Published in AdNews 9 October 2009 opinion
The advertising industry has grown up with a simple equation:
production + media = brand equity, which ultimately leads to sales.
The balance of this simple equation, depending on which circle you speak to, predominantly favours the media side of things. A general rule of thumb is a 20% production, 80% media split. Make it and then push it out there. If we started this game all over again now, perhaps this equation might look a little different:
Productive = Currency.
What if we could start from the beginning, knowing what we now know about consumer engagement, the power of the web, of experience, of sharing, of involvement and of community. Would things be different.
Probably. Someone who recognises this is a smart Australian currently working in the UK as marketing director at Nike, Simon Pestridge. He quotes “80% production, 20% media”. His mantra was born out of the fact Nike has distilled the wants, needs and level of engagement from its core consumers to help grow incredible success for the brand.
Producing TVCs is only a part of his production budget. Events, interactive digital platforms and buckets and buckets of content from virals and wedisodes to TV programs have driven deeper connections with Nike’s youth target. No longer do they have titles like brand comms manager. At Nike, it’s about brand connections and titles and its marketing culture reflects this.
Productivity can take many different forms but can be broadly categorised into: creative, content, events and digital platforms. Creative alone can only yield currency for a brand at a one dimensional level – brand equity. Consider the breadth of currency created when using content. Brand equity, IP, consumer endorsement and advocacy, word of mouth, value exchange with media publishers…
The point is it opens up a whole different level of conversation with a whole number of stakeholders which can deliver exponentially above more traditional means of getting a message to a consumer. Consider for a moment how the IP model is changing. The laws for intellectual property are not keeping pace with the change driven by technology – especially online. The internet has democratised information and content, with more people than ever before being creators and publishers of information and content.
The main issue for IP law appears to be when this content is commercialised, generates revenue and how the revenue is shared? But then driving a million visitors to view a YouTube video where Google ads are displayed – is that simply content or is it commercialised? No wonder legislators are having problems with copyright law.
The speed of consumption is changing. Upload a video today on YouTube and tomorrow you could have a worldwide hit on your hands, especially if it is picked up by the mainstream media. The volume ofcontent and the easy accessibility means ideas, content and communication is moving at “click speed”.
Today’s internet hit is tomorrow’s water cooler discussion. Then the day after everyone is talking about the next hot item. Long, drawn-out processes are a thing of the past. But God, we all love ’em, huh?
Idea, shoot, edit, approve, distribute. Then do the same thing every single day or week after that and hey presto: Production = Currency. Let’s say you received between $200,000 and $400,000 to shoot a TVC. Let’s divide that by $10,000 per week. On those figures, that’s five or 10 months of fresh, relevant, contextual content. That’s a lot of currency and relevance that you can have with a consumer. By the way, you can turn a couple of the films into TVCs to boot.
The production model costs are changing. Technology has made content creation accessible to everyone with a computer and an internet connection. It has also changed the expectation people have of production quality. There will always be a place for high quality content production, but it is no longer mandatory. Yet it is interesting the number of production people that still want to charge a fortune to make it look low quality/amateur. Remember, a lot of advertising is disposable, so why put so much money into the dumpster?
Technology effects on production costs. At the leading edge of innovation the costs are high, while trailing behind it makes the production much more affordable and so much faster. The fact is, the tools need to be matched to the idea and the quality of the output is invariably not the technology but the quality of the people using it.
Technology is changing all of the above. This is the most important point. Technology is driving change faster than at any time in human history. But government legislation, the law and commerce are running along trying to keep pace with these changes.
the ease with which content can be created and distributed has changed the balance between production and media budgets forever.
by Darren Woolly Trinity P3, Tom Phillips Content Strategist, Clive Burcham Founder of TCO.
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