Underground Blog

It always seems odd to me that when the advent of a new, exciting form of media sprouts up, another has to be crushed into oblivion and “die.” Why? In a mad rush to seem like an Oracle of What’s Next, there’s always some person in our industry who has to declare the time of death of a certain type of media. And I just have to call BS. Like when I hear….

“Newspapers are dead!”
Not really. Newspaper content is shifting to online and taking a different shape than what we’ve known. Don’t mistake this change for meaning that newspapers as an irrelevant option for media where appropriate to your target audience.

“TV is dead!”
Wow. I’m glad you told me. I’ll have to notify the millions upon millions upon millions of people who have these weird boxes in their living rooms because, as you say, Johnny Expert, TV is dead. TV is transforming and expanding into online with video, thanks to good old YouTube and others (but the traditional TV isn’t leaving the house anytime soon either).

“Radio is dead!”
Interesting. So everyone with a car doesn’t listen to FM or AM radio? I know this medium is changing, but dead? Not quite. One of my clients always seems to get terrific traction from people saying, “You work for them? Hey, isn’t that the company who has the radio commercial that sounds like…”

And then I hear this, which sends me over the moon:

“Advertising is dead because social media is here!”
Stop. Stop. Stop. Hold your horses right there. I am as big a fan and proponent of social media as anyone. Social media is bringing exciting changes in the way that we converse with potential customers. But advertising or PR it is not nor should it replace. To be clear, social media is something that brand managers need to get familiarized with and fast. They need to evaluate it in the context of what they’re doing in tandem with their overall strategy rather than an add-on afterthought.

Yet, brand managers also have to remember that it is their own audience behaviors, budget, goals and more that should dictate media decisions. And what I’m seeing is that these types of factors are pointing in the direction of multiple avenues of communication, including in several cases, avenues that have been erroneously declared “dead.”

Let’s take advertising, for example. Spending in certain areas of advertising may be down, but to eliminate traditional advertising as a potential avenue – especially when it makes sense as part of research is telling you – is foolish.

I believe in integrated approaches to brand building. Sometimes that includes advertising in the picture, sometimes that doesn’t. But what The Oracles of What’s Next don’t seem to understand is that the picture can include Advertising, PR, Social Media, Digital and more. Media that makes sense for the client’s challenge gets included in the strategy. Media that doesn’t make sense for the client’s challenge still lives to get evaluated for another client, another day.

One big happy family under one brand umbrella. I think we can live with that.