A Midsummer Night's Media Dream - Michael Kassan - MediaBizBloggers

There's no such thing as a day off in the media business anymore, and the word "unreachable" no longer applies to anybody, ever. You can't stop moving in the communications ecosystem—but you can slow down.

It is midsummer, after all. This is the time of year when transformative industry change calls a cease-fire because many of us aren't around to do battle with it. And there isn't much pressing business because many of us aren't around to conduct it except for stressed-out agency executives in India trying to raise the cash to compete in the Reckitt Benckiser media review.

This deep into beach-and-barbecue season, the boiling trends and issues that consume us the rest of the year are, for a brief moment, merely simmering. The most common email we receive is an out-of-office message and the sole item on our must-do list is to TiVo the Mad Men season premiere. What better time than midsummer, then, to dream?

As strategic advisors, our job at MediaLink is to offer actionable intelligence and industry insight. As such, I like to use this relatively slow period to reflect on where the industry is heading. And more importantly, where it ought to go.

Here, then, are my midsummer night's dreams for the rest of 2010 and beyond.

1. 1. Integrated marketing continues to grow and evolve. Blue-chip marketers are reorganizing their marketing efforts and setting up team approaches with their communications partners in every category, and there isn't a more critical ingredient for success in a digital environment. What we have to now, though, is develop best practices to make the concept work—no easy task for marketers who are, after all, forcefully uniting communications partners who heretofore competed ferociously for their time and attention.
2. 2. America catches up to the rest of the world in technology. 4G has barely arrived, we don't really know what tablets are or what they should be yet, I'm still waiting for mobile marketing to hit critical mass, and we really need to bring some rigor to how, when and with what budget we use social media. We still lag Asia and, to a lesser extent, Europe, and we face some unique challenges—government and business don't work together in the U.S. the way they do in Japan, for instance, which is instituting blazing fast wireless all over that country. But we need to keep the heat on to catch up—and pull ahead if we can.
3. 3. Addressability. Good to see actual implementation of advertising's Holy Grail at last with Canoe and other ventures. In a one-on-one world, we absolutely have to have this option—yesterday. Let's hope this time it's real.
4. 4. The industry keeps evolving towards a holistic marketplace, as technology, disciplines and the players increasingly come together formally and informally—the word "convergence" is making a comeback for good reason. We need to be ready for the day, not far off, when digital is woven into our physical environment. The changes that transformation will bring could dwarf the dislocations we've experienced so far.
5. 5. Agency 3.0: Full-service agencies finally catch up to the 21st Century, fully integrate digital, in all of its forms, and once again become the extraordinary idea factories they historically have been. They're trying, which is good. But young talent isn't exactly flocking to the traditional shops. And the departure to startups or entirely out of the business of some of the best and brightest creative minds in the big shops, such as Ty Montague, Rosemarie Ryan, Eric Hirshberg and Alex Bogusky, is a troubling trend.

So as a soft breeze cools our overheated industry down for a bit, that's what's on my mind. I'm not saying these five trends are going to happen. I'm just saying they should.

Because all's well that ends well.

Michael E. Kassan is Chairman and CEO of MediaLink, LLC, a leading Los Angeles and New York City-based advisory and business development firm that provides critical counsel and direction on issues of marketing, advertising, media, entertainment and digital technology. Michael can be reached at michael@medialinkllc.com

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