Media Industry Will be Measured by the Good We Do, Not the R-O-I We Deliver

By The Media Ecologist Archives
Cover image for  article: Media Industry Will be Measured by the Good We Do, Not the R-O-I We Deliver

Industry trade association conferences are especially fascinating these days. A few weeks ago, I attended my 15th TED Conference), which establishes a standard by which all other conferences can be measured. The recent Interactive Advertising Bureau and American Association of Advertising Agencies, while dramatically different in their focus and perspectives, had one glaring reality in common. Both conferences were consumed with their own self-interests; neither spent one minute on what their communities could do to support the greater good of mankind – or even the greater good of the media and advertising business. Not one minute of the agendas at either event was devoted to green initiatives, supporting the nation's economy, investing in industry veterans who are out-of-work, eradicating AIDS, understanding autism or raising funds for any other disease, helping to support returning Iraq War veterans, or any cause that desperately needs our nation's and industry's attention and support.

There was little focus on the threat of state and federal taxes on advertising; just a few minutes of impassioned comment (by Irwin Gotlieb) on data privacy issues; never a mention of the conversion of broadcast television from analog to digital; rarely any expression of concern about the true danger of the extinction of newspapers, radio stations and television stations in hundreds of communities across America.

At both the IAB and the 4As Conferences, as well as at the recent conference of the Association of National Advertisers, HP's marketing guru Michael Mendenhall said: "what catches my attention is the growing and important audience that defines their loyalties based on the demonstration of corporate responsibility." If the media and advertising industry expect to capture the attention and concern of the public, it must focus on industry-wide corporate responsibility. Support for the initiatives of the Advertising Council should be the foundation of industry support, and every media company, advertising agency and marketer should also define its own brand by the social causes it supports.

This industry is in crisis, but it would be very difficult to perceive that reality if you attended industry gatherings in the past few weeks and listened to most of the rhetoric. Companies remain entrenched in the security that as bad as things might get in our business, the basic status quo will survive. Keep on keeping on, managers seem to believe, and all will be well. Once the economy turns around in the next few months, most executives seem to think, our business will turn around with it. But that assumption is as absurd as believing the real estate market will recover and return to normal in the next few months.

I am very bullish on the future of the media and advertising industry, perhaps the most bullish person you know. But I am only bullish about those few companies that are reinventing their business models and adapting to the media landscape of the future. At the 4As, Optimedia U.S. CEO Antony Young argued that the industry must understand the challenges facing the industry in the next six months and recognize the current economic climate as an opportunity to transform business models. Both Lisa Donohue, president of Mediavest's Truth and Design Planning Group, and Initiative Media'sWW Director of Communications PlanningJanet Fitzpatrick agreed that the fundamental business models underpinning the traditional adversarial relationships between media buyers and sellers should be restructured. Partnerships and collaboration, they agreed, should be the focus of discussions during the Upfront season, with mutual needs and interests focusing primarily on delivering new value-based return-on-investment for marketers.

George Blair Scribner, Digitas'SVP Account Planning, urged 4As' attendees to "think and work in entirely new ways. We need to do 'platform' thinking, not 'channel' thinking," he said. Scribner suggested "professionally developed content will offer new scale to Internet 'viewership' beyond what applications can attract and sustain. I believe we all need to be amateur technologists because the 'platform' of the Web provides us with new capabilities to connect with consumers and create competitive advantage."

Irwin Gotlieb, CEO of WPP's Group M Media mega-agency, explained he perceives media as an eco-system and said "it troubles me that media owners are going out of business. That alters supply and demand in a way that does not help marketers. We need to insure the health of the eco-system. Industry systems, processes and practices have been rolling along for 30 years without a need for change," said Gotlieb. "If ever there was an opportunity for change, it is now."

Omnicom Media GroupCEOPage Thompson debated Gotlieb on the network TV Upfront and other issues, wondering aloud if the health of the eco-system would be better served by a 'survival of the fittest' approach and alluded to the belief that it is not marketers' or agencies' responsibility to support a suffocating media industry. "There will be failures," said Thompson. "The winners will be those who adopt and change." Media like newspapers, said Thompson, "have to change. It is not our obligation to help you. Your obligation is to help our clients. The price/value equation is out of whack."

Gotlieb argued "we need to be more collaborative. We have an obligation to act as catalysts and migrate the business in the direction that works for clients and the health of the ecosystem."

Even as these leaders and others confronted and debated the future, none ventured into the realm of how they and their industry could come together and demonstrate its value and power by doing 'good.' This is a fundamental flaw in business and society. As we struggle for our survival, we must not lose sight of the fact that we will be measured not by the success we achieve, but by the good we accomplish with our success once we have achieved it.

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