Cascading media

“New publishing concepts stress the different roles of and synergies between various media and produce content, context and relationship- tools in one go!”

What would it be fantastic if your radio commercial results in booming revenues and that your customers refer to your products in every conversation they have. Fortunately it doesn’t work that way or a lot of people would lose their jobs.

Since the introduction of new media (internet, mobile phones and games) marketeers and communication specialists are trying to get the best out of each medium.

During my appointment as director of technology and business development for a large IT company we addressed the issue of synergy between media. Joint efforts with publishers and TV-producers led to interesting developments in a world that was basically dominated by technology. Even what we called “look and feel” tasted like technology. These cooperation led to the view that interactive media should “smell” good, to give the user a feeling of comfort.

Later on I developed the philosophy of “cascading media”. The idea came in the early days of they Internet when traffic was the success factor for every initiative. A conversion of a TV audience to an Internet initiative can generate such amounts of traffic that success was guaranteed.

Media Transfer

Imagine a prime time entertainment show that uses the endgame to transfer viewers to an interactive environment where the viewers can participate in the game show for the next 24 hours, returning to the next episode of the game show. The game show reports back the results of the last 24 hours and shows which of the interactive contestants have qualified for the next TV show.

Transfer of eyeballs is a concept that is hard to achieve. People are basically lazy when sitting in front of their TV set. Just ask yourself what effort it would take to get you out of your chair and behind your computer to start up the Internet. Nothing I guess. To influence behaviour with such impact requires high rewards

If it is possible to find a way to guarantee such a transfer is worth a lot of media value.

Integrated media approach is becoming a regular standard in both media and marketing. For instance the radio show that uses SMS, telephone and Internet facilities to poll opinions during transmission. The opinions are used to spice up the discussion in real time.

Marketing campaigns that include Internet subscription, SMS services, Music events and privileged e-mail communication.

The TV world is also using SMS and telephone as a viewer feedback. In this case with the aim of making as much money as possible. Call TV type programs are of a simple structure. “If you know the answer, call us and win the possibility to win a prize”. This transferring mechanism is the simplest in existence.

Nevertheless, This TV world is a lazy one. It sticks to plain TV, radio broadcast and straight forward campaigns. They support their programming with digital variations like streaming missed programs, Pod-cast etc. Only occasionally different media are incorporated into the programs / campaigns concepts.

Two random non existent examples will illustrate what I am implying;

1. Imagine a TV show called Game-Set-Match. (GSM – Global System for Mobile communications)). Of course the main driver here is the mobile phone. Answers are given in real time. Besides the studio audience anyone can play along. The GSM players outside the studio qualify for the next show. The intermediate results can be found in the Internet Control room, accessible only to those who played the game.

The span of attention of the format is prolonged long after the TV show has ended. In format advertising increases the formats media value and a massive phone income is generated.

2. I developed a combined Internet TV format called WebQuest™. I was in the early days of the Internet. Powered by a TV game show it would be the start of a digital treasure hunt. The hunt would lead the audience along certain pre planned websites of the program’s sponsors, enhancing the formats media value. Players and audience will come to the control centre to evaluate the intermediate standings, get tips and hints. Contestants can chat with each other and help or even delude the opponents. The frequency could be daily for stronger relationship and more frequent eyeballs. The results of the hunt are presented in the next TV show. The hunt can continue for weeks and the final treasure can be of considerable value.

Both formats were introduced with both public and commercial TV. It seemed a bridge to far at the time, but here we are, seven years later and still no true cross media format is programmed. Transferring the TV audience towards digital media is not an issue in TV thinking.

Transferring however, is a commercial mechanism with a lot of history. In the “paper”-days newspapers and magazines often used paper coupons to allow readers to react to a certain subject (or product). You could send in your personal data and receive a product or a sales call. We have been transferring people from;
o Advertisements to shops
o From commercial to internet
o From TV format to SMS
o From billboard to Shopping Mall
o Etc.

Transferring is the most intensive behavioural influence a marketeer can achieve. If you are able to transfer 10% of a viewer’s audience in a game show to the same game on the Internet, what would the additional media value be worth? The converted audience is an interested “intense” audience, worth more than accidental viewers. If you could lure them into leaving personal data you’d have a privileged audience you can target in the future.

Will advertisers be interested in a cross media approach to reach their customers and can you sell a cross media advertisement package in one deal? I think so. Proof is already there in the market. Advertisers are shifting from loyalty programs towards integrated involvement programs.

The examples I gave so far come from the entertainment industry. But all kinds of communication will follow the same pattern. Be it commercial communication for products or services, education or even government.

The use of consecutive media in a commercial concept I call a “media cascade”. One medium refers to another intensifying the customer relationship with every step.

Media Cascades

The philosophy is based on the creation of relationships. I recognised 4 basic steps earlier that apply tot all sorts of communication (personal, commercial, non-profit, etc)

Step 1 Attention. Make sure your recognised. Shout! A simple yet attractive message is required.

Step 2 Information exchange. Tell about your product or service and check if more is needed.

Step 3 Transact. Build trust and exchange information / services or products that establishes the relationship

Step 4 Now you can start building. Connect your Relationship into your business processes and use the added value of this relationship in building new relations.

Since all steps have a different character different types of media will be used in each step. Where Step 1. is a typical broadcast step (TV, Radio, and Print) Step 3 for instance is an interactive step where to customer supplies information to you. “Warmer”, more personal media should be used because the communication is drawn to a personal and trusted level. Mobile phones and internet communities are typical in this step.

You have to realise that you have to convert people from one step to the next and so from one medium to another. Your reach (eye balls) in step one falls out into two Referral (media transfer of customers) and Waste (users that do not react). Maybe you can catch them still by adding different angles in Step 1, the most crucial step.

This integration of media results in a different approach towards marketing and business processes and as a result toward ICT since processes must be designed to accept external information (Step 3). For instance subscriber self-care portals.

Research in the USA showed already in 1998 that personal media like the internet could not boost without other media as a referral platform. Different types of media referring to the internet resulting in concrete sales were;
– TV 55%
– Radio 15%
– Print 7%
– Internet 23%

The cascades you can build around different types of communications can consist of different media. Let me give you a few examples.

In the market for government information congresses are used regularly to relate to fields like industry, healthcare etc. It is obvious that in order to generate enough attention Billboards, Broadband Advertising, etc are used. Secondly potential attendants are facilitated with a subscription facility (internet, paper forms). Once the primary exchange of information has taken place the congress becomes the relationship platform. Not only between organisation and attendants but – even more important – between attendants.

There is a distinct relationship between the message you want to send and the distance between the used media type and its user. You could divide media in 4 different categories using this rule. The closer the medium the more trusted information can be exchanged and the more interactive the relationship will be. You should also appreciate the different situation the viewer finds himself in.

Just a brief overview of screens and distances as I described in media characteristics. From these categories a media cascade could be build. I will leave the paper equivalents out this time.

Media categories

45 feet Billboards, Cinema screen, etc. The viewer finds himself in a random crowd. No interaction.
9 feet TV Screens. Viewer finds himself in a family type of situation. Remote controlled
3 feet PC/Internet. Viewer sits in his personal environment, possible with trusted friends.
0 feet Mobile Phone, PSP, iPod / iPhone etc. User/viewer is alone. Usually no one else is allowed in this environment.

Since these media types play a different role in users lives and behaviour these messages sent are different but must be tuned to the goals your organisation has set for it self.

Rightly tuned synergy between media could lead to;
. More business
. Tighter consumer relationships adding value to your portfolio
. Better tuned business processes
. Better information mining opportunities
. Better margins

Monomedia

This all does not mean that I see no existence for stand alone media. I can see magazines, TV programs, newspapers, book and so on with no additional cross reference what so ever. The thing is that the used formula must be so powerful that it automatically generates word of mouth referral.

Summary

Means : Customer interaction, the prime ingredient of a trusted relationship, requires flexible and reliable service processes. ICT supporting these processes will change rapidly over the next years. Business alignment is not enough. Business prediction is necessary. Old monolithic systems will be shielded off – encapsulated – with portal technology based on web 2.0 type solutions, creating direct input form the outside world.

Message : The message distributed over a range of media should have a strong conceptual idea behind it. It should be applicable in all 4-steps in a media cascade.

Media : Cross media marketing will increasingly dominate the marketing world.

The value chain reversed

The customer has become the main asset of a company since the introduction of interactive technology. How do we activate and manage this asset?

A company or organization can be described as the sum of its assets or as a profit and loss statement. Modern companies can also be described as the sum of its stakeholders. A few companies are already valued as the sum of their customers. These are companies build around interactive participation like audio/video postings, social networks and mobile phone operators. This trend will expand to traditional companies when they create digital customer service environments. Customer participation will increase and therefore has to be taken very seriously.

This book deals with the increasing role of media in customer relationships. The simple fact that customers can talk back revolutionises these B-to-B and B-to-C relationships up to the point that the value of a company will be expressed as the sum of its relationships instead of its products. The value chain reversed.

The basic ingredients of digital relationships are Marketing brought to customers through the use of the appropriate Media using the right infrastructural Means.

I will apply this 3M model when necessary to understand the impact on organisational issues like business processes, change and program management and governance.

In the spring of 1993 I was asked to start a business development unit within a large Dutch based ICT supplier. We found ourselves confronted with many questions we were not able to answer. It was the dawn of open systems standards and the dawn of a new communications phenomenon. It was called the Internet.

We had already implemented a new media knowledge unit dealing with what we then called interactive media Focussed on “Videotext”.

We changed our focus from videotext to the internet in an instant and left videotext for what it was, firmly convinced of the fact that the internet would replace videotext in the blink of an eye.

In retrospect the fun here is that videotext is neither interactive, nor new media. On the other hand videotext applications are still active in large numbers.

Since then I have given a lot of thought to different media types and asked questions like;

o Will new digital media replace the old ones?
o Can different media types reinforce each other or are they just competitors?
o Do media have the same lifecycle as normal products?
o Can people deal with more than one medium at a time?
o How is marketing affected by the introduction off a new medium?
o What values more in media; transaction or attention?
o How will interactivity influence organisations, its processes and its people?

The business development drive calls for two important ingredients. First of all technological knowledge is required. At the same time the knowledge of business processes and relationships between companies and their customers becomes relevant because the automated processes of companies affected the day-to-day life of their customers for the first time.

This may well be the basis for the new media dilemma. Traditional technology experts are basically looking inward and have to change their attitude to more external / commercial thinking.

In the years 1997 until 2000 I focussed on the possible synergy between media. I had the dream of being able to convert audiences from broadcast media towards narrowcast media, in order to be able to influence consumers in their behaviour and create relationships other than just based on pre and horizontally programmed media. I really thought that you could use TV to power up internet initiatives and even create communities.

I found the broadcast television companies and TV production companies interested in the thought, but not in the action. The magazine companies listened to these new insights and stated that digital media could never replace the paper friend function magazines represent.

In a later stage I targeted marketing companies with actually the same results.

They where all proven right when in late 2000 the internet promise collapsed. But…

Right now the early internet adopters have become of age, they have a commercial status, and they have become a market. They don’t read magazines (or only a few), they don’t read magazines (or only free of charge) they spend a lot of time on digital gaming, mobile telephones, iPod’s and what have you.

We see a shift in advertising spending towards digital media. Not on all levels but significant.

The introduction of new entertainment and information devices shows such innovative power that only from that phenomenon you can conclude that they are here to stay, that this is just the beginning.

Recent jobs for publishing companies revitalised my ideas on how media affect people, what role they play in the day to day life and why new and old media have not yet found a good synergy model.

Everything in this book is a sublimation of my own ideas on media and marketing and the technology that enables it. They are based on research, practical experience, discussions, sales pitches, presentations and projects I have done. The ideas like Media Cascades and reversed value chains are my own observations. Ideas like Life Cycle management merely an interpretation of previous studies that I leave unreferenced.

I hope to challenge your thoughts and ideas on the interaction between media and people and that it triggers you to look at your business from a different perspective.

Part I. will focus on the customer side with topics like;

Value chains
Consumer behaviour and media
Changing media landscape
Publishing dilemmas
Building relationships

Part II. deals with technology its possibilities, its usage and its effect on customers;
Technology push
Innovation
Life cycle management

Part III. Puts the different media in perspective.;
Media characteristics
Media cascades
Communities, portals and self organisation
Content production and property rights

Finally I will present you with a number of generic cases to illustrate my reasoning which I hope will challenge you.
o Publishing
o Marketing Agency
o Telecom
o Service Institution
o Logistics

I hope to show you that companies are all facing the same challenge. The use of interaction to their best interest. A lot of change lies ahead.


Three angles to look at companies.

The Means they have. This includes all assets, people, machines, software, everything. The sum off all means appears on the balance sheet that is the basis for the company’s value

The Message they send. This has to do with the image off the companies, how it wants to be recognized. It creates the social context

The Media they use to send the message to their customers

In every chapter I will go into these aspects in a brief summary