Your 'Not-Just-Consumers' Are In Control

So says a Media Post article written from an Orlando, FL ad conference:

Apart from the heady buzz surrounding the Comcast-Disney mega-merger, media executives attending the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4AAAAs) Media Conference here are immersed in convergence issues, questions of media mix, and a whole host of other issues confronting the business.

Renetta McCann, CEO-Starcom North America and chairwoman of the 4AAAAs Media Policy Committee, told conference attendees that this year's conference will focus on the consumer - connecting with the consumer, engaging the consumer, and facing the fact that the consumer really is in control. In control via TiVo but not only TiVo. The consumer is in the driver's seat making decisions on all forms of media throughout the day. It would appear that media agencies and marketers need to know a heck of a lot more than they do about consumers' changing media habits, particularly within the 18 to 24 set.

This same idea, that people expect to control their media, was mentioned in the notes from the Digital Media Summit below, but in that setting, big media just hinted at this and were not open about it much, except for one or two people. Mostly, they tried to pretend it wasn't there, and talk about ways of containing it with business methods, or controlling it with intellectual property rules. licensing schemes and DRM. If you took what they said and did at the Digital Media Summit at face value, you could leave thinking that truly-digital media and the connected (not-just) consumer's expectations were minor concerns that with a little convergence, a dash of clever marketing laced with DRM here and there, could keep big media in control of the user experience. Of course, the mood, the questions, the occasional remark, belied that, showing the underbelly of fear they have over people demanding and expecting control, flexibility, ease of use and ubiquitous media to play with (10k songs in your iPod, not 10 songs on a CD). Seems the advertisers are a little more realistic in acknowledging this and discussing it outright.

And why are they not-just-consumers? Because they want to play, mix, rip and burn it, they want to remake it to suit themselves, and they want to show it to their friends, and they want it to be cool in whatever format, whatever time, place and setting.

Posted by Mary Hodder at February 12, 2004 09:05 PM | TrackBack