Berlin Wall

rex.briggs

I stood looking at a picture from decades ago that showed the Berlin wall, and Checkpoint Charlie. Adam Coleman, Marketing Evolution’s EVP was my guide. He had been to Berlin many times when responsible for Global Advertising Research at Microsoft. As he pointed, “See, here in the picture, there is the wall, there is the underground station, and there is the same underground station down the street over there.” “So,” he concluded, “we must be on the east side.”

There we stood, on the other side of a wall that no longer existed. We had passed so easily from formerly west to formerly east – no wall, guards, or guns. What an amazing feat to tear down the wall. I remember that day as the images were broadcast on television. I wished I was there. Once the wall started to come down, throngs of people from all walks of life came to join in and tear the wall down.

“You know,” I said to Adam, “The wall is gradually coming down between online and offline marketing too.”

Will we look back at some point in the not too distant future and wonder how quickly the walls between Online and Offline media eroded? Or will we still be living with these walls between Online and Offline, these vestiges of the dot.com media bubble that artificially divided media?

"The walls between online and offline serve no purpose today and they directly undercut return on investment (profitability) of marketing. The walls are a tax on smart marketers aiming to follow consumers and achieve cross media synergy – but forced to work harder to get the job done because most media owners aren’t organized to deliver."

He nodded in agreement, and pointed to a bar on the corner. "This is a better conversation over a good German pilsner."

"It seems that savvy media owners recognize the opportunity of cross-platform programs and are making it easy for marketers. And, these media companies with smart cross-platform deals are winning business from the slow or intransigent media companies that can’t put the cross-platforms together." I continued as Adam orders us two "Berlins".

"Yes." he added. "But, not all marketers are organized to make it easy to sell cross-platform deals. There are silos within marketers that make it difficult to string together budgets to pay for cross-platform deals. Marketers that are serious about IMC [Integrated Marketing Communication] need to make sure they have a cross platform czar."

"A cross-platform czar?" I asked with eyebrows raised.

"Well, maybe czar is the wrong term given the history of this city! The idea is that marketers need to have a person with authority and budgetary control that can support and encourage more cross-platform programs and cross platform measurement." Adam concluded.

"What do you think will happen to the advertising agencies?" I asked. "Some seem to be standing by and watching as marketers and media owners ink cross-platform deals and work together leaving the agency out of the loop – or, worse, in the role of simply finishing the paperwork. Agencies can’t be happy about that!"

I wondered, perhaps there is nothing to get agencies to change faster than the experience of standing on the sidelines unable to add value. But then again, what about some in the agency world who undermine a cross-media platform deal that they were not part of developing? I thought about an instance I’d heard of where a good new marketing idea was unraveled because the agencies worked together to undermine it because the deal was done by cutting them out of the loop. The story was a personal experience Greg Stuart observed over a decade ago – have times changed? "Will agencies play nicely in the sandbox?" I asked.

We sipped our beers in a moment of silence as we pondered that question. Our hands were still cold from the winter temperatures in Berlin. Adam ordered a cup of hot mulled wine.

I dove into the topic again, leaving the question of agencies to one-side. "The walls are going to come down regardless. If you are interested in watching the wall fall, here is what to train your eye on – there are four parts to the puzzle:

1. Consumers

2. Marketers

3. Media Owners

4. Agencies

The walls are eroding faster for some, but the walls will come down for all the groups. The reason: The walls make no sense. They don’t reflect what consumers do, they don’t reflect what marketers want. And, ultimately, the job of media owners is to give the consumers and their customers (marketers) what they want. As media companies get with it, agencies will either adapt (many are taking the first major steps to do so now) or be dis-intermediated on big deals as marketers work directly with integrated media companies."

As he held the warm cup of mulled wine to thaw his fingers, he reiterated, "But the silos – they’re like rebar, encased in concrete and holding up the wall. Many marketers have to tear down their own walls."

"If marketers are serious about being customer centric, the wall will come down. The wall eroded for consumers years ago, marketers follow consumers, and agencies and media owners follow marketers and consumers. It is like gravity. The wall will fall. It’s a matter of when, not if." I responded.

Then I thought of our clients. Which of our CMO clients will be play the Ronald Reagan role to be the first to stand on stage near our Brandenburg Gate (that would be somewhere in mid-town, New York) and demand, "Ms. Agency and Mr. Global media company, tear down this wall"! Then who will play the Michael Gorbachev role and hold out there hand to accept the responsibility to drive changes.

As I think about the bold leaders we work with, that have already brought in a new generation of marketing measurement tools that deliver on the promise of accountability, I would bank on the walls falling down sooner than later.

Others may read this and say, the walls have been here for awhile, they’re concrete, they’ve got barbed wire on top and guards with guns. They aren’t going away any time soon. But I think we at Marketing Evolution see something different. As one of the leading firms measuring marketing ROI, Marketing Evolution has a unique vantage point. We work primarily for marketers, and on occasion for media owners and agencies. And, we are constantly monitoring and measuring consumers and from this vantage point, we see clusters of people pounding the wall with pick axes and hammers. It is just a matter of time until the CMO shows up with bulldozers to obliterate the walls.

And on the other side of the wall we see small clusters of people at the best multi-platform marketing companies digging into the wall with their own pick-axes. They are putting together cross-platform programs that unify media. In some cases it is television, the web. In other cases it is magazine, events and the internet. We get calls to measure these programs and I know that "marketing channel synergy" isn’t a unicorn. It is real. Synergy delivers bottom line increases in marketing profitability.

As we walked back to our hotel over coffee-bean colored cobblestone, I glanced down to see a lighter colored beige cobblestone. A dull but visible line left there as a historical footnote to a barrier that divided people and the bravery of the people that tore it down.

Do you know any good candidates to play the ‘Ronnie’ and ‘Gorby’ roles?

Getting Attention

rex.briggs

Recently, I shared my insights from remaining silent for seven days straight. The silence wasn’t a choice I would have made. I didn’t go to a monastery and take a vow of silence as some attempt at deeper reflection. The silence was imposed by Laryngitis. Remaining silent led me to reflect on how marketers go about getting attention. To get attention without a voice, I had tried smiling, but when that didn’t help, I had to resort to waving my hands in an attempt to catch the peripheral vision. And, when that didn’t work, I tried whistling. None of which were very successful. Marketers have the same challenge. They smile nicely – nothing. They wave their hands – nothing. They whistle – and the only reaction from the consumer is annoyance.

Is there is a better way? When I was at iMedia, I may have gotten the answer (or at least, a strategy). The answer came not in one of the many excellent sessions, but during the networking. (Networking is what we call hanging out at the bar to make it sound more work like.)

I stood next to someone from the advertising agency world (I’ll leave out his name to provide a little bit anonymity). I couldn’t help but notice his black nail polish and interesting knuckle ring.

What possesses someone to where black nail polish? I had to ask. So I did. He thought it was cool that I noticed and was happy to share that as a recently divorced male, his black nails and knuckle ring are "chick magnets" (not his words, not my words paraphrases his description). And, he likes that they notice. They see it as a bit more edgy, expressing the idea of "not afraid to take risk" and "confident enough to be a little different." And, for the agency – and someone in media (not creative), it helps him stand out. "You noticed, didn’t you? So it works."

He is right, I did notice. And, it invited me to approach him and ask. While his goal wasn’t to get "the research guy" (who can’t help but to ask) to approach him – he assured me that it has worked brilliantly in attracting the opposite sex (mostly). And, that encapsulates one strategy for brands. Rather than shouting, invite conversation.

My first thought is that "invite conversation" is right, but a bit hollow. Easier said then done. Moreover, as a researcher at heart, I want to see data that proves the ROI of this approach. I began to lament that this is another marketing bullshit advice – and it’s been said before without data back-up by others. But then I remembered some work we (the team at Marketing Evolution) did for Philips Bodygroom and shaveeverywhere.com. Tribal and OMD did a great job pulling this off and we have the data to know exactly how it works and the ROI. I’ve presented this data with Philips before. It is a great case study.

And, then I thought of the great work Ogilvy did for Dove Unilever on AOL. The webisodes using Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman are among the most effective forms of advertising we’ve measured. And, again the client learned how they worked, when they didn’t and how to repeat the approach.

And, I smiled as I thought about the idea of inviting conversation. Both examples were relevant to the consumers segment and both proved out through rigorous accountability measurement. It can be done. It is a solution (one among many, I’m sure) to marketers being ignored because they’ve lost their voice from shouting too much in media.

I invite you to share your solutions and ideas to getting consumers attention and engagement?

TheResearchGuy.com

Berlin Wall

Getting Attention