Coming out of OMMA New York today, I was struck with how far we have come in the last five years. Taking a look back, total Internet advertising revenues in 2001 were $7.2 billion. The IAB and
PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimate that the market will hit $12.5 billion at the end of this year. Not bad, considering the freefall that the market took after 2001, the onslaught of "hostile" online
advertiser environments that have cropped up over the last 18 months and the growth in not-so-advertiser-friendly media technologies that consumer are adopting at a rabid rate. But what struck me the
most was how far we still have to go.
While we are able to measure, to quantify, to project, to adjust, to test, test and test, we have yet to move the needle from "new" media to
"advanced" media to just plain old "media." How far have marketers gone in embracing this ideology? I would suggest not that far. The questions that are asked, the trepidation that still drives
the decision to try a new channel, the inability to generate the consensus at the brand level--all these factors still exist. And my question, at what point does the consumer get a voice in this
360-degree world that we are trying to push them into, still goes unanswered.
There was an interesting stat that was presented about the percentage increase of people over the age
of 35 that are now part of MySpace. How anyone can see this as positive, I just don't know. So far, few marketers (and you know who you are) are leveraging all forms of media based on the consumer
reaction to/acceptance of/interaction with media on distinct technology platforms Then again, I can't blame them. We have barely figured out how to bring together online measurement with
"traditional" media measurement--let alone converge and find meaning from the mutlittude of metrics that are available to arrive at anything even remotely comprehensible or predictable.
Which brings me to my point: stop looking for the silver bullet. And if I ever offer you one, stop reading and walk away. There is no model that will answer the needs of everyone.Who you are as
a company, the products that you sell and your relationship with your customer--that is what should drive all marketing decisions across all media. Oh, sure, we can isolate components that are
constant, the potential variables that could disrupt success--but there is no model that can bottle magic. Think you have the answer? You tell me.