This year's OMMA Hollywood conference, which took place on March 19-20 in Hollywood, explored the "Age of High Anxiety." The climate of constant, rapid change has the media industry in a constant frenzy to keep up, stay current and consistently deliver on ever-climbing expectations. Big media knows it needs to enact big changes to meet these goals, but fear of failure and the unknown is challenging its ability to forge paths in any consistent direction.
Dynamic Logic founder Nick Nyhan started Day 1 of the conference by discussing his perspective on today's big media challenges, asking audiences what happens with a brand when we can't control what users do with it, and wondering if it is possible to strike a balance with consumer data at their comfort level.
Nyhan outlined some solid guidelines that seem to be working for the many contemporary online success stories. His checklist for speaking with consumers, rather than to them, includes:
- Offering more disclosure
- Sharing more trust
- Opening up to the different ways consumers want to receive messages
- Enabling user-generated options
- Making good on promises of relevancy
- Creating fewer but better ads
- Increasing efficacy while reducing clutter.
But even if the industry holds these as truths, there is still ambiguity in what makes marketing content acceptable, trustworthy and relevant while simultaneously remaining able to achieve the necessary business goals.
To discuss this dilemma further, Nyhan introduced keynote speaker Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor in chief of The Huffington Post, by posing the question: how can we improve both the business and the ecosystem in which we work?
Huffington asserted that the key to big media's scramble to be relevant is in reaching the public with messages that are part of their personal experiences. Citing a recent campaign that The Huffington Post conducted for Toyota, where readers posted pictures of their hybrid vehicles, she maintained that campaigns must involve readers but not be interruptive or go against their core values. The Huffington Post website aims to achieve this by holding certain values that are true to its voice, such as energy conservation and responsible consumption. "If we did a similar campaign with Hummer, it wouldn't work for us. If it's organic to us, our users will accept it."
If you are navigating new media, you have to find your tone; you need to work with those who understand the new media and how to bridge the two worlds. It's a two-way conversation. You have to bring users into the conversation; that's how you build brand loyalty.
She holds the same standards in regard for the demand for authority and transparency: "When we meet those demands and match those values, magic happens."
Huffington also said that as content producers, marketers need to deal with the "obnoxious roommate in your head" -- the inner critic -- before being able to silence outer critics. Her thoughts on the possibility of making the wrong decision? "Fearlessness is incredibly important as we approach this new world. Try new things, experiment and accept a high failure rate."
Next: Are media barons irrelevant in a consumer-controlled world?
