Networked Media Doesn't Do 'Channels'

Do you know what the most annoying thing about builders is?  It’s when they refuse to talk to each other. You’ve probably been there. ‘Guys, why is there water leaking in through the ceiling?’.  ‘Don’t ask me guv, the plasterer probably knocked the pipes upstairs'.  ‘Can you take a look at it?’.  Cue sound of obligatory-sucking-in-of-air-through-teeth.  'Not today mate, ring Mick and ask him if he’s got some waff-wizard’.  ‘Huh? What’s waff-wizard. Actually, never mind, could you ring him?’.  ‘I haven’t got his number mate'.  ‘I can give it to you'.  ‘Bye, make sure to ask about the waff wizard'.  ‘Hi there, John said I should ask you about waff wizard because there’s a leak in the kitchen.  ‘Waff-what?’. ‘Waff-wizard, oh forget it, look there’s a leak in the kitchen'.  ‘Yes I saw that, looks nasty, talk to Gary - tell him he needs to use a pobble-pibble'.  And so it goes on.  What feels like an infinite number of specialists all of whom have their own languages and tools, but who see any other professionals as being inferior or incompetent, feel obliged to contradict any advice they offer and refuse to talk to each other directly.  Whilst flicking through last week’s Campaign Magazine, I had a strange feeling that the marketing industry was showing some similar traits.  There were experts from each part of the business talking about the way they saw the year ahead panning out.  Each was extolling the virtues of newspapers, digital, TV, outdoor, production, direct, sponsorship and many other areas.  All of them made sound, interesting points about their own fields, including lots of technical terms and diagnoses.  However, there was very little, if any, reference to how well they all work together.  These first-class professionals were all deeply dug into their own particular siloes.  Now, this is hardly new.  We’ve all worked in agency networks where...

...the pitch team is brought together at the last minute from the far-reaches of a global business to deliver a presentation that is always ‘seamless’, ‘media-neutral’ and ‘integrated’ : only to win and fight like cats and dogs over who is the ‘lead’ ie going to take the biggest slice of the budget. 

It’s easy to see where this siloed approach has come from.  Media has always been characterised by discreet channels, each with their own style, promises and cultures.  TV, radio, press and outdoor may all be part of the same business but they largely act alone.  Reflecting that, the marketing business has always been a fierce bunfight to convince global brand clients that a particular channel is Top Dog and that everything else is just decoration.  PR, media, research and creative advertising may all be part of the same industry but they constantly eye each other up and put each other down. The result is a relentless battle by different parts of the same industry to get a seat at the top table and then kick away the ladder to the C-Suite.

Even the new-kids-on-the-block are sucked into this mindset with professionals working in web design, SEO, mobile and social all making their case against each other, whilst rolling their eyes at those in traditional media who 'don't get it'. 

However, as all media channels are slowly sucked into one digital platform where everything is joined up and networked, the idea of ‘channels’ starts to make less sense, as do the siloes of professionals that make them tick.  In a time when I can watch TV on my computer, video on my smartphone, read newspapers on a tablet, stream radio online and wave my arms at a gaming console; all whilst browsing TwitterBook to see what my online bretheren are up to - where does one channel start and the next stop?  Throw in the mega-trend of consumers (aka people) sharing-and-comparing vast amounts of digital video, content and opinion and the marketing industry’s siloed view really begins to look like a bad starting point.  And this intermingling only looks set to continue as TVs become connected and mobile devices that scan the real world for information, through QR codes, RFIDs and AR devices become more practical and mainstream.

For consumers, media used to be fairly easy to define.  However, today the networked media world is like a bowl of spaghetti into which you just stick your fork, see what comes out and spin it around until it looks about right.  Brands and agencies that spend their time trying to decide whether the spaghetti or the tomatoes is the ‘lead’ ingredient are in danger of missing the reaction of the person enjoying the food.  Or, worse still, of sounding like the builder who does the obligatory-sucking-in-of-air-through-teeth before delivering the classic line, ‘I wish you’d come to me first'.

Comments

[Brad Bell]

Great post, James!

I haven't flipped thru Campaign in a while, but what you are describing sounds like the crunching and grinding of the machine-age religion of Specialization.

We can guess that in the same way specialization is an adaptation to the assembly line, generalization is an adaptation to the network. The computer is a machine that can simulate any machine. The network is a medium that can simulate any medium. Where the factory and assembly line, and the explosion of analog data made specialists of us, the computer and network, and the explosion of digital data encourage us to be generalists: multidisciplinary and multi-skilled.

In the future, generalists will market with integrated media, instead of specialists trying to integrate mass media. Integrated media is what happens when business stops putting the brakes on media convergence and network capacity.

[James Cherkoff]

Thanks Brad, love that.

[Mindset Marketing]

Thanks for a great post. very informative. I totally agree with you, having is the right mindset is most important of all. I Have already shared this post with a few of my friends and they loved it.
Thanks.

[James Cherkoff]

Hi there MM, glad you found it helpful.