delman and Boston Consulting Group co-sponsored a dinner on Wednesday to explore media convergence and new ways to communicate with the consumer. Attendees included important marketers (AstraZeneca, Pfizer, GE, Citigroup, Delta Airlines, Dannon), communications firms (Y&R, BBDO, Razorfish) and media companies (AOL, Yahoo, Dow Jones, VH1, Conde Nast, Walt Disney). Here are a few of the key findings from the event:
- Ideas are paramount. Too much time is spent on where to communicate, not enough on what to talk about. Ideas can be gathered by listening to stakeholders and consumers online.
- The new sweet spot for video content is a 3-4 minute segment, between long form (movie) and short form (30 second spot). This is the average length of segments on YouTube.
- The web has scalability issues for major marketers. TV is still perceived as necessary to reach a mass audience for brand building, while the web is fine for a small advertiser focused on product choice/sales. TV is also seen as offering predictable sales results, key to a food business with a need to forecast production precisely. Of course there was a loud dissent from Wenda Harris Millard of Yahoo who described TV ads as “spray and pray.”
- There is further proof of Linda Stone’s adage, "The World of Continuous Partial Attention". Thirty eight percent of those watching the Oscars on TV were also on-line. People may be watching TV but are watching TV differently.
