• by Bob Rose , April 1, 2011

For all the excitement and expectation, digital media won't get the big brand dollars until we have good-old brand measures applied to them.

Want to understand the state of things in the marketing communications business? Simple: follow the money. Today, online media accounts for nearly 40% of the time Americans spend with all media; but online media currently accounts for less than 10% of the overall investment in advertising.

What is going on? Why has digital media been so slow to realize their financial upside potential?

First, let's talk about the inevitable. No one doubts that digital media, with ever-evolving targeting and end-user participation will continue to crowd out older models. And no one doubts that the preponderance of ad investment will increasingly tip toward more spending in digital media.

It's this concept of the near future that drives the valuations of big Internet properties like Facebook (whose investors recently valued it at a stunning $84 billion), Twitter, Groupon and dozens of others. The thinking is: these guys are making money now -- just think what they'll be worth when the big money starts rolling in.

But there's also the sticky issue of reality today.

Big, old media brands with their passive audiences, one-way communication and clunky buyer/seller interactions (face-to-face selling, really?) are just not ready to leave the party. Many of these crusty old buzzards are having banner years in this, the second decade of the 21st century.

Both network and cable TV are having very lucrative seasons and are now gearing up for their second consecutive high -growth upfront. They're boasting of 40% rate increases! And, many tree-based reading brands (okay, print), are having outstanding rebound years, too, notably with help from their digital platform extensions.

So how has old media managed to hold onto their loot so well? The answer lies in the top of the funnel.

"Top of the funnel" refers to the ability of marketing communications to drive fundamental awareness and positive perceptions for a product or brand. It is the gateway to deeper brand relationships; is the battleground for the biggest marketing bucks.

At this point in history, marketers are voting with their pocketbooks that old media is still the best way to feed the funnel. Digital media (online, mobile and social) have not inspired confidence that they can be the lead spears in putting a brand quickly on the map of consumer's consciousness. Part of the problem is that the standard measure of online accountability -- click rates -- is not related to this most critical marketing function. And it doesn't help when this key metric is fraught with problems: Click rates are infinitesimally small (.0005 is a pretty average response rate) and the heavy clicking quintile population, who are surely insane, account for most of them anyway.

Of course, the digital media business is moving toward being more competitive at the top of the funnel. Use of rich media and online video is expanding rapidly, not only because they are viable in direct response ROI models -- they are growing because they more closely replicate the advertising benefits of television. They are intrusive and provide a better creative platform for marketing persuasion than banner ads.

Similarly, the basic unit of trade in the digital media world today reflects the old-school branding idea of advertising impressions --- the same CPM concept used to buy ads on "Leave it to Beaver" is used today to evaluate The Huffington Post.

But if digital media want to compete more fully in the battle for top-of-the-funnel branding dollars, they must embrace their time-honored roots even more deeply. There exists an elegant system of evaluating audience delivery and pricing that has been largely overlooked by those driving the digital media bus.

This system measures how different media venues interact with one another to create the optimal mix of integrated media; it standardizes deliveries so that successful branding programs can be replicated and built upon. And, unless and until the practitioners of all forms of digital media embrace this system, they will always be chasing the big money from a position of disadvantage.

Yes, its time to add ratings, GRP, reach and frequency to today's commonplace digital vernacular.

In a world where integrated marketing is on everyone's lips, marketers don't just evaluate individual media; we search for the best combinations of media. Planning holistically is enabled by this standardized method of analyzing choices.

As long as those in the digital media realm live outside the GRP system, they stand to be thought of as less integral to the world of branding.