» Bob Pearson - Vice President of communities and conversations for Dell (#2)
» Tim Mapes - Senior Vice President of Marketing at Delta Air Lines
» Barbara Basney - Director of global advertising for Xerox
» Bob Pearson - Vice President of communities and conversations for Dell (#1)
» Robert Greenberg - Vice President of Corporate Brand Marketing for Panasonic
» Jason Dowdell - Founder of MarketingShift
» Ed Faruolo - Vice President of Brand Development and Advertising at Lincoln Financial Group
» Gary Briggs - former SVP, Chief Marketing Officer, eBay North America
Currently Chairman of the Board of Yahoo, Inc. and formerly Chairman and CEO of advertising agency D’Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, Roy Bostock has a depth of experience working on both sides of the marketing table, traditional and digital. I had the opportunity to speak with him recently about what he believes has and hasn’t changed for brand managers in this fast-evolving digital marketing economy.
AA: The premise of my book is that the general principles of building a great brand haven’t changed as a result of digital technology but, instead, have been magnified by our ability to see and hear more clearly what consumers expect from brand organizations. It’s necessitated the need for organizations to respond more quickly and to keep their promises. What is your reaction to this premise?
RB: I think this is generally true. The fact is that people haven’t changed just because technology has changed. A brand is still the perception they have of a product or service. A brand is still something that exists in their hearts and minds. It’s how people get information, how they’re influenced to believe one thing versus another that’s been altered dramatically by technology. You still have to get insights about consumers and deliver a benefit.
AA: Right. Consumers are just more plugged in, and plugged into more avenues of communication than ever before. The key is to know how and where to use new modes of technology to get them engaged.
RB: What we’re seeing is essentially the continued fragmentation of media. The fragmentation of traditional media began in the 1960’s. For example, in 1965 the total media expenditure for Scope mouthwash was $10 million. With relatively few outlets for branding, the entire country knew about Scope in less than four weeks. It’s becoming harder and harder to build a brand using traditional media in a cost effective way. You can no longer count on the consistency of reach and frequency of messages.
AA: What’s interesting is that you can get a storyline about a brand going around the Internet overnight and it can make the brand with almost no expenditure. It can just as easily break it.
RB: In that respect, owners of brands have less control than they used to. The combination of the First Amendment and the Internet causes a great deal of speculation and distorted information, both positive and negative, that makes it real challenge to manage a brand. To your initial point, brand managers have to make it a primary responsibility to monitor digital communications carefully – to be quicker to think, to respond, and to be fully aware of what’s taking place online relative to their products and services. We didn’t have to think about this pre-digital. It’s created a totally different kind of challenge.
AA: From your perspective, has the digital marketplace created any new challenges for agencies relative to the integration of departmental responsibilities?
RB: A big challenge is that many digital departments or pieces were acquired as separate assets, separate and apart from the mainstream agency. They were culturally different and operated differently. There has been this bifurcation of skills, planning, strategy, media, and creative all without the oversight of a generalist, someone who has a view of the whole landscape. Analogous to the old days, it’s like having a magazine ad department separate from the TV and the radio ad departments. What’s required to succeed is what’s always been required, someone with the ability to plan and implement a branding initiative across all agency assets.
AA: You need someone with knowledge of the entire universe given the complexity of opportunities.
RB: When I was a young account executive my mother asked me what I did at the agency. “You don’t write the ads, you don’t design them, so what do you do?” I would tell her, “I’m the second best in the agency at everything we do, creative, strategy, and media. I have knowledge of all areas we tap into and help make judgments about how we ought to reach audiences.” Agencies today have a need for generalists who have a good knowledge of digital and traditional strategy and planning.
AA: Do you think there’s a topic relative to the digital environment that people are talking about either too much or too little?
RB: People talk a lot about social networking. I’m not sure it’s too much, but in my opinion the jury’s still out as to whether these sites will prove to be a short-term or a permanent phenomenon. Yes, everyone’s accessing MySpace or Facebook but, as I said earlier, it’s because people don’t change. They like to chit-chat. These sites give them more opportunity to chit-chat. Whether this activity can be monetized by the social network site owners is a big question. The young people who spend so much time at these sites aren’t necessarily there to buy anything. If they can’t monetize, if they won’t innovate, these spaces might decline in their attractiveness to users.