I was listening to that great song by the Buggles “Video Killed the Radio Star” as I realized, I love sitting in on meetings where you watch to two big factions of today’s marketing department sitting in a room together discussing the future of the marketing tools of their company.
I want you to picture a boardroom with a large rectangular table. Crowded around it are various business types for…let’s call it Company X. At the head of the table is the VP of Marketing/Communication or Marketing Manager. Now we’re not going to get into the ages of these people, because for the purpose of this post…just picture everyone at the table is your age, but just has different opinions. If you really need to picture ages of the people at the table read Jessie Newburn’s two part Generational Marketing Series. It might give you a greater scope, or help you relate more to this post, and if it would, please take a minute and read both parts one and two.
Since you have that vivid picture, now picture traditional media team on one side of the table and the “new media” team on the other both arguing why they are viable and worth the main focus of attention of the companies marketing budget. The VP or marketing manager stuck in the middle mediating the argument and seeing the good in both but fearing of wasting the all ready stretched budget.
Traditional media team is so entrenched in the way they’ve always done things and unwilling to change or flex. They passionately argue that “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. They have a personal investment in wanting make sure their job isn’t swept under the rug of these new tools they haven’t fully taken the time to understand.
The “new media” team is happy to point out the poor ROI and how these new tools are the future and the other team should just accept and adapt. They passionately argue that this is the their target audience and they ignore old marketing tactics so these new tools shouldn’t be ignored. They have a personal investment in wanting to prove these new marketing tools are valid and useful so their job isn’t passed onto an intern or a secretary who may not fully understand what is needed to do the job effectively.
What I love about this is that, rather than talk about how they can effectively merge their communication, they argue sides like the marketing version of West Side Story (Don’t faint, but I’ve seen a musical or two). I really enjoy these “discussions” because it goes round and round, both sides arguing their strengths, until either the time has come and gone for the meeting to be over or someone waves the white flags and gives up the meeting to get lunch or a break from the arguing. This person is normally the one at the head of the table torn between the legacy of traditional media and the freshness of the “new media” tools.
I don’t think social media has killed traditional media, yet. I think it might be a few years away, but I think what will kill traditional media won’t be social media but a failure to adapt. I think that those staunch “new media” team members only users are so entrenched into their tools they aren’t inclined to invite the traditional media members to the party.
How can the two play nicely together?
In my opinion, we all know that most traditional media is a one way conversation, but what if that conversation was more giving directions to the tools on social media? What if an engaging blog, Twitter post, or Facebook comment referenced a clue to a discount in the companies’ print ad or news article? If advertisers can seep real world ads into video games, why can’t the two forms of media we have in existence find better ways to share the space?
There are a few really good examples of this done out there, but I would love to hear from you on what you’ve seen. What company, or organization, out there has cleverly caught your attention with the blending of traditional and “new media”?
And as all ways, thank you, if you’ve read this far, and stay wicked.
Tags: entrepeneurship, entrepreneur, generation X, Generational Marketing, Grow Smart Business, Marketing, michael dougherty, small business, social media, Technology
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