Tuesday 24 July 2012

Ad Agencies + PR Companies starting to create their own Media Channels? An opportunity if ever there was one.


                                         

Smashing Video isn't it? The story of 'Keep Calm and Carry on' done in an interesting way. But in effect it's an Ad for 'Barter Books' who found the poster and with 2 million views, done as content, what an Ad it is.


As brands, and their Ad Agencies, pile into Social Media advertising, they're looking for good content. Good video, good stories, good places where people interact and share content. Sites that deliver on that, get the Ads because they have the eyeballs. Instead of looking for it, they can create it.


It's that old adage that "content is king" - although in today's media, perhaps more appropriately, "context is king" because what you say to a Facebook user should be different to what you say on Twitter or what you Blog and so on. It's the context that matters too.


Access to that content has never been easier and freer, because opening a Twitter account for example, or a blog, is free as long as you maintain it. In fact we all generate our own content in some ways, our own media. This Blog is content (bizarrely perhaps, but it is). Making Media has never been easier.


YouTube is a classic example of that. User Generated Content (UGC).


I'm also taken by local and international Agencies generating their own Blogs (Simply Zesty, a Dublin PR/Social Media firm, recently bought by broadcaster UTV, have a terrific daily blog very well done). Dublin Agency Cawley Nea TBWA produced a show called "Round Room Rumble" which was more than a good start.


Mashable in fact, was a Blog started by Peter Cashmore in his Aberdeen bedroom, and sold recently to CNN for 200 million usd because it's actually media, content that people want to read.


Recently I noted an international Ad company called 'Radical Media' have started a YouTube channel which generates content and interest through interviews that are interesting and watchable. 


In effect they're generating content as Ads. Or if you like, they've started their own TV Station which their clients can get on board. How's that for 360 degree thinking.


Having an Ad Agency that knows how to make good content, is possibly more important than having an Ad Agency that knows how to make good ads. Content is rich and saleable. 


There is no reason in today's media landscape that ad Agencies are not perfectly placed to produce content which in turn, becomes Ads. They have the creative skills, the production capabilities and the financial muscle - never mind the clients media spend to support that content. An Ad does not have to be 30 seconds, it can be 5 minutes, IF it's good enough. And it can be better than a traditional Ad.


Ad Agencies and PR Companies can now own their own media by simply creating it. And give their clients something to advertise on.


The Simply Zesty Blog already takes Ads because they do it so well and because it's good content that people want to see.
http://www.simplyzesty.com/category/social-media/


An income stream for the Ad community who've suffered enough.
By taking notice of this digital space there's opportunity rather than rubbishing it.


Going away, it's not.
The lines for Media are being blurred.

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