Get rid of the clutter and communicate: adding value in unlikely ways
We've heard the statistics, we know the facts: on digital platforms banner blindness is on the rise, ad viewability is becoming an issue, and on TV, according to a recent report by TNS Infratest, simultaneous second screen usage results in the impact of advertising being adversely affected by nearly 60%. No doubt there are similar numbers, for those so inclined, that track the impact of other forms of media.
We live in a media-saturated world. Declarations about the number of advertising messages people are subjected to every day range from 500 to 5,000. I came across this interesting quote by J Walker Smith, executive chairman of the Futures Company, from an old article investigating the myth of 5,000 advertising messages per day: "If we really want to do good marketing, then we have to get out of the clutter business and stay solidly in the communication business. It's tempting to try and address our challenges by adding more weight to our media buys, but this only raises the cost of doing advertising, and it never goes down in this arms race."
Extending this thought, if we want to stay in the communications business instead of just the media business (read: "help people talk to one another more meaningfully", instead of "get the message out as long and wide as possible" – apologies to Byron Sharp), we need to approach business problems differently, looking for "solutions" instead of "formats", "utilities" instead of "messages".
Not many brands look to different parts of the world for inspiration. There are a number of benefits of doing this: for one, agencies and brands in media-dark areas are forced to think beyond the boundaries of traditional media, as a result of which we often see innovative work.
In India, for example, Unilever now runs the largest audio-on-demand service for free in the state of Bihar, which people can access via a missed call on their mobile phones. The insight was the popularity of the missed call phenomenon that people use to indicate a desire to be called back in the absence of sufficient credit. The Unilever radio station creates 25,000 hours of engagement with the consumer every day, with content that includes comedy and music apart from product messages. The insight is one that technology companies like ZipDial have benefited from as well in that part of the world.
Other advantages of using non-traditional media include attention spikes and increased word of mouth when value is embedded in unexpected environments (I'm reminded of UTEC's air and water-purifying billboards), less media waste because non-traditional media is likely to be more efficient (think of Playstation's work on the Oxo Tower in London – the Oxo Tower was an existing asset), and lower costs (compared to, for example, TV).
It was in 2007 that an IPA report, The Future of Advertising and Agencies: a 10-year perspective, suggested that UK agencies "invade non-traditional ad realms" if they wanted to stay competitive. Seven years on, we've made some progress, but there is a lot more we can do.
Start-ups are tackling some of these challenges in myriad ways, leading to a rise in acquisitions – think of Facebook's takeover of Oculus Rift and Moves. But brand managers and their agencies don't need to depend exclusively on big media owners if they are able to understand and visualise the impact that small, unlikely platforms can create for their businesses. In fact, the costs of creating value this way can be much less.
To paraphrase Proust, if we are to seek new landscapes and discover new forms of value, we need to search for them with new eyes, and, may I add, new tools.
Anjali Ramachandran is head of innovation at PHD UK.
To get weekly news analysis, job alerts and event notifications direct to your inbox, sign up free for Media Network membership.
All Guardian Media Network content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled 'Advertisement feature'. Find out more here.