The Burrito King

Survival in today’s marketing landscape depends on embracing change more than ever.

(originally published July 2006)

The marketing landscape is changing rapidly, causing a tectonic shift that has devoured the old-school “push model” of advertising. The divide between traditional and interactive marketing is vanishing, requiring agencies and marketers to implement campaigns that effectively blend technology, creative and strategy.

Increased engagement by consumers, ubiquitous portable media devices and the fragmentation of channels have broken the market down to microtargeted niches, causing marketers — especially entertainment marketers and agencies — to redefine themselves. They must shift focus to integrating marketing approaches and managing consumer connections not just upon a product’s launch but throughout the whole product lifecycle as well. And they must do it, not from a pedestal, but from the trenches– from the places where the audiences are living and breathing, and contributing. 

You see, in this fast-paced new world, the successful marketer is a latter-day storyteller, breaking up a plot into a thousand pieces and spreading them across the many communication channels– TV, print, online, wireless, social networks, the streets and beyond. But the challenge is that all those pieces, no matter how compelling they are on their own, must redirect consumers right back to the main story.

So, entertainment companies and agencies must now rethink even their most tried-and-true product marketing strategies. They need to figure out how to spread their storylines across multiple channels, engaging consumers directly and on their own terms. This shift and expansion in fundamental business models means interactive marketing can no longer remain an afterthought in the promotional process–it’s the keystone for reaching today’s consumers who want a stake in their brand interactions.

Adapting to the evolution
Speaking recently at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, Mark Tutssel, worldwide creative officer at Leo Burnett, advised, “Marketers must learn to let go of the control they think they have over their brand… Once consumers have interacted with brands, they will not go back to being shouted at by marketers.”

The explosion in the number of media-portable consumer devices and the attendant variety of entertainment products create additional challenges for marketers, forcing them to take a hard look at how they manage and promote their products. Most entertainment companies are still marketing their products as if there were few choices of media, and only the ability to touch a fragment of the potential audience at a time. But eradication of this narrow and outdated viewpoint is imperative. Marketers who don’t start to look at the big picture when gearing up to promote their products are the ones who will be left behind as the industry continues to move forward.

For instance, many movie studios still manage theatrical, DVD, TV and VOD windows separately, with isolated traditional and interactive groups for each. But the windows between these channels are shrinking, and the increasing ease of transferring digital files means that entertainment companies have many more options for migrating consumers to their products– and all the various formats for their products. Structuring company marketing departments and agencies to better plan the strategy from initial release to secondary channels will become critical. Here are some suggestions for accomplishing this:

• Set up the product marketing managers to manage budgets/planning horizontally across the product life cycle, versus vertically in the release window (theatrical, DVD, et cetera).
• Set up agency relationships and creative teams the same.
• Develop a CRM manager responsible for setting up infrastructure to capture, market to and retain consumers across all channels.

Entertainment marketers will have to adapt to make the best use of the opportunities in this new landscape. They’ll have to learn how to market to consumers who went to the theatrical movie but didn’t purchase the DVD or digital download. They’ll need to better market across genres. They’ll have to make connections to the horror fan who also likes comedy or has kids who like animation. Above all, marketers will have to set up systems to share information efficiently among disparate divisions to accomplish this cross-media consumer migration effectively.

As the industry struggles to adjust to the ever-changing topography of consumer demand and the digital marketplace, it’s time to focus on better aligning its teams with its targets. This means spreading storylines across multiple channels while giving special attention to managing the relationships created in each channel.

We can’t go backwards. Consumers will continue to gain control over their media and entertainment options, and they’re just not going to tolerate marketers who shout at them anymore. But it’s the traits of marketers who involve consumers in the process and speak to them with personal relevance that will carry us into the new communication era. Will your company make the cut?