New Media Demands Transparent Marketing

Marketing in new media has shifted from one-way to two-way communication, requiring companies to listen more closely to consumers and compelling both sides to build a responsible, reliable community in which this new communication can continue to be trusted and valued, said Puneet Manchanda, associate professor of marketing.

He moderated a panel discussion of new media and new models of advertising at Management Conference at Gleacher Center on May 18.

“The big players have a vested interest in making sure the dialogue—this two-way communication—is kept as honest and as safe for consumers as possible,” he said. “I’m not sure most firms have come to that realization yet. They’re still in a state of, ‘How do we deal with this?’ rather than thinking what proactive role they can play in the absorption of this information.”

The three biggest changes occurring in all forms of marketing are driven by changes in distribution, creation, and marketplaces, said Rishad Tobaccowala, ’82, chief executive officer of Denuo. “I use the word ‘marketing’ because increasingly I believe terms like ‘advertising,’ ‘creative media,’ and ‘communications’ are sort of irrelevant,” Tobaccowala said.

In North America today about 20 percent of people’s time is spent on digital media, he said. “First, that is a very big number. But the other thing is that 80 percent of their time is not spent on digital media. Whatever one does, if you’re a marketer, you have to recognize that most dollars still will be spent in non-digital media. That is very, very important to keep in mind.”

Consumers of television and video want choice, control, and convenience, said Mark Loughney, vice president of sales and strategy research for ABC TV Network. “They want to be able to consume the entertainment and information on their own schedules,” he said. “They want to watch what they want, and they want to have that easily provided to them.”

The introduction of the digital video recorder has dramatically altered accountability in television advertising. The device allows viewers to avoid commercials but also allows Nielsen Media Research ratings service to track whether viewers ever watch those commercials, Loughney said. The VCR allowed people to change when they viewed a program, but Nielsen was not able to measure playback, he said. “It was assumed that if you recorded our program, you watched it, and we got full credit for that viewing.”

Companies using new media have to respect the new two-way dialogue with consumers, said Cynthia McIntyre, senior director of advertising for CareerBuilder.com. “The challenge is to make sure you know the rules of the game and respect that environment,” McIntyre said. “You have to be authentic and true.”

Marketers must also battle the chronic clutter of Internet messaging in different media platforms, she said. “I am now concerned with integration—making sure I’m talking to different people at different points,” McIntyre said. “That is a critical obstacle for me.”

The “heart and soul” of the credibility issue in marketing and branding is the occasional dissonance between a firm’s advertising image and reality, said Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, who coined the phrase “consumer-generated media.” “Brands say one thing, but the evidence points to the opposite,” Blackshaw said. “We’re all going to have to get much better at message calibration.”

Companies need to start listening to customers because in new media they will need to be transparent about their messages, he said. “A blog says, ‘I tried this product and it really doesn’t work,’” Blackshaw said. “That’s a whole different accountability structure. Interestingly, one of the number-one issues that drives virality, or word of mouth, is consumer recognition that an ad claim is false. It just brings out a level of emotion that drives propensity to throw tomatoes at the brand.”

—Phil Rockrohr