John B. Adams, CEO of The Martin Agency, spoke at a recent business school breakfast. He shared some powerful insights on new realities for marketers. Here are three themes:
1. Integrated marketing must evolve into unified marketing. At first, this sounded like merely a fresher buzzword, but the point is that agency functions should become more collaborative, just as marketing messages are blending more closely with the media that contain them.
2. All advertising is becoming direct-response advertising. Consumers are researching and making decisions in less predictable processes, due in large part to interactive media. For example, a consumer may consult friends’ opinions, and several user-generated reviews online. He may be ready to make a purchase decision before engaging with a single ad. This means that image advertising is less valued, and every marketing communication needs a behavior-changing call to action.
3. The nature of storytelling is changing – from a single story for a brand to multiple stories.
My overall takeaway: Interactive media gives consumers abundant choice for how they consume marketing communications, and for how they select products and services. It’s all done on the consumers’ terms.
The challenge for marketers – or any provider of a product or service – is to gain deep insight into the target consumer, offer truly helpful, relevant products, and tell compelling, helpful stories that amplify the product.
Wait a second…shouldn’t that have been the challenge all along?
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