David Verklin, from Carat Americas, predicted three media trends at a recent Media in Canada forum:
1. The first is the ascendancy of digital as a primary motivator functioning in a DM-style role. Verklin noted Carat had observed that ‘80% of people going into a Hyundai dealership had been online first,’ and predicts that while online creative work is rarely discussed, ‘it will be the center play.’
Absolutely! For two key reasons.
1) It's interactive. It's way easier to take elements from an interactive media and apply them to a static media than the other way around.
2) The pervasiveness of the channel. The digital channel is *everywhere*. It's bits, so it is easy to distribute across multiple websites as well as multiple digital devices. And as a consumer, I am much more likely to interact with digital media than offline.
Prediction #2: ‘Advertising to the interested is the future.’ Verklin says firms will experiment with 100% composition technology, where marketers are looking not at simple CPM numbers but at targeting their bull’s eye. TV commercials will be a portal, the beginning of a process, where the consumer will push a button to get expanded information.
I think the jury's still out on this. I use my TV for viewing movies and PVR'd TV shows with friends. The size and location of the screen are an integral part of a *social* experience, not a marketing experience. It isn't a jumping off point for me. It's a lean-back media as opposed to online which is lean-forward. I engage with the online channel in a very different way. Now, maybe the delivery of TV-esque commercials online will be the start of a marketing relationship, but it really does rely on an outmoded model of consumer behaviour which assumes I will respond after I am talked at. Consumers are becoming much more sophisticated and immediate in their marketing requirements. Perhaps this is a case of "right idea, wrong media".
Thirdly, Verklin foresees a collision of commerce and cause where marketers will combine their efforts with philanthropy, creating a new, and hybrid medium.”
Yes! I'm excited to see Verklin mention this. This is exactly the opportunity that brands (like my own) that are looking for ways to move beyond commodity status should seize on. This kind of activity will be integral to building a brand that customers want to fall in love with. By tying philanthropic activity to marketing activity, marketers will be able to speak to customers who are looking to do *more* with their dollar, but who may not have the individual resources to make a significant impact. The next phase of marketing is demostrating to the customer that there is something to believe in beyond the product I am purchasing.
[Via Mitch Joel's blog over at Twist Image, original reporting in Strategy]
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