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Under pressure...

The media industry is still under the most intense pressure that it has ever experienced. As the leaders of the industry met in Valencia, transparency, media value and the future were all on the agenda.

The past year has revealed the pressure points of a shaky adland. The Festival theme ‘Rewriting the Rule Book’ tried to establish where the industry goes from here.

Everyone in media was forced to work harder and deliver more in 2009, a trend that will only intensify in 2010 and beyond. The lingering issue of transparency was put under the spotlight, with clients focusing on agencies and consumers honing in on brands. With nowhere left to hide the industry is being forced to come face-to-face with its demons and move, or some would say get dragged, into changing its ways.

Comscore’s Gian Fulgoni compared the recession to that of the Great Depression in the 1930s, which led to innovation and the birth of many products that are still well-known brands today. “This recession has accelerated our entry into a new marketing age,” he said.

Referring to consumers’ new brand choices, he stressed that the key lesson to be learnt from the economic turmoil was that it’s all about price and value. Ecommerce players, Amazon and Wal-mart, played this game well throughout 2009 and benefited as a result, with increased marketshare. Both learned how to leverage digital marketing effectively – something many in the industry are yet to fully get to grips with.

UM’s Econocurious research focused on how consumers are exiting the recession with a different set of values than when they went into it. The research also highlighted the differences in consumer attitudes in different parts of the world. For the BRIC markets it’s very much a case of “what recession?” Consumers are feeling positive and in control. That differs substantially from those in the US and Spain, where sentiment was worst. But then consumers in the East are also more likely to be brand conscious, while those in the West are less inclined to let brands define who they are.

When pressures of globalisation are being felt, more research like this is needed to aid understanding of consumer mindsets.

But as much as the heat is on to understand how consumers are evolving, it is the media and agency world that is struggling to adapt. Most clearly in the firing line at the Festival was print. The perceived steady decline of the medium was tackled in the session titled ‘When will we lose the printed page?’

Print must ‘Innovate or die’

Speakers Alisa Bowen, senior vice president, head of consumer publishing at Thomson Reuters and PHD’s worldwide chief executive Mike Cooper concluded that print might still have a pulse and have a particular value in the B2B space, and magazines have a chance to rethink their offering to take advantage of consumers’ continued desire for lean-back media. However, Cooper warned that people shouldn’t cling onto the word “print”.

“Innovate or die” was Bowen’s main message, while Cooper added: “From a media agency and client point of view it doesn’t matter when we lose the printed page, we will find other ways to get to the consumer.”

Brands and agencies are more than aware that they need to follow the consumer, and reach them in the most effective environment, regardless of the platform. Print is under pressure to evolve, and it has a continued battle to prove its value and worth.

Bowen was more confident that the printed page would have a role in a future media landscape, but that it would have to be part of a larger eco-system. It is up to media owners to get the mix right and embrace multi-platform.

“Mobile media can be a Trojan horse for new customers,” said Bowen. “Cross-platform marketing is much more effective. Publishers need to understand how to bring new segments to their print publications.”

Much left to learn

But digital is still much misunderstood as a medium. Comscore’s Fulgoni pointed out that cookie deletion leads to an overstatement of unique visitors by up to 2.5 times; and that measurement of clicks means nothing. Clicks are measured because they are easy, and it has led to a huge bias towards direct response advertising. Only 5% of money going into online is for brand advertising, even though proof is growing that it works.

“Display ads work like traditional ads. They have a latent, but significant effect,” he said.While mobile is adapting to consumer demands, its use in advertising communications is still a difficult one. Mediabrands’ chief digital officer, Quentin George described the medium as a mullet – “it’s incredibly cool in certain parts of the world, but also something that a lot of people don’t know what to do with.”

The biggest gripes were still reserved for agencies, and their inability to evolve. The role of the media agency and what it should be doing was a much explored issue. Vivaki’s Jack Klues had no qualms in declaring that media agencies need to be more aggressive in helping clients source content.

“Content is the connective tissue that unites key stakeholders,” said Klues. “It is imperative to build emotional relationships with consumers. Leveraging content and experiences is the most valuable currency we have.”

Maarten L. Albarda, AB-Inbev’s vice president, global connections, was pretty clear on what he expects from his agency partners. While he considers media agencies to be an integral part of the process with the responsibility of acting as stewards, it is the client who he believes should be leading the process.

And when discussing his pet peeve of ‘digital’ being treated as a mythical separate world from the rest of marketing communications, he conceded that changing the mindset is not all down to the agency.

Martina Lacey, London