Working the non-working

One of the top creative minds in the advertising industry, Nicke Bergström from Farfar, has often used the notion of “creating time” as a cornerstone of any piece of communication that a brand puts out to the consumers. As consumers are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages each day, brands need to earn their place in the hearts of consumers. Simple one way propaganda won’t do it anymore, brands need to be relevant to make a difference.

Many companies use working vs non-working measures as a good reference to the overall cost efficiency of marketing creation vs exposure. Before the internet age, this was a relatively good and simple way to measure. On average, companies would invest maybe 10-15% of their budget on the marketing concept creation, another 15-20% on the actual production of the ad and finally, the remaining 65-75% on buying media. In practice, the concept creation and production would be listed down as non-working, since the agency time in the creative “think tank” as well as the production of the print or TVC would not be seen by consumers until these were placed in front of them through TV, outdoor or print.

In today’s world the split between working and non-working media has changed. The concept creation of a marketing campaign still remains a non-working pack of powerpoint slides and some flash files, but as soon as you produce something that is published on the web, it becomes working media. A lonely girl can become an internet celebrity, an 80′s hit song can rise from its grave, all without having to pay 1 cent of media buy.

In essence, this implies big changes in the way that marketing/media budgets should be allocated. By putting more time and energy into the concept creation, you can ensure that you are creating a package that is “born to live, not to die”. (another great quote from Nicke). The way that your marketing campaign is produced, has an even bigger significance. It’s easy to copy, paste, print to web, but that’s a total waste of the ecosystem. Good marketing creates conversations, creates time that consumers want to spend with the brand and in the end, it earns media for the brand as consumers become advocates. A well produced piece of digital marketing gives the concept a chance to fly, spread and even take a life of its own. In practice, the media split starts looking more like a 30% concept, 30% production, 40% media buying. And traditional media agencies are not gonna like that…

Watch out for the analog people

Hi world. Was thinking about an attention grabbing title for my first post on this blog and this seemed like a pretty good one to capture the essence of what i wanted to say.

To give some context to this title, the term “analog people” is a reference that we have used at work, for troops within the sales and marketing industry as a whole, that refuse to get used to the fact that the industry has evolved beyond the 30 sec TVC and the print ad. I work in sales and marketing myself and a lot of the topics i will be writing about, will focus on digital marketing in particular and the interesting scenarios that technology disruptions cause within the work environment.

However, this title also has a deeper meaning and refers to a stereotypical person that is a victim of their own previous success and resists change from the norm. In today’s business environment, these challenges emerge from the inevitable disruptions within the industry.

We all know that the web has been transforming the way that people consume, share, organize and search for data. What has also become evident, is that the sheer novelty of this channel has generated a “generation mind gap” between the staff inside any company. Nokia’s Anssi Vanjoki has often made references to Internet Immigrants (people who had to “learn” the internet) and Internet Natives (people who have grown up with it always being around) within his speeches. This gap between two generations is one that is having a larger impact on corporations than many would have originally thought.

With the emergence of the internet (both fixed and mobile) as the new mass medium, analog channel expertise has become less relevant and the digital channel understanding is often in the heads of young professionals that have not had the 15 years of experience to climb up the corporate ladder. What this causes, is a disruption to the status quo in which smart companies embrace change and empower people inside the company to become change agents, while ignorant ones stick to their old ways and resist change.

This is not a new phenomena. My grandfather used to work in a Finnish saw mill during the early part of this century. At this time, the first wave of punch card technology was hitting the industry and he was pushing to have this technology reviewed by the board of directors as an alternative and much more effective solution for managing the overall demand supply network. The topic was eventually covered by the board and the conclusions were to keep investigating this emerging technology, but no larger investments would be made until the chairman has retired (and will not have to deal with the hassle) … Go figure

We too often tend to become slaves to our old habits and refuse to change as times change. I work at Nokia, where the speed of change is one that seems to give heart attacks. Combining the fastest paced consumer electronics industry with the overall service industry on the internet, means that there’s no time to keep an ego and think that you know everything. That’s also what i love about Web 2.0. People connecting with other people and sharing, learning and achieving together. Nobody can claim to be the ultimate guru in this field, but we’re all allowed to participate and learn. That’s why i wanted to start this blog. To participate and share some humble thoughts that have come to mind across this journey.