The Age of ‘More’ – The impact of POE on the role of a media planner

It will come as no surprise to you that media consumption has entered the age of ‘more’.

More personalized, more on-demand and more choice.  This makes media planning more complex and much more interesting.  Good media is not just about reaching the right audience but about how it can spark or amplify conversations involving the brand.

PAID, OWNED AND EARNED

The boundaries for what is ‘media’ have expanded and potentially anything we can imagine can fill this new space.  We must consider every touchpoint and the role it plays in building the brand’s connection with consumers.  This takes into account Paid, Owned and Earned media.  Paid, largely being the spaces filled by advertising; Owned, being  all brand assets, products and associated content; Earned being the resulting conversation about the brand and the role people play in spreading the message further.

In a POE world a brand must have something to say (owned content) and have permission to say it in order to start or be part of conversations.

The more time people spend with a brand’s owned content and being exposed to positive earned opinion and content from influencers, the more relevant and powerful the paid media becomes. 

The effectiveness POE ecosystem is therefore massively reliant on a well thought through consumer journey.

THE CONSUMER JOURNEY

Understanding and becoming expert in the consumer journey is undoubtedly the biggest change for media planners.

The consumer journey is now less linear and controllable, therefore, how a brand networks its communications across platforms and formats is critical to telling a consistent and powerful story.  This changes the start point for the planner in building a communications strategy and asks them to consider the owned content first.

The modern media planner must be fluent in multiple platforms and must be able to think about the architecture of the journey between paid, owned and earned media. They must be able to plan for always-on communication balancing pushed and pulled messages. 

They should be able to clearly articulate the relationship between paid media and the brand experience making it less directional and more involving; they must become proficient content planners and conversation architects, building more complex and layered communications plans.

They must understand the inter-relationships and dependencies between the channels and platforms and considering all the implications that a multi-platform content strategy may have.

The modern media agency is one that is fluent in content, conversation and reach.  Being a media planner in this context must be one of the best jobs in the agency.

The New Year DAWN event

The DAWN team have planned an event for February 9th focusing on work and life balance. This event is aimed all women working in the digital media industry who are looking to be inspired and network with like-minded people. Places are selling out fast so if you are interested sign up now. http://dawnlondon.eventbrite.com

Does this make me a gamer?

I am most definitely not a gamer but have enjoyed many hours of gaming on the new Xbox Kinnect this Christmas.  Previously I had thought the Wii was very clever but Kinnect blows it out the water.  The system was so intuitive that I didn’t need to bother with instructions and within about 10 minutes of orientation myself I was competing on the athletics track against my husband and mother in law (something I would never have imagined her doing).  The experience was fun and very tiring!  Kinnect makes gaming suitable for all the family and a good way to offset overeating at Christmas. 

One of my favourite activities was creating my avatar, I think this transported me back to the 7-year-old who loved Barbie and dressing her in different outfits.  I created avatars for the whole family with a selection of outfits to wear for different gaming events.  You can even dress in black tie, although I have not found an appropriate game for that yet, maybe Bond should come to Kinnect.  It is amazing how much you can get the avatars looking like their real life counterpart.

If you have seen the TV ad for Kinnect you will have seen the whole family laughing on the sofa whilst watching someone play and actually in real life it is very similar, we laughed a lot and of course got very competitive. 

We enjoyed the T-Mobile branding of a bowling balls in the 10 pin game, it was noticed and talked about so I guess you could say it worked.  Advertising in the gaming world does add the experience because it makes it seem more realistic if we see posters on the road side but some smart product placement could have even more impact.  So come on clothing stores give my avatar something more interesting or in fashion to wear!
This gaming experience involves your whole body and really does pull you in and immerse you in a fantasy world.  Once you get your head around just how clever this gestured controlled gaming console is you forget what old gaming was like.  It feels so natural and so intuitive to communicate with your hands and body.   I wonder how popular it will be with teens, will it get them up off the sofa and moving around the room?  If the games are good enough then why not.

I have always thought that gaming was a bit of a waste of time because it literally takes hours out of your day to achieve nothing of real value.  Now I think that this is probably still true but the new generation of sport/health games genuinely do offer something to us.  We have seen reports and stories of overweight of mentally scarred teens who have spent too much time in violent worlds or car chases.  Maybe technology like Kinnect might help fix one of those problems. 

So am I a ‘gamer’ now?….