2008-05-22 The elimination of media downtime in a "flat" world

This is one of the volumes in "The Future of Business from Booz & Company" series in which the firm's senior-level executives explain especially significant developments and emerging trends within major sectors of the global marketplace. (Booz & Company is the new name for the commercial side of Booz Allen Hamilton.) In this instance, Christopher Vollmer with Gregory Precourt focus on advertising, marketing, and media during "an era of consumer control." Moreover, that control is pervasive and expanding throughout a world that has become "flat." As Thomas Friedman explains, "It is now possible for more people than ever to collaborate and compete in real time with more people on more different kinds of work from more different corners of the planet and on a more equal footing than at any previous time in the history of the world." That is to say, it is now possible for almost everyone and everything in today's world to be connected in all manner of relationships.

To what does the title refer? According to Vollmer, "As with the Internet that helped to shape it, the new environment is `always on' because the consumer is always present: constantly seeking opportunities and value, taking advantage of the multiplying media around it, and (at the same time) being bombarded with ever more media in ever more forms." What about marketers? They are "'always on' as well: they have no respite or downtime because the rapidly changing nature of their audiences - and the means of connecting with them - requires continual experimentation, innovation, and shifts in strategy."

All of the authors of volumes in this series have the full benefit of a wealth of resources that have been accumulated during the completion of Booz's client assignments throughout the world. The specific observations and recommendations that Vollmer offers are research-driven and based on real-world information. For example:

How the 21st century marketing mix has developed and how marketing initiatives must change to take full advantage of it (Chapter 1)

Why an understanding of the 21st century is "the currency that trumps all others"; also, lessons to be learned from Procter & Gamble, one of the most successful digital age pioneers (Chapter 2)

How several media giants (e.g. ESPN, Time Warner, Vogue magazine, MTV, E.W. Scripps Company, and NBC Universal) have responded effectively to the "post-analog, always-on mandate"(Chapter 3)

How metrics that are both behavior-specific and action-specific (if applied correctly) can create a significant - if not decisive -- competitive advantage after completing a transition from exposure to engagement (Chapter 4)

Why advertising agencies need to understand what marketers now expect, indeed demand: "how much their actual value to marketers has shifted fro `the big creative idea' and `the most efficient media buy' to `the most sophisticated and innovative media planning.'"; also, why and how the agency of the future must be more than an advertising partner - it must be a business builder. (Chapter 5)

Then in Chapter 6, Vollmer reiterates that his book's title was selected because "there is no longer any downtime in advertising, media, or marketing. The pace is so relentless that the expression 24/7 does not do it justice. Think more in terms of 60/60/24/7. Every second a connection is being made with a consumer somewhere. So marketers, media companies, and advertising agencies must be always on." He then shifts his attention to the need for advertising agencies to complete the transition from Proposition 3 (i.e. segmentation of specialized services) to Proposition 4 that says, "We are all in each other's world. The more we know each other, the more helpful, relevant, and entertaining the marketing and advertising of products and services can be." Vollmer also discusses an exemplary agency, AKQA, and the lessons that can be learned from how its people fulfill a vision of being "an idea agency. It's not necessarily creative or media."

In less than 200 pages, Vollmer provides a remarkably comprehensive and cohesive examination of what he envisions as a "60/60/24/7" future for advertising, marketing, and media. In fact, what he has shared with rigor as well as eloquence reminds me of what Peter Drucker said ten years ago when he shared his own perspectives in what lies ahead for managers. "Predictions? No. These are the implications of a future that has already happened."

Additional notes and resources are available at www.businessfuture.com.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Friedman's The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (Further Updated and Expanded Edition), Competing in a Flat World: Building Enterprises for a Borderless World co-authored by Victor K. Fung, William K. Fung, and Yoram (Jerry) Wind, John E. Ettlie's Managing Innovation (Second Edition): New Technology, New Products, and New Services in a Global Economy, Fast Strategy: How strategic agility will help you stay ahead of the game co-authored by Yves Doz and Mikko Kosonen, Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement: Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success, and Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution co-authored by Jeanne Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson.