Loyal AgWired fans will know that I am a big fan of Steve Rubel, Micro Persuasion. He’s one of the new media guru’s who helped form my initial thinking about the online world and the direction it was going at the time we started ZimmComm New Media. He posted a great outlook for where media is going yesterday which is also his column in AdAge. In it he addresses one of the key issues that “traditional” media and “traditional” media buyers/planners are having with online content delivery mechanisms – fragmentation and meaningful metrics.
Although advertisers increasingly are exploring other metrics, i.e. engagement and reputation, reach still rules — at least for now. Unfortunately, reach is slowly losing its value as media consumption increasingly moves deeper into the digital realm.
Where in the analog age we might be loyal to a given media brand, today’s consumers are far more agnostic. We’re more likely to dip into an array of online sources including traditional news sites and blogs — and often via search or social networks.
All of this diminishes the entire concept of reach. After all, if a site claims that it reaches millions but they’re all just drive-bys, do such figures truly matter? In the years ahead, advertisers will rethink reach and not pay nearly as much for it as they did when they bought media based on a rate base and/or circulation. This will create tremendous disruption for media companies as they have to shift to new ways to prove their value.
It’s his belief (I share it) that “five years from now all media will either be completely digital or well on its way to becoming intangible.” Then marketers will have to rely on great creative and employ multiple media channels to achieve their goals.
If you’re in media buying or planning what are your major concerns right now? How do you plan to best invest your limited dollars? Do you think you understand today’s consumer (farmer) media consumption habits?