• by Maarten Albarda , Featured Contributor, December 12, 2016

I spent last week in New York and met with a variety of media owners. I sat with a very large local radio network, a large national outdoor company, a company that sells targeted TV ads, and a digital advertising platform.

These are companies that all operate in very different and distinct verticals. Local radio is a very different “sell” from an outdoor board, which is very different from a targeted TV ad or an ad on a digital platform.

Or so it used to be. What I learned last week was that, thanks to the data that digital creates, these very disparate media offerings are actually capable of many of the same things. And as an industry, we have not adapted very well to this changing offering.

What has the digital evolution of these media forms, and the data they generate, created?

1. The data allows for a much “richer” understanding of the target audience reached. Even for outdoor, the overlay of census and traffic data with, for instance, built-in beacons means that we can target much more precisely. And because the boards are digital as well, we could technically adjust the message to the most prevalent target group by daypart. The same is true for radio or TV: the combination of “regular” audience data mixed with the data garnered from listeners/viewers via digital platforms or set-top boxes mean you can get access to very rich user profile data. Note that I am specifically not talking about niche targeting. Mass reach is the objective, and is typical for these types of media.

2. The digital integration also allows for creating opportunities beyond media delivery. A beacon in an outdoor board can drive actual traffic to a store. TV or radio ads that use digital platforms can deliver direct opportunities for click-and-buy. And digital platforms that offer consumer convenience and high usage can not only deliver all the sorts of direct-to-sales related opportunities one would expect, but also actually deliver reach and frequency.

But here is the difficulty. Our industry has grown up with a siloed approach to media planning and buying. I have written before that the old labels for various media, including media functions, are doing more harm than good. And that is very true for all four companies I had discussions with last week.

Each of these media companies clearly has an offering that today goes well beyond the traditional media offering. Radio is no longer a cheap, additional reach and frequency medium, and targeted TV is not just a “GRP/TRP” offering. Outdoor is no longer just a mass medium capable of reaching large groups of consumers with an awareness message.

However, these media companies are typically pushed into meetings with their siloed counterparts. Radio got a meeting with the guy responsible for radio advertising, outdoor with the woman responsible for out-of-home and digital with the digital team.

What they actually require is a conversation with marketers responsible for sales, retail strategies, geo-targeting and other non-media options, the responsibility of which typically exceeds that of the media agency or the media manager at the advertiser. The people that they SHOULD have the meetings with mostly aren’t even aware of the opportunities that media today delivers beyond media delivery. And that is a real hurdle to growth for many of the new opportunities these media now offer.