“Talking from media planners’ perspective, it was all simple. Then it got a little bit more complicated, then it got a little bit more complicated, and now it’s just gotten ridiculous,” saya Dimitri Metaxas, OMD Digital’s group director, speaking at this month’s OMD Predicts session.
Metaxas talked about how media fragmentation has changed the work of media planners and buyers. He said that the media landscape has altered dramatically over the past five years, and likened it now to a rainforest. Previously, he said, it was a savannah, where a few big beasts dominated the scene, and a helicopter ride was enough to give a clear picture of the landscape.
“But a rainforest is much more like an interdependent, symbiotic, complex ecosystem, with multi-layers of different types of technology that require each other to be able to effectively market brands,” he said. “You can’t jump in a helicopter in this case, and fly above to get a good perspective; you need multiple vantage points throughout this rainforest to be able to get a sense of what’s going on.”
But while Metaxas tells the IAA Web site that the landscape is more crowded than ever in some parts, he also says that this is not true across the media board. “For many mass channels, it is not as fragmented as it once was, with magazines going out of business, etcetera,” he explains. “But the Internet continues to fragment exponentially.”
Metaxas says that Google estimates put the number of URLs in the world between 120 and 150 million, though he admits, “The rainforest is not as thick regionally as it is internationally, but it’s not far off.” The regional online scene may not compare to the international one yet, but this is still a significant figure because Middle Eastern consumers have easy access to a huge number of Web sites from anywhere in the world.
Jaikumar Menon, vice-president of MCN Media, agrees that the regional media scene is increasingly fragmented, but prefers to highlight another medium: out-of-home in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. “Inside malls, outside malls, on the streets, inside elevators, and soon train stations and trains – there is no escape,” he says. “There is a genuine problem in achieving cut-through and recall, and advertisers are forced to go with multiple formats to ensure adequate visibility and impact.”
Menon says that television has also fallen prey to market segmentation. But he says that success with this medium is not about utilizing the number of channels available; it is about finding a handful of appropriate channels to reach the major share of a target audience. “The critical question is: Can I build a reach of 75 percent against my target using a sensible number of channels? As long as you can do that, it doesn’t matter if there are 500 channels,” he says.
Alex Saber, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of Publicis Groupe Media MENA, says the new media landscape has provided a fresh test for planners. “Planners are dealing with multi-markets, not sitting in the UK handling only the UK, just like a planner in Dubai handles the whole GCC,” he says. “So it’s more challenging but more interesting, because there’s more room for creativity and innovation”.
According to Metaxas, media planners are still trying to catch up with these changes, and media agencies are “far from” fully capitalizing on the opportunities brought on by new technologies.
But while the fragmentation might be creating a lag for now, Menon says it can be profitable if used properly. “It can be useful if there are well-differentiated offerings that can be used to target niche or difficult to reach audiences, or provide superior engagement opportunities,” he says.
So, does anyone come out on top in this ecosystem of technologies and media? Menon says that while advertisers are increasingly embracing digital, traditional options remain strong and most advertisers will maintain a media core comprising strong conventional options, and experiment with new touch points around this core.
Metaxas believes people will no longer congregate around one media channel as they did in the past. “We have the force of convergence, which is bringing multiple technologies and content to a single channel or device, and we have an opposing force of technology developing into new separate devices,” he says. “So where this is going to I’m not sure, but I think the days of single media dominance will never be the same as they once were during the mass-media-only days. Technology development will continue to give birth to newer and better platforms.”
As for Saber, he says that while planners are now faced with endless possibilities, there is a catch, which comes in the form of the credit crisis. “Budgets are tighter, so clients are more discerning,” he says. “Some media are being prioritized, so we’re going back to basics in a way. Clients are investing in the most efficient media, and somehow we don’t have much room for creativity. It won’t continue this way, but this is a phase to ride through until things go back to normal.”
