HotHouse head of copy Alan Curson: “The mainstream is dead. Long live the mainstream.”
Alan Curson, Head of Copy at HotHouse takes a look at the new mainstream and how there are now so many more opportunities to engage consumers.
Posters, TV commercials, print ads … love ’em.
In fact, I can’t think of many things more satisfying than coming up with a good idea, negotiating the moving goal posts, fighting off the Idea Vampires and Can’t Brigades and finally running it. It’s not better than sex, but it is pretty good.
So I’m not having a go at what used to be, and many people still call, ‘the mainstream’ (ie TV). But that particular mainstream is now more stream than main. As a marketing tool, it’s now a support player. And while it has an important role to play, never again will it be the singular force it once was.
Unfortunately, rather like the Samurai warrior’s victim who didn’t realise his head had been cut off, because the sword was so sharp, many people are carrying on as if the old model’s fine. Or maybe, just a bit under the weather – nothing that making the logo bigger, focus groups or kicking the agency can’t cure.
For brands that can’t see how radically things have changed, the future is a depressing cycle of spending more and getting less.
But for those with their eyes open, there’s good news. Because there is a new mainstream – actually it’s not even that new – and it offers even more opportunity than the old one.
I’m talking of course about the www. space.
TV became marketing king back when media choice was limited and most people watched the same things, so you knew your ad would be seen by the masses.
But these days with gazillions of TV channels spreading audiences ever thinner and offering less coverage than Tony Abbot’s budgie smugglers, plus digital recording boxes that let viewers to skip ads completely, it’s quite possible to spend millions and find no bugger’s watching.
So the game has changed. And smart brands realise that rather than using the internet to support TV and print, it’s now far more effective to do it the other way around and put digital at the centre of things. This offers far more opportunity to engage consumers and get them to interact. And now the mobile internet has come of age, it even reaches them wherever they go.
To see what I mean, Google the Tippex bear campaign or the Hell’s Pizza zombie adventure or check out Tesco Korea’s shopping by smartphone campaign where people used their phones to buy groceries from posters on the subway.
These examples come from different parts of the world, yet they all reached me here in Australia. Not many TV or print ads can do that.
So what, I hear you ask, do I want you to do about it?
Well, while the game has changed, many attitudes have not. The agency that handles TV is still usually considered the ‘lead’ agency and tends to dictate campaign strategy, style and even ideas to the digital outfit.
This just restricts online possibilities to old parameters – what was visible within the previous mainstream’s limited sphere of vision. So basically it’s a waste of opportunity and budget.
Now this isn’t a creative ego hissy fit about who’s more important than whom – well, maybe it is a bit, but the argument is still valid.
And of course there are some enlightened clients who understand that the best way to use digital really effectively is to ask people who actually understand how it works. There are also a few TV/print agencies’ who get it.
But they are the exceptions and an alarming number of people still think simply putting a web address at the bottom of their latest ad or having a facebook page will cut the digital mustard.
And far too many digital agencies are so used to being subservient to the old mainstream, they don’t challenge the old arrangement and don’t encourage their clients to involve them at a point where they can have any effect.
And what drives me nuts is digital agencies selling themselves short by pushing science and technology while completely ignoring the genuinely awesome power of digital to grab people with ideas. I even heard one creative director on TV (no names, no lawsuits) saying ideas were redundant and making clients’ budgets work was all about clever algorithms.
I’m not knocking the power of science and technology at all, but in our business, the only real bargain is and always has been, a good idea. That’s what makes budgets go further. And agencies that focus on the technology don’t get asked to the table as partners. They just get told what to do.
So what I’m asking for (apart from maybe a bloody nose) is for the digital fraternity to man and woman up, and demand our rightful place as the new mainstream. And that clients should wake up, smell the pixels and adjust their budgets accordingly.
18 Comments
i’ve been saying this for years. when will the dinosaurs and ego maniacs realise this???
It is all about ideas and the internet is just another channel. A slightly different one but still a channel.
People saying ‘mainstream is dead’ are dead behind the rest of the world. We’ve moved on, stopped announcing years ago.
“Ideas first” is right. So over people blatantly selling their angle under the guise of an overall industry insight. Online is way too fragmented and difficult in spite of what people like you say, to harness effectively. Enter TV. And enter Ideas. Its not about the avenue/channel – it’s about the strength of the idea and how it’s executed across different channels. The reason why so called TV agencies are considered the leading force in a client’s mix of agencies is because TV still reaches big audiences in one hit. People in the internet/online game hate that, sorry guys, it’s true.
I can’t believe i’m going to enter into another debate again with you 43 points.
I am so sick of the term “digital” because anyone that doesn’t realise that every (and i do mean EVERY) channel is or should be digital. There is no reason for any kind of medium to have some form of digital outlet. The at home internet, mobile technology, interactive screens are pure digital channels but every channel (inc. TV, print, outdoor, DM, etc) should have some form of digital conversation continuation.
I do agree with you 43 Points in “ideas first” but maybe not always foremost. Sometimes as marketers we need to focus on business problems and proven information and data. Not because its a great idea, but because some formats are proven sales driver. However, this can lead to some horrible ads, because the clients want think that thinking can extend into every medium. which it can’t, in a cluttered world of ads, sometimes pure sales driven ads just don’t catch a consumers attention.
The “right” way forward, is to stop thinking any medium is “dead” and start to break down misconceptions about digital being just another channel. Try thinking that TV is also the internet, a print ad is actually a TV ad, a website is actually a Print ad or a DM piece is actually a mobile technology solution.
The world has obviously changed. Unfortunately we keep on trying to retrofit our old ways of working (digital agencies included) into this new world order. Rather than truly creating a new way of working. I am not saying that i have figured it out yet. But by god i am trying. When a brief comes in, i choose not to look at the budget or the mediums. Because i believe anything can be achieved with a “why not” attitude and i don’t believe selecting a medium before a strategy and creative is ever the right way forward.
So basically as a response to your article Alan, there is no mainstream and there is no “digital”. And please can we stop saying we have a “new (insert something old here)”.
Lets truly create a new way of working, not a better old way.
Really? Still with this all hail the next Messiah crap?
Digital isn’t the new mainstream. Sure you can do lots of great things, get lots of likes, get lots of views on YouTube but it won’t actually sell anything unless there’s an idea.
Digital is a medium. It’s not a revolution. The sooner the creative fraternity “man and woman up” the sooner the digital brigade will have to start backing up all these claims with real proof and real evidence of effectiveness.
Ask Pepsi if they reckon digital/social media is the new mainstream.
It is all about ideas. But the people saying that the Internet is just another channel maybe a bit naive about what’s happening online. Perhaps have a look at where things are trending in the US… It’s a good forecast for where we’ll be in a year or two. There is an online equivalent of almost every offline channel and new ideas springing up all the time to engage customers which are not achievable through other media. Show me the TV ad which has engaged audiences the way Nike+ has.
Normally we get this point of view from kids. It’s good to see an old school adman like the author has seen the possibilities of online. I wish more would.
Obviously long copy isn’t dead Mr Hothouse.
Engage consumers? How about we actually get them to buy shit while we’re at it?
‘Creating conversations, engaging, movements’ – we do normally get this from kids. I’m sad to see yet another intelligent individual fall for the crap.
Despite the fact that the internet was supposed to kill the TV, viewing figures are on the increase in the US. Kids are spending more time in front of the TV than ever.
Digital’s great, you can do many great things with it. But FFS enough with this crap! One brilliant Old Spice campaign extension doesn’t not signal that the entire world has turned off their TV and stopped reading the paper.
I didn’t realise last weekend we set our watches back 1 hour and 4 years
That’s right, people. Keep telling that Pom to go back to the UK and continue making shonky gold lion winning TV campaigns. I sit next to him and tell him to do that everyday! The self righteous bastard won’t listen… something to do with the weather.
Exciting times times ahead it seems. But not if your a dinosaur.
Ideas are and always will be the currency of this business.
We’ve just got more places to spend them.
I feel your passion Al. And applaud it. wx
Maybe there is no “answer.”
Sometimes genius strikes and sometimes it doesn’t. It can take many different forms – some old and some new.
And luck tends to play a far bigger role than many would care to admit.
Well Wordly – I suggest you re-address this point from your post:
I do agree with you 43 Points in “ideas first” but maybe not always foremost.
Idea’s are first and foremost.
Always.
I think we’ve all missed the point here.
Shit ads are dead. Unless they’re so shit they spread like those really bad YouTube ads those two guys do. It’s got to be funny and relevant.
Clever doesn’t seem to cut it anymore.
eBay, arguably one of the internet’s finest and smartest companies will advertise…
In outdoor and print.
Online banks, such as uBank and ING advertise…
On outdoor and TV.
When Apple launches a new Lemon, they mainly advertise…
On TV. Ooh, and outdoor.
What’s the main media where you can get your message across without engaging the entire population of Antartica to do a twit-based treasure hunt through the urban area?
TV. Oooh, and outdoor. Can’t ignore outdoor. Can ignore banners.
So the until we can stop swiping one media or the next and realise it’s about being relevant to your audience and where they hang out, that one works well for branding and the other better for retail, let’s not declare anybody dead just yet.
To Old Hat – I agree
To Ideas First – I think the internet is more than just another channel. When you include all the digital possibilities available to us now I think the internet offers a way of connecting and integrating most of the channels we currently use.
To Oh Dear – If only you were right… Like Old Hat, I have been going on and on about this for years. But the number of people who don’t get it is still huge.
To 43 Points – If you actually read what I wrote you’d see that I never claimed TV was over, just that its importance as THE lead media channel has dwindled and is still dwindling dramatically. Also I’m not sure what you mean about ‘blatantly selling my angle’. I wrote what I think is true.
To Worldy – I agree that everything is digital, but what are we going to call the new technologies that give us all these great opportunities now if we don’t use that word? PS sorry you didn’t like my headline. I did, though.
To Ben – The fact that Pepsi didn’t use the medium well doesn’t make the medium wrong. I do agree you need ideas and I think if you read what I wrote you’ll see that’s central to my argument. By the way, I think Digital is revolutionary. There is no other medium you can interact with in anything like the same way.
To Mr Cynical – Now , you’re obviously someone who knows what they’re talking about .
To Sleepy Bear – I like you
To Back to The Future – What I said to Oh Dear
To Xander – You can’t get rid of me that easily
To Will – You’re a gentleman and a scholar
To Anonymous – WTF are you on about?
To Disagree with al you said – I think most of the comments have missed a few points
To Something ye might wish te consider – There’s a lot of ‘oohs’ in your comment aren’t there. To most of what you say, what I said to 43. To the rest of it, I agree, it is about being relevant to your audience and where they hang out. And where they hang out these days is mostly online.
I think I’ll shut up now.
What Mr Weiden said up above this is absolutely true. Why choose between the two? Do both, and use them the right way. Sometimes it’s far easier to hit millions of people and drive the conversation online than walking up to each individual in the street and saying ‘HEY!?’
Still applaud what you said, but he is absolutely right.