Open House

Content Creation vs Content Consumption

This is the age of content creation. This is the age of consumers generating their own content, consumers taking control away from companies, brands, broadcasters and the rest.....however:

A new study by Hitwise apparently suggests that the number of generators of user-generated content is even smaller:

"A tiny 0.16 percent of visits to Google's top video-sharing site, YouTube, are by users seeking to upload video for others to watch, according to a study of online surfing data by Bill Tancer, an analyst with Web audience measurement firm Hitwise. Similarly, only two-tenths of one percent of visits to Flickr, a popular photo-editing site owned by Yahoo Inc., are to upload new photos, the Hitwise study found."

What this shows is that although there are now more ways in which to express yourself and create your own content, only a very few number of people actually end up doing it. A chap I work with, Chris Stephenson who writes here points out that the major factors that prevent everyone from being a creator are talent and resources:

this cap on creation was historically down, I suppose, to two factors: firstly ability - not everyone is a Gaudí or Tolkien.  but secondly it was determined by an individuals capacity to create and the resources available to them...creation comes at a cost (be it resources or time), and not everyone can afford

Now I agree with him that the second factor - cost - has been negated to a certain extent by the explosion of web 2.0 - literally everyone can create and dsitribute their own content. If you look at the penetration of mobile phones capable of taking video footage, arguably everyone has the capability to be a film maker - just think of the massacre at Virginia Tech where one of the most broadcast pieces of footage was from a mobile phone.

However, the factor that will not change is that not everyone can physically produce good content, because not everyone has the talent. It's probably an extreme case of the 80:20 rule where 80 percent of the best content is being produced by 20 (or in this case even lower) percent of people.

Now to put a final spin on it, a quote by Ivan at futurelab where this story came from is:

"the bigger force is not consumer-generated content, it's consumer-edited content."

So someone with the talent creates it, and someone with less talent takes it, tinkers with it, maybe improves it?

I AM MEDIA

Check out this presentation below, brought to you courtesy of Futurelab - some great stats about the death of old media and the birth of a new social dialogue....

85% of Chinese people don't watch commercials - that's a lot of ad avoidance going on!

No more advertising - Sao Paulo Bans Outdoor Ads

The governors of Sao Paulo have just decreed that all outdoor advertising in the city will have to be removed by the start of the new year - the city is going ad free! The International Herald Tribune reports it in the following way:

Come the new year, this city of 11 million, overwhelmed by what the authorities call visual pollution, plans to press the "delete all" button and offer its residents unimpeded views of their surroundings.

But in proposing to transform the landscape, officials have unleashed debate and brought into conflict sharply differing concepts of what this city, South America's largest and most prosperous, should be.

The statute's most visible impact promises to be at eye level and above. The outsized billboards and screens that dominate the skyline, promoting everything from automobiles, jeans and cellphones to banks and sex shops, will have to come down. All other forms of publicity in public spaces, like distribution of fliers, will also stop.

The law also regulates the dimensions of store signs, and will force many well-known companies to reduce them substantially by a formula based on the size of their facades. Another provision, much criticized by owners of transportation companies, outlaws advertising of any kind on the sides of the city's thousands of buses and taxis.

By removing all of the traditional media channels that are quick and easy ways to reach a large audience, albeit superficially at times, it will undoubtedly force marketers to re-focus on the consumers they are trying to reach and the best ways in which to do that.

Anthony Mayfield in his post on this in his blog Open talks about this forcing marketing to become more useful and relevant to the consumer - like search, for example. Traditional media channels whilst providing reach lack a depth of engagement that can be provided through social media and the opportunities that web 2.0 offers.

Great Creative, Great Media Planning

Every Friday in London, a free magazine is distributed at train stations and underground stations and it's all about sport. That's why they called it "Sport." Clever. Anyway it's a great read, in its first quarter it distributed 319,000 copies. Below is a picture of friday morning's edition:

The day before the 6 nations game, nice photo, nice line "Try'd and tested" and a great piece of media planning - getting the outside cover of the magazine practically every bloke reads on the way to work on friday. And 'Sport' has a really high readership - i.e. many more people read each copy, because people pick them up on tubes and station platforms.

Shame the game was really dull.

Steve

New Stuff on Open House

Morning all,

Quick round up of the new posts today/yesterday:

Influence, with Mark Holden - Interview with PHD's Executive Planning Director about media and its influence.

How to be an online brand - wise words about how best to approach branding online

PhilTube - A piss take of blogging and people that take it too seriously. I would write more but I'm blogging right now....

Diesel Fallen Wings - Beautiful Digital campaign, winner of the IAB's creative showcase this month.

Influence, with Mark Holden

We are going to expand our sphere of knowledge sharing at have a look at the media industry. If you ever find yourself in media land, you will quickly realise "media" is pronounced "medya." I tell you this so you can blend in easier.

Mark is the Executive Planning Director at PHD (one of the big media agencies, owned by Omnicom) so I thought it might be good to get the inside story on media and how it relates to marketing/advertising.

What is media all about? What makes it different from marketing/advertising?

Media is just a word. Media planning on the other hand is deciding where client's money should be invested for the maximum Return on Investment (ROI) by identifying the best target audience and the best media channels to target.

You have to find out what the client wants, scope out the audience, scope out the channels and how much to invest.

There is creativity involved but not in the same way as in marketing or advertising. For example imagine a gallery that wants to hold an exhibition. Someone has to decide what sort of an exhibition it will be - a sculpture exhibition, paintings, an installation, whatever. Those are your media planners.

The people who produce the art (the sculpture or the painting or the bed strewn with various objects) are the creative departments of the marketing/advertising agencies.

What is it about media that interests you?

The fact that the industry revolves around influence. We are not really in the business of buying space - We are buying billions of micro cognitive moments with consumers that can be used to influence how they think and what they do.

It might seem a touch immoral but I believe that consumers, people, should not be 'nanny stated' and that by exposing them to marketing messages we are allowing them to develop internal controls and resistance to certain advertising messaging.

But how does that argument stack up against the row about marketing to children?

This is me playing devil's advocate (so don't go picketing PHD, please - I'll get in trouble. Steve) but what would happen if you didn't market to children now? It might be that their lack of exposure to marketing messaging means that in later life they have no 'natural resistance' or ability to filter messages which could potentially result in even greater damage.

There is a school of thought that says struggle is essential for psychological development - although children may at times struggle now, that struggle is allowing them to develop psychologically so they will be at lower risk as adults.

However if I stop playing devil's advocate and be practical, I think the solution to the marketing to children issue is to only allow it with products that have less than (for example) 10 grams of fat, or a low sugar content. This solution also puts huge pressure on manufacturers to improve their New Product Development (NPD).

What is your role within PHD?

To improve tha planning product of the whole companyand spearhead new business. I work with media planners to give advice on campaigns to make sure they work as well as they can and run/oversee any plans for new business.

What trends do you see in the industry that are of note?

With regard to agencies their role is changing and in many cases expanding. On the client side the people responsible for marketing and advertising are becoming more senior - in some cases it may be the CEO or even Chairman of the Board.

This means that agencies can begin to influence bigger decisions, like those concerning the development of new products. Maybe in a few years time agencies will be able to go back to a client and say "You wanted us to promote product X but we think you would be better off developing a product that does ABC."

What are your passions? What makes you passionate?

Knowing how to influence people. For example if you wanted to launch a brand of trainers called Fred, you could put an ad in a glossy fashion mag. Or you could get people to go out onto the street and ask them about their favourite fashion brands and in the course of conversation, mention Fred. Mentioning it to people has the potential to influence people on a deeper level.

This is almost communicating with people so they don't know they are being communicated with. And it's not dishonest or lying - truth is what happens when we stop thinking. If you keep thinking then your truth will change.

Imagine you buy a watch. It's a nice watch, nice strap good looking face, it tells the time - exactly what you need. Imagine now that watch is a Gucci watch - you may very well enjoy the watch all the more. Your perceived pleasure has increased, but the 'truth' has not - it's the same watch.

The increased pleasure of the Gucci watch is the perceived pleasure we get from the brand.

What social trends have you noticed?

There are trends that may have been slightly exaggerated by the industry and then trends that in my opinion actually exist.

One that has been exaggerated is that consumers are now in complete control of the advertising that they consume and that ever more people are opting out of receiving advertising.

One trend however I think is based firmly in reality that consumers have moved emotionally away from their families. This emotional distance has created a vacuum where close familial bonds used to be, and this vacuum is now being filled with material possessions and a greater consumption of media.

What effect has the social networking phenomenon had on the media industry and the way clients are spending their money?

It may sound a little like heresy, but at the moment I am not sure it is having a huge effect. For example fopr most of our clients the rise of social networking sites means they have more places to put banner ads.

However the one effect I have noticed is that clients are becoming more aware of the benefits associated with interacting with bloggers and blogs in a nice, honest way.