I was 10 minutes late to the General Session opening of the 4A’s Media Conference this morning. When I walked in Nancy Hill, 4A’s President & CEO, was talking about Ed Artz’s now famous presentation to the 4As in 1994 admonishing everyone to recognize that the consumer had assumed control in media world. The Internet, as Nancy noted, was never mentioned in his speech. Control had been won simply with the remote control, VCRs, Nintendo games and a few other primitive weapons.
Since Mr. Artz’s speech nearly every advertising trade show conference has put consumer control at the top of the agenda. This week’s 4A’s Media Show is no different. The theme, “The Consumer Is…Watching…Listening…Clicking…Connecting” is offered again as a reminder that the consumer is boss.
We are endlessly absorbed with this issue, though it finally strikes me as odd that 15 years later we are poking at it like it was just dropped on the table.
Arguably, in 1994 the advertising world was in a much bigger jam vis a vis consumer control than it is today. What passed for control back then was the ability to skip programming and commercials. It was an exercise in avoidance. The evolution of the Internet since Ed Artz’s speech has changed avoidance to engagement. The Internet lets consumer be builders. So, really, the issue of control should not be so fearsome today as we allow. Yes, consumers are in control. They have, in fact, completely made over the media landscape. But they are not hiding. They are making a huge racket re-engineering the media construct in order to customize and enlarge it.
Michael Mendenhall, CMO of Hewlett-Packard Company, seems to understand the way forward. Concluding his remarks to the 4A’s session he said it’s simple (well, he didn’t say it’s simple…but it is), we need to redefine what we mean by network, publisher and journalist in today’s media economy. This is exactly what is required, because for as long as we insist on old definitions of what constitutes network, publisher and journalist we’re going to keep addressing the question of consumer control as if the problem is about re-establishing ours.
March 10, 2009 at 5:11 pm |
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