Commentary

All Media, All The Time

by Robert Kadar , March 12, 2010

Oh, to be an ad man (and I do mean man, and a white one at that) in the '60s.

Have your creative team whip up something light and frothy -- "9 out of 10 doctors agree! Chesterfields is more soothing on your throat than any leading brand. Chesterfields -- the smo-o-o-th smoke!" Negotiate and buy your TV time on all three networks by noon, commence your two-and-a-half-hour, three-martini lunch.

Return, start on your second pack, sexually harass your secretary or your buddy's secretary or, heck, all of the secretaries, place your print buy, start drinking again by 4, leave the office at 5, retreat to the local watering hole for the evening. Stir and repeat.

A bit stereotyped I know, but not that far off. Back in the good old days, Big Media really did call the shots. You could run prime-time spots on NBC, CBS and ABC and be pretty much assured that you would reach around 80% of the U.S. adult population. Throw in a few popular magazines and maybe some billboards and you were done.

Media consumption options were extremely limited and we were all held captive by Big Media's schedules. (I'm old enough to remember when TV stations in the New York area simply went off the air every night around midnight. As if they were saying, "Time to turn off your TV and go to bed." (Or perhaps more accurately, "We don't feel like working anymore to entertain you. Go away!")

What a difference a decade (or two or three) makes.

Now it's all about relevancy, ubiquity, ease of access and consumer choice and empowerment.

In the health category, regardless of whether the target is the patient, health-focused consumer or health care professional, multi-media, multi-platform messaging is the requirement as the viewers are all multi-media, multi-platform junkies. We want our information, entertainment and functionality where we want it, when we want it and how we want it.

Today it's all about context, distribution, usability, functionality, value, transparency, respect, conversations and community.

"The digital-driven, customer-centric model is a blessing to the health community, as many pharma and health companies are now focusing heavily on consumer tools, relationships and loyalty," says Jason Ary, emerging media manager at Intouch Solutions. "Where the '60s and '70s brought us catchy jingles and slogans, 21st-century marketing is all about personal contact via personal content through personal channels.

"The 'Mad Men' of media might not be happy about surrendering control, but the breadth of new marketing tools available combined with the loyalty it can create truly shows how marketing is not advertising anymore, it's about building true relationships with your consumers."

Thank you, Jason! Couldn't have said it better myself.

health, media

3 comments about "All Media, All The Time".

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Edward Feather from Partners+simons, March 12, 2010 at 12:53 p.m.
Great post. And right on the money. Interestingly, I was just down at AAOS in New Orleans the last few days. The conference was on Twitter (#AAOS2010), but I found that very few attendees and exhibitors were actually posting. Maybe there were many who were following, but only a handful of doctors and nurses made comments. Otherwise it was all AAOS posts or a few of the exhibitors.
Reply

Liz Smith from Creative Media Experiences, March 12, 2010 at 2:18 p.m.

Where we want it, how we want it? Respect? Then would big pharma please take back the TVs they donated to the doctors' offices with the intent of bombarding us with messaging when all we want to do is catch up on our People?

Robert Kadar, March 12, 2010 at 3:53 p.m.

Ed - Great comment thank you. I too haven't seen a big Twitter uptake on the HCP side yet. For one reason or another it hasn't been adopted by this population unless the doctor is on the business or media side. Then it's a different story altogether.