Commentary
Scalable Vs. Synchronous Reach
- by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, November 7, 2011
The OMMA Display gorilla panel took an interesting turn when Einstein Brothers’ Jeff Einstein suggested that the real problem with media – particularly online, and even social media – is that it can’t deliver the kind of scalable reach that television historically has.
I say historically, because Einstein pointed at that TV doesn’t exactly deliver it anymore either. Noting that Beverly Hillbillies character Jed Clampet was reach “60 million people a week” in the 1960s, Einstein said no media is capable of delivering that today.
DeepFocus’ Ian Schafer took issue with that, noting that a popular vertical YouTube channel can deliver as many viewers as AMC’s “Mad Men.” Of course, Einstein pointed out that “Mad Men” also isn’t the TV hit of old, and only delivers about 3 million viewers.
The real issue, said Schafer, isn’t “scalable reach,” it is “synchronous reach,” or the ability to reach one synchronized audience at the same time. You know, the way TV still can.
Joe Mandese is the Editor in Chief of MediaPost. You can reach Joe at joe@mediapost.com.
The notion of synchronous reach is patently absurd! Let's define synchronous, short of an all network blocking placement there is no genuinely synchronous television campaign.
Jeff's and Ian's bantering makes good theatre, but "point goes to" Jeff on this one. While the discussion can go much deeper, a comment to a story is not the place.