The New Media belong to the Users
by Steve Johnson, Riger Vice President for Client Services

In the beginning there was one medium, print, and it was...informative. Then came radio...informative and engaging. Television...informative, engaging and entertaining. The Internet...informative, engaging, entertaining and interactive. Today, with the advent of convergence -- blending words, pictures, sound and motion with logic and emotion, info-tainment and interactivity that flows through our computers, TV screens, e-pplicances, handheld digital assistants and cell phones -- the "New Media" are making a profound impact on the way we live and the way we work.

This article is not about why the information age is happening. Enough is being said about the why. Nor is it about the how. That's a long story with an awful lot of zeros and ones in it. Rather, this essay speaks to a subject on the minds of many a businessperson: "How do I make these so-called "New Media" work for me, in my business?"

The Internet itself is not all that new. It's actually been around since the sixties. What is new, and more importantly, what is particularly powerful, about the Internet and its two-way cousins -- namely the CD-ROM and interactive kiosk -- is the up-close-and-personal, lean-in, two-way nature of this new communications medium.

In and of itself, the slickest web site is still just another tool in the marketer's toolbox. But as guitar-legend Eric Clapton may have said best: "It's in the way that you use it." And, as most any web site committee member will quickly attest, the company web site is not the exclusive tool of the Marketing department any more than it is the exclusive domain of the Information Systems department. Fact is the web and all the sites on it by all rights belong to the users. That's how the web was built: Power to the people. Likewise, the inherent power of CD-ROMs, kiosks, e-books and other interactive gizmos is not based on the sender, but rather on an empowered receiver. In the old days, freedom of the press belonged "to those who own one." Then the broadcast networks took charge. Then it was Ted Turner's cable empire that had the power. Today, the "New Media" belong, to a great degree, to their users. You and I select the information, the entertainment, the advertising we want and only what we want, when we want it. The rest is just noise.

Enter the Ad Agency
Thanks to the computer and the Internet, any business today can get a message out, promote their business and build their brand using the "New Media." And anyone with a hammer and nails can build a house, right? Well, maybe not. Building a brand, like building a house, usually benefits from professional help.

In light of new tools and changing rules, how are today's ad agencies incorporating the new media into the advertising mix? Some have tried, unsuccessfully, to force interactive media into the traditional mold of one-way advertising -- trying to grab the attention of the masses through clever attention-getting devices: "ooh, a spinning logo," or "aah, a flashy graphic." Others fill their client's web sites with "brochure-ware" or (worse yet) page after page of mind-numbing news releases in hopes that someone will read them.

The good agencies know that success in the "New Media," just as in the past, comes as much from perspiration as it is does from inspiration. They sit down with the client and explore how the "New Media" can help solve its business problems. They listen, they think and they make strong recommendations on how the best of the traditional media can be combined with the best of the new media to get an even better result. Maybe a portion of the web site can make the TV campaign more effective. Maybe the manufacturer's web site can make the distributor more effective. Maybe an extranet site can improve employee morale. Maybe a kiosk in the lobby is the best way to cross-sell visitors on the client's other products and services. Or, maybe the client needs a (gasp!) brochure (that his prospect can pocket and peruse on the train ride home) with a URL that will transport the prospect later that night to a web page featuring a demo of what the prospect just read about.

Ad agencies are often in a position to see the big-picture marketing communication issues in a way that sometimes the CEO can't put a finger on, the consultant can't understand and the marketing director is just too close to see.

Thanks to unrivalled creative talent (creative people immersed in the creation of persuasive ideas, words and images), media expertise (people whose passion is finding how to get the message to the right people in the right place at the right time) and entrepreneurial spirit, ad agencies of the 21st century will win the day in the "New Media" just as they have in the traditional media over the years.

What good agencies bring to the "New Media" table is the solve-the-puzzle mentality. Yes, they write and design killer web sites and well-placed banner ads. But first they look at the problem from the customer's shoes. Only then can they uncover the basic truth, that degree of differentiation, that Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that they're going to write, design and create around.

Advertising in any media is both an art and a science founded on a fundamental understanding of basic human behavior that is at the root of all commerce, be it traditional or "e," B2C or B2B. Ad agencies bring a perspective that says the solution must be designed from the inside out -- from that space between the customer's ears outward -- not from a "corporate" perspective that attempts to work from the outside in.

In the new economy, no advertiser can fully claim that space that is the all-important space. The gray matter between the customer's ears still belongs (thank goodness) to the customer. It is the ultimate frontier for the "New Media" marketer. No longer will share of voice, share of market or share of wallet be enough. From now on, it's all about mind share.

In the new world of "New Media," ad agencies will continue to be change agents, plying the powers of persuasion in all corners of the world.

(For more on this topic, see "Perspectives on Web Marketing: The End User Still Steers the Ship" in our Knowledge Base.)

As published in The Business Record, June 15, 2000.

Additional reading: Why the New Media are important to you. Request a copy by emailing sjohnson@riger.com.

About the author:
Steve Johnson is a graduate of the Binghamton University School of Management. Since joining the agency in 1987, he has worked with a wide variety of business-to-business and consumer clients.

Riger Advertising, established in 1950, marks its 50th anniversary in business this year.

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