Commentary

Zeitgeist: A Change Is Gonna Come

Zeitgeist-Brian Terkelsen-A Change Is Gonna ComeIt doesn't take a presidential candidate to point out that these are hard times. The war, the energy crisis, America's faltering image abroad, global warming - these are problems that make it difficult for all of us to sleep at night.
Hard times have a nasty way of manifesting themselves in every realm of our lives. This is why, after a night of lying awake concentrating on the world's problems, I know I'm going to climb out of bed, head to the office and be baffled by another disturbing - and for me, more immediate - reality: What will the brave marketers of the future be made of? Not the spreadsheet-loving, GRP-demanding, MBA-carrying wonks we commonly associate with marketing, but the marketers whose gut instinct and common sense drive their connection thinking. Where is the marketing director whose insatiable appetite for adventure hiding these days?

While I'm not prepared to dismiss the value of rigor and research, I'm calling on marketers to really think about whether they will know how to connect with a consumer or viewer in 2015. It's just seven years away. In those seven years, expect addressable video and behavioral targeting to rule the spreadsheet. What if we're no longer in a GRP, spray-and-pray world? Imagine a world where a brand could actually identify and engage directly with its core prospect.

And until then? A period of change - in other words, hard times. For instance, there's a general sentiment that cable and broadcast are virtually indiscernible to audiences today. Steve Koonin's assault on NBC programming at the TNT upfront made it pretty clear that the expectation of quality has shifted: Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning actors populate TNT, while talking cars and outrageous game shows find a place on the broadcaster's real estate.

The past seven years have been fraught with such changes. Broadcasters have gone from being extremely resistant to branded entertainment and integration work to proudly showcasing their chops and declaring themselves open for business during their presentations last May. Seven years ago, the DVR was young and people had just started talking about the "consumer in control." Today, control is a reality.

We can expect more and greater changes in the next seven years. In this new reality, what have you done to ensure you can effectively connect with that consumer - on his or her terms - in the next seven years? Are you thinking big enough to anticipate the next generation of media?

We're moving away from the ability to make just one or two messages and repeat them thousands of times - and we're moving quickly. In the near future, we will need to understand that brands will require thousands of messages that might only air once. But that one airing, targeted correctly and with compelling, contextually relevant content, will have a powerful effect on tomorrow's consumer.

I can hear everyone screaming, "You're not being practical!" And maybe everyone is right. But I'm inclined to lean on the fact that business has sped up to an uncomfortable level and that our next reinvention cycles are contracting to seven-year windows rather than 10. The new reinvention cycle calls for quicker reactions. And it calls on all of us to ask ourselves what we've done to prepare for the accelerated arrival of the future.

There's really only one option here: Marketers have to embrace risk, expect some failure, and trust their gut and their common sense. Sure, mitigate as much risk as possible. Some ways to do that are:

  • Reinvent your investment mix to allot a certain percentage for innovation. Fund it, spend it, and release control, and either fail but learn, or succeed and understand what worked so you can reapply.
  • Trust, but also question, research, and rely heavily on your instinct.
  • Place a bet on addressable marketing.

So enough with the doom-and-gloom crowd saying that society has always been challenged with trying times. Most stories and folklore revolve around "tough times." That's because those periods force us to reexamine our identities and reevaluate what's important to us.

This is just such a time for everyone. Things will ease up eventually. Hard times don't last forever - unless of course you find yourself among those marketers who don't heed the call to evolve. Then, no matter what's going on outside your office, it will always be hard times for you.

Brian Terkelsen is executive vice president, managing director of connective tissue at MediaVest. (brian.terkelsen@mediavestww.com)


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