Should campaigns be media-driven or idea-driven?
Lately, it feels like the media tail is wagging the campaign dog. Many campaigns are built around a media platform, as if the media platform alone was the big idea. Most of the Foursquare campaigns I see feel like that.
Sometimes marketers forget that media platforms are enablers to big ideas. They aren’t the big ideas themselves.
The media channels developing today are creating an unparalleled opportunity for marketers. As a result, P&G, the world’s largest advertiser, is famously shifting media wholesale from TV to digital. Marc Pritchard, head marketer at P&G, recently said, “This is probably the most profound time of change that has occurred in brand building since the end of the Second World War when mass marketing really took off.”
As marketers worldwide make similar shifts, it’s important to remember that going digital is not a campaign strategy. Neither is a checklist of every available flavor of new media.
Instead, a campaign strategy is built on big ideas that take advantage of the best media channels to bring those ideas to life.
(Marketoonist Monday: I’m giving away a signed print of this week’s cartoon. Just share an insightful comment to this week’s post. I’ll pick one comment by 5:00 PST on Monday. Thanks!)