Hitviews Pro: Memo to CMO: It's Over. It's All Media - Part 3 - Walter Sabo - MediaBizBloggers

We were trying to envision the marriage of print radio and the internet Finally Jack who is particularly skilled at cutting to the truth said quotIt39s all mediaquotAdvertising economics were established at the dawn of television The media gives agencies a cut of the buy Clients pay a markup for creative and quotproductionquot How does that work when some days the most watched video show is made for free and distributed for freeSelling products through new media channels requires that the toll booth be movedFirst some key backgroundTHE GENIUS OF WAL MART The clerk on the floor can order more inventory to be shipped to the store by using a hand held computer The 11 dollar an hour clerk WalMart believes knows her local customer better than a division head just 5 miles away The clerk can order an 18 wheeler full of product from her handheld without permissionCentralizing media and creative decisions for entire corporations to a single quotchief somethingquot dampens initiative originality and agility Usually if a company has a quotchief somethingquot that company won39t be seeing its breath on the mirrorDEATH OF THE GATEKEEPERS THE DATE EVERYTHING CHANGED September 2003Dave Winer in September 2003 created a special RSSwithenclosures feed for his Harvard Berkman Center colleague Christopher Lydon39s weblog The podcast was born The ability to send video from your computer to the world was born Everything changedAt that moment your 8 year old could make a video and distribute it to the world without your permissionThe need for a gatekeeper has been eliminated because there is no longer a gateMedia gatekeepers were economically essential Printing presses and publications are expensive to operate The stories that go on those pages had better be appealingThrough your computer you can distribute entertainment to the entire world while reading this article for free Try it Send your picture to mediabizbloggers right now A few months ago if you wanted to broadcast funny videos or popular songs you needed A FEDERAL LICENSETHE BIRTH OF THE PERSONAL MEDIA ENTREPRENEURNever underestimate the power of the mirror Since Major Bowes radio amateur hour audiences have loved programs featuring their neighbors placed in extraordinary situationsINTERACTIVITY THE STEP BEYOND ENGAGEMENTIt should therefore come as no surprise that the proven entertainment form of viewers making their own shows is the second most watched video category on the Internet After porn of course These videos are not quotthe wild westquot of media they are not scary or uncontrollable They are simply the evolution of home movies distributed to the entire world rather than to your family roomThe numbers are staggering but should not be surprising Your laptop is the perfect stage to watch candid personal shows These shows are not made for the TV or the big screen These shows EXIST for interactivityMany of these personal media stars have had over 100000000 lifetime views Figure three years is a lifetime They have hundreds of thousands of registered fans who are alerted every time they create a new video Why wouldn39t a brand want to be part of that It39s chosen media viewers have searched it sought it and put it on their lap They don39t skip through itFive Steps to Selling Products in the New EnvironmentGuidance The channels are new customers are the same They buy from sources they trust Tenure builds trust Media that captures a lot of a customer39s time through any means is trusted1 ERASE THE SPREADSHEET No medium is a quotmust buyquot No medium is quotexperimentalquot if it sells Brands don39t have time to experiment Brands can39t afford to waste money in depreciating media just because it39s on the spreadsheetIt is shocking how many times I39ve heard quotWe will try this because we have to spend the money before the end of the yearquot That means the budget was allocated incorrectly 18 months earlierThe fix No spreadsheet budget The budget goes to any medium that is capable of selling product at a given moment in timeWho decides that2 MEDIA ENTREPRENEURS quotMEquot Make each person who works for you a media entrepreneur Their job is to acquire I didn39t say 39buy39 media channels that will sell productBurn the spreadsheet Currently there are lines on a spreadsheet that must be served formulas in a computer You can39t imagine how many geniuses have come to HITVIEWS and told us that we have to invent a formula for quotgetting into the media buyer39s computerquotThe goal of any business is to sell its product It is not to buy quotpointsquot quotCPMSquot quotCPPSquotIf a primetime 30 stuck in the middle of ten other 3039s will do that effectively do it If a weekly suburban newspaper ad will work buy it If giving an online video webstar the product to promote in their next video will sell the product engage the webstarTake apart the quotmediaquot department and make every executive a media buyer capable of acting instantly to deploy their budget or approval for whatever is necessary to move product I didn39t say fire the media department I said burn the spreadsheet and the formulas that were created before Don Draper was born3 STAFF NOW WITH PEOPLE WHO LIVE IT Too much time is spent training people to remove the borders in their minds that separate each medium There are people of all ages who grasp that and get it already Hire them to teach you how to take advantage of empires without bordersDOCTORS CAN39T SELL DRUGS THEY PRESCRIBEamp8230creative ad agencies shouldn39t buy mediaAgencies make their money from buying media When that cash flow is put at risk there is fear I was at the Boston Ad Club last week and heard a top marketer calm the fears of the room by sayingquotDon39t worry online videos get much more views when they are supported with paidfor mediaquotThe fact is that properly done free distribution of an online video campaign will get more views than 99 of all videos postedThe bulk of media budgets go to network TV because that39s where agencies make the easiest highest margins It39s not wrong it39s just not fairAgencies should not have to make their money from buying media and small markups on creative They should be paid a flat monthly fee and not profit from buying mediaAllow agencies to economically explore all channels to sell product by paying them a flat monthly retainernot on hoursa flat fee No percentages no mark ups4 LIBERATE THE PHYSICAL PLANT There are companies that have cool open space Cool unless working in an open space is a nightmare to your sensory wiring There are companies like GE that have elegant offices hushed hallways and formal executive scheduling Efficient Unless you are intimidated by that structureCompanies attract a broader ranger of thinkers and doers as their workplace options increase Don39t force quotcoolnessquot on employeesI39ve personally noticed that this usually makes for a pretty brittle workforce Don39t force formality on them this usually intimidates the creative soul Instead enforce measures of success and let them sit where they want5 INVEST IN PERSONAL MEDIA Smart businesses have for years rewarded their best customers Now it39s time to go to the next level Reward your consumer evangelists with a budget It39s all mediaNEXT COLUMN Rewarding the Personal Media EvangelistWalter Sabo is the Founder and Creator of the business concept He is an experienced leader of new organizations and is currently CEO of Hitviews Walter can be reached at walterhitviewscom

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Hitviews Pro: Memo to CMO: It's Over. It's All Media - Part 3 - Walter Sabo - MediaBizBloggers

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Hitviews Pro: Memo to CMO: It's Over. It's All Media - Part 3 - Walter Sabo - MediaBizBloggers

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