Starcom IP Chief: 'Humans Are God'
- by March 2, 2004
Speaking at DoubleClick's annual Insight Conference, Tobaccowala, Starcom's chief broadband strategist, said that 2004 ushers in an "empowered era" in which "humans are God," because technology allows them to be godlike. The question Tobaccowala put to conference attendees is: "How will you engage God?"
Starcom MediaVest Group, whose clients include McDonald's, Coke, Kellogg, Lego, Nintendo, and the U.S. Army, has, of late, been promoting its vision of the evolving broadband world in which consumers access information, advertising, promotion, and entertainment content from multiple and often networked channels. Tobaccowala told a crowd of digital media buyers, planners, and strategists that they must extend their focus beyond the Internet, citing projections for consumer adoption rates in high-definition TV, digital video recorders, video-on-demand, console, PC, and multi-player gaming. Wireless devices, instant messaging, and yet-to-be-seen applications --including, perhaps, a video iPod--will all have a role to play in marketing. These technologies will be incorporated--and in some cases are already integrated--into consumers' lifestyles alongside the broadband Internet.
Skeptical senior marketing clients need only look at the real growth in consumer Internet usage to understand why they must embrace the 'Net. Tobaccowala compared data from 1998, when the average time spent on the Web was 25.6 minutes per day, to 2003, when that figure hit 83.9 minutes. The data was culled from a variety of research sources.
Tobaccowala suggested that media strategists can engage God--i.e., consumers--by combining exposure and experience. Exposure, via targeting consumers appropriately and using online marketing to engage the already empowered masses. "Exposure doesn't equal engagement," he said. "Merely showing up at their temple isn't enough." He suggested that "targeting, context, and involvement equals engagement," and that those marketers that aren't interested in online may be out of a job--"soon"--if they don't prepare to engage the empowered consumer.
Tobaccowala also spoke about the next generation of TV, dubbed by Starcom "TV 2.0." He said that TV 2.0 consists of a combination of broadband, gaming, and television, and that together, they will "soon become more involving than TV and better measured than the Internet." However, he did not specify the kind of metrics that will be used to track consumers' movement through the new marketing paradigm. The three--broadband, gaming consoles, and computers (all networked)--are the portals to the home, Tobaccowala said. "Internet budgets are increasingly linked to TV." "The majority of clients have embraced broadband and are suffering and benefiting from the implications," Tobaccowala said. "We need to show in accountable ways how online efforts help achieve goals today, but [also] help prepare for the future of TV."
