so we all know that YouTube is the best thing that has ever happened to online video, but my guess is the video above is indicative of 60-70% of all videos on YouTube (in terms of length and quality of content). In light of this, how effective will YouTube’s new InVideo ad platform be (here are a few more relevant links for you, InVideo On Marketing Pilgrim, InVideo On Will Video For Food, InVideo On BoomTown).


My guess is that they have some tweaking ahead, but I am excited that we are finally moving away from the dreaded, throwback style of advertising, the pre-roll!


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Collaborative Adverblending

Collaboration, “pull” style marketing, branded entertainment are at the tip of every marketer’s (well, every marketer who is paying attention) tongue these days. The question is how many marketers are actually walking the talk, and how much of the walk is really effective?


A few months ago Blendtec released a fairly ridiculous video where they used their home blending device to blend an iPhone.





Borrowing a page from the Ginzu Knife play book, Blendtec managed to achieve something with their product that no one would ever want to achieve. Not only that, but what was achieved in this video was hardly indicative of how well the Blendtec blender can achieve real world applications (i.e. making a smoothie), adding little to no perception of value to the product.


So was this campaign a success?


Advertising does not always need to prove value to be successful; however the advertiser must realize this as part of their strategy. Advertising can be very successful as a means of reinforcing the value proposition put out by PR and Marketing. Furthermore, advertising can be an inlet for consumers to begin their foray into a brand’s story, which is exactly what this campaign achieved.


You Tube Stats


Views: 1,780,286


Comments: 5180


Favorited: 3728 times


Not bad for a product most people have not heard of!


The question is how will Blendtec leverage this awareness in order to continue the story?


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Transmedia Storytelling…Meet Retail

I have been doing a lot of talking about transmedia storytelling lately. While I have a number of entertainment clients, I have a greater number of retail clients.


Does this mean that my posts about transmedia storytelling should be ignored by those clients :) ?


Of course not!


What Are Brands?


I am not about to fully define what a brand is in this post, but would anyone out there disagree that there is a story inherent in a brand’s DNA?


Brands are, in a sense, stories.


Even if you feel this is a bit of a stretch, what is not a stretch is that the advertising that supports a brand should be a story.


So why are entertainment companies so far ahead in the realm of storytelling, and consequently transmedia storytelling?


The obvious answer is that storytelling is the entertainment company’s core business and it not as difficult for them to adapt when it comes to marketing and advertising.


Tell Me A Re-Tale


I just read an article by Steve Smith about a company called NearbyNow. NearbyNow is a company that allows consumers to “search the mall” (as it says on their site) via web, mall kiosk and mobile (for more on NearbyNow check out the site, I am sure I am not doing them justice, as I just found out about them and have not done all my research yet).


Unlike the notion of multi-channel retail which aims to create a uniform messages and services across various channels, transmedia retailing seeks to create a linear path of action from one medium to the next.


In the example that Steve Smith uses, mall goers are prompted via SMS to go to Foot Locker for a Blue Light special, moving them from a tradition experience, to an interactive one, then onto a traditional sale.



Not the best story in the world for most, but ask a retailer what they think about this story. I bet they enjoy it!


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Time Warner Cable Looks Back

Time Warner Cable has made an interesting move in the battle against ad-skipping. A product called Look Back allows consumers to view any program that they missed during the day the ability to watch it until midnight. The fast forward feature will be shut off.

Will this type of feature be enough to capture the 83% of homes that do not currently own a DVR?

I think not...but I do find this test to be interesting! Stay tuned















clipped from www.nytimes.com





Under pressure from advertisers, the Nielsen Company, which rates TV viewing, introduced a system this year that shows how many people were tuned in during commercials, a departure from the old measure of how many people watched the program. Confronted with Nielsen data showing that many DVR viewers do watch advertisements, most advertisers agreed this year to pay for television viewing based on how many people watch their commercials either live or on DVR within three days of the initial showing.

In essence, Look Back will provide the kind of time-shifted television viewing that has persuaded millions of Americans to pay $10 or so every month to cable companies or to TiVo. DVRs are now in about 17 percent of American households, but that figure is growing rapidly as more cable operators sell the service.















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Audio Killed The Radio Planner

Okay, I do realize that the headline is similar to MediaPost’s this morning, but what else can this post be titled? :)


MediaVest has made a very interesting announcement. Terrestrial broadcast radio will no longer be referred to as radio; rather it will be referred to as audio.


I realize that, to some, this seems to be a mere semantic difference, not worthy of a press release. In my opinion, if MediaVest lives up to this statement with its actions (i.e. The way it plans communications), this move is certainly worthy of a press release, as this announcement acknowledges the significant change that has been occurring in the media space for some time.



Content Convergence/Media Divergence


Many people in the media industry today are paying blind lip service to the idea of media convergence. While there is a convergence occurring, it is not the type of convergence that many people are talking about.


I created the slides below while flying home from the Microsoft Strategic Accounts Summit in Seattle. I was reading Henry Jenkins, “Convergence Culture” and got inspired (how cool is it when inspiration manifests in the form of PowerPoint :) ). Jenkins talks a great deal about transmedia storytelling and how it is central to the idea of content convergence.


Jenkins talks about his idea of the Black Box Fallacy and how we will never have one box that feeds us all of our media, rather we will have various boxes of different sizes and purposes feeding us similar content. We may have a black box for the living room, one for the car and another for the hiptop, but the fact of the matter is, it will never be one black box to serve all media needs.



The Audio Planner


In light of Jenkins notion of content convergence, the idea of an audio planner makes a bit more sense. As referenced in the slides below, radio is merely a delivery technology, while audio is the medium that contains the content (the message).


I am not advocating that agencies should have discreet audio planners (and I am not sure how MediaVest’s announcement will effect the way they plan media) but the fact that they are acknowledging the fact that radio is not the medium, and it is simply a delivery technology, seems to be a step in the right direction.


If MediaVest were to create the role of audio planner, things may get confusing as radio planners would have to familiarize themselves with everything from radio, to podcasting to mobile. Perhaps it would not be so bad.



The Storyteller Versus The Delivery Strategist


Perhaps we need to call “creatives” Storytellers and media planners, Delivery Strategists. Again this is a semantic difference, but the language may help advertising/media professionals understand their roles better.  Then again, I think we need to do a better job of getting these disciplines closer together. After all, not every story can be told through every delivery technology.





What do you think, should communications be planned by delivery technology as opposed to media channel?


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