Podcast: Words of Wisdom from MediaVillage.com's Stuart Elliott

EB Mossamp160 Letamp8217s start with the past Stuart Elliottamp160 The Times brought me in to take over the daily advertising column in 1991 which by that point had been running in the business section for about 60 yearsamp160 This was preInternet preemail amp160All of that of course led to revolutionary changes in how we did our jobs and what it was we were coveringamp160 Before the Times I worked at the Detroit Free Press covering advertising and marketing mostly regarding the auto industry because of all the ad agencies in Detroit that at the time were handling the automotive accounts for the big car makers amp160I also covered retailing and consumer product companies in the Michigan market like Kellogg39samp160 For one summer I worked in the mail room at DDB amp160I learned enough about the ad industry to know I wanted to write about it not to be in itMossamp160 Let39s talk about what you covered from 1991 to 2000Elliottamp160 A lot of it was very much the bread and butter of the advertising business which even to this day remains the main aspects of it getting clients losing clients landing accounts losing accounts hiring and firing amp160Then I started doing more coverage of the work the campaigns that resulted from all the backing and forthing of the accountsMossamp160 Is there a standout example of a campaign you remember from before 911Elliottamp160 Even with the rise of cable TV and the niching of the consumer segments that had already started a lot of focus was on mass advertising I think probably the biggest manifestation of that was the annual Super Bowl ads as the major advertisers all began vying to come up with their really breakthrough commercials amp160Back then we called it buzz now of course it39s about going viralMossamp160 How would you describe the difference now in Super Bowl advertising activity and all of the teasing that goes on to breaking of those ads versus thenElliottamp160 Now itamp8217s like every day is the Super Bowl in that every ad campaign is trying to get that breakthrough moment amp160It39s so much harder now with the audience and the media so fragmented amp160Back then the Super Bowl ads were just dropped on an unsuspecting publicamp160 The whole idea was to use the element of surprise That changed with the rise of the Internet and especially with social media Now the idea is to build up all that pregame attention and virality so that by the time the commercial appears in the game millions of people will have already seen it and talked about itI think what happened subsequently is that most of what has been developed over the years has been driven by the consumer by the users amp160A lot of what39s happened since then has just been this mad dash by marketers and media companies and ad agencies to keep up with where consumers are going and which tech choices that they39re makingMossamp160 When consumers discover something they imbue it with more trust amp160The industry is fighting a big battle with that right nowElliottamp160 Brands have to operate on many levels at once now amp160You have to get your product right It could be a value it could be heritage it could be the fact that you39re ahead of everyone else technologicallyamp160 Then you also have to get the marketing right which is not just to run a lot of TV commercials and print ads like in the old days amp160You have to figure out what works for your brand and tailor it whether it39s traditional media or new media or a mix of them or no media at all and use social insteadamp160 Then on top of that you have to be very adept at navigating this landscape where a lot of consumers are expecting brands to behave in a certain way amp160That behavior can change based on a presidentamp8217s tweetFor all this there are a lot of things that haven39t changed The goal is still to get people to buy thingsMossamp160 There39s cultural heritage but then there39s also multicultural I think it39s fascinating that as the minority and majority population shifts advertisers still seem to not have a handle on how to appeal to various cultural groupsElliottamp160 That39s a good point amp160I was writing stories more than 25 years ago about whether or not advertisers wanted to reach out to the LGBTQ market Even to this day a large part of it has to do with the fact that the adverting marketing and media industries are for the most part homogenous However the makeup of the country is changing and this argument that keeps being made is that amp8220If the consumers look different than they used to isn39t it important for advertisers and the marketers to get on that train and to recognize thatamp8221 amp160There is progress amp160amp160Ads with LGBT consumers inside of mainstream campaigns ads with interracial couples ads that run in mainstream media in Spanishamp160 At the same time you see a lot of stuff that just really falls short Thanks to social media the advertisers and agencies that are involved with those deficient advertising campaigns find out very quickly from the public that their ad was not up to parMossamp160 Do you have any favorite columns over the yearsElliottamp160 I love all my amp8220childrenamp8221amp160 It39s hard to pick amp160The death of Joe Camel was a big story when the tobacco companies agreed to end the use of cartoon characters in advertisingamp160 A lot of stories I did after 911 were on how the marketing community responded or didn39t respond to what happenedMossamp160 Iamp8217d pick one of your most recent articles for MediaVillage on the anniversary of the release of the EdselElliottamp160 I39ve gotten a lot of good feedback on that piece because it39s coming up on 60 years that the Edsel was first introduced by the Ford Motor Company It was a line of cars that were introduced that were the wrong product at the wrong time advertised the wrong way It39s since become synonymous with marketing failure or even with corporate failure in America I love those stories because it gives you a chance to not only look back but to see what it is that still resonatesMossamp160 We just did an event for about 300 young people called the 1st Five Summer Intern experienceamp160 Whatamp8217s the hopeful message you would give them StuartElliottamp160 I would say that it39s a fantastic time to be in these industries there39s a lot of change going on which I think is good for people who are starting out trying to make their markamp160 Also I think a lot of the traditional barriers to entry are loweredamp160 I think when there39s a younger person in the room the older people will not ignore them these daysamp160 They might turn to them and say amp8220Well what do you thinkamp160 How do we reach these Millennialsamp160 How do we reach Gen Zamp8221Mossamp160 What do you readElliottamp160 MediaVillage of course amp160And I subscribe to a lot of email newsletters and blogs and keep up with the headlines and I try to watch a lot of different TV and streaming video stuff I normally wouldnamp8217t watch amp160I don39t fastforward through the commercials thoughClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Podcast: Words of Wisdom from MediaVillage.com's Stuart Elliott

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