• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, March 3, 2005

NEW ORLEANS -- A year after Procter & Gamble Chief Marketing Officer Jim Stengel gave the industry a "C-" grade at the American Association of Advertising Agencies' Media Conference for failing to facilitate communications planning, attendees indicated that there has been little or no progress. At least that was the conclusion of an audience poll conducted during the conference's opening session, which featured a panel comprised of media trade association leaders who discussed how their medium fits into the world of "total communications planning."

Only 9 percent of the 209 audience members participating in the poll gave Madison Avenue an "A" grade, 13 percent gave it a "B," 44 percent a "C," and 11 percent a "D," while 20 percent said it had either failed or delivered an "incomplete" on the assignment.

The audience gave the poorest grades to media services agencies, with less than a third (29 percent) indicating that media shops made the greatest improvement over the past year. Forty percent said full-service agencies improved the most, while 31 percent cited clients.

Those findings could be significant, because communications planning was regarded as the "most important" industry trend for the future by 38 percent of attendees--more than twice the level of the next-highest response, cross-media measurement, which was cited by 21 percent of the respondents. Econometrics/marketing mix modeling was cited by 19 percent, while only 10 percent named single-source measurement initiatives like P&G-backed Project Apollo. Interestingly, "branded entertainment/product placement" was considered the most important industry trend by only 10 percent of the crowd.

The media industry panelists, meanwhile, were out of sync with conference attendees in terms of what communications planning actually means. Eight of the 10 media trade chiefs said communications planning was a "consumer-centric" approach, based on how well a communications contact engages a consumer. Only 27 percent of the audience selected "consumer-centric," and 13 percent selected "media-centric," while the vast majority--60 percent--said it was a combination of the two approaches.

Two of the panelists, the Television Bureau of Advertising's Chris Rohrs and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America's Stephen Freitas, said it was a combination of consumer- and media-centricity. But when it came to the actual discussion, most of the talk from the media execs was not about the consumer, but about media--mainly their own. And when asked, few could provide any material examples of how their industry was helping Madison Avenue find new ways of engaging the consumer other than citing research, or the intrinsic connections consumers already have with their medium.

When asked which one-word phrase accurately describes the role of the consumer in the communications process, Freitas and the Magazine Publishers of America's Nina Link said the consumer is "king." The Newspaper National Network's Jason Klein dubbed the consumer "reader," while the Yellow Pages Association's Neg Norton referenced "decision-maker." The Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau's Sean Cunningham called consumers "customers." The Interactive Advertising Bureau's Greg Stuart called them "in charge." The Syndicated Network Television Association's Mitch Burg called them "our future." The TVB's Rohrs called them "challenged." ABC's Mike Shaw called them "everything." The Radio Advertising Bureau's Gary Fries called them "God."

The liveliest debate concerned a split between print media and television over the proper role of "time-spent" with media as a measure of consumer engagement. The MPA's Link said it was more about the "quality" of time consumers spend with a medium than the duration of time, while TV executives said duration was an indicative measure.

"The consumer is voting with their time, which is their most precious commodity," said the TVB's Rohrs. "So I think it is very important to track where the consumer is investing his most precious hours in all of this explosion of choice. And the consumer is still voting their time, overwhelmingly, to television."