No Scale For You! - Mike Einstein - MediaBizBloggers

Allow me to share two revelations that lead me to conclude that our lousy economy is nothing more than the unintended effect caused by on-demand media in general, and by the Internet in particular.

The first of these two revelations stuck me when my brother, Jeff, rented a Chevy Aveo on a recent visit. Neither of us had ever heard of a Chevy Aveo, despite the hullabaloo surrounding GM. Too big to fail? Not if the Aveo has anything to say about it!

The second revelation occurred when I was visiting my in-laws and my wife's 90 year-old stepfather kept muting the TV during the commercial breaks. "Why do you mute the commercials," I asked? "Because I can't stand them," he countered. "How else are you going to know what to buy?" I responded, just in time to be drowned out by resumption of the audio.

That's when it hit me. There's one reason – actually two related reasons – why our consumer economy is in the tank. Now that we have the means, motive and opportunity to avoid advertising at any cost, and with millions of channels to hide among, we no longer know what we're supposed to buy.

Ever since the proliferation of cable and the explosion of broadband, brands have been unable to achieve the kind of scalable audience reach our economy needs to sustain itself. A fitting analogy is to equate advertising with the fuel that runs our economic engine. By all indications, we're out of gas (the great mileage we got in that Aveo notwithstanding).

Years ago, there were only a handful of viable options on TV. Everyone, including those with remote controls, knew what was on every channel, so there was no point in grazing during the breaks. Advertisers could reach 70% of the market with a simple roadblock.

Today, with single-digit ratings in prime time, 40% DVR penetration, and dozens of channels to graze among during the breaks, the last place to reach a prospect is on TV. And the Internet is even worse with millions of places to visit and billions of ads to avoid.

Strangely, the only medium that remains intrusive and that is still consumed in real time is commercial radio. And we all know how well that's working.

Even the mega brands that play the tonnage game are suffering. But it's game over for any new brand that seeks to break through.

The truth is, media have always been on-demand. The "OFF" button is nothing new. But never before have we been so conditioned – and equipped – to purposely avoid the onslaught of ads. Ever wonder why P&G buys two billion impressions a day? Because the first 1,999,999,999 don't/can't do the job, that's why. And the algorithmic string being produced and chased by the intermediaries in the food chain only serves to further shrink the universe and further erode any opportunity for branding success.

I wrote in this space last month a two-part articleabout media supply and demand. Our industry continues in vain to scale the supply via specious behavioral targeting methodologies when what we really want to do is tap the behavior that we know for certain already exists. Perhaps the secret lies in what we're using for bait.

The fact is, we know what consumers want. They want the same thing they've always wanted, compelling content, the modern version of which manifests online in bite-sized portions known as video snacks. In fact, video snacking is now the Web's Number One discretionary activity (more than 30 billion video clips are viewed online each month). Advertisers would be well advised to align themselves with a content-driven media model that taps this ubiquitous behavior; a model that attracts consumers with something they actually want rather than repelling them with something they don't (and never did) want.

Satisfying today's consumer demand requires us – indeed compels us - to accept the demise of advertising as intermediary and encourage the resurrection of advertising as destination.

In so doing, brands will be taking their cue from the halcyon days of radio and television, when content was king and advertisers knew the audience was there for the show and not the ads. Case in point: Texaco reached folks more effectively with its brand image by having its name on the curtain behind Bob Hope than it could ever achieve by bludgeoning the audience with ads.

It's really quite simple…Rather than brands trying in vain to reach recalcitrant consumers through traditional means, they can and should entice consumers to reach them instead by leveraging the video snacking behavior we all share; proven behavior that stands ready, willing and able to express itself billions of times each and every day.

Note to GM: Want to sell a Chevy Aveo? Stop using targeted ads that no one wants and start hosting content that everyone wants on your own site.

The good news is there actually is a media model that has the ability to tap this proven consumer demand and the capacity to deliver millions of visitors per day to designated brand destinations, guaranteed. Anyone interested in something that works for a change should feel free to call me at (219) 878-1006 for more information on this idea whose time has come…again!

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